Indiana, the Temple of the Moon and a great big sandcastle.

Morning trip to the site of 1500 year old temples built out of the sand and consisting of 140 million 'bricks'. Really fascinating - the area is soon to be declared a UNESCO World Heritage site but when we visited it, it felt really uncommercialised but sure to increase in popularity.
This is Ian not sure whether he is Michael Palin, a mate of Indiana Jones or just a middle aged tourist - you decide!


Near to the Temple of the Moon is Chan Chan - a series of palaces built around AD1300 - again out of sand bricks and mud. Amazing that it has survived for so long. Pretty much the biggest sandcastle in the world - one palace alone covering 22 hectares (whatever that means - why not talk in terms of football pitches!)







The view from the Temple of the Moon to the Temple of the Sun - in it's heyday, 15,000 people lived in the area. Now home to 150 restoration workers.






One of the main walls - workers have uncovered incredible artwork . The whole place definitely had the feel of the opening scenes from an Indiana Jones film








After visting the temples and palaces it was back to Huanchaco for lunch and a chance to walk to the end of the pier and watch the surfers do their stuff in the rather grey Pacific.








The fishermen here like to make things difficult for themselves - paddling out to sea in reed boats - pretty tricky when the surf is high but they seem to enjoy it!

Tina's birthday tomorrow and it's going to be a day on the buses as we head further north to Mancora - a small resort with 'year round sunshine' - yeah right...haven't seen a great deal of that so far on the Pacific coast but you never know.