Some info on Peru found by Bob Whitney
1. The complete name of the town is Hacienda Casa Grande. That helps in finding out more info. As you told us, that is big sugar cain country. Textiles is the second industry. A Hacienda is the house where the owners of an estate live. So the name means the big house on the estate where the owners live.
2. The town grew up around the big house. Hacienda Casa Grande was acompany town.
3. Hacienda Casa Grande is 10 miles from the sea, 25 miles north of Trujillo ( TRU-HE-YO). It is just west of a tall 11,000′ mountain range
4. It is located in the Department of La Libretad (a Department forthem is like a State to us).
5. Hacienda Casa Grande is 700′ above sea level.
6. The whole area was one very large, wealthy, sugarcane estate until the early 1960′s, when land reform broke it up into a cooperative. The cooperative has been for sale or investment recently on the internet.
7. 1n 1928 there was a narrow gage sugarcane train that went through the estate. I saw the picture on a web site. There was also a horse drawn trolley that went right by the big house then also. The site shows a corner of the house and people from the house by the trolley.
8. The health sites I saw said that other than the normal washing of foods, hands, drinking of soda instead of tap water etc., there were no health precautions recommended for this part of the country. They said there was no yellow fever or malaria hence no mosquitos. They said hepatitis was not a problem if food washing and normal precautions etc. was observed.
9. Trujillo is a colonial city. The site warned of the Big Danger of pick pockets there.
10. A. There are pyramids in the area called Las Huacas del Sol y de la Luna. Huaco is pre Columbian ceramic pottery that is found in a tomb. This is 6 miles south of Trajillo. These two pyramidal temples, the one to the sun and the one to the moon, were built 100BC-850AD. These are the largest pre Columbian structures found anywhere in the Americas.
10. B There is also the world’s largest excavated adobe village just NW of Trujillo about 6 miles, called Chan Chan. It is right on the ocean. It predates the Incas.
11. The valley where Hacienda Casa Grande is located is called Chicama Valley.
12. The Hacienda also was known for it’s horse breeding. The breed is known as, Caballos de Paso. Several famous horses in the late 1800′s came from there.
13. Around 10 miles from Hacienda Casa Grande is a sea side village called Huanchaco. It is known for it’s good surfing and good beaches. The locals for centuries have been riding the surf along this area in reed boats called Caballitos de totora (little bulrush horses),.
14. I also found a web site for Lan Peru that showed 10 different meals they serve on their flights. Short flights and long flights. Defiantly not American Airlines!
More info by Pastor Gary Wagner
Thanks to Bob Whitney for all the information.
I just wanted you all to know that these sites Bob discussed are the very
places Bob young and I visited to be able to take all of you to see. We
have pictures of Hacienda Casa Grande, the sugar cane factory, the pyramids
Las Huacas del Sol and Las Huacas del Luna, Chan Chan, Huanchaco and the
reed boats, and the site we will probably stay in in Trujillo. We knew you
all would want to see these places, so we forced ourselves to go take
pictures. There really is a lot of fascinating history to see there.
The sugar cane season is all year long. They irrigate, and they keep the
factory going all year. that means there will be harvesting while we are
there in February.
For those who are interested and who will want to go to Machu Pichu, we have
learned that there is a museum at Yale in Connecticut dedicated to artifacts
from there. Deena and I may take a group to see the museum so we can learn
more about it before the trip in Feb. We’ll get back to you later on more
about this if anyone wants to go along. The researcher who rediscovered
Machu Pichu and excavated it and restored it was from Yale.
Thanks again, Bob for the research.
God Bless.
Gary Wagner