Should You Visit Chiclayo in Northern Peru?, Chiclayo, Peru

I must admit that visiting the main cities of northern Peru wasn’t all that exciting. That being said, what makes cities like Trujillo and Chiclayo interesting is that they are “every day” cities. Regular people going about their lives mostly away from the main tourist trail. At the same time though, the average tourist isn’t an anthropologist or a sociologist. Most just want to see what an area has to offer and then move on. So bearing that in mind, is it worth spending your hard earned vacation days in Chiclayo? My answer is, “kind of”.

Chiclayo lies a bit inland from Peru’s Pacific coast, 770km north of Lima. It was founded by the Spanish during the 16thcentury. Today, it is Peru’s fourth largest city. Quite frankly, there isn’t a whole lot to see in Chiclayo itself. After spending about one morning or afternoon, you’ll be ready to move on. The two main things within the city that stood out to me were:

El Paseo de las Musas: This place was just so very odd to see. It’s a quiet park in the middle of traffic and it features statues of Greek muses, of all things. My sister and I stumbled across it when we went the wrong way looking for the market mentioned below. The park is a nice place to sit but seriously – the random Greek theme was definitely strange. ...... (follow the instructions below for accessing the rest of this article).