Province of La Libertad

Capital: City of Trujillo
Altitude: 36 m.a.s.l.
Distance: 500 kilometers from Lima.

The province of La Libertad is located in the Northern part of the country. Its relief is very varied with coast, mountain range and jungle.

Trujillo is one of the most notable and cozy cities of Peru. It was founded in 1534 by the conqueror Diego de Almagro. The city became the administrative capital of the north of the Peruvian vice-royalty. The Spanish built spectacular churches with altars and gold leaves and filled the city with convents and schools; as well as with houses and artistic gratings, sunlit patios, rooms with finely carved furniture and leather-embossed chests.

During the XVIII century, due to the frequent pirat attacks, they built walls that are still visible. In 1619, an earthquake destroyed the city. Years later, in 1624, a new period surge started with the rebuilding of palaces and the opening of the seminary and the school of the Jesuits.

The kind and open spirit of its people is famous as is its varied and delicious food. On its busy streets, filled with little stands, you can visit several vice-royalty monuments.

In Trujillo, the African dances (brought by the black slaves) and the Spanish dances fused tightly. From the fusion emerged: la marinera, el tondero and la resbalosa.

The city is known as the capital of la Marinera, and it celebrates during January a well attended National Festival. Trujillo is home of the "paso horses" unique in the world and of its elegant horse-dealers with ponchos of linen and hay hats.

How to arrive

To Libertad province you can arrive by air, the arrivals are to the International Capitán FAP Carlos Martínez de Pinillos Airport (Trujillo).

By sea you can arrive by the Salaverry Port or Malabrigo Port.

By land you can arrive to La Libertad province by Panamericana Highway, amon others.

Festivities

The most representative festivities are:

- The Spring Internacional Festival.
- National Marinera contest that takes place in Trujillo.
- The festivity of the Virgen de la Puerta is carried out in Otuzco, between December 13th and 16th.

The Spring Festival of Trujillo

The spring festival was created in 1950 by the iniciative of the Lions Club of Trujillo, which elected a beauty queen and carried out a parade with allegoric cars along the main street of the city followed by a merry juvenile party. This is how the festival came to be which would later become the major tourist attraction on the northern of Peru and one the most important of America.

In 1965 the Festival featured for the first time a group of chill-leaders from the USA, champions of the US, which became a tradition that identifies the International Spring Festival.

At present, the Festival continues to be organized by the Lions Club of Trujillo and it features a hundred civic, artistic, cultural, folkloric and social events carried out along ten days of intense joy.

The program of activities offers a wide range of alternatives for the visitors, like bull-fights, horse contests, marinera festivals, cock-fights, fashion shows, artistic spectacles, concerts, exhibits, totora horse regattas, surfing contests and many parties.

The main attractive of the Festival is the spectacular Spring Parade with music bands, “comparsas” and allegoric carts competing in originality and colorfulness.

The incomes of the event are used for financing public works for the community.

Tourist Site Attractions:

It is interesting to visit:

- Square of Arms
- The Cathedral
- House of Bracamonte
- House of Urquiaga
- House of Mariscal de Orbegoso
- House of Independence
- Palace of Iturregui
- Thermal Baths of Cachicadan

And also the churches:

Belen, Santo Domingo, Santa Ana, La Compañia, San Agustin, La Merced, San Francisco Cloister and El Carmen Monastery.

Besides the museums:

- Archeology, Antrophology and National History Trujillo University Museum
- Catedralicio Museum
- Del Carmen Church Art Gallery
- Juan Ormea Museum
- Del Juguete Museum
- José Cassinelli Museum
- Chan Chan Museum
- Huaca el Dragón Museum
- University Antenor Orrego Natural History Museum
- Arte Moderno Museum

Chan Chan ruins

It is located at 4 kilometers from Trujillo. Capital citadel of the Chimu Royalty that houses 50 thousand inhabitants. It is considered the oldest clay city of the antique. It has streets, houses, water deposits, pyramids and all other facilities of an urban center. It was declared Cultural Patrimony of Humanity by the UNESCO in 1986.

Huaca del Sol y de la Luna Archeological Complex

It is located at 8 kilometers from Trujillo. The pyramid of the sun is approximately 20 meters high. According to the tradition it was built in only 3 days by 250.000 men and 70 million adobes. It was built with funeral, ceremonial and possibly administrative purposes.

The Pyramid of the Moon

It is made of temples which are superposed according to the different periods of the Mochicas. Archeologists have found a tomb with more than 40 sacrificed warriors.


Huaca Esmeralda

Adobe pyramid located at 5 kilometers away from Trujillo. This archeological site dates back from the Chimu Culture.

Huaca Del Dragon o Arcoiris

Adobe pyramid located at 8 kilometers from Trujillo. It is considered the first settlement of the Chimú Culture. It has an estimated age of 1100 years.

Archeological site El Brujo

It is located at 60 kilometers from Trujillo in the Valley of Chicama, county of Ascope. This site stands out for a pyramid of adobe that is 30 meters high on whose walls the Mochicas molded a very rich iconography; the best-known sample is "Degollador de Cabezas".

Beach of Huanchaco

It is located at 11 kilometers from the city of Trujillo, famous for its seafood and its handmade boats from the Mochica: the little totora horses.

The Chicama Port

It is situated at 70 kilometers from the city of Trujillo. It is located on a wide and windy beach, and it is an ideal place for windsurfing. The use of totora boats is also common.

Chepen Mountain

It is located at 142 kilometers from Trujillo, in the city of Chepen. It is a group of buildings made of stone, where rooms, watch-towers and worshipping sites stand out.

The City of Otuzco

It is located in the county of La Libertad at 85 kilometers from Trujillo. A picturesque city of the liberteña mountain range surrounded by beautiful Andean landscapes and well attended place because it houses the Virgen de la Puerta, patron saint of the place.

Pacasmayo province

With its beautiful hot springs, Raimondi Museum and some archeological interest places as Dos Cabezas mountain(Moche Culture.At Huamachuco: Marcahuamachuco, Huamachuco Culture), Archeological  Museum, Sausacocha lagoon, Yanasara hot springs.

There are attractive landscapes with forests, especially eucalyptus. Built on a rocky and arid zone, it was created by the Agustin Missionaries who found, in this region, an entrance door to the inland of La Libertad and an outlet to the coast. There they made a hermitage more than 360 years ago.

Thermal Baths of Cachicadan

It is located at 183 kilometers from Trujillo, in the county of Santiago de Chuco a town that is settled on the slope of the mountain La Botica.