Plank Road: Trujillo Part II

We finally got to finish our walking tour of Trujillo today. This is our favourite town as it has so many historical buildings made of stone. We returned to the Plaza Mayor, where we ended our walk a few days ago. Plaza Mayor is huge and although it was cloudy with a bit of drizzle, many people were out having drinks and tapas in the Plaza. It seems as though many Spanish are here for the weekend as most are carrying maps and taking photos. According to our wonderful hosts in our accommodation, many from Madrid and Sevilla come for a weekend getaway from the city.

I will begin by quoting the information panel on the Pizarro Palace which is on the Plaza Mayor:

‘The shield depicts in a few scenes, the history of the conquest, including the arrival of the ships, the walls of Cuzco, together with the Incan Emperor Atahualpa and his chiefs; and is a dramatic reminder of the role Pizarro played in the conquest of the Incan Empire.’

The Pizarro Palace is somewhat run down and is a vacant building. The panel also states that it was the home of Hernando, Francisco’s half-brother as well as Francisco’s daughter, Francisca Pizarro Yupanqui. Francisca’s mother was the 18 year old Incan princess that was given to Pizarro. We may visit the Pizarro museum to learn more about the Pizarro’s in Trujillo. I don’t think Hernando lived here as he was sent to prison for killing Pizarro’s old business partner Almagro, I think I remember reading that Hernando lived in Castile after his release from prison.

Absolutely everything with the exception of bars and restaurants are open from 10:00 until 2:00 and then from 4:00 until 7:00, when we were on our walk the Pizarro museum and the Alcazaba were closed. Luckily we went to the butcher shop prior to 2:00 to get our meat as he does not open after 2:00 on a Saturday. Our usual severely limited Spanish vocabulary, supplemented with our hand signals always works out in the shops, although I wouldn’t want to do anything much more complex than food shopping.

After wandering through the streets on our walking tour, we walked up to the Moorish Alcabaza, where there are stunning views of the countryside. After coming back down from the hilltop, we stopped at the Plaza Mayor for our usual refreshment. Some places serve café in a china cup and saucer, others in a small juice glass on a china saucer, it seems totally random.

We then walked through the oldest portion of Trujillo where there are a lot of convents. One of the convents is now the Parador. There are interesting little buildings and streets everywhere and of course the storks have their enormous nests at the top of many buildings and towers. John seems to have developed a stork fetish, as I always find him pointing his camera skyward at a stork nest. If I had no input into the photos chosen for the blog, it would be a blog of storks.

Palace of the Pizarro