Hotel El Ingenio Cajamarca

... myself a new bag I booked myself on to a tour (I know, I'm always outspoken against tour groups but sometimes there's just no alternative) to Cumbe Mayu. In the Quechuan language, this means "fine river" or something similar and here are found some pre-Incan aqueducts that stretch for many kilometres and used to eventually feed the old settlement near Cajamarca. The scenery was impressive with wind-eroded pillars of andesite or some similar volcanic ...

... a game of fronton. It is like handball with a racquet or racquetball on an outdoor single wall court. It was really fun - and he had talent. All of us played for about 4 hours in 90 degree heat. Callo and I made a great match as I had a lot of practice with racquetball and he had played a lot of fronton.
The next day Andy and Eric walked around while I (Jen) did a marathon training run. With three hours to kill, I ran down to Banos del Inca, 6k from the city, and just ran around ...

... turning the other cheek...) Naturally, the slings and axes were no contest against Spanish weaponry and before long 7000 Incas were slaughtered and Atahualpa was captured. Atahualpa soon realized the Spanish lust for gold and offered to fill a room once with gold and twice with silver in exchange for his release. Of course the Spanish agreed and it took almost a year to complete the ransom - 6000Kg of ...

... than to provide irrigation. There are numerous petroglyphs and the aqueduct features some amazing feats of ancient engineering including tunnels through stone and a zigzag carved out of the rock. This large rock is thought to be an altar for sacrifices where the blood could run into the water as part of a fertility ritual. The mountains here are stark and windswept with spires that jut out ...

... Hotel Costa Del Sol in Cajamarca. This hotel is very centrally located, right on the Plaza de Armas, the central plaza in town. I picked this hotel because I remembered it from my days here back in 1973. Back then it was owned by the government; now it´s not. Being located right on the central plaza is handy for restaurants and other things to do. It´s also a little noisy, with traffic and the government ...

... silver mines being discovered just down the road. even though there are this many people living here, it has a quaint and friendly feel to it. we have only bumped into 3 other ´travellers´the whole 5 days we have been here, so again i feel we have perhaps come a little off the normal gringo trail. we wander on our first day, taking in the pretty cathedral and churches around the square, and head up to the main ´tourist attraction´in town... the ransom room where the great inca king ...

... to be any native vegetarians there are suprisingly a lot of veg restaurants Fruit salads are suprisingly popular People are very friendly, An American is a friend, and then you can bet theyre going to ask, ¨SO - OBAMA...¨¨ Big Plaza and Cathedral in every city Minuses - Dogs get no love Cars have the right of way Its difficult to walk anywhere without ...

... burial chambers dug into the rock face at Otuzco, that used to hold mummies. The place is easily reached by bus from Cajamarca and is quite a sight, even if it hasn´t this historical significance of Sipan. We walked around to site and read the English signs. Had our picture taken with some locals and got a bit wet when it started to rain. We got the bus back to the hotel and then came the low point so far. I left my coat ...

... this area. Me and Ewa went for a massage too, (my first), and I can say it won´t be my last for sure. It makes you feel like a new man/woman type person. The lady masseuse was a legend with the baby oil, and afterwards I could feel my legs for the first time in 24 hours. The place is beautiful as you will see when I download the pics. Just as we were leaving, predictable as ever, the daily torrential downpour ...

... end up just an exhausting hike to vague destination unknown, which is pretty much what happened. The first part of our quest took us through what must be one of the poorest parts of the city. The buildings were made of mud with vacant windows. Thin sheets the only barrier between the outside world and inside. Litter collected in small streams that cut there way down the hill directly into the mud. Some steep stairs brought us up to a ...