Karajia, the sarcophaguses
Trip Start
Feb 06, 2007
1
73
332
Trip End
Jan 14, 2008
Chachapoyas,
Peru
Wednesday, May 9, 2007
The tourist office said it was possible to visit the sarcophagoses at Karajia by local transport, rather than using a tour. This turned out very bad advice, and a slightly more expensive tour would have been much better, and we would have seen more than just Karajia.
Getting there needed a car to Luya, another car to Cruzpata, then a 20 minute walk. What the tourist office did not say was that we might have to wait very long periods for a car to get full, or else pay for an empty seat. Anyway, it took us 4 hours and 1 extra fare to get to Cruzpata, a 2-hour drive away.
The sarcophagoses are located half way up a cliff, and without a guide you run a real risk of getting lost among the many paths in the area. It is not well signed. Our guide Elvia, who managed to walk down a steep path while spinning wool, said they had been relocated there 18 years ago from somewhere else, but searches of the web made no mention of this, and implied they had been on the cliff for a very long time. Anybody know ?
Our return trip to Luya was enlivened by having 7 passengers squashed in the small car, 2 in the front bucket seat, 4 in the back and one in the boot. We stopped briefly at Chocta, where a guy in a bar spotted Barb with a camera, and wanted his photo taken, and as a reward handed her a bottle of beer.
The road up to Luya is amazing. It climbs what looks like an unclimbable mountainside, with the road cut out of the hillside in a series of zigzags, with dizzying drops on one side.
