Precolombian sites near Cajamarca
Trip Start
Feb 06, 2007
1
80
332
Trip End
Jan 14, 2008
Cajamarca,
Peru
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
After a good breakfast of eggs, bread, coffee and pineapple juice (5 sol for the two of us) in the spotlessly clean market, we found the bus to Otuzco and clambered up the hill to Ventanillas de Otuzco. These are funeral niches carved into the rocky hillside, a pre-Incan cemetery. Very interesting, and similar to many others scattered around Peru. There are over 300 niches here. At the top a woman appeared over a wall with a tray of fossils for sale, and her infant son to encourage the handing over of money. Selling fossils is probably illegal. She asked for money for a photo, to buy milk for her son (Huh ! he was chewing a pack of lollies and drinking a soft drink) and turned her nose up at 20 centimos. We gave her another 20 but she turned her head away as we clicked the shutter. Last time we are sucked in like this.
Otuzco was good for bird-watching, though identification is now a problem as we are located far south of the Colombian book, and far north of the Chile book
Banos del Inca
.From Otuzco we walked the 5km or so to Banos del Inca, which is the site of the thermal baths used by Incan leader Atuahalpa. It has been set up as a centre where you can just stroll around, as we did, or pay more for showers, saunas, massage etc. The water is very hot when it comes out of the ground, 71-78o C, and the pools where the water bubbles up are covered with lurid coloured algae.
We had rolls and 'Swiss-style' cheese for lunch, but the cheese is not a patch on real Swiss cheese.
The info centre pointed us in the direction of Callacpuma. We were joined first by a man who lived along the road, then later by two 10-year-old boys going home from school. They had not heard of Australia, nor kangaroos. We were a novelty, that's for sure, walking down this road. At Callacpuma, which is reached along a very pretty river valley, there is a cave and rock paintings.
The cave is quite big, but we couldn't see any paintings, only lots of ugly graffiti. We found later, from a lady on the bus, that there are indeed lots of paintings, but above the cave. You probably have to know where to look. Anyway, we clambered further up the hill and were rewarded with lovely views both ways along the valley, and red-flowering cactus. Just as well we wore our boots, it was not sandal country
Cactus in flower
.There was another short walk into the tiny village of Llacanora, very pretty with whitewashed houses nestling under the mountains. They were fixing the street lights with what looked like a home-made cherrypicker. An offer of a guided walk to the waterfalls was rejected. Our legs were complaining. On the bus to Cajamarca Barb was lucky enough to sit beside a tour guide who provided a lot of useful info for our future travels through the mountains, and her email address for the details. Culture for the evening was the launch of a video about the Baroque architecture of the Belen complex (alas, all in Spanish). A Chiclayo family sitting behind us were very keen to hear all about Australia
