First Ruins
Trip Start
Jan 20, 2004
1
26
88
Trip End
Feb 01, 2005
Chachapoyas,
Peru
Saturday, May 1, 2004
Chachapoyas, or Chacha as it is known by locals, is a gorgeous mountain town of about 4,000 people. It is a university town so there are lots of young people around, and the main square, Plaza de Armas, is a lively meeting spot. Chacha is the cleanest and least poor of the places I've seen in Peru so far.
I had my first hot shower since Jericoacoara and the first shower since the US with a hot AND cold tap. It was divine and woke me up after my all nighter enough to wander around the city before having a snooze.
The small Cultural Centre had some interesting pottery pieces and then 5 amazing mummies
01 Chachapoyas
. They were all in foetal position and had been found at nearby ruins. Some of them had disturbing screaming faces which I'm glad I haven't had in a nightmare since. There was one male in the collection and his penis and scrotum were perfectly mummified. It looked like a flat plastic bag and his penis looked circumcised!I got some great info and maps off the girl at the information centre who was very keen to impart knowledge. I decided that the next day I would walk to the nearby town of Huanacas, supposedly a one hour walk.
The one hour walk turned into 3 hours. The scenery was great, but I struggled with the steep inclines. I was reminded of home in a big way, although we don't have mountains in Mildura. The peace and quiet was so refreshing and I felt as if I was going home. There were lots of fields and a few farmhouses, but no people were around.
I passed a prison where it was forbidden to take the inmates fruit and shoes and kept walking in the direction towards a lookout, but gave up after another 45 minutes of walking along a dirt track in the scrub, passing only a man, two women and donkey laden with twigs and branches
02 Kuelap Lookout
.Tired and very sunburnt, even though I had put a liberal helping of sunscreen on, I turned back and decided that a colectivo back to Chacha was a good idea.
Kuelap
I was going to attempt Kuelap under my own steam. I had been told of minibuses leaving at 5am in the morning and was doublechecking this with the receptionist at my hotel, when it suddenly became a ringaround (at 6:45pm) of other hotels and tour agencies offering tours to the ruins.
One quoted S/.100 and that was far too much so when they found one for S/.40 I followed the lady to another hotel where they had a tour leaving the next morning with 3 other people booked onto it leaving at 8am the next morning.
The suave owner of the hotel then sat down with me and a French guy and told us that since the 3 other people who were supposedly going to Kuelap were now going to another ruin and that because there were only 2 of us, we would have to pay an extra S/.10 which still didnīt include entrance to the ruin
03 Round houses
.I used all my best Spanish to argue that he had told us the previous night that there were 4 people on the trip and that we werenīt going to pay any more. This turned out in my favour and we took off, albeit an hour late, in a taxi with a bilingual guide.
The trip along the mountains was spectacular (as I seem to be describing all the views in Peru) and we stopped to see some ruins in a cliff face. They looked like part of the cliffs and only a discerning eye could pick them out. They included some awesome patterns for which my binoculars came in handy for the first time.
At the town of Tingo, we saw where the walking trail starts, and the mountain with Kuelap nicely positioned on top. We had to go the long, windy way around that took another hour and half. The short climb to the ruin almost knackered me and I resolved to become more competent at climbing hills.
We passed many archaeologists carrying wearing orange helmets and carrying various things up to the ruin. John, our guide, managed to get us in for the student rate of S/.5 instead of 10
04 Does it look like me?
. The ruinkeeper was very enthusiastic and pumped our hands in welcome.We couldnīt enter via the main gate as it was where the archaeologists were working, so we went along the outside of the fortress to the second gate. There are only 3 entrances and they were built wider at the start and narrowing the further inside the fortress so that only one person could enter at a time and they could kill the enemies one by one as they entered.
The outside of the fortress was a massive wall of smooth brick shaped rocks and it was very high. The fortress has two levels and on the 1st level (the top one) we went to the lookout and had a great view of the valley and surrounding mountains (except for a bit of misty rain). We then had a look at all the round houses that housed a total of 5,000 people in the fortress at one stage. It was overgrown with grass and trees and we were the only tourists there that day so it was very peaceful. The ruins were in quite good condition, much more than just a pile of rocks.
After a long day visiting the ruins, I bought my ticket to Chiclayo that evening for the next day. I would love to return and do the trek they call the Inca Trail of the North, but it depends if I find anyone else to do it with me. Hopefully I can find someone in Ecuador who is interested in doing it.
Things I learned
* The Kuelap fortress is 625 metres long and 110 metres wide
* I am in poor mountain walking condition - although I wasnīt affected by altitude sickness
* The sun is very powerful with the combination of being close to the equator and at altitudes closer to the sun
