Kuelap

And so we set off at this unearthly hour of the morning to reach Keulap at dawn and catch it shrouded in mist...well that was the idea. Hadn´t banked on a huge landslide blocking our way only meters from the turn off. Luckily for us a bus load of road-workers also needed to get through so they set at the rubble and mud mess with great macho bravado and, within an hour, a narrow and flatish section had been cleared so the traffic teetered or tore across it and we were off. Up, up, up the beautiful but slightly unnerving road that has been slashed into the mountainside. Kuelap shimmered in the mist above us...but the road was long and it was almost nine by the time we finally arrived and the last of the mist held on only long enough for us to reach the entrance gate. Not quite the isolated and peaceful haven we´d expected either, scaffolding and workmen at every turn, the place is being patched up to stop further sections collapsing. They´ve reconstructed one house but say everything else is the way they found it but with new mud to fill in the cracks.

A) The landslide

Kuelap was built over two hundred years (between AD 900 and 1100) and contained three times more stone than the Great Pyramid at Giza in Egypt - quite an achievement when you´re working on the top of a mountain. Amazing to find so much of it still standing and, other than the workmen and llamas (alternative lawn-mowers) we had the place to ourselves. Pottered around till lunchtime when we fried up a couple of eggs on our wee stove (much to the workmen´s amusement) and headed off down the hill to Tingo.

B) Kuelap in the mist, long way still to go.

Hadn´t realised quite what a hike back down to the main road we had though - three hours of descent,hot sun and no shade, a steep 1200 meters (!!!) and we had all our luggage with us so it was not the most fun bit of trekking we´ve done. Near the bottom a local rushed up to us waving his arms wildly and telling us we needed to be quick ¨very quick! So we went ´very quick´ for the next half hour, with me breaking into a run just to keep up with Al, sweating profusely by this time to find that we had to sit for two hours waiting for a combi to come by heading to Leymebamba. Never did find out what the rush was, mental note - LEARN MORE SPANISH!!!!!!

C) Blasting through the mud

D) Kuelap close up, last of the mist.

E) Men at work

F) Huge wall and llamas

G) Side entrance

H) Remains of a house

I) Patterns on walls

J) Flower

K) Reconstructed house