Head for the hills, well mountains really.
Trip Start
Jun 07, 2008
1
14
147
Trip End
May 01, 2009
Chachapoyas,
Peru
Thursday, July 31, 2008
The main reason for coming to this town is to visit a pre Inca ruins at Kuelap, which was described in my trusty book as a worthwhile visit. I am happy to say that it was worth the 4am start and taxi ride for 2 hours on very bumpy roads in a car with 7 people in it that was only built to carry 5! Snug would be one way to describe our fit in the car, squashed to the point of cutting off the blood circulation to my legs could be another and yet another could be madness as our driver was obviously getting in some practice for his Colin McCray rally on his playstation...
Luckily most of the way it was dark so we were oblivious to what may lay at the side of the road we were zooming along, ie the sheer drop into the valley or a plunge into the river. These details I could later take in on our way back to Chachapoyas from Kuelap in the late afternoon sun. The return journey was much more civilised with only 6 of us in the car but most pleasingly the driver didn't have any aspirations of being the next world rally champion, which was nice.
I say we as I was with a couple form NZ who I met on the bus from Chiclayo, they´re well old though both retired and must be into their 70´s. I didn't guess they were from NZ to start with though. The guy was originally from Texas and had been on NZ for about 50 years and she was from Honduras and had been there about 30 years. They both spoke fluent Spanish, which was a bonus for me! they were an interesting couple to hang out with and I probably wouldn't have made it back to Chachapoyas with out them and their taxi negotiating skills ....
