February 14th, 2015
First of all I’m sorry for the two week gap between blogs, I’ve been busy doing awesome things with incredible people and just haven’t had the time to do it right, this blog is the first of many soon to come covering my last few weeks in Peru this time around. Enjoy.
After one day spent relaxing in Chachapoyas recovering from all my waterfall hiking out of Cuispes I move over from an small boutique hotel to Chachapoyas backpackers, one of a select few hostels in existence up here in the somewhat remote Amazonas region of northern Peru. I also managed to book a tour to Kuelap Archeological site, said to be the off the beaten path Machu Picchu by many.
I wake up early my bag already packed and head back up through the white washed main square of Chachapoyas to my new home, dropping my bag and hopping into a crowded white tour bus (mini-bus) just a few minutes later. There I’m pleased to find two friends from back in Minka hostel around the new year, Kimmy and Marius, sitting in the back of the bus. We grab a few minutes to chat as we wait for the last of our tour group at Villa Paris just outside the city, me climbing out of the bus and catching up through the window.
Kuelap is actually a lot older than Machu Picchu built by the Chachapoyan people also knows as the Warriors of the Clouds. Construction is estimated to have started around 500 A.D. and it was occupied until about 1570. Nestled high up in the Andes mountains these well preserved ruins are second only to Machu Picchu in reputation, but they have an advantage. 50-100 people visit Kuelap over an average day, maybe a little more than that. Machu Picchu gets thousands. On that alone I’m sold.
Now for the bad part, Kuelap is 2.5 to 3 hours away fro Chachapoyas by bus (Affectionately called Cha Cha by the locals.) It’s a bumpy and windy road not for the faint of heart but worth it a thousand times over. So yes, a tour from Chachapoyas is a lot of travel time, but I don’t regret a thing.
The drive passes on bumpy winding mountain roads with perilous drops not far from our wheels and I start planning out my next major writing process solving a myriad of problems in the mental outline I’ve already developed. After perhaps an hour and a half we stop at a switch back in the ascent up into the andes and look across the valley and one of hundreds of archeological sights in the area, ancient ruins of a road and stopping place which are quite something to marvel at, especially considering the landscape all around us.
Before long we climb back into the minibus and continue on our way further into the mountains eventually stopping in a tiny little town built around the dirt road and putting in our orders for lunch. It’s here I meet two new friends and the only other english speakers on the bus, Elin and Olivia from Sweden. We chat a bit before climbing into the bus for the final ascent. In that moment I had no idea these two would become such good friends, in fact I’ve only just said goodbye to them more than two weeks later.
Maybe an hour more, making about 3 hours of bus travel total we climb out into a parking lot filled with Artisan craft stalls and a large ticket office. I flash my student card, (Somehow University of Ottawa gave me a 5 year card for a one year program back in Teacher’s College.) and get 50 percent off the normal 10 Sole entrance which is on top of the 30 Sole tour cost and 15 Soles for lunch. (Total cost for me 50 Soles or about 20 Canadian Dollars) As I walk away all the other tourists are mildly jealous.
It’s rainy season in Northern Peru and true to form a steady rain tumbles out of the cloud filled skies as we lean out over railings snapping pictures in a vain attempt to capture the majesty of the Andes mountains. We’re forced away as the rain picks up for a few moments and soon our wonderfully informative and charming guide is calling our group (affectionately nicknamed ChaCha group) over to start our walk up to the ancient fortress city of Kuelap which looms above us.
Women and children tend to horses which you can ride up for a fee and while I have enough shame in my weight to not partake, one young Peruvian boy does and certainly gets his money’s worth as he’s led up the trail passing us quickly enough a grin cutting across his entire face. The walk itself is uphill but mercifully short and for anyone in any kind of decent shape won’t even be a challenge, for me it left me momentarily tired, but of course awe aids recovery, and staring up at one of the ancient outer walls of Kuelap is certainly awe inspiring.
More horses and traditionally clothed women and men lounge around in the grass selling a few things. As the 17 tourists in our group snap photos and marvel at this remarkably well preserved wall from ancient times. While there has been some restoration works in sections, most of Kuelap is remarkably still standing in it’s original form.
We follow our guide around the massive outer wall of Kuelap tucked away up in the clouds of the andes and have to run for shelter under a small serrated tin roof reminiscent of an indian slum when the rain starts again, pouring down heavily for 5 minutes. Luckily there’s a friendly woman selling all manner of Peruvian treats to keep us occupied as we wait for the rain to let up.
We set off again the rain reduced to a mist which it mercifully remains until the very end of our tour. Just before we enter the citadel of Kuelap through a narrow slippery passageway up stairs of stone which would be hard to invade against any sort of resistance we see the quintessential element of any Peruvian ruins. I’m talking of course about a llama, and a nice one too. He even tried to spy on us a little later while we were getting to know some street dogs or rather ruins dogs.
Our guide herds us up into the actual ruins, climbing up through ancient stone passageways to the remnants of houses and temples all around us, mixed with a high altitude forest reclaiming the land once cultivated and lived on by the Cloud Warrior people. The narrow and steep entrance ways make me understand just how hard it would have been to invade this mountain strong hold and puts me firmly back in fantasy writing road.
I chat with Kimmy and Marius old friends from Quito and the wonderful Minka hostel from back at new years and we snap a few pictures together courtesy of Elin and Olivia to send back to all our friends at Minka. Then we set to wandering through this citadel that holds hundreds of homes (what’s left of them anyway) and several temples. The ruins are sprawling and truly impressive, for me they are on par with Pompei, Ingapirca and all the Greek Ruins I’ve seen, outdone only by the world renown Angkor Wat in Cambodia.
Our guide informs us all about the people who lived here, the purposes of their buildings and their way in life in general, most is done in Spanish which I translate what I can of to Elin and Olivia but he often does offer shorter english explanations as well. Soon though those fade into the background as I feel myself growing immersed in this ancient world of stone and truly unbelievable vistas from every corner.
We explore together and I find out just how awesome Olivia and Elin are when I tell them about my paint me jack pose seen in the amazon and a few other places and they insist on taking some pictures of my preferred pose. They turned out pretty well I think, and everyone on the tour was pretty thoroughly amused, or disgusted, i never can tell.
We explore further into Kuelap and see a reconstructed house which shows the completed picture of how these people lived, we also get to gaze at several guinea pig areas which is a feature of each house in the city. Long ago Guin Pigs Cuy in Spanish, were the main source of protein for the South american people, this made them pretty important. Our guide also points out some bones interred in one of the higher interior walls. The people here believed in burying their bodies up high, and you’ll see more of that in the next entry.
After a few hours spent wandering in the surprisingly well preserved ruins of this ancient mountain citadel our time’s run out and we begin to head back down to the waiting van. I get to know a few of the peruvian people on our tour as we go and end up talking quite a bit in spanish on our way back to lunch. It’s good practice and I’m pleased to say I’m even beginning to think in Spanish these days.
Eventually we pull in for lunch in the small village and I sit with the four other non south americans, catching up with Marius and Kimmy and getting to know Olivia and Elin a little better. I manage to spill a half bowl of soup all over myself but it’s quickly forgotten as a carnaval parade passes through town and we spill out of the average and slightly expensive restaurant to watch the procession. People are throwing water balloons every which way as well of buckets of water. The parade itself is led by a group of young men carrying quite a full sized tree on their shoulders, the branches decorated with all manner of things. They sing and dance to the music of a brass band following them closely and before long the restaurant staff get involved in the mayhem filling buckets of water and drenching people to the delight of almost everyone.
Of course in water wars there’s always casualties. One man is not impressed with being soaked and begins telling off the young man who poured a whole bucket of water on him, swearing and gesticulating before he is pulled away by a few revellers in better moods and drawn back into the celebration. A little girl also watches more water than she can handle standing to close to a young man and begins to cry. Still she’s smiling soon enough and the whole village is alive with noise, smiles and so much water. I took this video at great risk to my camera as I did get a little wet, though not too badly and it just helped cover up the soup on my pants..
This tree ritual is known as the ritual of the yunza and can be summed up like this: The Andean highland ritual of the “yunza,” known as “umisha” in the jungle and “cortamonte” in the coastal region, is an important aspect of Carnival. Those in charge of the festivities artificially plant a tree loaded with gifts and decorations. When all of the guests have arrived, everyone begins dancing around the tree. After a while, couples begin to chop at the tree with an ax or a machete. The tradition continues the following year, when the couple who makes the final swing that brings down the tree make all the arrangements for that year’s yunza. (Taken fromUSA today travel tips of all places)
At any rate the carnival done we climb back into the minibus and settle in for another 2 hours of rough mountain driving and I go back to thinking of other fantasy worlds to write abut, throughly inspired and in awe of my day in Kuelap, an older, less touristed set of ruins which I can only imagine will compare well to my overall experience in Machu Picchu come May or June.
We’re dropped off in the central plaza of Chachapoyas outside the tourist agency and there Elin Olivia and I decide we’ve enjoyed each other’s company enough to book another tour together on the morrow. How they stand me I’ll never know, but we’re all excited to wake up early the next day and head to a sprawling cave and some truly impressive sarcophagus’ which you will have the pleasure to read about and see in the coming entry which hopefully won’t be too far away.Here’s some shots from the way down.
I leave them in the square and seek out a pizza place which comes highly recommended from the internet. It’s new and run by two incredibly friendly young Peruvian men from the northern coast. They are passionate about their food and it’s one of the few times where the atmosphere of the place is so damn pleasant it wouldn’t have mattered if the food was awful. But the pizza which i spilled from the authentic wood fired oven is near perfection and definitely not to be missed if you find yourself in Chachapoyas. The restaurant is called Candela and it is a few blocks off the main square. Go and enjoy it, you won’t regret the choice. I head back to Chachapoyas backpackers and fall into my dorm bed exhausted but excited for the next day’s journey.
It’s strange, I don’t think of valentine’s day as that important, especially when I’m very much single, but I seem to make them special days when travelling. Last valentine’s day was a magical day for me in Laos throwing a book party at a small rural school and giving almost 100 kids there first ever book of their own as well establishing a reading library for the school through the help of the fantastic charity big brother mouse. Today was not quite that, but it was a truly incredible day and left me thoroughly excited for what the rest of Peru has to offer. Here’s a few more photos to enjoy.
