The long drive to Chachapoyas proved to be well worth the fuel and time it took, a great town with a very interesting history. Chachapoyas is named after the Andean people who inhabited the area before the Incas and Spaniards came along is surrounded by the ruins of their settlements, dating back to in some cases AD 800. The Chachapoyas people lived in the area before the Incans came along and conquered them in the 15th century. The word chachapoyas means warrior of the clouds, or maybe children of the clouds, or maybe even people of the clouds, depending on who you ask. Chachapoyas’ location in the mountains on the edge of the amazon region also makes it a great place for hiking with a plethora of climate zones. We stopped by a tour agency in the town with the idea of getting some information on the surrounding ruins and then going on our own. We weren’t exactly prepared for the used car salesman turned tour agent who greeted us. Within seconds he was showing us pictures of a 4 day trek they offered and regaling us with tales of how much we would enjoy the hike. The hike included some of the ruins we wanted to see anyway, and the mountains we would be hiking through also looked pretty nice. Within minutes the sales pitch was working and we found ourselves thinking it would be a good chance to get our hiking boots back out as it had been awhile. Yes, this guy was that good.

Alas, Luis woke up in the middle of the night before we were leaving with a bad stomach and ended up spending the rest of the night in the bathroom with a visit from Montezuma (second time in 2.5 years, not bad really). Thinking this would not be a good way to spend the 4 day trek, Lacey went down to the tour office and explained the situation. “No problem, you can leave tomorrow,” was the reply. Since we were already committed to the idea, we agreed, never once thinking maybe this was an omen that we shouldn’t be going at all, or at least Luis shouldn’t.

The first day of the tour was more like bussing than trekking. We first went out to the Ciudad de Los Muertos (city of the dead), where we hiked along impossibly narrow shelves built by the Chachapoyas in the middle of impossibly steep cliffs to check out sarcophagi and the remains of what appear to be small houses built along a shelf running the length of the cliff. The sarcophagi are too far to get a good look, but they look like egg shaped mounds of clay that contain mummies. Some of them have what appear to be faces on the top of them.

The sarcaphagi mounds set into the recess of the cliff.

Our next stop was at Karajia where some more impressive sarcophagi are found. These sarcophagi are made out of wood and stand almost 10 feet tall. They have some vaguely human shape to them, and are pretty amazing to look at. Like the less refined sarcophagi at the Ciudad de Los Muertos, these are also set into recess in the middle of cliffs. One has to wonder how the hell they got these things up there.

The end of the first day found us winding down into Valle Huaylla Belen slightly reminiscent to the Valle de Cocora in Colombia and one of the most beautiful and picturesque valleys I’ve seen. The valley bottom is covered in green grass with a little river snaking through the middle and surrounded by jagged mountains on all sides. The valley is now protected in a type of land trust, but our guide told us it has always been considered sacred among the people living here, which is how the valley has escaped being split up into plots of agriculture by the locals.

The view of the valley from above.

The morning of the second day arrived cold, cloudy and drizzly, but we were exited anyways because we would be hiking all the way to our next destination for the night. As we started walking out of the valley, the clouds broke and the sun came out making it a very pleasant hike. Leaving the valley behind we started walking through the mountains following a pre-Incan path of laid rock that connected the different cities of the Chachapoyas people. The really cool part is that the path is still used by the campesinos in the area. It was pretty amazing to think about how many generations of people had passed through these same paths in the over 1,000 years since the rocks had been laid. In the afternoon, we arrived at the ruins of one of the towns, just as the sky opened up and began to pour rain. One of the unique and interesting things about the Chachapoyas people is the architecture which is characterized by circular stone houses.

Luis walking the trail of the Chachapoyas.

From the ruins, it was all down hill to the town way in the valley below where we were staying the night. Unfortunately the rain wasn’t helping the already treacherous and slippery trail get any easier to walk down. About half way down, Luis slipped on some rocks and went down. Everybody let out a collective gasp as they saw the angle of his foot and leg that he fell on. There was a few minutes of panicked discussion as our guide told us we were still a good hour from town. Luckily, after a few minutes and some attention from his personal nurses (the two girls, Amy and Romney, we were on the hike with had taken wilderness first responder courses) he was able to get up and continue to walk. It was a very painful walk into town, as Luis’ injured ankle didn’t deal well with the slippery, rocky path. As we relaxed at the place we were staying, and watched the cuy running around in the kitchen where our food was prepared, we discussed what Luis was going to do. In the end, at the urging of our guide (who no doubt didn’t want to have to deal with anymore falling Luis) it was decided that Luis would return to Chachapoyas in the morning and sit out the day while the rest of us continued on. He could catch a bus the following morning (the 4th day of our trip) and meet us for the grand finale of the trip: the ruins of Kuelap.

The kitchen at our bunk house. If you look closely you can see a bunch of guinea pigs huddled under the stove.

Our third day started out with more rain, surprise, surprise! It had rained all night, so we weren’t too excited at the condition of our trail for the day. Today we were spending most the time on horses, with some hiking in between when the trail was too bad for the horses. What our guide failed to tell us was that our horses were actually part mountain goat, and the trail was going to be INSANE! The ride started out mellow enough, but soon went from mellow to white knuckled hold on for your life crazy. We were traversing straight up mountain sides, in some places feet deep in water and mud, and climbing over wet, muddy, slippery rocks. Yes, all while riding horseback! I have never been on a ride like this before, and probably won’t ever again. The first hour or so, I was riding in terror, thinking as we approached each new crazy slope that there was no way these poor horses were going to make it up, and planning my no doubt ungraceful departure from the horse. After about an hour or so, however, of still finding myself in place on the horses back after each leap and scramble, I started to trust my horse and relax a bit to enjoy the ride. Our horses were really quite impressive, taking each leap and bound in stride. While there was a bit of slipping and sliding on their part, not one of the three horses ever came close to going down in the entire 5 hours of our ride. By the end I was convinced that they really were part mountain goat. The other amazing part of this ride was the horse guide. He scrambled along with us the entire time, wearing shorts and sandles in the pouring rain, while furiously chewing his bag of coca leaves. No matter how steep and slippery the slope was, he was always right there along side the horses and never once appeared to get tired or out of breath. I for one was totally impressed by this, as the few times we had to hike up a hill I was floundering along out of breath within minutes.

Riding horses on the muddy trail. This is actually the better part of the trail. Unfortunately, I was either to scared or it was pouring down rain to get pictures of the "better" part of the trail.

Our fourth day of the trip we were picked up by a bus and drove up to the ruins of Kuelap. Kuelap is said to be the Machu Pichu of northern peru, with the advantage of having way less visitors. We will save our opinion on the matter for after our visit to Machu, but Kuelap was indeed well worth it. It is a huge fortress, perched at an elevation of 3,000 meters (almost 10,000 feet) on a mountain top, with amazing views of the surrounding mountains in all directions. For more on the Kuelap ruins see the separate post soon  We had so many great photos we decided to post them separately. But as an enticement to check it out here is a small preview.

January 21st, 2012 | Tags: blogsherpa, chachapoyas, Peru, ruins | Category: Peru, South America | Subscribe to comments | Leave a comment | Trackback URL