Where's Andrew

CHACHAPOYAS & TRUJILLO, PERU - OCTOBER 4 TO 11



Exterior Walls of Kuelap

 After a 14 hour trip from Cajamarca, my bus finally arrives in Chachapoyas around 6:30PM. I'm tired and hungry but I spend the next hour and a half going from hostel to hostel trying to get the best deal with an Israeli guy named Oren that I met on the bus. We finally find the best deal for 2 single rooms at the Karajia Inn for around $6US per room. I'm starving so I head out for some pizza but Oren is Jewish Orthodox and can only eat kosher food so he does not join me. After dinner, we book a tour to the fortress town of Kuelap which is supposed to be one of the best pre-Inca ruins in Peru.

Entrance to Kuelap

The next morning, we catch a van at 8:30AM to Kuelap. It is a 3 hour drive along a mountain road the wraps its way around a valley slowly climbing as it goes. There is 7 of us on the tour; 2 brothers from California, a couple from Israel, a woman from Peru, Oren and me. Kuelap is a fortress city built along the summit of a mountain crest at more than 3000m above sea level. It was built over a 600 year period starting at around 500AD and completed around 1100AD. It contains more than 3 times the stone than the Great Pyramid at Giza in Egypt. There are 2 entrance into the city and both are narrow, steep and easily defended. Originally, the Chachapoyan people built Kuelap to protect themselves from the Amazon tribes that shrink heads and lived in the jungle in northern Peru. But later, Kuelap was the last Chachapoyan stronghold to fall to the Incas ending over 20 years of war in the 1400s.

The fortress city is over 1km long and over 300m wide. It has a stunning 360 degree view of the valley below making it impossible to approach without being detected. One of the most amazing aspects of the city is that the nearest stone

quarry the archaeologists have found is more than a weeks walk from the city and over 2000m lower in altitude. The work required to transport the stone is just staggering when you think about it. I had heard the Kuelap was impressive but my expectations are exceeded. I'm surprised these ruins are not more famous, I had not heard about Kuelap until I got to Peru which is common for most tourists. The ruins were re-discovered in 1850 but restoration did not begin until the early 1990s and tourist are just starting to make the trip to Kuelap. The rock work is not as impressive as the Inca style but the size, scope and location are impressive. Archaeologists have rebuilt many parts of the exterior walls that

had collapsed, they are even using mortar using the same materials as the Chachapoyans did. There were the ruins of hundreds of round houses in the city and one has been re-built so that we can see what they would have looked like. The city also has a number of districts within the city dedicated to warriors, the religous leaders and the nobility. It takes about 3 hours to explore the city and we come across a number of large llamas that now graze within the city walls. Overall, it was an awesome day at Kuelap.

That day was Friday and at sunset the Shabbat starts for Oren which means he is not able to touch

money or technology until sunset the following day; this includes riding in a bus, car or taxi. So, I have a nice dinner while Oren eats a few crackers that he bought in a local store. The next day, Oren and I go for a hike on a local trail to Levanto. Locals have told us it is only a couple of hours away but we come across signs saying it is more than 20kms away. After a couple hours walk, it begins to rain and it looks like it could be a bad storm so we turn and head back. It's a good thing as I do not think we were even half way there yet and it takes us a couple of hours to walk back to town.

That evening I was expecting Shane and Seleka to arrive from Mancora so I look into arranging a tour to the Gocta Waterfall near town. Gocta is 2 falls one above the other, the upper fall is 231m and the lower falls is 540m. It is ranked as either the 3rd highest falls in the world if both falls are added together or the 14th if only the lower fall is counted. Oren and I arrange for a private taxi to take us to the falls and then take us back to

Upper Gocta Falls

Chachapoyas at a cost of about $12US each. One snag to my plan, I have an email waiting from Seleka and there was no day bus so they are on a night bus that arrives at 5:00AM. I wonder if they will be up to a hike after a night's travelling.

The next morning I check with the hotel clerk and find out that Shane and Seleka had arrived. I wake them at about 7:45AM and find them keen to join us on this hike which is great as the car is scheduled to leave at 8:30AM. It is pretty cloudy out and looks like we might get some rain but hopefully it will stay dry. The drive takes about an hour to get to San Pedro de Valera and we are soon walking a very nicely maintained trail. I was expecting it to descend to the base of the upper falls but instead we steadily climb for about 2 hours with intermittent rain before reaching it. It is stunning with a huge volume of water and I can't wait to see the lower falls which is over twice the height. We start down the trail to the lower falls and it has started to rain more steadily. The trail is made of grey clay which quickly turns into slippery grey mud. We make a small wager that the first person to fall has to buy the first round of

beers after the hike and about 45 minutes later I win the honour of buying the first beers.

The descent is treacherous and very slow going and it takes over 2 hours to get to the lower falls but we come across a couple of stunning viewpoints along the way. By the time we get to the base of the lower falls, we are all soaked and getting tired. We start towards the village of Cocachimba where our car is waiting but are quite surprised to come across a very steep and long hill. We have been walking for over 6 hours and my legs are really starting to hurt. The downhill part was actually the hardest part and I'm worried about Oren. He looks like he is basically out on his feet and he no longer tries to evade the puddles and I keep thinking he is going to take a bad fall but somehow he keeps going. We come across one more ridge we have to cross before getting to the town but it is not that high and we finally get there around 4:00PM after almost 7 hours of walking which was much longer than we thought when we started. We are glad to see our


Lower Gocta Falls

 car and driver waiting for us in Cocachimba and within an hour we are back in Chachapoyas. Even though we are all wet and tired, the views of the waterfalls was worth it.

The next morning, Shane, Seleka and I buy tickets on a night bus to Trujillo and then Shane and Seleka go on the tour to Kuelap and I decide to find my own way to a high sarcophagi called Karajia set in to an impressive cliff face. It is a Jewish holiday so Oren is unable to catch a bus, ride in a car or use money so he stays in town. I catch a combi near the main square to a town called Luya. Luya is an hours drive away mostly up a steep winding gravel road. It has rained all morning so the road is slick and we come across a large truck that has tumbled down an embankment at a hair pin turn. I'm the only one riding in the combi so I sit up front with the driver. He speaks pretty good English so we have a nice conversation about Canada and Peru for most of the drive. He asks me if he can join me on the hike to Karajia and I say that would be fine. So when we get to Luya, he changes into hiking shoes and clothes but then he tells me that the "guided" hike will cost me $43US. I don't even have that much with me so I tell him I thought he just wanted to walk with me and I do not have money to pay for a guide. Suddenly, he is not so nice anymore.

I catch a small collectivo from Luya to Cruzpata. These collectivo will wait until they have 4 passengers before leaving and it only takes a few minutes before we have enough passengers. It costs $2.50US to get to Cruzpata which is an hour away and we drive along a narrow mountain road which winds through a series of small valleys with farms. The driver drops me off at the start of the trail where I pay a $1.50 entry fee and I am soon heading down the trail. The trail steadily descends down into a small river valley and the clay trail is very slippery. On one steep section, I am trying to decide where to step next when my feet slip out from under me and I fall in the mud. I'm covered in
grey mud and I have cut my hand and the cut is also covered in mud. I carefully continue down the trail and manage not to fall again and soon get to a viewpoint for Karajia. Karajia is basically a cliff face tomb with 6 guardian statues protecting it from evil spirits and grave robbers. Unfortunately, the tomb was robbed anyway and now there are skulls and bones strewn around the tomb and they are visible from the viewpoint below.

After taking some photos, I hike down to the river to try and clean off the mud from my clothes and clean the cut on my hand. It's not much of a cut but it is already closed up and there seems to me quite a lot of dirt in it. There was lots of cow and horse manure on the path so I hope the cut does not get infected. I start walking back towards Cruzpata and see a couple of locals walking in the field beside the path. This looks like a good idea and I hop the fence and walk up the fields, it is not near as slippery as the path and I manage to get back to town without falling once.




Llama at Kuelap

 It rains most of the drive back to Luya and Chachapoyas and I get back to the hostel just after 5:00PM. I change into clean clothes for the night bus and get dinner and say good-bye to Oren who is heading to the Peruvian Amazon. The bus we are catching is a double decker luxury bus from Mobil Tours. The seating in these buses is great with tons of leg room and seats that recline way back and there are stewardesses that serve food and beverages. The cost of the ticket is about $28US but I will save a nights accommodations. I meet Shane and Seleka at the bus station and our bus leaves at 9:00PM and it should take about 9 hours to get to Trujillo which is situated along the central coast. I soon fall asleep in my recliner for most of the night only awaking a few times when the bus stops at other towns along the way.



Main Plaza Church

 We arrive in Trujillo at around 7:30AM. I'm glad the bus is a bit late as it is now a better time to try and find a room. We head to a hostel called Casa de Clara which was highly recommended in our guide book and are happy to get a room so early. Unfortunately, the water in the hostel is not working so we can't have showers.

I need to replace my stolen Android tablet and I am hopeful that I can find something in Trujillo which is Lima's 3rd largest city at over 1.5 million people. I head downtown to over a dozen computer and electronic stores and then I go to the city's largest mall where more shops are located. I need a tablet with a SD card input to



City Centre Shopping District

 download my camera pictures and I would also like a keyboard and USB input. The only thing I find even close to what I want is a Toshiba tablet but it is expensive and does not have the USB or keyboard so I decide not to buy anything and wait until I get to Lima in a couple of weeks.

By the time I get back to the hostel my hand is just throbbing and it is starting to turn red all around the cut. I ask the owner of the hostel if she can heat up some water to soak my hand and she makes up a potion for the water that she claims will kill any infection. Shane and Seleka return from sight seeing as I'm soaking my hand and I convince them to go to the mall I had been at for dinner and a movie. By the time I finish soaking my hand, it is feeling much better and I managed to clean more of the dirt out of the cut.



Exterior Walls of Chan Chan

 We end up seeing Haywire with Ewan McGreggor and it is pretty good but the best thing is that going to the movie reminds us all of being at home. Getting back to the hostel ends up being much harder than we think, we have a map with the hostel location and we know the name of the hostel. You would think that would be all that a cabbie needs but they all want the exact street address which we don't have and they seem to be either unwilling or unable to read a map. Finally, about the 7th cab driver we talk to says he knows where it is but I have to talk him through it the whole way and finally get him to drop us off at a cross street he knows a couple blocks from the hostel. I never seen cab drivers so use incapable of finding a location on a street map.

The next morning, we catch a city bus to the ruins of Chan Chan about 40 minutes north of Trujillo. Chan Chan is a city of the leaders and nobility of the Chimu people and was built in 1100AD and remained until the defeat to the Incas in around 1471 after 11 years of siege. At it's height, the Chimu empire stretched more than 1000km along the Peruvian coast. The ruins consist of 10 great compounds built by Chimu kings, each is surrounded by 11 - 12m walls. The ruins stretch for several kilometers and we arrange for a tour of the one compound that has been restored. Although our guide struggles with his English, we are impressed with the size and beauty of the ruins

which are entirely made of mud bricks and plaster. However, we are surprised to learn that much of the restoration was done in fibreglass. Many archaeologists within Peru are critical of the restorations at Chan Chan. They don't like that fibreglass was used instead of mud bricks and they worry that the site had deteriorated badly and that a lot of interpretation was used when restoring it but we enjoyed seeing it.

We then catch a bus another 20 minutes north to the surfing town of Huanchaco. It might have had a nice beach at one time but it is littered in garbage and did not look like a place that I would want to swim. We have an OK lunch of Ceviche at one of the many restaurants along the waterfront and then catch another bus back to Trujillo.



Wall Painting at the Huacus del Luna

 During the tour of Chan Chan my camera started acting up again and then died completely. I knew this was going to happen somewhere along this trip as the camera had been slowly dying but it hurts to spend more money when I am already trying to buy a replacement tablet. I had seen a lot of cameras in many of the downtown stores that I had gone in when shopping for the new Android tablet. So after getting back from Huanchaco, I end up buying a new Panasonic camera with a 10 times zoom for about $230US. To cheer me up, Shane and Seleka talk me into going to a nice steak house restaurant for dinner and I have the best steak since leaving Vancouver.

Exterior Wall of Huacus del Luna Pyramid

The next morning, we purchase tickets for the night bus to Huaraz in the central highlands so we have the day to explore more of Trujillo. Another bus takes us 30 minutes south of the city to the Moche ruins of Huacus del Sol and de la Luna. The Moche people preceded the Chimu people and flourished between 100AD to 900AD. The town was situated between 2 large pyramid type temples now referred to as Huacus del Sol and de la Luna (the Temple of the Sun and Moon). The Huacus del Sol was built over 6 centuries and had 12 phases of construction. It was the largest man made structure in the western hemisphere but was severely damaged by the Spanish looking for buried treasure and by erosion. Today about 2/3 of the pyramid is gone and the remaining 1/3 has been left as found. But in the

Huacus del Sol

1990s, archaeologists began unearthing the Huacus del Luna which had also been damaged by looters. They found that the temple had been rebuilt over itself at least 5 times. Because of the damage by the looters, many of the lower levels of the temple could be seen and the colourful paintings on the walls were still in tact. Other than clean out sand and debris, very little restorations have been done other than rebuilding a few collapsed walls. Compared to any other ruin I have seen to date, the vibrant colours of the paintings throughout the building were stunningly beautiful. Archaeologists are working to uncover the city between the temples and then plan to start uncovering the remains of the Huacus del Sol. I didn't expect much when I came to see these ruins but I really enjoyed the couple of hours spent here and the tour that was included in the entrance fee was fantastic.



Peruvian Hairless Dog

 Our bus leaves for Huaraz at 10:00PM and is scheduled to take about 8 hours. We are hoping it will take a little longer because 6:00AM is such a lousy time to arrive anywhere. I'm excited to get to Huaraz as it is supposed to have some of the best treks in Peru and we are hoping to do a 3 or 4 day trek. I had high expectations regarding southern Peru when I crossed the boarder from Ecuador but northern Peru has just blown me away so far. So far, Peru has been the nicest country with the most incredible terrain and ruins of any country I have been to and the people are so friendly as well. I sure hope Huaraz and southern Peru meet my expectations.

Hasta Luego.