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Duration 10 Days and 9
Night
Departures Fixed Departures. Check the
Calendar
Activities Chachapoyas, Kuelap citadel,
Leymebamba - starting from Lima, Peru
Airfares Not included, available upon request
DAY 1 LIMA PICK UP
Pick up upon arrival at Lima’s airport and
transportation to the hotel. Overnight (No meals)
DAY 2 CHICLAYO
Early in the morning transfer to the airport where
you'll take the flight to Chiclayo (Airfare Not
included).
Upon arrival, transfer to the hotel and rest of day
at leisure. Overnight (B)
DAY 3 CHICLAYO TO CHACHAPOYAS: ACROSS THE ANDES
TO THE AMAZON
We drive northward from Chiclayo across Peru's
coastal plains, following the Pan-American Highway,
then turn east onto the Trans-Andean route,
ascending gently through regions of dry forest
interspersed with irrigated farmland. Our road loops
towards the lowest pass of the Peruvian Andes, at
2,135m/7,000 ft, where we cross the continental
divide and enter the Upper Amazon basin. Following
the valley of the Huancabamba/Chamaya river system
we pass broad ribbons of bright green rice
terracing, forming a striking contrast with the
cactus and dense thorn-scrub vegetation of the
mountainsides. Lower downstream we pass the massive
dam and intake of the Olmos irrigation project,
ultimately destined to divert much of this water
through a 23Km/14.2 mile long tunnel to the Pacific
slope of the Andes.
We reach the bridge over the Marañon, one of the
great tributaries of the Upper Amazon, which was
formerly believed to be the source of that mighty
river. Here we enter the Peruvian department of
Amazonas, former home of a mysterious and powerful
civilization, the Chachapoyas, whose remnants we
will explore during this journey.
We follow the Utcubamba River, the main artery of
the Chachapoyas heartland, first ascending a
dramatic canyon then winding up the mountainous
valley which leads us to El Chillo, our hotel at the
foot of the high road to the mountaintop site of
Kuelap, tomorrow's destination. (B, L)
DAY 4 CHACHAPOYAS: KUELAP, THE GREAT WALLED CITY
OF NORTHERN PERU
We spend a full day visiting this huge and
mysterious site, beginning with a drive through
places whose names -- Choctamal, Longuita, and
Kuelap itself -- evoke a lost language and a
vanished ancient people who spoke it, the
Chachapoyans. We don't know what they called
themselves, but the Incas who finally conquered
these fierce warriors knew them by their Quechua
soubriquet, Chachaphuyu “Cloud People” after the
cloud-draped region where they lived.
Kuelap's existence was first reported in 1843. For
years it was believed to have been a Chachapoyan
fortress, and when we first catch sight of it from
the fossil-encrusted limestone footpath that leads
there it is hard to believe it was not. The massive
walls soar to a height of 19m/62ft and its few
entranceways are narrow and tapering, ideal for
defense. Yet the archaeological evidence now
suggests that this was principally a religious and
ceremonial site.
Chachapoyas was not a nation, or an empire, but some
sort of federation of small states centered on
numerous settlements scattered across their
mountainous territory. The earliest settlement dates
obtained here suggest that its construction began
around 500A.D. and, like the Moche coastal pyramids,
it was built in stages as a series of platforms, one
atop the other.
It is now a single enormous platform nearly
600m/2,000ft long, stretched along a soaring
ridgetop. Seen from below, its vast, blank walls
give no hint of the complexity and extent of the
buildings above. When we reach its summit we find a
maze of structures in a variety of styles and sizes,
some of them faced with rhomboid friezes, some
ruined and some well preserved. Here we can try to
imagine the lives of the Chachapoyan elite and their
servants who lived here, enjoying a breathtaking
view of forested Andean mountains and valleys.
So distant and neglected was this region until
recently that little archaeological research has
been done at this important site, and our knowledge
of it remains vague. An adjacent site named La
Mallca, larger though less dramatic than Kuelap, has
not been studied at all. Even today, Kuelap's
remoteness ensures that only a handful of other
visitors are there to share it with us.
We return to El Chillo for dinner. (B, Box Lunch, D)
DAY 5 CHACHAPOYAS: A VISIT TO MACRO TOWERS, AND A
HORSEBACK JOURNEY TO THE CLIFF TOMBS OF REVASH
After breakfast we enjoy an excursion to observe the
burial towers of Macro, an outpost of the
Chachapoyas culture built into cliffs overlooking
the Utcubamba River. Its unique location allowed for
contact via signal fires with Kuelap, high above in
the mountains, and visible through a cleft in the
valley hills.
We then follow the Utcubamba valley upstream,
spotting herons and perhaps an Andean torrent duck
in the river as we slowly ascend the valley. At the
village of Santo Tomás we turn off the main highway,
crossing the river and ascending a side valley where
vivid scarlet poinsettias the size of trees overhang
the walls of typical Chachapoyan farms, with
verandas surrounded by wooden columns, and topped
with tile roofs. Soon we meet our wranglers and the
calm, sure-footed horses that will carry us up the
trail to Revash.
Throughout this journey we gaze up at huge cliffs
that loom ever closer. These limestone formations,
laid down in even layers over geological aeons, tend
to break away in neat collapses, often leaving
extensive overhangs and protected ledges beneath
them. In such places the ancient Chachapoya built
the tombs where they buried their noble dead.
A gigantic fold in the cliffs, testifying to
millennia of unimaginable tectonic forces, lies
ahead of us, and at the top of the fold one such
cave houses a group of tombs, ruined structures
still bearing their original coat of red and white
pigment. But they are far off, and this is not yet
Revash. Another hour brings us to a viewpoint much
closer to the cliffs, and here we see two adjacent
sets of caves, featuring cottage-sized structures
covered in still-bright mineral-oxide paintwork.
Some of them look like cottages, with gabled roofs,
others like flat-topped apartments. They are adorned
with red-on-white figures and geometrical symbols --
a feline, llamas, circles, ovals -- and bas-relief
crosses and T-shapes, which perhaps once told the
rank and lineage of the tombs' occupants. They are
silent, empty, their contents long ago looted, their
facades straining to tell a story whose meaning was
lost long ago.
We return to El Chillo for dinner and lodging. (B,
Box Lunch, D)
DAY 6 CHACHAPOYAS TO LEIMEBAMBA: A SCENIC
MOUNTAIN HORSEBACK JOURNEY, AND A TRADITIONAL ANDEAN
TOWN
We follow the Utcubamba valley to Las Palmas, where
we meet our wranglers and horses, then set off on a
mountain trail among green fields and through small
villages and hamlets. Our wranglers are, like most
local people in Chachapoyas, friendly and obliging.
Here and there we find ourselves riding upon
remnants of the original stone road built by the
ancient Chachapoyans to access the settlement of La
Congona. After about two hours of steady climbing we
reach the place where the Chachapoya built hundreds
of structures along the ridge. Some are just
foundations today, but many are standing, their
walls rising from stands of trees and shrubs.
Large archaeological sites as undisturbed and
deserted as this one are becoming rare today.
National authorities understandably like to clear,
restore, improve access and prevent further
deterioration of ancient ruins. But for adventurous
visitors it is still a special treat to come up
against ancient walls looming through the brush, as
if we were discovering them for the first time.
Buildings with bands of rhomboid and chevron designs
over thresholds once crossed by Chachapoya
chieftains stand silently among the vegetation.
There have been no investigations at La Congona, so
our imaginations are free to tell the story. We work
our way along the ridge to a tower, the highest
building at the highest point, where we climb the
intact stairway to the platform from which lookouts
must once have scanned the vast sweep of mountainous
country around us.
After a picnic lunch we remount and work our way
back down the mountain slopes to the village of
Leimembamba, where we spend the night. ( B, Box
Lunch, D)
DAY 7 LEIMEBAMBA TO CAJAMARCA A MORNING MUSEUM
VISIT, AND A ROAD JOURNEY ACROSS THE MARAÑON CANYON.
Leimebamba was established by the Incas during their
conquest of the region, and continued as a colonial
town under the Spanish. It retains much of this
antique charm in its balconied houses with narrow
streets where more horses than cars are parked. This
morning we visit a delightful collection of
extraordinary artifacts recovered from another group
of cliff tombs discovered as recently as 1997 at the
remote Laguna de los Condores, high in the mountains
east of the town.
Here at the Leimebamba museum, the exhibits,
cheerfully displayed in well-lit rooms, offer a
sample from the mass of artifacts recovered from
this amazing discovery. In 1997 a group of
undiscovered cliff tombs -- similar in style to
those of Revash -- was spotted above the remote
Laguna de los Condores by local farmhands. Although
they looted and damaged the site, a mass of
priceless objects and a trove of vital information
was rescued. We see gourds carved with animal and
geometrical symbols, an array of colorful textiles,
ceramics, carved wooden beakers and portrait heads,
and a selection of the dozens of quipus (Inca
knotted-string recording devices) recovered from the
site. A big picture window offers a view of the
temperature- and humidity-controlled temporary
"mausoleum" where more than two hundred salvaged
mummies are kept.
Archaeologists are still uncertain as to how most of
this material came to be so startlingly
well-preserved, in tombs that during the rainy
season were actually behind a waterfall! But perhaps
the most striking thing about the tombs is that they
contain burials from all three periods of local
history: the Chachapoya cultural heyday, the
post-Inca invasion period, and the post-Spanish
conquest. Archaeologists are continuing to study the
material, seeking to learn more about the Chachapoya
and their relationship with their Inca masters. The
quipu finds have been especially valuable to
scholars seeking to decode the Inca record keeping
system.
After this fascinating visit, we set off on a
journey that offers us new perspectives on the
multitude of natural environments of the Peruvian
Andes. We climb through dairy country, where cattle
graze in green pastures studded with rock outcrops,
dells and belts of woodland. As we go higher this
landscape gives way to a high altitude puna region
of smooth slopes densely covered in a beige
bunch-grass known as ichu. We cross a high pass at
3,500m and begin a long traverse to a lower pass,
where we look down on the distant Marañon river,
which we crossed for the first time four days ago. A
long, winding descent brings us at last to a warm,
irrigated valley filled with mango trees, coconut
palms, papaya and banana plantations. Soon we reach
Balsas, a village at the bridge over the Marañon.
We cross the mighty river into the Department of
Cajamarca, and climb through an arid canyon
environment of tall cactus and gnarled trees.
Eventually we reach farmland again, rolling country
of wheat, barley and oat fields, and we begin to see
adobe farmhouses. And we spot farmers and their
children wearing the characteristic large,
broad-brimmed Cajamarca straw hat. We pause in the
city of Celendín for lunch, and continue on to our
destination, the city of Cajamarca. We arrive late
afternoon at the Cajamarca suburb of Baños del Inca,
where the spacious Laguna Seca Hotel offers us a
welcome rest and a room with its own huge hot tub
and unlimited piping-hot thermal spring water. ( B,
Box Lunch, D)
DAY 8 IN CAJAMARCA: COLONIAL SPAIN AND THE LAST
DAYS OF THE INCA EMPIRE
Our hot springs hotel provides a wonderful and
well-earned finale of luxuriant relaxation, with
delicious dining, spa facilities, and a spacious
private hot pool in every room. The springs
themselves are famous, the site of a historic first
encounter between the Inca emperor Atahualpa and the
Spaniards who, unknown to him, had come to conquer
his empire. The Inca was himself enjoying a hot soak
at the very moment of his victory over rival armies
in a long and bloody war of succession, when a small
contingent of mounted Spaniards rode out from
Cajamarca to visit him, and to arrange a fateful
"unarmed" meeting in the city square next day. The
rest, as they say, is history.
Today we drive into the city center, and up to the
hilltop now known as Colina Santa Apolonia. This was
a sacred mountain to the Cajamarca people who held
sway in this valley for nearly two thousand years,
until the Incas conquered them, and ancient rock
carvings can still be seen on its summit. Today we
look out over the modern city of some 250,000
inhabitants, spread out over a valley at
2,700m/8,850ft surrounded by low mountains. After
viewing the lay of the land we descend the steps
into the old city center, which lies directly below
us.
Spanish colonial houses line the streets here, and
the churches, such as San Francisco and Belén, wear
facades of intricate, fantastical baroque-mestizo
stonework, although all trace of the Inca halls from
which Francisco Pizarro and his conquistadors
launched history's most fateful and treacherous
ambush have disappeared. Nevertheless, we visit one
Inca stone building that still stands, its smoothly
rounded stone walls and perfectly fitted stones
testifying to its noble Inca origins. Local folklore
holds that this was the room which the Inca
Atahualpa offered to fill once with gold and twice
with silver, in exchange for his freedom. This
forlorn monument is a suitable spot to hear the
story of Atahualpa's fabulous ransom and its tragic
denouement.
We visit the Museum in the old colonial hospital of
the Church of Belen, to get in touch with and see
some fine artifacts from an older culture -- known
to us as the Cajamarca -- who occupied this valley
for some 2,000 years before finally succumbing to
the Inca expansion.
After lunch at a fine local restaurant we pay a
visit to the nearby rock formation at Otuzco, where
over thousands of years the pre-Inca Camarca peoples
left hundreds of elaborate niches, or "windows",
hewn into bedrock, in which they buried their dead.
We return in time to make the most of the facilities
at the hotel before dinner. ( B, Box Lunch, D)
DAY 9 CAJAMARCA TO LIMA:
In the morning we are transferred to our hotel for
the flight to Lima (Airfare Not Included). Upon
arrival transfer to the hotel. Overnight (B)
DAY 10 TRANSFER OUT
Transfer to the airport where you'll take your
international flight and end of the services (B)
END OF THE SERVICES
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