55. Leymebamba

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small funerary houses in Revash, near Leymebamba

Leymebamba is another wonderful village in the Utcubamba Valley, with lovely people and a lugubrious museum, as well as further buriaal sites in the neighbourrhood.

Our next destination is Leymebamba, further down the valley of the Utcabamba River. Again, only an hour’s drive, if everything works. But our transport challenges aren’t over yet. We get down from Nuevo Tingo to the main road, only to find that no buses have passed yet, this morning. The buses need to come from Chachapoyas, but with more rain last night, the road has been flooded again, and none of the minibuses can get through. We have just installed ourselves in the morning sun in front of a road restaurant, mentally prepared for a long wait, when out of nowhere a minibus appears. Destination Leymebamba. How he got here? He took a two-hour detour from Chachapoyas, through the mountains, to avoid the floods. Great!

the Utcubamba Valley

and the river of the same name

stairs in Leymebamba

and a narrow street with adobe houses

the water that appears from under the street

and floods part of the village

view over the roofs of Leymebamba

Except that we had, in the meantime, learned of further floods, on the other side of Nuevo Tingo. And indeed, ten minutes further a long line of cars was waiting, in front of another large water mass. But our hero driver had not made this detour to be stopped at the next flooding. Ignoring all the others, he steered his minibus into the lake, and miraculously, maybe 500 meters further, appeared on the other side again, with the engine still running and all passengers on board. On to Leymebamba.

The tiny little village of Leymebamba is know for two things. One, it has the friendliest population of any town or village in entire Peru (according to my 10-year old guide book), and two, it has an extraordinary museum. The people’s claim was easily confirmed. Life revolves around the small Plaza de Armas, where everybody seems to be hanging out. Greeting, wanting to know where we are from, and pointing us in the direction of the village phenomenon, water that in the rainy season comes from under the road, and flows through several streets. Which everybody is then again happy to discuss with us, in great detail. The lady from the tourist office almost forces us to come and see the church, of which she is very proud. In the local restaurant people make space in the evening, despite the fact that the television shows Peru playing football against El Salvador; the restaurant is packed. If it would have been for the people, we could have stayed much longer in Leymebamba.

the church, the pride of the village

and inside, largely restored by villagers themselves

watching football outside the bar

and doing the same inside the restaurant

a window

a 600 year old weaving in the museum

antropomorphic wooden figure

unsure about their function

the mummy room, through the window

packed with mummies, some in cloths, some just bones

and some very expressive

if not lugubrious

The museum is an hour’s walk outside town, and derives its fame from the 219 mummies that were found near a lake up in the mountains in 1997. Rather than take them to Lima, a purpose built research centre and museum was constructed outside Leymebamba, where studies on the mummies have been conducted since, and some of the mummies, together with artefacts found in the tombs, displayed. And the mummy room is indeed one of the most spectacular sights in the museum. The vast collection of mummies can be seen through a window – the room itself is, obviously, climate controlled. Many are still wound up in cloths, but from others the skeleton is visible, always in the same pose, kneeling and hands in front of the face, the way they were buried perhaps 500 year ago, at the end of the Chachapoyas era. What is remarkable is that these mummies have been preserved so well, in the wet and humid climate of the cloud forest; thought to be due to a combination of burial techniques and embalming, introduced into the Chachapoya culture by the Incas.

a feather headdress

the countryside, on the way to Revash

just to show how steeply we climbed

the ledge with funerary houses, well above the path

one of the houses

and another one

On our last day in Leymebamba we find a taxi driver who is prepared to take us to Revash, another burial place high up in the mountains, a bit like Karajai. This time, we climb – by car – to some 2800 m, to the village of San Bartolo, from where we take a walk – again, along a good path, the Peruvians know how to handle their cultural heritage – to Revash. This is the funerary site where burials took place by constructing miniature houses high up on ledges in the mountain side, in which the bodies were placed. The houses were painted, and left – except that grave robbers have done their work since, of course. Apart from the site itself, the trip up the mountain was already worth the effort, passing the tiniest villages, seeing how people here make a living. Barely, I would say. Yet they compete with Leymebamba for friendliest people of the country!

next: back across the Andes to Cajamarca

a group of miniature houses

and the best-painted ones, also high up

the local houses, just beams and mud

laundry day, despite the frequent rain

a window in San Bartole

and another one, embedded in mud

the local women making a living

which cannot be easy, here

54. Kuelap

Blog entries

building remains at the archaeological site of Kuelap

One of the main targets of this journey, the citadel of Kuelap, did not disappoint; getting there was both difficult and made easy.

The main reason to come to the region of Amazonas, far away from anything else we do in Peru, is to visit Kuelap, the biggest structure left behind by the Chachapoyas culture – well, the biggest one discovered so far, the jungle around here is full of further ruins that haven’t been explored yet. Kuelap was a fortification, on top of a mountain, with huge walls surrounding circular houses at two levels, a watch tower and a temple. Most of the complex was built between 500 and 800 AD, or 900 and 1100 AD, and may have had anything from between 3000 and 5000 inhabitants – depending on the sources you believe. In any case, well over 500 years older than Machu Picchu. It was abandoned around 1570, after the Spanish conquest, and rediscovered only in 1843. It has been compared to Machu Picchu, but without the tourists: reason enough to make the long journey.

the road flooded from the neighbouring river

the only minibus getting through being towed by a truck

From Chachapoyas we travel to the village of Nuevo Tingo, under normal circumstances an hour away. The circumstances aren’t normal, due to the rains large parts of the road have been flooded. To the extent that most vehicles cannot pass. It takes almost three hours before our minibus driver decides that the water has receded far enough to risk the crossing. We make it, but the total journey is now closer to four hours, for a distance of 35 kilometers only.

the cable car up to the Kuelap site

the view outside the cable car

and the view inside

Luckily, things have changed. Where in the old days the way up was either a tortuous drive up by car, two hours or so, or a walk up, anything between 4 and 6  hours depending on your fitness, now a bus departs from Nuevo Tingo for a ten minute ride to the cable car station, from where you ascent the mountain, from around 2200 to 3000 m, in another 20 minutes. In a comfortable cabin, with spectacular views of the surrounding mountains, and the river below.

beautiful flowers

on the last stretch

to the Kuelap site

the first view of the fort

entry to the site, along a well maintained path

and one of the three passages through the huge wall

round dwellings, high Indiana Jones-feeling

one of the rare square buildings

the wall of the Pueblo Alto, the upper part

a rare glimpse of sunshine (thanks to my travel companion – the photo, not the sunshine)

these parasitic plants bring some colour to the site

and further decoration needs to come from the stones

rhomboid pattern

entry to one of the houses

note the coloured stone

The fort itself is equally impressive. I think the walled-in enclosure covers about half of the flat mountain top. The masonry may not be of the same fine quality as that of the Incas was, but this is compensated for by the sheer size of the outer walls of the structure, with only three narrow entrances. Unfortunately, the main entrance, the one on all the photos we have seen so far, is being restored, bur further down the wall is another entrance, from where wooden walkways lead through the fort – as so often in Peru, there is no free wandering around anymore. But the walkways cover every corner, from a watch tower at one end to the main temple at the other. In between, the remains of the circular residences of the Chachapoyas, sometimes decorated with rhomboid or zig-zag patterns, or the remains of paint, now weathered off.

further decorations in stone

zig-zag pattern

dwellings at a platform

without many trees around

a niche supports some flowers (thanks to the travel companion again)

and more of the red plants, too

temple building, called El Tintero (the Inkpot)

The comparison with Machu Picchu? The Indiana Jones-factor in Kuelap is definitely much higher. Many of the structures here are overgrown, the complex is not as neat as Machu Picchu, with its perfectly cut grass lawns in between the carefully cleaned and inconspicuously restored remains of the buildings. Because Kuelap is on top of the mountain, you don’t have the overview from above, like in Machu Picchu. Its setting is as dramatic as Machu Picchu, but you don’t notice it so much. On the other hand, there is much more of a feeling of authenticity in Kuelap, and the two or three small tour groups we shared the complex with, were easily avoided to give us the impression we were all alone in this magical place. Which makes a lot of difference, as far as I am concerned. No regrets, and worth all the efforts to get here, I would not have wanted to miss this!

next: Leymebamba

a small head carving hidden in the temple wall

terraces and houses

and a view of the temple and the southern fortifications

53. Karajia and Quiocta

Blog entries

the sarcophagi at Karajai

We fall for the comfort and ease of a tour again, this time with better results, to visit the Karajia burial place and the Quiocta cave, outside Chachapoyas.

There are lots of trips to be made from Chachapoyas, to distant, jungle-overgrown ruins that belonged to the Chachapoyas culture. They involve three to five day hikes, and from the view of the surroundings I would imagine steep climbs and hair-raising descents. We know our limitations, and after all, even we haven’t got all the time of the world, right?

However, some remnants of the Chachapoyas culture are more easily reached, with one of those horrible tours, so we give in again, and sign up for a visit to the sarcophagi of Karajai, one of the burial sites.

moss outside the Quiocta cave

the cave entrance

inside the cave, mud and water

and the remains of people, as the cave was used as burial place, too (perhaps)

stalagmites

and stalactites

which we need to illuminate ourselves

with the lamps issued

Of course, a tour never covers precisely what you want, and this one was no different: first, we need to go to the Quiocta caves. I have seen caves before in my life, and I don’t care about yet another one, yet more stalactites and stalagmites, yet more fancy coloured lighting and a guide pointing out completely random shapes that may have an extremely remote similarity to a mammoth, or a monkey, or any other stupid name given to what is in essence a geological structure created by chance. But this was actually different, and quite fun to do. We are all issued with knee high boots. The Quiocta cave system is not developed, or hardly – there are a few ropes to protect groups of stalagmites from blundering visitors. There is no metal walkway with railings, there are no lights other than the torches we were given, and the only way in is through the mud, testing your steps to ensure you are not sinking in too deeply, and through the water, an opportunity to clean your boots again, briefly. The stalactites and stalagmites we have to illuminate ourselves, and yes, I have seen those before, but in this context it was, as I said, actually quite fun.

the end of the cave as we know it

the church of a small village near Karajia

village woman with wool for knitting

as close as you get to the sarcophagi of Karajia

some with skulls on top, of slain enemies

close up of the one to the right

close up of the two to the left

After the obligatory group lunch – perhaps the worst element of any tour, cheapish food, never quite sufficient, but also never finished because it is actually not very nice – we finally went to the Karajai site, which was what we rally wanted to see. One of the ways to honour the dead in the Chachapoyas society was to mummify a person inside a triangle of wooden sticks, and close the triangle with mud and straw to create a sarcophagus. This was then painted, and raised on a high ledge. Many of the ledges didn’t proof high enough to protect the sarcophagi from grave robbers, but the one at Karajai did, and still supports six of the originally eight sarcophagi that were encountered here in 1985 (two have fallen down since as a result of earthquakes).

To get to the sarcophagi we walk about 30 minutes down a slippery path, slippery from the mud, and from the horse droppings – one can also rent a horse, of course, to get closer to the site, but that is for sissies. Nearest we get, however, is not nearly near enough to take photos without a tele-lens. Yet, the eerily white coffins, standing high up on the ledge, do have something special, just about enough to warrant the effort to get here. The bonus comes from the many wild flowers along the path, almost reason in itself to make the walk. Altogether, despite the ‘tour’ element, a nice day out, enjoying not only the archaeology, but also nature above and underground.

next: the Machu Picchu rival, Kuelap

colourful flowers guide the way

this one occurs frequently

this one less so

and even white is a colour, here

the landscape on the way back

small cascades of water

and the deep valleys, in the late afternoon sun

52. Chachapoyas

Blog entries

the cathedral of Chachapoyas

The small colonial town of Chachapoyas is a lovely place to spend a few days, and to use it as a base for several excursions.

The Chachapoyas were a fiercely independent tribe, until their conquest by the Incas around 1470 AD. But the Incas never really managed to control them, which is why, apparently, the Chachapoya people sided with the Spaniards as soon as they got the chance. Perhaps it is therefore that the Spanish established San Juan de la Frontera de los Chachapoyas, now simply Chachapoyas, in 1538, apparently the third oldest colonial town in Peru.

the pedestrian street

the Pozo de Yanayuco

The town, at some stage an important trading hub between the jungle and the coast, is now a sleepy place in between what is called the cloud forest – low level clouds and mist surround the steep mountains, many of which are covered with jungle vegetation. That said, quite a few others are being cultivated, resulting in a kind of patchwork of green fields high up the slopes, not an unattractive sight. But it turns out to be wonderful little town, narrow streets with mostly well-maintained adobe houses, wooden balconies. This is the type of town we like, wandering through its streets, everybody greeting, tasting the friendly atmosphere. An attractive pedestrian street leads to the Plaza de Armas, which is being dominated by the large white cathedral. Steep stairs lead to a now disused well, the Pozo de Yanayuco – legend has it, that whoever drinks from the well will for always stay in Chachapoyas, bewitched by the beauty of its women; more likely, after drinking the foul water you will not have time to leave quick enough before you die. Higher still are a couple of viewpoints, but from above the town isn’t very attractive, with too much corrugated iron on the roofs.

municipality building at the Plaza de Armas

one side of the Plaza, with attractive arcade and balconies

from the other side, smaller houses, smaller balconies

another view of the cathedral

We take a minibus to Huancas, a small village north of town. With the warning that the road maybe closed because of landslides, and we may have to walk a bit to the other side – without suitcases, at least, we left those in the hotel. The road is open, and from Huancas we walk to the Canyon del Sonche, from where we have a fabulous view over the deeply incised river, and the steep mountain slope on the other side. The canon is some 11.5 km long, and up to 962 meters deep. Small waterfalls cascade down in several places. There are no other tourists in sight. At the Plaza de Armas – every village, no matter how small, has a Plaza de Armas in Peru – we wait for a minibus back. When it turns up, we take our seats, and leave. Only to make a round through the village, collect a bunch of school children at various places, and return to the Plaza, once again, fifteen minutes later. To pick up even more children. But then we do leave, really. Until the landslide, which has now become impassable for vehicles, because the people who are cleaning it up are actually making a greater mess of things. Temporarily, we may hope. Everybody out, and through the mud to the other side. The kids are significantly faster than we are, and by the time we get to the other side they have already commanded a waiting minibus, and taken off. We wait for the next one, only to be overflooded with the next bunch of kids, too, from another minivan that can’t cross. All on their way to school, in Chachapoyas. They look at us, tourists, but they are obviously not convinced. It is only that we are bigger then them that we manage to stay on the bus.

next: Karajia and Quiocta

the Canon del Sonche

with waterfalls coming down at various levels

another street view of Chachapoyas

looking down to the Plaza at the end of the afternoon

51. to Chachapoyas

Blog entries

rocky landslide on the way to Chachapoyas

Traveling the long road from Chiclayo to Chachapoyas, in the Amazon Region of Peru, turns out to be not very comfortable, and full of hazards, but ultimately with the rewards of changing scenery. It is just that taking pictures was difficult.

After a few days at the coast we need to move inland again, to Chachapoyas. According to the guide book a ten-hour bus drive, so we find a convenient place in between – ten hours in one go is too long. There is a comfortable bus that can bring us, during daytime, all the way to Jaen, six hours away. Sounds reasonable. Until we find out that the bus has not just tinted windows, no, dotted windows, with black lines diagonally across. Which do not only make sure that we don’t see a lot from the views– and forget any photographs! – but it also makes me sick if I look out.

What doesn’t help is that the north of Peru obviously receives a lot less money for road maintenance – or its politicians are more adept at stealing it, if I am to believe the local taxi drivers. The last few days around Chiclayo we had already noticed many potholed roads, and in some of the smaller towns the main through-going street was so bad, that the tarmac had been removed altogether, leaving an unsurfaced road to the whims of the rainy season. With predictable effect, on the road, and also on my stomach, when our bus drives, just a little too fast, across these roads.

Luckily, the road gets better as we go along. And reaches the mountains. And goes up, across the 2145 meter Porculla Pass, zig-zagging upward, and then down again. Which doesn’t improve my stomach condition either. Apparently, this is one of the lowest Andes crossings along the entire mountain chain. Great! From what we can see outside, it is dense fog – even with normal windows we wouldn’t have appreciated much of the view.

Eight hours later, not six, we arrive in Jaen, it is already dark; not one of our best travel days, after all.

Utcabamba River, the one we will be following upstream in the next few days

random rock – I have to show something from along the road, haven’t I?

The next day we got back to the mini-buses again, no more strange-windowed big busses – which from Jaen only leave at night, anyhow. We found one that would go directly to Chachapoyas, four hours drive only. Great! “Ah, but we cannot guarantee that the road is open, there are two major landslides along the way, and if they haven’t been cleared, you may need to walk across, to find transport on the other side”. I already see myself hauling our suitcases 200-300 meters across the landslide – the wheels under them will be of little use here, I fear. But anyhow, better to move than to be stuck in Jaen.

This time we can look outside – although taking pictures is still a challenge, in the fully packed minibus. We have crossed the Andes, and we have arrived in a different landscape, still mountainous, with impressive valleys and steep slopes, but now with an unmistakable jungle vegetation. This looks more like Laos, or Vietnam. Or the Amazon, of course, but that is so far unknown territory for us. Except that we are now entering the Amazonas region of Peru. Quite nice, in fact, this change in scenery.

The closer we get, the greater the anxiety, with everybody in the bus. Will they have cleared enough to create a passage for the car? We stop for lunch, an anti-climax. The restaurant only has chicken, of which we get a fried variety. The not-yet-cooked chicken are not only running around outside, but also inside the restaurant. We test whether chicken have cannibalistic tendencies.

the rockfall, our first obstacle on the way to Chachapoyas

Back on the road, the driver claims that the later we get to the landslide, the bigger the chance it will have been sufficiently cleared. Hmm, but it has started raining again. There is still very little traffic coming from the other side. Then we reach the site of the landslide, or rather, a long row of vehicles lining up in front of it. We join the queue. But a pick-up truck decides to overtake everybody else to try to get to the front. Just at that moment the first cars come through from the other side. The good news is that there is an opening. The bad news is that Peruvians will never back-up; the next ten minutes the whole road is blocked again, not by rocks but by cars, and I still don’t know how they managed. In the end we are lucky, indeed, the traffic starts flowing again, and after a while we pass the landslide. An impressive rockfall, covering the entire road, with just enough blocks removed to allow passage. And, a couple of kilometres further on, the second one, too, this time more a mudslide than a rockfall. The road has disappeared under the mud, and a track cuts across it.

nearing the second landslide, water on the road and cars lined up

the second obstacle, the mudslide

We are almost there! And then we encounter a third landslide, a new one, obviously. Which cost us another 45 minutes, as it is being cleared, too, by people with shovels and by draglines; heavy equipment, working around the clock, it seems. But in the end this one, too, is sufficiently opened up. Saves me hauling those heavy suitcases through the mud.

When we get to Chachapoyas, almost six hours after we left Jaen, the sun is even shining again.

50. the pyramids

Blog entries

Sican mask retrieved from a adobe pyramid and now in the museum of Ferrenafe

Outside Chiclayo are many remains of ancient, pre-Inca Peruvian cultures, who built earthen pyramids where they burried their elite, together with fabulous treasures, now to be admired in equally fabulous museums.

Some of the most exciting locations that demonstrate Northern Peruvian pre-Inca civilizations can be found around Chiclayo. The oldest are the Moche, which existed roughly from 200 BC to 850 AD. The main Moche sites are near Trujillo, where we will get to later, but perhaps the most evocative one is burial site of Sipan, just south of Chiclayo.

adobe pyramids to the left and to the right – straight ahead are real mountains – in Huaca Rayada

Grave robbers have been pretty effective everywhere in Peru, having caused unimaginable damage to archaeological sites, yet, the tombs at Huaca Rayada, near the village of Sipan, have miraculously been saved from this form of vandalism. Until 1987. Early that year a local archaeologist noticed an incredible influx of intricate gold and silver objects on the black market, and he immediately realised that a major tomb had been discovered and was being ransacked.  The man managed, through carefully questioning the sellers, to identify the location of the tomb near Sipan. Swift protection stopped further looting, but not before several battles with the locals – who saw the tombs as their rightful source of income for the time to come. Their resistance was broken by offering them training and jobs as excavators and guards, creating stable employment, especially because the most important tombs had not yet been discovered. In the early 90’s several major finds were made, the most exquisite being the tomb of what became known as El Senor de Sipan (the Lord of Sipan). Loads of gold, silver and arsenic copper objects have been recovered, alongside the disintegrated mummies of not only the Senor, but also several wives, children and guards, and hoards of pottery. After all, the Senor went to his next life, so had to be provided with everything he could possibly need.

the Hauca Rayada site

being excavated

the tombs have been reconstructed

to show how they were found

items are replicas, sure enough, but much of this comes back in real in the museums

skeleton in the Sipan site museum

with copper headdress on the head

and breast plates and decoration -this is real

On the site itself, it becomes clear why these tombs have been protected for so long. The Moche built pyramids, by stacking thousands of adobe bricks to a height of perhaps 25-30 meters. But rain – many of these cultures, including the Moche, went in decline after torrential rains caused by climate effects like El Nino – has reduced these pyramids to heavily eroded earthen hills, hardly recognisable as ancient structure.

The tombs are on one side, deep inside one of the pyramids. Rather than showing empty holes, the graves have been recreated inside the holes, to give an idea of the original contents of the tombs. Which has been done very nicely, and very tastefully – if that is the right word to be used here. A small museum shows artefacts and mummies that have been found in some of the lesser tombs, and this, too, has been done very tastefully.

mask and headdress

neck decoration – Sipan site museum – seen too in the main museum

breast plate, still in the Sipan site museum

But the main items, those of the tomb of the Senor, as well as those of several other important tombs, have been brought together in a museum in the small town of Lambayeque, the Museo Tumbas Reales de Sipan. This museum in itself is already worthwhile coming all the way to Northern Peru. It shows the headdresses, the pectoral plates, a solid golden crown, jewellery, and lots more, very well presented, and very well lit. But what it also does is showing photographs of where the objects were found, and – even more interesting – how they were found, in what state. The pictures are presented next to the object, which has been cleaned, restored, and whatever else has been done to it, almost beyond recognition compared to the photographs. In this way the museum has become much more than a showcase of antiquities, it is a demonstration of the workings of archaeology, from find to final presentation. Most unfortunately, one is not allowed to take pictures inside – not even my sneaky ones were possible, as we needed to leave backpacks, bags, and mobile phones behind. So we are left with the memory only, and the few pictures from the onsite museum in Sipan.

necklace – Sipan site museum, but also seen in the main museum

curious ceramics artefact, anouncer of the death

owls at the Tucume site

where there were a lot of them

overview of many of the pyramids in Tucume – what is left of them

an adobe pyramid

the main inhabitants of the excavated pyramids, nowadays

The successor culture to the Moche were the Sican – very similar to the name Sipan, but much younger, from around 750-1375 AD. They too, built adobe pyramids, of which a huge complex, no less than 26 of them, is left near the village of Tucume, 30 km from Chiclayo. And these, too, have mostly crumbled into earthen humps, heavily eroded – the Sican culture also came to an end after a bad case of El Nino. But the erosion continues to present day, apparently, with major floodings causing further damage two years ago. So many of the pyramids, partly excavated, were closed – although with a bit of ingenuity we managed to admire some of them a little more close-up, anyhow.

view inside the pyramid

wall of niches

and other niches are painted

with geometric figures

the best preserved pyramid in Tucume

The nicest one, the Huaca Las Balsas, which was open to the public, we left for the end. And it was worth the struggle through the barren site, shade-less and hot. This pyramid, the best preserved, or at least the one most excavated, shows lots of little detail in decoration, from geometric patterns to scenes with people and animals. But many of the ongoing excavations around the pyramid were off limits, and with plenty of guards here, even our ingenuity didn’t help in exploring these further.

called Huanca las Balsas, with decorations

and whole friezes with figurines

parts are off limits

although, with ingenuity, accessible

the Tucume site museum shows interesting pottery

bottles and beakers

and an animal shaped vessel

the Museo Nacional Sican has a fabulous gold collection

Another Sican site, Batan Grande, was just too difficult to get too – and in any case, there are only so many mud humps you can admire. But results of excavations there have been presented in a small museum in the town of Ferrenafe, much closer to Chiclayo. Once more very well displayed, the Museo Nacional Sican shows the contents of a couple of burial tombs: decorative objects, pottery and some fabulous jewellery, as well as one of the best masques I have ever seen.

perhaps even more than that of the preceding Moches

gold was the dominant material for decoration

All together a great combination of on site tasting the real thing in the coastal heat, and admiring the exquisite artefacts in the comfort of air-conditioned museums. Archaeology the way I like it most.

next: to Chachapoyas, in the Amazonas region

and here he is again, my favourite mask

49. Chiclayo

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fisherman storing his caballito canoe on the beach of Pimentel, near Chiclayo

The northern coastal town of Chiclayo hasn’t a lot to offer, yet, we have been well entertained in the market and along the beaches.

If you have checked the map, you ‘d be forgiven for thinking that I have skipped a major part of this travelogue. In fact, and against our usual approach, we have taken a flight out of Cusco, in the Southern Highlands of Peru, to Chiclayo, quite far north on the Pacific coast. Change of plans, like we have had so many times already, this trip. It is just that we are keen on doing the northern part of the country, too, before we run out of time.

So from early morning, chilly and high-altitude Cusco, we arrive a few hours later in sweltering Chiclayo, a busy trading town at sea level just 15 km inland. Which, unlike Cusco, has very few touristic highlights of its own. Perhaps the most uninspiring Plaza de Armas we have seen so far. Not really compensated as far as we are concerned by what is called Real Plaza, a shopping mall that is bustling from activity on the Saturday afternoon, with seemingly the entire town congregating here. It is only after we have discovered the sweets shops that we start to appreciate Chiclayo in its own right. Figs with manjar, the local term for what we know so well from Argentina as dulce de leche (a kind of caramel sauce); pecan nuts covered with fondant, ‘alfachorcitos’ – biscuits with manjar in between -, caramalized peanuts, sweet sesame seed sticks. Enough to keep us entertained for a while.

sweet shop in Chiclayo

the ‘brujas’ market in Chiclayo

with various tools for witchcraft

like this one staff

or a not-to-be-misunderstood carving

and kind of Voodoo dolls

Of quite different ‘taste’ is the Mercado Modelo, the main market in town, which is famous for its ‘brujas’ section, the section of the witch doctors. Obviously something to explore, but I am afraid we have seen much more exciting witch doctor markets than this one. A few herbs, a dried guinea pig, a couple of bottles with snakes in liquid, and for the rest Voodoo-like amulets for black magic sessions, not really frightening, not really convincing. Once they realised we were not interested in buying, the sellers ignored us, non-believers, completely.

and lots of magical herbs

pomegranate, much more down to earth

and other fruits in the normal market

black maize is a big thing here

and fruit juices ready to be put through te blender

and would they play billiards here?

The rest of the market proved rather more interesting, the usual colourful and exotic fruits and vegetables, a section with flies, or fish, it is unclear which species is in the majority. Everybody friendly, interested in a chat – obviously, Chiclayo doesn’t get that many foreign visitors. Quite a different reception from the ‘brujas’ section, in fact.

dried fish, hanging to… dry

the beach in Pimentel

with a long pier stretching into the sea

not a lot happening on the pier

the caballitos are coming home!

skillful surfers, those caballito riders

not easy to manage the surf

this one is almost there

and he, too, has landed safely

the caballitos – canoes – on the beach

with their catch of the day

being exhibited on the reeds of the canoe

or just in an orange basket

after work the boats are stalled in the sun

to make sure they dry again

So close to the coast, we have to go and see the Pacific, of course. So we take a combi, a minibus, to Pimentel, the beach resort of Chiclayo. Impeccable beach, long and wide, parasols for hire; an old and nondescript pier stretching into the sea. Fish restaurants along the boulevard. And, towards the south side of the beach, hundreds of ‘caballitos’, small fishing canoes made of reeds, with which the fishermen get out to sea to manage their traps and nets in the shallow water offshore, coming back around lunch time with their catch. And it was lunch time. So instead of our usual activity around lunch time, we spent an hour watching the fishermen come in, skilfully surfing the waves with their canoes. And subsequently displaying their catch, and selling it almost immediately.

which makes for nice pictures

For the real fishing boats – and for a sumptuous lunch with ceviche, a Peruvian cured fish speciality – we went to Santa Rosa, a little further along the coast. Here the boats are lined up on the beach, and launching them is done with the help of a dragline-type of vehicle, that pushed the boats through the surf until they have enough clearance to manage their own engines. Here too, the catch is being sold swiftly, but apparently, most of this is turned into dried fish, and sold to large Ecuadorian companies, that control the trade of this eastwards, into the Amazonian jungle where it is highly valued. Well, except that some of the fish ended up in our ceviche – there is still hope!

next: the pyramids, the sites outside Chiclayo

the boats in Santa Rosa

much bigger, pulled up onto the beach

and launched again with the help of a special truck

the catch here is a lot bigger

a sumptuous ceviche

48. Ollantaytambo

Blog entries

lady in traditional dress on the main square of Ollantaytambo

The village of Ollantaytambo does not only have a huge Inca complex above it, but is also very nice in itself, and not only because of its colourful traditionally dressed women.

Back from Machu Picchu we settle for a couple of days in Ollantaytambo. Also touristic, but somehow a lot less disturbing than Aquas Calientes; perhaps most tourists in Ollantaytambo are just passers-by, people who move from Cusco to the train station here, directly on to Machu Picchu, and back the same way. But the village warrants some time on its own.

 

narrow cobbled street

the market is a small-scale affair

chicken stall

a man in traditional dress

and a woman, with hat

and plastic flowers

quite a few of them

attached with safety pins!

Wandering through the narrow, cobbled streets of Ollantaytambo, with its adobe houses, its courtyards, you could be forgiven for thinking that this is how an Inca village may have looked like, too. More than Pisac, the market here – every day, not just Sunday – attracts people from outlying hamlets, traditionally dressed. Mostly women, sporting colourful embroidered dresses and fabulous hats decorated with plastic flowers, but also men, with capes and smaller hats. They are quite aware of themselves, and some ask for money if you take photographs, yet I don’t think they dress up especially for the tourists. This is just how they go about, meet each other in the small Plaza de Armas, or do their shopping at the even smaller market square.

they meet for a chat in the Plaza de Armas

or, the whole family, for tourists to pay them for the photo

an overview of the main part of the Inca complex in Ollantaytambo

Above the village towers an Inca complex, built against the steep mountain slope, part religious and residential, part military. This is where Manco Inca initially withdraw to, after his unsuccessful attack on the Spanish conquistadores in Cusco, and where he managed to beat a Spanish force that came looking for him, by holing up on the slopes whilst inundating the valley, rendering the Spanish horses useless. What is left of the complex is impressive, with terraces supporting the structures on one side of the valley, and further buildings seemingly built into the rocks, on the other side. As with so many other Inca sites, here, too, an intricate irrigation system has been developed, which is still working.

terraces, and the upper part is a temple

with much better masonry than the lower walls

and an entrance at the top of the stairs

the is the military section, built hastily, for the retreat of Manco Inca

long stairs

niches in the wall

very well fitted stones of the temple wall

an offering place at the bottom

the irrigation works

local tourists coming down

and us enjoying it, a bit

the cuj in the oven

close up, so you recognise

On our last evening in the Sacred Valley, we finally manage to eat cuy, or guinea pig (or cavia, if you must know). Cuy is an Andean delicacy, a role it has fulfilled for much longer than any role as a cuddly pet in Europe, so obviously, we had to taste it. Hmmm, a little disappointing, very little meat and very many bones. According to the recipe, it tastes somewhere between a rabbit and a quail. Give me rabbit or quail anytime.

next: we fly to North Peru, to Chiclayo

 

47. Machu Picchu

Blog entries

part of the Inca complex Machu Picchu

We have mixed feelings about Peru’s pre-eminent tourist attraction, Machu Picchu, which is a fabulous Inca complex, of course, but shamelessly over-exploited.

There are various ways to get to Machu Picchu. You can take the official Inca trail, or several alternative Inca trails, which involve anything from three to five days hike, up multiple mountain passes, to something like 3900 m, and down again. Or you can take the train – there is no road transport. Knowing our limitations – after all, we haven’t got all the time of the world! -, we took the train, the Perurail Expedition, for the bargain of US$ 35 – low season special promotion – one way, one-and-a-half hours to cover perhaps 30 kilometers. We are firmly inside tourist country.

not sure if these people walk the Inca trail, too

suspension bridges cross the Urubamba river

the train to Aquas Calientes

and this is where the train arrives

one of very many souvenir stalls that dominate Aquas Calientes

The train ride is slow, but not unpleasant. Comfortable, and with great views of the valley of the Urubamba River, along which the train moves. At some stage we see parts of the Inca trail, or at least one of them, with groups of tourists slowly moving uphill, a lot slower than our already slow train. It starts raining. We have very few regrets. The further along, the more the landscape changes from rough mountains to a more jungle-like environment, no doubt because we are losing altitude rapidly. The village of Aquas Calientes, from which we will visit Machu Picchu, is at 2300 meters, 600 meters lower than the station at Ollantaytambo.

Aquas Calientes itself is a disaster. The ultimate tourist trap: I don’t think there are many local people living here, but every street is a line up of restaurants, bars, souvenir shops, massage parlours and minimarkets, catering to all the tourists is town. Many of the buildings aren’t finished yet, and there is the constant noise of construction, all around the village. An entire infrastructure to provide access to the magical Inca temple, Machu Picchu, which is another 20-minute bus ride away.

early morning view of the mountains around Machu Picchu

entrance to the Inca complex, at 7 am

It rained all night, but the next morning at 6 am – we had chosen to be early, so we would have enough time before the hordes of one-day trippers arrived – it had just stopped. In front of the bus stop a long line has already formed; we are obviously not the only ones with the smart idea to be early. Yet, we manage to board a bus not too long afterwards, only to be confronted with even longer queues at the entrance of Machu Picchu. Oh, and it had started raining again. It was miserable: hundreds of people with plastic ponchos and umbrellas, slowly filing through the entrance, and then even slower filing up the mountain, on the narrow stairs. Tour groups of 20, whose guide is giving an explanation, so they block the stairs for the duration, nobody able to pass. At the first viewing platform – there are many – the selfie crowd has assembled for a never-ending series of pictures of themselves, in front of the ruins. They haven’t even looked at the ruins yet, they only look at their telephone, or the boyfriend’s, meanwhile adopting the silliest postures. How else are you going to make a point at your Instagram account?

not the clearest of views, early morning

another angle, view of the main complex

selfie crowd

and here, there is nobody!

an Inca throne left behind

the Inca bridge, impressive construction

not sure about the originality of the wooden planks

rich flora along the path

providing a bit of colour to the grey environment

another Inca path, away from the ruins

entrance to the main complex

We decide to hike a bit further, away from the crowds, first to an Inca bridge half an hour away, and then to something called the Sun Gate, an hour uphill. The rewarding views never materialise, everything around us is thickly covered in clouds. The theory was that, after a few hours, the rain would have stopped and the clouds would have dissolved, and indeed, by the time we got back to the main site, the weather had cleared somewhat, and the views got better. The crowds had gotten thicker, too. Had I mentioned already, this is tourist country? And now is the low season.

Machu Picchu’s own temple mountain

and residential quarters – I think

more quarters, and an impeccable lawn in front

another inhabitant of the complex, a vizcacha

another Inca throne, hewn out of the rock

inside the houses

room with a view, of the terraces

in between the houses, same terraces

For the next few hours we wander through the main site of Machu Picchu, strictly following the one way system. Whenever we lose our bearings, we just follow the selfie sticks. Or the groups, each with their own flag, and some even with matching ponchos. The site has been restored in places, of course, but not disturbingly so. And it is quite a unique site, of course, if only because of its remote location high in the mountains. We come across a couple of temples, several quarters that look residential, and spacious grass courts in between. Every construction is supported by a stack of steep terraces, incredibly steep. Very impressive, actually, given that they are still in place, some 500 years after their construction.

The theory that the sun would break through didn’t work. Instead it started raining again, well before we had fully dried up from the morning rain. We didn’t have ponchos, of course. Neither water-proof shoes. Miserable. We made for the exit, where we – having abandoned the plan to walk all the way down – joined the queue, once more, for the bus.

Don’t get me wrong, Machu Picchu is a fabulous place, and with better weather we would have enjoyed it even more. But perhaps it is a little overrated? Compared to Angor Wat in Cambodia, for instance, or Tikal in Guatemala? Or maybe our expectations were just too high. What doesn’t help is the shameless over-exploitation of the place. It starts with ridiculously expensive train tickets – we got them for a bargain, but they are standard 140 US$ return -, and then you haven’t paid anything else yet. Our entry ticket for the site was some 70 US$ per person. Officially, we have four hours, then we have to leave, but it is difficult to see how this system is being enforced. Our ticket has been stamped, and checked very many times, but there is no entry time, except the time we have booked for. And four hours is somewhat unrealistic, too, as our walks to further away locations and back add to a minimum of three hours, already. The one-way system is great of course, you would hate to encounter a tour group that goes the other way, but there are several ways, not just one, and you easily miss an important part of the complex by unwittingly taking a shortcut. And the system is rigidly being enforced, with guards whistling everybody back who dares going against the prescribed walking direction (well, in fact I managed to convince one of the guards to let me through, but only because I am such a charming, or more likely, insisting, person). And that 20-minute bus ride up the mountain? A cool 12 US$, one way. I call that robbery, certainly compared to the usual cost of public transport in Peru. But obviously, I am wrong. The tourists keep on coming, every year more, from all over the world, and they don’t seem to complain. Machu Picchu ratings are, invariably, high. It must just be us.

next: Ollantaytambo

and a view down, to the river

more flora, dying tree

46. Urubamba

Blog entries

salt ponds in the Salinas de Maras, near Urubamba

Urubamba is the ideal base for exploration of the Salinas de Maras and the Moray agricultural terraces, two Inca highlights in the Sacred Valley.

Urubamba is the largest town in the Sacred Valley, the valley that runs roughly from Pisac in the east to Machu Picchu in the west and refers to a string of Inca religious locations. Yet, we easily walk from our hotel on one end of town to the bus station at the other, everything here is pretty small-scale. As a town Urubamba has not much to offer in terms of sites, but it is nice and compact, with the usual narrow streets, a plaza and a market.

 

the village square of Urubamba

and one of the narrow streets

women inside the market hall

and another market seller

colourful vegetables

many different types of potatos

hundeds of salt ponds

terracing down to the valley

rather steep terraces

salt accumulating at the back

the water is brownish

The reasons to come to Urubamba are outside town: an agricultural laboratory from the Inca days, and elaborate salt works, which date back to pre-Incas times. The salt works, near the village of Maras, have been developed around a salt water spring, which feeds water in the hundreds of small shallow terraced pools downstream, which slowly fill up, and get oversaturated with evaporation, after which the waterflow is interrupted and the salt harvested – this in a matter of a few days. The ponds are stacked in a narrow valley, which creates a very attractive view. Except that we are not the only ones, of course, remember, this is tourist country. Buses and minivans come and go and deliver a never-ending stream of tour groups, which move carefully in between the ponds; but not too far from the entrance, of course, so further down hill there are fewer people.

another view of the ponds

the largest circular terraces

note the stairs from level to level

built as stones in the terrace walls

another view of the stairs

The same groups we meet again at Moray, a little further from Maras. Here the incas have built circular terraces thought to have been used to test various crops at different temperatures, to see what grows best where. Interestingly, the stairs to climb from one terrace to another have been set inside the terrace walls, to avoid erosion along them. The biggest of the troughs is some 30 meters deep, with temperature differences of 15o between top and bottom. Quite something, at about 3500 m altitude.

next: Machu Picchu

a smaller terrace circle, less well preserved

and snow the top of the mountains