|
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
Private services available upon request.
Day 1. 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
Chachapoyan heartland, first ascending a dramatic canyon then
winding up the mountainous valley which leads us to El Chillo,
the charming hillside garden hotel which will be our home for
the next three nights.
Day 2. Chachapoyas: Journey to the Cliff Tombs of Revash and
on to Leimebamba.
We 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 still trying to tell us a story whose
meaning was lost long ago.
Retracing our steps we continue our road journey to Leimebamba,
which we reach mid-afternoon. This settlement 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. We go a little further up the
highway and pull in to the spacious garden environment of the
Leimebamba Museum, where 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.
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 our museum tour we can visit the Kenticafé across the
street, for a cup of the best coffee in Chachapoyas, where we
may see dozens of the region's exotic hummingbirds flitting
among the strategically placed feeders, perhaps including the
dazzling and highly endangered Marvellous Spatuletail.
We return to El Chillo for dinner and overnight.
Day 3. 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 thanKuelap, 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 drive to Chachapoyas city for dinner and overnight at Casa
Vieja Hotel.
Day 4. Chachapoyas: Spectacular hikes to either Gocta
Falls, or the Cliff tombs of Karajía
Here we have the option to choose between two very different and
spectacular hikes:
Gocta. We drive to the city of Chachapoyas and on to the village
of Cocachimba, the trailhead for this lovely walk through forest
and farmland to the foot of the world's third highest waterfall.
Amazingly, the existence of these falls was not known to the
world until they were spotted by a German explorer in 2006!
Local people lived in fear of them and stayed away, owing to
their ancient legend of a dangerous enchantress, the siren who
lived in the falls. Our walk takes approximately three hours
each way, and along the route we have a good chance of spotting
the Andean Cock-of-the-Rock, Peru's national bird. The male of
this large, brilliantly colored red-and-black member of the
cotinga family sports a huge crest that completely envelops its
beak. When the males gather they hop from branch to branch
through the trees, insulting each other with loud squawks and
screeches in an attempt to attract females.
We hear the thunder of Gocta before we see the falls, a huge
two-stage torrent of water falling from the towering limestone
cliffs characteristic of the entire region. When we are close
they are so high that the rim of the falls, 771m/2,528ft above
us, seems to be lost in the sky. We can spend some time here
enjoying the refreshing mist of the falls and enjoying the
surrounding forest, viewing hummingbirds, toucanets, and, with
luck, a troupe or two of capuchin or woolly monkeys. During the
dry season when the volume of water is not too ferocious, those
willing to face the chilly waters (and perhaps the siren!) can
bathe in the pool beneath the falls. We hike back to Cocachimba
and return to Chachapoyas in time for dinner.
Karajía. We drive half and hour from Chachapoyas to the village
of Caclic, and then take a side road for about 1 ½ hours, before
beginning a descent of 300m/1000ft, to the clifftop at Cruz
Pata, then take a level path which we follow for a short way to
the foot of even higher cliffs. Here we can look across a
vertical cliff face to a completely inaccessible cave where the
ancient Chachapoyans somehow installed nine tall clay figures,
up to some 3m high, inside which the bodies of chieftains and
perhaps their families were interred. One of the figures has
been destroyed by falling rocks, and one damaged. The others are
intact. The heads have angular, stylized faces, made of clay,
while the bodies of the figures were made on site of wattle and
clay, which was then covered in brightly painted designs. On top
of the heads sit skulls, but whose skulls they were we cannot
even guess at, because these figures have been left undisturbed,
not studied by archaeologists, and thankfully not destroyed by
looters. How the ancient Chachapoyans reached this place to
create this burial site for their elites is still a mystery.
We return to the city of Chachapoyas in the afternoon.
Day 5. Chachapoyas to Chiclayo: Back across the mighty
Marañón.
After an early breakfast we return to Chiclayo by road. We will
make a pleasant stop at a suitable spot along the way to eat our
box lunch. We arrive in Chiclayo in the late afternoon and
transfer to a selected hotel.
END OF THE SERVICES
|
Kuelap Fortress
Pre-Inca Mummie |
.jpg)
