We arrived in Chachapoyas quite late following the broken down bus incident from Pedro Ruiz, but not late enough that the tour salesman at the hostel didn`t jump at the chance to sell us a "special" tour the next day to some of the many archaelogical sites nearby. It was quite good value at 50 soles (less than a tenner) so we went for it. Only downside was the 5:30am start!!
There were about 8 of us on the tour, including 4 Austrians, a guy from the UK and two more Americans. We drove for a couple of hours, most of which I don`t remember as I was sleeping. After breakfast at a random restaurant somewhere, our first stop was a district called Luya. The minibus took us to the top of a mountain where our guide pointed out, in the distance, some sarcophogi (spelling?!) and mausoleums. Little did we know we would be checking them out at close quarters... After maybe an hour or so descent and then some strenuous climbing/scrambling, we found ourselves right next to the remains of some of the mausoleums. Here the Chachapoyans, who lived 1000-2000 years ago in this area, buried their dead halfway up the mountain side, which is unique across the whole of Peru to this particular civilisation. We found human bones still placed inside the remains of the mauseleums, which was quite eery, and etchings in the walls which indicated the importance of the people buried there. The sarcophogi were too difficult to climb to, which made you wonder how the Chachapoyans got the mummified bodies there in the first place.. and why. The guide told us that the locations for the mausoleums and sarcophogi were chosen as sacred places for whatever reason, and also for security so they would be difficult to reach in future. The mountainside faced East, so the faces on the sarcophogi faced the rising sun, maybe for easier transport of the soul to the `other side`.
We had all forgotten that, having climbed down the mountain, we would then have to climb back up. We were at maybe 2000m and the altitude made it hard to breathe as it is, let alone after so much steep climbing. I had to stop almost every few steps as I reached the top as it felt like my heart was going to burst out of my chest. I`d better get fit before attempting Machu Picchu next month, which is 3 days of hardcore hiking!
We stopped for lunch, then went on to visit a couple more sites in afternoon which meant more walking up and down steep mountain sides. The views are breath-taking, let alone the altitude. The photos just don´t show how amazing it is to see those mountains, rising out of the clouds and going on forever in the distance. At some points during the climb back up the mountain, I was walking alone and couldn´t see or hear the people in front or behind me. There was nothing but mountains all around me, I could hear nothing except my own breathing and faintly, far-away waterfalls crashing down into the rivers that ran wayyyy down below. No sign of houses, roads or any other humans anywhere. It was a mind-blowing experience, reminding me just how powerful and beautiful Mother Earth is.
The next day, we set off at 7am for the fortress ruins of Kuelap. This was a good 3 hour drive, and the three of us were tired and grumpy. The English-speaking guide who sold us the tour didn´t bother coming along, the rest of the tour group were annoying, especially the couple sitting in front of us who insisted on kissing and gazing into each others eyes the whole way. Only the terror of the drive up the mountains cut through the grumpiness. Sometimes I just daren`t look, at others I was morbidly fascinated by how close we were to the edge of a sheer drop. The driver was slow and careful, but even so it was pretty scary!
We were all very glad to get off the bus and do the 2km walk to the ruins. The fortress was built by the Chachapoyans maybe 1000 years ago, and the site is spectactular being on top of one of the highest mountains, with views for miles and miles in every direction. The site was still being excavated, having been rediscovered quite recently, and only 20% has been properly investigated. As the Chachapoyan civilisation was unique to this area of Peru, and as unfortunately many of the sites in the area had already been raided by robbers, there is a lot of mystery about the lives and culture of these people and how they lived. They were attacked by the Incas 500 years ago and managed to hold out for years and years, until they were finally conquered and the Incas moved in. A few years later, the Spaniards arrived and conquered the Incas, and they too moved in for a while. At some point the Spaniards abandoned the site and burnt everything before they left. It was untouched for 150 years until it was rediscovered by locals who have slowly started to clear the area again. There you go, a bit of history just to show I was listening :)
It took a couple of hours to walk around the site. There was a huge outer wall that circled the top of the mountain with an entrance to the north, the south and then a smaller emergency entrance. Inside the walls were lots of circular houses built from mixtures of rock, mud and sticks. The Chachapoyans were the only ones to build round houses, and inside you could still see the deep wells where they stored food, and the rocks they used for grinding grains. Some of the houses were decorated with patterns and symbols which meant they were used for important people such as shamans and chiefs. There was also a strange structure called a tintulo (if I remember correctly) which was still being excavated, but they think it was ceremonial and possibly used for sacrifices. Within the massive stone walls, some of the stones were decorated with carvings of animals and faces, again nobody knows what they mean.
It was a fascinating tour, seeing how these people lived, having seen how they buried their dead the day before. Tomorrow I`m going to Leimebamba where there is a museum which holds about 200 Chachapoyan mummies and artifacts.
