Chachapoyans, the friendliest folk you'll meet

After the impressive archeological sites around Chiclayo, we had really developed a taste for ancient relics and massive sites which take ages to explore. As such, we were really quite excited about our next destination - Chachapoyas. The initial drive to visit the town was the nearby ruins of Kuelap, said to be some of the most important pre-Inca ruins in the country (although you do get a used to every site being the "most important", "oldest", etc. etc.!!) In any case, we were looking forward to the visit, although were only planning on spending a couple of days there. What is it they say? The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry?? How true!

As we waited for the bus from Chiclayo we encountered Carlos, a friendly chap who it turned out had a hostel in Chachas (as it's known to it's friends!) and which we managed to negotiate a very good rate at. As a result we checked into the Hostal Revash the following morning after a bus ride that even 10mg of vallium couldn't help me sleep through!! We badly needed sleep and so crashed out for a few hours, following which we arranged a tour to Kuelap for the following day.

Kuelap itself turned out to be a spectacular site and well worth the visit. It's a large walled city (some 585m long by 110m wide) which was built between about 1000-1300 AD and much of which still stands - you do need to apply the usual imagination when looking at the ruins, but it's impressive nonetheless. There are the remains of circular houses with evidence of two-storey construction, corpses buried in the walls as spirit guardians of the city, and much more. What wasn't so impressive was the tour. All I can say is, if you're in Chachapoyas and looking for a tour to the surrounding sites, DON'T GO WITH KUELAP EXPLORERS!! They're useless. The combi (that's what the Peruvians call a Toyota minibus, you get them everywhere over here) had more seats than you would think possible, leaving zero legroom.... Moreover, they were determined to get as many tourists as possible in the bus, and crammed us in like sardines. As if this wasn't enough, our tour guide's explanations of the site had more than a passing resemblance to the "French" policeman from Allo! Allo! (apologies to those of you that never saw this TV masterpiece, but those that did know exactly what I mean!). We left impressed with the site but deeply underwhelmed with our tour of it.

It was, then, with some apprehension that we booked another tour of the local sites, this time another local phenomenon, firstly some ancient funeral sites on inaccessible mountain faces where sarcophagi were arranged to overlook the village, and some caves again used as funeral sites and containing some impressive stalagmites and stalagtites. This tour though couldn't have been any more different. For a start the crowd that we shared the experience with were great; Luis, or "Papa" as he was called throughout, was a relation of Carlos and soemthing of a local hero, having been the goalkeeper for Chachapoyas for some years, and was a real character. His wife was also present, along with Hernando (his son) and another member of the family whose name escapes me (oops!). Further there was Emma and myself, and Lubna and Mick, friends from the infamous Secret Garden.

The sarcophagi were amazing although I have no photos to share with you (zoom lens not nearly long enough) have a look at this link for a couple of decent pictures of the burial sites to get an idea. I can't explain how inaccessible these places were, I counldn't guess how on Earth they managed to get up the sheer mountain face, let alone bury anyone there. Incredible. Next was the tour of the burial caves, and what an experience. Wellies were completely neccessary, as the caves were shin deep in mud. Our guide on this part of the tour was José Espinosa, the man who discovered the caves (not to mention numerous burial sites). Before we entered the cave, José carried out a small ceremony during which we had to stand in a circle and join hands, and after which we each made a small offering of coca leaves to Pachamamma (literally Mother Earth in Quechua, the indigenous language of much of South America). The mineral formations were amazing and much fun was had slipping and sliding around in the mud, chewing coca leaves for energy (and they work, although my stomach kinda objected to me swallowing a mouthful..... yuck......) and generally having a good time.

The following day we headed to the museum at Laymebamba, only three hours away by taxi. Three hours?!?! This had better be good. Fortunately it was, the museum was primarily created to house the 219 mummies that were recovered from yet another burial site, which had sadly been looted prior to discovery but which still contained numerous treasures. As you can see from the photos, the mummies alone were worth the journey to see. This particular civilisation laid their dead to rest in communal burial buildings, positioned overlooking the Laguna de los Condores and in such a way that the temperature and humidity preserved the corpses unbelievably well, as you can see from my pictures. Bear in mind that these corpses had lain undiscovered for over 500 years! Incredible, and worth every bum-bruising minute of the taxi ride there...

During the sarcophagi/cave tour we got on really well with Papa and his family, resulting in our being invited for dinner. We were treated to some great food and Carlos' incredible singing voice, most unexpected! After the meal we headed to a local club and were there invited to a family party a couple of days later, which turned out to be a highlight of the trip. I mistakenly though it was a birthday party and so got a massive cake with "Feliz Cumpleaños!" (Happy Birthday) iced onto it.... doh.... was good for a laugh when we arrived though! The party itself was hosted at the hacienda of Silvia and her husband, in tehe countryside outside Chachas on a plot of some 400 acres! Lovely place... The Peruvian family's hospitality knew no bounds. We were fed and watered and invited to sing some English songs.... ahem.... no thanks! Everyone had a great time, and when the time came we were sad to leave the Chachapoyans behind. We left the following day, taking with us fond memories of hospitable people and delicious local food, and having arranged to meet Papa and Hernando again in Trujillo, our next stop. With a pang of sadness to leave the family behind, we were on the road again...

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