Celdin to Tingo to Kuelap

We only stayed on night in Celedin in transit to Tingo, which takes 9 hours over the mountains on pretty sketchy roads. Celedin was a pleasant town, quite quet and not much to see in the evenings. The bus route to Tingo though provided the most beautiful panaroamic views of the mountains, it really made the 9hour trip worth it.

When we arrived in Tingo, we found one hostal, two restaurants and roughgly ten houses, it was a pretty small village, situated right on the river. The next day we got up at 6am to have a cold shower, before setting off to walk to Kuelap. We could have got a taxi which would have takn a hour, but intstead we chose to walk 9km, up 1200m, for 4 hours, to get to Kuelap. IT WAS HARD WORK! Especially as the lady running the hostal said it would take 2 hours, so once that had passed, every corner or peak of a mountain we hoped and wished we could see it, but no, Kuelap is situated right onto of the mountain, not a little beneath it!

However, when we got there it was incredible. A 6-10m high wall (the base of this fortress) lead you through small entrances up to a jungle, grown over and around hundreds of curcular houses. This place had such a spooky feel, and was very impressive, almost completely still intact. As it was so high (3100m above sea level) the views were stunning. We stopped for a good hour to appreciate the view in several places. The pictures do not do this place justice, but words cant describe how exhillerating it was.

We then braced ourselves for the steep decent, which felt like it was never ending. Exhausted I felt almost acomotosed, stumbling down the mountains back to little Tingo. When we finally got back, we grabbed some food then moved onto Chachapoyas.

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