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Well, as we bid farewell to the hot and humid tropics of the Amazon Basin and moved inland the scenery of Peru changed dramatically. On our bus journey from Tarapoto to Chachapoyas I was barely able to stop taking photos of what appeared to be awesome landscapes, but in fact turned out to be essentially the same shot of a mountain with clouds surrounding the very top, and although spectacular first hand the views just didn´t translate so well to our cheap point and click digital camera. My over zealousness meant that Jules had to spend at least an hour deleting many of the 120 photos of said hills and much to my chagrin and attempts to convince her that all the photos taken from a quick moving bus were of equal validity and high quality, we had to settle for a select few ( and maybe we still have too many).
As we had our work cut out to see all that Peru had to offer in the seemingly impossibly small time schedule we had set ourselves, it seemed only right that fate would bring Julia down with a very nasty cold, ( she seems to think it was
my tempting of fate by suggesting such a thing was bound to happen, while I prefer to believe that it was down to her hilariously weak immune system and the change in temperatures from sweaty and humid, to damn right cold!!) either way it was unfortuante as we arrived in the town of Chachapoyas ( ´People of the Clouds´ in Quechua) to embark on 3 days of walks and adventure.
We began with a journey to see some sarcophagus that had been left in a cut in a mountain many thousands of years ago, and contained the remains of some extremely important Chachapoyans, most probably chiefs, warriors and shamens as our guide told us in Spanish making some of the more technical details harder to follow, especially with the frankly bizzare Peruvian accent where at times we doubted if we in fact understood spanish at all!! From there we went on to look at a Chachapoyan village that had been left almost in tact apart from the all too uneccessary graffiti of the modern day youth, which only partly ruined the incredible view in the valley that surrounded it.
Day 2 was the big one for us, a
visit to the Fortress of Kuelap, which considerijng Macchu Picchu costs in excess of $200, was an absolute snip at $4, and although as money may mean we cannot visit the Inca City, a visit to this incredible fortress that looked out over some of the most amazing scenery either of us has ever seen, was definately one to remember, again our photos don´t really do the size or scale of the place any justice, so you´ll just have to take our word for it that it was amazing!!!
Our final day was a walk to supposedly the 3rd highest waterfall in the world named ´Gocta´. Sadly for us both this was a farly strenous 4 hour round trip up and down with our guide who walked very quickly in sandals no less, sharing with us his tid bits of knowledge about the surrounding area. However there were times as we attempted to decipher his accent and his incessant need to use the diminutives on the end of every word ( for example cascada-waterfall became cascadacita) very trying when you can barely breath from lack of fitness. That said it was well worth the effort, the tired legs and
for Jules, the relentlessly snotty nose. An action packed 3 days over and we were out of Chachapoyas heading for the coastal city of Chiclayo. This journey was supposed to be an over night job, with us arriving around 6 am in Chiclayo, but as we have had such good luck with buses good old fate stepped in with a small but troublesome landslide meaning we awoke hoping to have already arrived, only to discover we had only made it an hour into our trip and been stuck in the same place all night. Annoying, but as they say ´When in Rome....´ so we did what all the locals were doing ( not murdering eachother or becoming enraged as we may expect) but calmy as if the whole thing had been planned, sitting down where they could and grabbing some coffee and bread from what appeared to be someones house and watching the rocks tumble down the montain face without a look of urgency between them. Not ideal but hopefully the only hassle we will have ( I doubt it...)
Chiclayo is not a city that will win any awards for beauty, but it had 2 things that we
were desperate to see while we could. One was the sea and a beach, and while the weather on the north coast of Peru is mostly warm and sunny we thought it may be our last chance to soak it all in before the cold gets its hands on us once and for all. Sadly the town of Pimentel about 10 K from Chiclayo was rougher than can be described here, and the beach was no picture postcard, but the weather was gorgeous and we managed to continue our trend of new and interesting foods ( guinea pig maybe on the menu tonight!!!) by trying the local delicacy of Stingray served in a Spanish omelet which was lovely and yet some more delicious Peruvian Cerviche which always seems to hit the spot.
Secondly was the famous Mercado de Brujas (Witches Market) which is present in the city. After some hunting round a typical South American market, where everything imaginable is for sale and you need to have a strong constitution to handle the array of smells wafting around, we found what we were looking for. An insane corner of the normal market where stall holders have lotions, potions and
all manner of bizzare things that are supposed to improve health, virility, or just keep those nasty demons away at night. A haven for the comedy present buyer ( i.e Julia), as well as a chance to have a look at the weird and wonderful things that people believe and the lengths that they may go to to ward off the unwanted or what they might take to see what they have always wanted. Either way a great experience and one not forgotten in a hurry.
We left Chiclayo this morning and now find ourselves in the little town of Cajamarca where tomorrow we will swiftly bathe in the baths of the Incas before grabbing a night bus to Lima to continue our whistle stop tour of Peru.
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