Culture Vulture (2)

Now don't skip! Read 1 first....

The night bus to Chacapoyas was hard work! The road was definitely not paved all the way which we all experienced through the bumps and we did a lot of going uphill round wiggly bends! We arrived at 5am in the morning and obviously the town was still asleep. We shouldered our packs (the last time mine was weighed it was 18kg!) and set off through the silent, whitewashed streets to find a hotel. We headed for the Plaza de Armas and all felt immediately that we liked this town, it just felt good. The Plaza de Armas (in Peru the main square is always the Plaza de Armas) was lovely, palm trees and a fountain in the middle. A teenager on a bike stopped to ask if we needed help and gave us directions to the hotel we were looking for.

At the Hotel Vieja the receptionist was all courtesy and friendlieness despite the silly hour and very soon Louise and I were in the nicest room either of us could remember for a while. Big, full of character and with two warm cosy beds. I was so overcome with pleasure that I put my head on the sheets and stroked them! Later when we'd all slept and showered we met up in the Plaza de Armas and were just discussing what to do when we were approached by Carlos. It was a masterpiece of salesmanship. He introduced himself in a quiet and professional way and outlined what he could offer in the way of trips to Kuelap (a major ruined city of the Chachapoyan culture). It was exactly what we were looking for and after some questions and a discussion over lunch we signed up. If only it was always that easy!

The next morning saw us up bright and early and off for our 4 day trip. It was fabulous, we walked in spectacular valleys, saw amazing monuments - including figures that look a bit like Easter Island figures, but are actually tombs high up in a cliff with mummies inside - slept in a secluded cabin in the Valle de Belen, in a house in a pueblito, went to a village fiesta (where we were the main attraction!), spent a day pretending to be cowboys and eventually ended up in Kuelap. We packed so much in that it felt like a week and we had a fantastic time. One of the interesting things is that as I have got further away from the standard tourist route the travellers I encounter are more varied and more interesting, as well as the 4 of us we had in the group: two Basques, Glenda and Josephba; a Swede, Eric; an Italian, PierLuigi; a Swiss, Sandro and our guides Janet and Carlos and cook Juana. It was a lovely polyglot gathering of people that mainly spoke in Spanish and a pleasure to travel with all of them.

Back to Chacapoyas and it was time for everyone to move on, Eric and Sandro into the Amazon, the Basques, Roberto, Fernando and PierLuigi to go home and Louise and I to make it over the border into Ecuador....but that's a story for another day!