The Road to Antiquity and Other Pre-Incan Babble

In recent email and phone conversations, I have had an influx of compliments regarding this blog. Thank you for the encouraging words. I will continue to write new posts when I can. By the way, does anybody know how to use ¨spellcheck¨ on this thing?!

Jansa and I have just returned from our recent adventure in the Chachapoyas region of northern Peru. These highlands are removed from the coast, and thus, are fairly isolated. This was evident when we arrived in town, as we did not see hardly any other white travellers. Alas, we were off the gringo trail!

The area around Chachapoyas is known for all the pre-Incan ruins scattered amongst the rugged peaks and deep valleys of the cloud forest. Chachapoyas translates in Quechua to ¨mount of haze¨. Amidst this haze is a wide variety of things to marvel at. There are ancient sarcofages (mummies) etched into sheer cliffs, unexplored ruins of Chachapoya houses, the third tallest waterfall in the world, and many other secluded sites clearly revealing the existence of an ancient civilization. Not to mention, the pre-Incan MVP of South America, the Kuelap Fortress. This fortress stands at the top of a high peak and is said to contain more stone than the Great Pyramid of Giza. The fortress had been in construction for 900 years before the Incans conquered the Chachapoya people. Archaeologists have only been studying Kuelap for 5 years. The other thousands of ruins and historical sites have not been studied at all. That is precisely why this area is so special. When walking among these ruins, it feels like you are discovering them yourself, for the first time. This is not Macchu Piccu!

But let me backtrack! When we arrived in Chachapoyas, our goal was to obtain information in order to trek through a variety of ruins and sites of evident antiquity. Jansa, myself, and Allison (a newly founded travel companion from Seattle) set out to make our plan. Being anti-conformity travellers and stubborn adventurists, we wanted to piece a hike together ourselves, without the confines of a Mickey Mouse tour. So we stuck our self righteous snouts in the air and boldly made plans for a 4-day looping trek through the Gran Vilaya. We stole information from tour agencies, picked the brains of some locals, and entertained the tourist office with a rousing game of ¨20 Questions¨. Each of which seemed to have a different ideas for the route, the risks, and the do-ability of it all without a guide. After hours of deliberation, we put our holier-than-thou travel tail between our legs and hired a solid and inexpensive tour. This proved to be a very good decision!

Our tour started a little shaky. In fact, there was a lot of shakiness throughout. Apart from Jansa, Allison, and I; there was a French couple whom walked like they were as old as the ruins we were marching to. The first day, we would walk 15 minutes, then wait for the Frenchies for 30 minutes. That continued for somewhere in the neighborhood of 8 hours! Luckily, we had a cheery guide, Augusto, who entertained us with some local Spanish phrases and constant jokes. He was an interesting character to say the least. At the age of 23, he could speak 6 languages and he has never been immersed in a non-spanish speaking culture. That makes an aspiring student of Spanish feel like a giant piece of Iguana dung! Almost as incredible as Augosto´s ear for languages was the sloth-like rate at which two Frenchies were travelling.

Our Frenchie frustration did not last long, as we were able to laugh at the situation, and marvel at the world we were travelling through. The cloud forest and terrain of this area was something special. I am sure that everyone is growing tired of my posts proclaiming the indescribable beauty of the countryside in the areas that we are visiting. The truth is, I have been genuinely brought to my knees by some of the sights that we have seen. I do not want to devalue my use of the word beautiful, but I cannot help but be honest. It turns out, there are a lot of beautiful things in this world, and I am okay with advertising the fact.

In short, the tour proved to be an incredible experience. It did not remotely resemble a cookie cutter Disney theme ride as I had feared. In fact, Jansa and I both agreed that our first night stay in the tiny village of Condon was one of the most genuine and real experiences that we have had in South America. In addition, the remnants of the past were evident, and the ruins were untouched. Pure in the sense that, for the most part, we were not hindered by Archaelogical restrictions or German tourists das Schraubening the experience. We were free to explore! For example, we found ¨real¨ human remains buried beneath a Chachapoya home that was for the most part reclaimed by the cloud forest.

I cannot begin to describe the details of this adventure, but I hope that the photos posted will give some idea of our experience.