The recently re-discovered archaeological site of Kuélap in Amazonas Province in Northern Peru is anticipated to be the next big destination in Peru. Getting to Kuélap is a challenge and until recently the only way to get there was by a 12 hour bone crunching bus journey from Chicalayo or other similar towns in Northern Peru. Thus Kuélap’s remoteness has been a major factor in preventing to date any exponential explosion in the number of tourists visiting it. Today the airline ATSA has a daily flight from Lima to the nearby market town of Chapacoyas using a 50 seater Fokker turbo jet. We were there during Peru’s Independence Day Public Holiday, so there were a number of Peruvian tourists visiting the sites over the weekend, but very few “gringos” as it is not yet on the gringo trail.
We stayed in the small town of Nueva Tingo nearby to Kuélap. The town, while relatively new is in many ways a throw back to a much earlier period, whereby all the residents seem to know each other, pretty much every front door is left open and children can play safely in the streets, unlike most other towns in Peru. Also like most South American towns there is a large dog population, which lazes in the middle of the road and nonchalantly wander into their houses. Some of the dogs have kamikaze instincts in chasing every moving vehicle, it is amazing that there are fewer casualties. Also the town has an abundance of wildlife, with hummingbirds continually on the search for nectar, and also many chickens gagging round the streets too.
The first site we visited was down the Utcubamba Valley was to the thirteenth century pre-Incan burial sites at Revash. Here tombs for priest and the nobility were built in red and white mud brick buildings built into the cliff side. The buildings today contain many decorations of pre-Incan symbols in red paint, though most of the tombs themselves were looted before the authorities started protecting the site. The nearby village of San Bartolo acts as custodian for the site and provides guides, all smartly dressed in their uniforms, to take you to the site and explain its history with various local anecdotes passed down through the oral tradition. Involving the local people in the site like this is a really positive example of how tourism can be used to benefit the local community.
Further down the valley is the small town of Leyembamba, which contains one of Peru’s best museums of pre-Inca collections. At its centrepiece are some 219 Chachapoyas mummies that were found behind a waterfall near Laguna de los Condores. These mummies are wrapped in their original shrouds, complete with embroidered faces and other decorations. Some of the mummies are uncovered and look hauntingly at you with their eyes, some through their hands a bit like Edvard Munch’s Scream. Other exhibits include pottery, textiles and musical instruments, some of which visitors can try out.
The big destination in the region is the citadel of Kuélap, which was re-discovered in 1843 and today is one of the most impressive of the pre-Incan archaeological sites. Kuélap sits on top of a mountain overlooking the surrounding valleys and is one of the most easily defendable of all the old cities. It was built between 500AD and 1495AD and was largely left untouched by the Incans when they conquered most of Peru and the surrounding countries. The city has large 20 metre high walls completely surrounding it, with only three main entrances, each of which narrows as you enter the city, making it easy to control the visitors and any attacking army. Inside the citadel are some 400 or so round stone houses that originally would have had conical straw roofs. In addition there are a number of larger public buildings and temple, including one convex construction with a bottle shaped cavity accessed only from the top, which was probably used for some form of sacrifice or religious ceremony.
Kuélap is around 700 metres long and today still contains many trees as the jungle reclaimed much of it since it was abandoned. Indeed it feels like a cross between some of the Mayan sites in Central America and the more reclaimed Machu Picchu. The number of visitors is slowly increasing, especially with local Peruvians and some more adventurous gringos, but today it still can feel that you have the site to yourself with only the sounds of the jungle and the wind to accompany you. Indeed in a few years time as the infrastructure improves, Kuélap is likely to receive many more visitors.
Getting to the site is relatively simple from Nuevo Tingo where for PEN 20 you take a combined bus and cable car up the mountain to the fortress. The cable car is pretty long and uses 23 pylons to transport the 26 modern cable cars, which are similar to those in La Paz, down the valley and then across right up the next valley to the citadel, from where there is a kilometre or so walk up to the citadel. Of course the more adventurous can take the three hour hike up the mountain which climbs nearly 1,500 metres from Tingo in the Utcubamba Valley below.
The town of Chachapoyas is a compact colonial town complete with many buildings in the same style, all painted white with polished wooden balconies. On our visit it was having some major works in its principal squares, which when complete will look make the town look quite attractive and make for a pleasant base to explore the surrounding area.
Nearby to Chachapoyas are a number of waterfalls, the most famous being the Cataratas de Gocta to the North of Chachapoyas. The Gocta falls in their two stage drop are 771 metres tall making them one of the highest waterfalls in the world. At the other side of the mountain from which the Gocta falls are the Cataratas de Yumbilla and a couple of sister falls. These waterfalls both involve a trek through the upper rainforest to view them. The forests are largely undamaged by man, are protected by the Peruvian state, and contain an abundance of plant and wildlife.
The remoteness of Kuélap together with the undoubted draw of the major sites in Southern Peru probably will mean that Kuélap will not be over run with gringos and foreign tourists for some time to come. However the infrastructure has been significantly improved and the whole region has now been positively discovered by Peruvian tourists, so there is still time to visit and discover this enigmatic part of Peru before the hoards of international visitors arrive.
Date: 27/07/2018 to 03/08/2018