From Maya to Inca: The road to Cajamarca

Monday 8 July 2013

The road to Cajamarca

The road to Cajamarca, or more generally, the whole road system in Northern Peru, is possibly one of the reasons why many people don't come here. All of the roads to go anywhere are twisty and windy at best, and downright dangerous at worst.

In hindsight, I don't know whether I should say I was foolish or adventurous to take this road, but I kept being assured by Peruvians that the road is fine now, and although not all tarmacked, it is "afirmado", which means what it says. So with some slight apprehension, and desperately trying to ignore the worried voices of my family in my head, I got on the bus at 4.30 am and there was no going back. I had asked for a seat on the right of the bus which was supposedly the side with the best views but also the most vertiginous. And I have to admit that there were times when I had to close my eyes as I was sure the back wheel was going off the edge. But the views were indeed breathtaking. Unbelievably so. Again I was the only tourist on the bus. And although the Peruvian man in front of me shared his orange with me as the sun belted down through the windows, I'm sure my constant snapping of photos annoyed more than one of the other passengers. The best part to this story though, is that after 8 hours of the journey, we had to stop for 4 hours in a town along the way to Cajamarca as the rest of the road is currently closed between certain times of the day so that work can be carried out in order to make it safer. There's nothing like living life on the edge. No pun intended.

It also meant that I got to see the small, quiet town of Celendín. And considering I stuck out like a sore thumb, I was amazed at how friendly people were. I took a moto-taxi to the square (another Plaza de Armas) and had an "almuerzo" - a two-course lunch consisting of soup and generally fish or meat with rice, the basic lunch that most people have every day in Ecuador and Peru. It costs the equivalent of about 2 dollars in both countries. In both the restaurant and the taxi, although its not really customary to leave tips, I was going to leave a bit extra as I didn't have the exact change, and neither of them would accept it. I couldn't help but compare with Swiss taxi drivers who charge a fortune and expect a tip on top of it, in spite of their faces that can't crack a smile.

Celendín was a nice break and another example of the warmth of humanity, but I was itching to get off again so as not to get to Cajamarca too late. But we had to wait till the road reopened at 6 pm, just as it was getting dark. At least the next part of the road was relatively risk-free. Maybe I would be able to catch up on some sleep.