The people of the clouds

Rita, Max and I went our separate ways after Tucume, and after a very complicated procedure to buy a ticket, I caught the 8.30 night bus to Chachapoyas. Finally! This bus was nothing like the one to cross the border. For a start, I wasn't next to the toilet. We had 160° reclining chairs, foot rests and even dinner. And I slept pretty well despite my friendly Peruvian neighbour snoring gently next to me. And this was the thing - still no tourists. This man had been working in Chiclayo and was simply going home. Here I had been trying to decide whether it was risky to go on this windy mountain road with a crazy bus driver through the night, and this man does it regularly without a second's thought because he has no choice. Tourism in the Northern highlands is relatively new. It really began as recently as the end of the 1990s and started to grow around 2006/7. Chachapoyas is an isolated town that is the capital of the Amazonas region of Peru, close to the jungle, high up in the mountains and surrounded by cloud forest, and is the home of the Chachapoyas which means people of the clouds. The Chachapoyas are another pre-Inca civilisation that were at their peak also around the time of the Moches. And there is an archaeological site here, which is said to be rivalled only by Machu Picchu. Except not many people know about it and hardly anyone visits it. All the better for me.

I arrived at Chachapoyas at 6.30 am and went to find a hostel and plan what I would do for the next few days. I had a delicious Peruvian breakfast of tamales and mote, stumbled across the tourist office (surprisingly there is one!) and armed with my map, I set off to explore the town. After going around in circles several times because there are no street names indicated on the streets (and maybe I was tired?!), I finally got to grips with things.

The square "Plaza de Armas" is a very relaxing place with a cathedral at one end. As (thankfully in a way) the tourism industry is not quite developed enough (and the streets outside the square are not wide enough) for what I like to call an "overview bus", I got my own overview by walking up to a viewpoint - where I felt very conspicuous as I had to walk through the part of town that has not been done up for tourists and where the streets are earth and not paved. Dogs came flying out at me again. Mopeds whizzed past. And I could have sworn I heard gun shots. But that could have been my over-active imagination. And the view was great.

On my way back down, I went to the Santa Ana museum of ethnicity, religion and history of Chachapoyas, which can only be described as a gem. The museum has been set inside an old church that has been rebuilt several times because of earthquakes, and the information in it is fascinating, ranging from the history of the region, the fauna and flora, cultural traditions, evangelism after the Spanish conquest, and a brief explanation of the archaeological site of Kuélap. And I had my own private guided tour for free.

In spite of my imagined gun shots, the town is very peaceful and I wish I could stay here longer. That's the problem with travelling, at least in my case, I get attached to people and places, and as soon as I get to know them, it's time to move on again. But for now I wasn't moving on very far. Just a few miles down another windy road to the third highest waterfall in the world.

Tamal and Mote

Plaza de Armas

Canyon close by

Spatuletail hummingbird - an endangered species found in this area that apparently brings its tail feathers up into a heart shape to attract its mate. Photo taken in museum. I wasn't lucky enough to see one!

Santa Ana museum

High court of Justice