The Ruins of Kuelap

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Most of the decision to come to peru the hard way was to see the ruins of Keulap. Pre Inca ruins that were still covered in jungle and ´wild.´ Even when we made the decision to visit these wild ruins, we knew that getting from Chacha to the ruins would be hard. The crumbled rocks of Keulap are 70 or so km from Chacha, with three options to actually arrive: get a bus to Tingo (an hour and a half) and hike the 10km and 1000m up, get a bus to Maria (three hours) and walk the 50 minutes and 200m up, or get to Maria and get a bus/kombi/taxi (whatever is available) to the vehicle station of the ruins and walk the 20 minutes and 100m up.

We chose unwisely. Knowing that the inca trail was mere weeks away, and dreading day two of the inca trail with its 1000m ascent, we thought some training was in order. And having lugged the tent with us for six weeks and not once used it, we (I) thought we should use it to get our outrageous spending under control. The other issue that is not clear from the above options is that the bus to tingo leaves chacha at 5am.

The 4-30 alarm rings, and having packed the night before, we set out. It is dark, and even the few taxis out don´t bother to hoot at us. We get to the bus ´station´and find out that it left already. Ouch. After sitting on the street for an hour hoping for some miracle to occur and another bus to be ready to depart, a kind soul lets us know that we can take a taxi for about 12 soles each, opposed to the 8 that the bus would have charged us. So off we go, looking for a taxi. One turns up, and overcharges us as normal. Thinking that we were paying the full price of the car should 4 people be going, we agreed and set off on our adventure. Or not. We hadn´t been in Peru long enough to know that the taxi drivers are more mercenary than even Ecuador, so we cruise for the next twenty minutes looking for other passengers, disguised by traffic, even though we were going in circles. He didn´t bother with only picking up 2 more people for the hour and a half journey... no. He wanted to cram as many people into the car as possible and we set off with 5 passengers. Hmm. Thankfully it was 6-30 am and I managed some sleep, but it was not a comfortable trip on a dirt road!

When we got to Tingo we had a quick breakfast that was strung out by neither of us wanting to start the walk, but eventually we couldn´t put it off any longer... we got the directions, and started. The beginning was fairly flat, and in some points downhill... not a good sign. Each meter we walked down would be another we´d need to conquer at the end. But soon enough, the trail led upwards. Quite rapidly in fact! The photos don´t even show how steep slopes are, for the most part they were just steep.

The view was good, but for the most part we both just plodded along, slowly (we started at 1800m so the altitude was not helping with the speed) and surely. When we stopped at the ´half way point´after an hour and a half we were both sweating and tired, and wondering why we were doing this! After another hour we spoke to a peruvian girl bounding down the path, and she let us know that we were just around the corner from Keulap. Very welcome news! How wrong she (and the guidebook) was. After another hour we came upon a group of trees for some shade and a long rest, then another 45 minutes to the town of Keulap and the first view of the ruins. But when we saw them, they were much, much higher than we were... another hour to get there made the total time about 5 hours! Never again trust the guidebook!

Some lunch and a very nice rest later, and we were exploring the ruins. Unfortunately the ruins are in the process of restoration, so they weren´t that ruin like, but with some imagination, in certain areas, with the proper light, it was easy to imagine them as jungle shrouded. The views from the top were amazing, and the ruins themselves were interesting.

As it was getting late, sleeping - or erecting the tent - started to become an issue... the caretaker was nowhere to be seen, and we´d left our bags in his locked office. Eventually he turned up, and let us know where we could camp, on the volleyball field of the supply house. So off we went.

There was about an hour´s worth of sunlight left, so we decided that noone was going to be playing volleyball that night, and we set up the tent. The sun had set, and we were eating our ´dinner´ when the workers from the ruins arrived at the site. And they wanted to play volleyball... so we moved the tent. Annoyingly :) they didn´t even ask us to join in, but once they started playing it was clear that they were in a different league. Playing every night would probably do that to you. The one problem with where we moved the tent was that it was on a slope. And once we tried to sleep, the problems of camping on a slope made themselves clear. I needed to wake up every couple of minutes and re-position myself further up the slope so I could slide down for the next couple. A fun night camping.

The next morning the taxi was supposed to leave at 5am. We even wrote our names in the driver´s list. We arrived at the vehicle station at 4-50, thinking rather safe than sorry, and we saw him pulling away as we were coming down. Thinking there´d be more cars, we waited. And waited.

The wait was broken by a school teacher and his 20 pupils, and probably some of his pupil´s mothers, running up to the flat ground and start doing some excercises! He kindly let us know that the next bus was only minutes away and should be arriving at the houses a little way down the path. This was at 6-30 or so. Another wasted eary rise. But we got the bus, and got back to the hostel in Chacha for a good sleep! Even if it was two hours later than we imagined it would be :)