Kuelap

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After a horror night we arrived in Chachapoyas at 6:00 AM. The bus was fully occupied, not really roomy, had no AC, it rained the whole night, the streets were in a bad shape and really twisting, the windows rattled and condensed water was dripping from the ceiling the whole night. Oh well, but it was a inexpensive ticket :-).

Chachapoyas is a little town in the mountains. We found a agency (there are plenty considering how small this little town was) and booked our trip to Kuelap. To get there by public transportation is impossible. Later on we found out, that we paid a price on the high end and people who where on the same bus with us paid $5 less than we did ... oh, well. Our guide was very knowledgeable and so we considered our extra money being a very good tip!

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After breakfast (weired food) Alex found a Laundry (he needed to get clean clothes so badly). They promised his clothes would be clean by the time we would return and they where right. I also booked my next Bus ticket to Trujillo (at the coast). Alex had no success in getting a cheap and fast way to the jungle and so he also got a ticket for the same bus.

At 8:30 our tour started. We were 8 people (4 Germans, 2 Canadians, one girl from Spain and one girl from Peru) and a little bus brought us to the ruins. The way up there went over a dirt road. Since the rain season already started it started to become slippery ... after 3 hours we arrived!

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A little path goes up to the ruins of Kuelap and this path was a big mud hole and slippery like crazy! Our shoes and pants became muddy in a heartbeat and I am totally aware of the fact that Machu Picchu will be the same ... when we arrived up there our guide explained a lot about the people who lived there from AD900 to 1100. Kuelap is a spectacular pre-Inca walled city high up in the mountains. The residents fought very successful the Incas for quit a while. Their culture and live style was really interesting and so different from European ... They believed in the sun and the moon, had a different way of getting rid of their dead people. We saw a lot of bones everywhere - they put them in little holes between stones in a wall and covered them up with different colored stones. We even found pieces of the human body on our hike from one attraction to another one.

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This side is still in process of being explored. Everywhere people were digging and searching and straining and we just passed them ... it felt like we were a part of the explorer! The whole walled city is almost one kilometer wide and a lot of areas are still not reworked. I liked it that way. Our guide told us, that the president of Peru visited this side recently and his idea was to built a cable car up there so it becomes more accessible to tourists. Somehow I hope this plan was only a flash in the pan! The nature up there is amazing as well. We even saw wild llamas up there!

After three hours we drove back to Chachapoyas (had lunch on the way - first time I had tea with coca leaves - was good and you don't get high at all!) and walked to the bus station. There we bought the famous Inca Kola. It is made by Coca-Cola, is yellowish and taste like Hubba Bubba ... awful!! But at least we tried it ...

This time we spent a little bit more money for the bus and it was worth every cent! AC, no dripping water, more room for the legs and I hardly could hear the motor! After 12 hours in the bus we arrived in Trujillo and I slept more than on the other bus. But my ears made trouble because the altitude changed way too quick and my cold is still there (bummer!)

By the way, we had a blast with the two women from Canada. They just don't know it :-). When we did our tour to Kuelap they took a lot of pictures through the window of the bus and they used their flash all the time. Alex actually made a comment to me about this in German ... later on at the end of the trip these two ladies (both were at least 60 years old) told us, that they are original from Austria and Switzerland ... and they were able to speak German ... They always spoke English or Spanish, even when Alex, I and the other two Germans spoke German here and there. Well, at least we didn't say something really bad. Anyway, these two ladies were at the same bus to Trujillo (before, they told us that they want to go north and this bus went south ...), They got the perfect seats right in the first row of a doubledecker bus and the route of the bus was sometimes really tough! One time the street was as wide as the bus and there were rocks overhanging the street and the bus was maybe 10 centimeter lower than the rocks ... so the bus had to juggle ... the two ladies took pictures though the window like crazy (of course with flash) and Alex and I laughed about it (we were sitting plenty of rows behind them. Shortly after the bus stopped for a break and we got out of the bus ... the Canadian-Austrian woman came over and told us, that she took pictures of the crazy ride, but she wasn´t sure if the pictures turned out that well ... there are moments in life, where you just have to hold on for a moment ... alter in the bus Alex and I laughed about it so hard ... it was just so funny ... these women were weired, but very amusing!