Conquering northern Peru. One day at a time.

After hanging out in Lima for a few more days we headed to the city of Trujillo. Trujillo is the third largest city in Peru and its known for its beautiful buildings. We stayed near the Plaza de la Armas ofcourse so we could walk around at night and not feel like we were walking down a scary ally somewhere.

We did not really give the city much of a chance. I think because we had enjoyed Lima much more than we thought we would and Trujillo just couldn´t compare. I think we were also ready to get out of a big city. There were alot of nice things in Trujillo i am sure, but it seemed a little unsafe and not as nice as I had hoped.

Viva Peru

The next day we decided to skip out on the ruins of Chan Chan, which look pretty sweet on the internet haha, and caught a night bus to the high cloudforest city of Chachapoyas. I was a little nervous before we left because it was the first time we were really getting off the ¨gringo trail¨and attempting to do some things that werent in guide books. haha. Now I am very glad we did. Chachapoyas has been great.

Around 4:30 or so in the morning our bus got stuck in the mud for an hour atleast. No luck. Another bus eventually came to pick us up and we realized that we were only about ten minutes outside of the city. Once we arrived we realized that they had not moved any of our bags over to the other bus. We crossed our fingers that they would arrive in the near future and that we would again see all of our personal belongings. We went off in search of a cheap hostel. We pretty much just chose the first one that looked decent and passed our till about 10 or so in the morning. We then walked back to the bus station and luckily our stuff was there. The rest of the trip would have been interesting with none of stuff, thats for sure. We then walked around the city and attempted to get some information on some hikes without going through an agency.

The first trek we wanted to take was to Gocta Falls, either the 3rd or 17th highest waterfall in the world. I assume it all depends on how you measure it? but who knows. Ofcourse in Chachapoyas its the 3rd highest. no doubt about it. We checked the internet and it seemed like it was going to be hard to get there on our own so we hit up all the travel agencies in town, all three of them, to compare prices. They all told us the same and one tried to talk us into a 4 day trek. We finally settled on one and ended up going to bed early.

At 8:30 we met up with our taxi driver and 2 ladies that were going as well. a 30 year old from spain and an older lady from germany. We later found out that they paid less than us. lame. I will blame our poor haggling (is that a word?) on our lack of spanish. The taxi ride was about an hour and a half on a curvy road. We passed multiple crews of men attempting to clear the road from recent landslides.

You would think Peru would learn to construct their roads in a different way to avoid the hundreds, thousands, millions of landslides that seem to happen everyday in the Andes.

We continued onto a dirt road that was not nearly as scary as a few that we have traveled on. We eventually got to a small town where we met our tour guide and picked up some rain boots for the mud. Ofcourse they did not say we had to pay to wear the boots until after, but I was glad we had them because there was mud everywhere. In this area of Peru it seems to rain every single day atleast a couple of times. We asked the people at the registration office how many people visit Gocta a day and they said they average 4 to 5. ha. this was exciting to hear. knowing we would be the only people to see the waterfall all day just made me more excited. We eventually got on the trail for a 2 hour hike. We had already seen Gocta from the road, but it looked pretty small from the distance.

The farther we trecked/treked/trekked down in the direction of the waterall, the more i felt like we were entering an Indiana Jones movie. The weather was warm and muggy, but very nice outside. We saw tropical birds along the way and they said there were tarantulas and monkeys in the area but i never saw any. I looked around constantly for spiders the size of my fist but no luck. same goes for the monkeys as well. We finally reached the falls and from close i felt even more like I was in a movie. This time I kept thinking that I was in Jurassic Park. Not sure why, because there were no dinosours around, that I know of, but thats what it seemed like. maybe it was the junglish area we were stomping through with rain boots. you could only see the second of both falls, but it was still amazing. so high. the water fell for so far that it sounded like an airplane was flying overhead... we then walked out a little closer where I was afraid to take any pics because the mist was so heavy. it was kind of like being the only people at niagra falls or somewhere, but in the jungle... i am not sure if that makes sense or not. and it doesnt really look like Niagra falls at all really... o well. you should probably google search it if you get the chance.

We then hiked back for 2 hours which was pretty rough. A light rainshower kept us cool for part of the way though. We ate a late lunch in a restaurant near the falls. I felt like a cheap meal pro because the two ladies that we were did not even realize that the soup was only the prelunch. what a bunch of newbz. We then headed back in the taxi and the older lady from Germany said she would pay for our taxi the next day to the ruins of Kuelap. Apparently the second nicest compared to Machu Picchu and there are no tourists. like 15 a day so we were stoked on the plans!

That night we hear there were massive mudslides along the way to Kuelap and its a no go for the next day. mudslides in Peru... who would have guessed right... We did not know if the ladies knew the roads were closed so we got up at 6am... yes 6am. to go to the market, buy some cheap fruit and bread and then meet up with them at 7. We ended up running into them at the bakery(we had gone to the same one atleast 6.9 times already) and they said they had heard the same things but they wanted to go to a place called pueblo de los muertos (sp?) but in english = city of the dead. how could we pass this up, especially if someone is paying for the trip.

We have another fun cab ride this time over a mountain on a really nice dirt road. maybe the nicest in Peru, maybe even in South America. it was a relief to say the least. We drove through a few small towns and eventually stopping in one to pick up the tour guide. We then drove up another dirt road which was pretty much the opposite of the first. We drove through numerous cow fields covered in mud. I thought we were going to get stuck in the mud tons of times and I still don´t know how we didnt get stuck in the middle of nowhere. its must have been our destinies to see this place! We got there around 830, maybe later the clouds and fog was so thick you could not see any of the mountains around. We started climbing down a steep trail passing a hand made sign or two about which way to go... not sure why because there only seemed to be one path but it was nice to know that path went the city of the dead. After about 20 minutes of downhill hiking, the path snaked around the side of the mountain and we met a locked gate with a cliff to both of its sides. We were all relieved when we realized that the guide had a key. i guess it was a good thing the German lady wanted one because i know Ben and I would have been cheap and skipped on it.

We walked through the gate and saw numerous ruins around the side of the cliff. (I will someday put up pictures but I don´t think I have had a computer capable of uploading any in what feels like years. i need to get some pics up fast before i lose my camera). We continued to walk along the side of the mountain, climbing over foundations of preIncan buildings. After each building the cliff became a little bit sketchier and more dangerous looking. This was not like a tourist site in the States where there are guardrails everywhere and do not touch signs. Nothing. If you fell off here and lived then it would be hours to a somewhat hospital in Chachapoyas. If you looked to your left cliff, if you looked to your right there were human bones just hanging out on the ground under an overhang in the rock wall to your right. What more could of an adventure could I ask for right. I cannot even describe how awesome it was on the sides of these cliffs. Seeing the large sarcophogy(not sure what the plural form of sarcophogus is) in the side of the cliffs in the distance. It would truly be an amazing place to be buried i must admit. I just know it would have been very difficult to get those things up there. The climb back up the mountain was not nearly as fun as the way down, but as you looked across the Andes you could see atleast 3 waterfalls in view, including Gocta, so that ruled alot.

We then grabbed some coffee, instant ofcourse, way overpriced ofcourse(we forgot to set a price before we drank them), and then headed to the ruins of Karajia. We bought our tickets which cost less than one US Dollar and headed down a dirt farm road between fields with different types of plants. It is crazy how much the geography changed between the three different treks even though they were not very far from each other.  Here there were more ¨sarcophogy¨that were way more detailed than the last. We were not climbing around any cliffs which was definitely not as exciting, but it was still really sweet. These rules, priests, shamans, whatever they were that was great importance to their community, were buried in the side of the mountain looking off into a beatiful valley with a nice waterfall nearby. Couldnt complain with this spot either I guess.

After a hard day of hikes we finally headed back, took a small nap and went out for our first pisco sour. Peru´s mixed drink of choice. They were definitely good though and we probably would have drank a few more but we are cheap.

We eventually made our way back to Mancora Peru which only took us about 20 hours of travel or so including the stops to find a new bus to the next city. it was rough to say the least.

Now we are back in Ecuador. I am way behind on this thing. hopefully I can catch up sometime in the near future but i am not going to get my hopes up. We didnt realize how expensive everything here is until we got used to traveling in Peru. The difference the US Dollar makes here...

O well. next post = crossing the Peru/Ecuador border at 2 in the morning. Isla de la Plata. Snorkling. Who knows...

im not going to take the time to reread this so as usual. sorry for the grammar and spelling.