Iquitos to Huanchaco

Our second trip back along the river was similar to the first time, though a bit more claustrophobic. Lots of rain caused everyone that would normally be spread out all over the boat to crowd into covered areas- once again, Ace and I were really glad that we had paid the extra for our own little cabin. At least we had 3 square feet of space to ourselves. Along the way, we met an extremely inspiring 70-something year old Irish backpacker- this guy has been travelling since he retired, mostly by boat, and is the youngest 70 year old I have ever met, physically and mentally! He was a lot of fun to talk to .
When we reached our port after 3 days, we retraced our path back to Pedro Ruiz. As each city passed by, we were thankful to get deeper into the mountains and farther away from the humidity and mosquitoes! We loved the jungle, but know now that we are definitely meant to be mountain dwellers. Or just not tropical jungle dwellers.

From Pedro Ruiz, we took a half-day bus ride into new territory- Chachapoyas. This is an interesting mountain town surrounded by heaps of Incan and pre-Incan ruins. We rested up here, delighting in the vegetarian restaurant in town and splurging on a $8 room (with hot water and cable TV! Glorious!). We had both been feeling icky for a few days, probably from a combination of the extraordinarily windy roads and the malaria pills we still had to take. Nonetheless, we braved two more hours of death-defying single lane dirt roads to visit Karajia, a site where you can observe some interesting Incan burial statues set into a steep cliff face.

From Chachapoyas, we headed south to see Kuelap. Kuelap is a massive adobe city left over from pre-Incan times. It was inhabited by the Chachas, who lived there happily and peacefully for hundreds of years until taken over by the Incans. They had 70 years under the Incans before the Spanish arrived. It’s a really interesting site, set in gorgeous mountains and with lots of fascinating ruins. It’s known as “the Macchu Picchu of the North”. The combi (van that goes to whatever destination when it’s filled with customers) the tourist office told us that would leave at 5 a.m. didn’t exist, so we ended up sulking in the central square from 5 a.m. until 8:30 a.m. until the first tour left. We ended up being glad we’d gone with the tour, though, as our guide was great and transport to and from might have been pretty hard to find on our own.

After visiting the site, everyone headed back to Chachapoyas except for us- we were ready to move on. The bus left us on the “highway” passing through the village of Tingo so we could catch transportation heading south. Our driver assured us that we shouldn’t have to wait more than 30 or 40 minutes before another combi came along. An hour and a half later, as dusk fell, we were still in Tingo, so we went about finding a room for the night. This pretty much set the tone for the 5 days or so of travel towards Cajamarca- the routes we travelled were so out-of-the way, and the villages so sleepy, that schedules were pretty much out of the question. We rose early and waited around until transportation decided to show up and took the first thing available, as who knows when the next would be! We really enjoyed seeing lovely little villages fairly untouched by tourism, and the roads winding through the mountains were stunning, though harder to appreciate when you’re fighting back nausea.

We finally arrived in Cajamarca 4 or 5 nights ago, and were met at the bus station by two guys I’d contacted through Couchsurfing. They cheerfully grabbed our bags and took us to a non-profit organization that happens to rent rooms, introduced us to the two sweet foreign volunteers living there, and then took us out for chicken and to a bizarre speakeasy. We had a great night with them and the volunteers, playing drinking games in Spanish. Our first full day in Cajamarcas was thus spent nursing our hangovers, but the next day we got to explore. We went to “Los Baños del Inca” a natural hot spring enjoyed by Incan kings. It now looks like every other hot springs in South America- a swimming pool filled with murky, brownish-greenish hot water- but we thoroughly enjoyed the soak nonetheless. We also checked out some catacombs in one of the beautiful cathedrals and had dinner with our Couchsurfing buddies again.

Yesterday we moved on to Huanchaco, the beach town outside of Trujillo. We intended to explore Trujillo from this more pleasant base, but now I’m wondering why we would ever want to leave Huanchaco in the first place. The weather here is perfect, and we are loving hearing and smelling the ocean all day while enjoying the perks of being back on the Gringo Trail (i.e. more touristy areas). We are reveling in the hot showers, book exchanges, and international food found here, as well as the kitchen and loungy hammocks in our hostel. We have spent most of today just walking around, reading, and buying fruits and veggies here, but tomorrow we will meet up with the two volunteers we met in Cajamarca to visit some of the ruins that make this place famous.

Lots of love!