They finally got me ...

Ahoy Chachapoyas ... twelve hours was the bus "ride" from Celendín across roads on which donkeys would refuse to tread. But after a few hours you just don´t feel anymore that your buttocks have turned raw, rough and rigid. And the views ... from 3500 meters down to 800 meters in Balsas where the climate turned Tropical and then back over 3500 meters towards Chachapoyas.

Arriving late at night, I hadn´t planned anything for the first day. But after my customary scouting out of the town in the morning, I needed some action. I decided to try to hike to a little colonial town called Levanto, using an old Inca trail and then get back by "carro". I started out a bit late but I figured I could make it.
The trail was pretty steep, and it was up all the way to the top of one of the hills surrounding Chacha, but I made good time. When I would reach the top, I would see the valley on the other side and the little town waiting for me ... I got to the top ... and there was no town, only more nice green ridges undoubtedly obscuring my town of Levanto. So I went down to the next ridge and then the next, but no town !

"Gtttvrrrdrr!!". No town in sight, no person in sight to ask, and I had to make the call now. Turn back now and be back before dark or go on to the village behind the next ridge (or the one after that). Well, I´m sorry to disappoint you all. Señor Hans is getting old. He turned back.

You know, when you hike on higher altitudes like I did in Huaraz, the lack of oxygen functions as a safeguard against overexerting yourself. The moment you go faster, the little yellow chirping birds appear and you slow down again right away. I had no such safeguard here at around 2500 meters (I know, for you coast dwellers that´s still beyond imagination ;-)).

I had to take the slippery Inka path back down for at least an hour until I could use the much less steep and less tricky car road (which I avoided on the way up). I went too fast, I slipped, I fell and my butt had another blow to suffer ... but "al final" enjoying the stupendous views of the valley in the light of the setting sun, I returned to Chacha. Dropping myself on the bed, Inca Kola in hand, and completely exhausted, the owner of the hotel started to play his guitarra in the patio ...
I closed my eyes, sipped my Kola and let it all come to me. Life can be good ...

But the good things in life end. Sometimes sooner than later.I had a good meal (was really hungry) afterwards and went to sleep early, as I had to wake up at 3 ...

I had reserved a place in a combi to Kuelap at 4 in the morning, together with Thorben and Julia, two German students I met in the bus from Celendín. I woke up at 1, feeling not good at all ... not at all. "Just ignore it as always, it´ll pass", I thought. I didn´t sleep anymore until 4 when we took the combi, a 3 hour journey on another fine examples of the quality of the roads here in the mountains. I felt worse and worse. I should have let it all come out, but I hate to do that, so I suffered in my foolishness.

We arrived at Kuelap with the fortress in the clouds, which was amazing. And inside the rainy clouds we explored the site (btw, you cannot sit on clouds. Don´t try, you will hurt your butt. Hurting your butt is not nice. I know).
It actually is a fortress town built on an immensely steep remote hill. The total length of the wall around the site is over 500 meters long and at some points the wall is 20 meters high. They estimate it took over three times the amount of stone used for the Great Pyramid of Khufu. It was built by the Chachapoyans (meaning "cloud warriors" duh), a local people with a gift for building, between the years 1000 and 1200 CE. The Chachapoyans were conquered by the Incas not long before the arrival of the Spanish (see the history links for more background info).

At the end of the visit, the sun had come out and we decided to walk down the mountain and take a carro from the village below back to Chacha. Exploring the fortress had made me feel better, but we left it behind now. It became hot ... and the effects of my suicide hike the previous days were very much apparent. It was a steep walk down, two hours. Feeling like I did already, it didn´t help things. The Germans weren´t faring too well either. We were was a sorry trio of Gringos lumbering down, knees a-hurting, throats a-drying ... but we made it (you always make it going down) and we made it back (enjoying a small drinking stop underway by the driver of the carro and his friends in the back, who tried to get Julia drunk ... very funny).

The next was a rest day. I slept ok during the night and we rested during the day ... I couldn´t eat much, but felt it getting better a bit later. In the afternoon we first met a Bulgarian-American guy and later two girls (British and Irish) and we spent the late afternoon and evening together, chatting away and conveniently forgetting the way I felt. The night ended with George (the Bulgarian) and me explaining to poor Thorben how the world actually really works.

I awoke in the middle of the night ... hungry !!!!! Pangs of pain in my stomach. I had some stale bread rolls lying around (they don´t have fresh bread here anyway) and ate away the worst of the hunger. Good sign, oh yes. But being on the cautious sign I took a tour the last day (instead of public transport and a million times more walking) to a place called Karíjia. The Chachapoyans had put a number of sarcophagi high inside a rock wall were they could see the sun rise every morning. I want that as well after I die (hereby noted for posterity).
The sarcophagi were more than 2m tall each and from the bones they found and the reports from the Spanish it appeared that these people were well over 1.70m tall ... (before 1500!) ... and had much lighter skin, eyes and hair than the other indigenous people.

Yes, this story ends soon ... in the night bus to Chiclayo the same evening. The hostess did two rounds dealing out puke bags :-) But neither the road nor the movie "Deuce Bigalow European Gigolo" could get me to use them as they were intended.

I must say I hardly slept though. It was a full moon and I could not close my eyes to the moonlit beauty of the endless valley that is the Peruvian Andes...