Aaaanyway, where do I even begin? The Amazon!!! Well, the original itinerary for the trip was that we would leave Lima Saturday afternoon, get to Chachapoyas Sunday night, and then use the city as kind of a home base while traveling around the rainforest until the next Saturday, when we would make the day-long bus trip back to the "City of Kings."
...Naturally, however, being in Peru and going with a bunch of old people meant that things didn't go exactly as planned. In fact, about the only thing that we did from the original schedule was take the bus up to Chachapoyas--which, if I may say, was hell on earth. Word to the wise: never, under any circumstances, eat food provided by your bus company for long journeys. Especially if, and I quote, "the meat tastes like grass and the potatoes taste like soap." I have never been in so much pain from food in all my life... well, maybe besides the Chicken Chipotle Incident, but that was a totally different type of pain. Not to mention the bathrooms on the buses aren't equipped to handle anything other than #1. Yeah.
Once we got there--a grueling, awful 26-hour hours later--we stepped out into the capital of the Amazon district, excited both to be there and to just be off the bus in general (I'd say it was honestly a toss-up to as which sentiment was stronger). Our hotel, Hotel Puma Urco, was a quaint little basic hotel right off of the Plaza de Armas; which, for those of you know know absolutely nothing about Latin American culture, is the name a city gives to its official "center of town", kind of a like a town square. Sam and I were considering exploring, but as we were just so tired, we took showers (mine was more like bathing in a cold waterfall all week...) and set off to bed.
Now here I should explain: Peru is split up into 13 departments, each with its own geography and government, much like the states in the US. An even though we were officially in the "Amazonas" department of the country, it was not the stereotypical wet, humid, canopied jungle with monkeys and jaguars that people picture when you think of the Amazon. In truth, that part, also called the "low forest", us more to the east in the department of Loreto. Where we were was the "high forest", the place where the rainforest officially begins in the northern mountains of Peru. Add that to the fact that it was the dry season, and where we were was a far-cry from this primary impression.
Don't think for a second though that this means we didn't get any of the bells and whistles the stereotypical Amazon has to offer. In fact, I think it might have been even better because alongside the thousands of flowers, palm trees, and colorful wildlife, we still got to experience the added bonus of seeing all of this beauty from the outlooks provided by the "twelve-colored mountains", and the changes in elevation meant that things like lush valleys and waterfalls were about as abundant as trees.
Anyway, back to Chachapoyas. As a city, it was honestly kind of run-down; there were a good number of unpaved roads and once you got a couple of blocks outside the Plaza de Armas, the houses were definitely below sub-par. But the key difference about it was just the general amicability of the people. When I first moved to Lima, my primary impression was that Peruvians were nice, but they have nothing, nothing, on the people of the Amazonas. Despite its poverty, you could walk around Chachapoyas without any fear of getting your bag cut or something stolen out of your pocket, which is more than I can say about the country's capital. And unlike Lima, where people generally keep to themselves, the people of the Amazon want you to be there; they smile at you as you walk by, and despite language barriers they're extremely patient when you need to communicate or get something. Not that you'll get it quickly by any definition of the word, because they take the Peruvian version of "late" to the extreme...
Our first day, according to the schedule, was supposed to be spent visiting the ancient (but still occupied) city of Leymebamba to see the museum there in the morning, and then coming back for a day tour of Chachapoyas. Since the group had used a travel agency, we were provided a driver named Walter who was instructed to take us wherever we wanted to go all week. This turned out to be fantastic, because even before we left the hotel after breakfast that morning, the old folks decided they wanted to save the day tour for another time and visit the mountain city of the dead, Revash, instead. Unfortunately, while this sounded great in theory, the fact that we were traveling with old people also meant that by the time we had finished Leymebamba, they were too tired to go to Revash. But it was okay, because we saw over 200 mummies at the museum! And llamas, which are apparently absolutely everywhere in this country hahaha.
It became quite clear after the first day, though, that any downsides of traveling with a group of seniors were completely outweighed by the sheer amount of entertainment they provided. Everywhere we went, Sam and I were like the shiny new toys; everyone wanted to take pictures with us, talk to us, and just generally be around us. Which of course was adorable, because all of the people who went with us were super sweet and wise; the entire trip, they were always trying to teach us something about the area or about life. Some memorable characters were Mechita, who felt compelled to sing about every subject imaginable; Mario, a cheerful old man with a degree in history who laughed about everything; and Selena, who was absolutely hilarious and insisted we scream "sexo!" at every photoshoot.The second day, after having breakfast with freshly-squeezed papaya juice (typical of Peru and the Amazon in particular), we decided to completely deviate from the schedule and visit the clay caverns of Quiocta, which we weren't planning on seeing until Thursday. This was because one of the towns we'd be driving through to get there, Lamud, was having a huge festival to celebrate their patron saint, and some of the religion folks in the group were planning on going anyway. Thus, we all hopped into Walter's Mercedes Sprinter and headed into the mountains.
Luya and Lamud were absolutely charming little towns, especially with all the decorating, cooking, and general good cheer for the festival, which was to start later that day. Even though the entire city was essentially shut down (it was an adventure trying to find a street we could actually drive and park on), we still had to rent rubber boots for the cavern, so we stopped in Lamud for a while. It was really cool to see the people running about doing different tasks to beautify their city, like constructing huge colored sand murals on the streets or hanging banners across adjacent buildings.
Once we were done with this, we took the steep road up to the caverns. I have to admit, I didn't really know what to expect because when we "got there" all we saw was a wooden sign, a single Amazonian selling popcorn, grassy mountaintop as far as the eye could see. However, when I saw the old Chachapoyan hut guarding the entrance and walked inside, I was immediately floored. The place was like a cathedral: high ceiling, wide halls, and depth that extended to god knows how far. The fact that there were no lights installed in the caverns added to the intrigue, because you wouldn't realize what was around you until your guide shined his flashlight on it--and this turned out to be things like skulls, clay pyramids, jeweled ceilings, or stalactites. In a word, it was absolutely amazing. Even Mama, who fell inside because the wet clay floor was too difficult to navigate through, loved it.
Tired and yet pumped from our expedition in the caverns, we then went to our lunch spot, a small little place called Mikuy Peru (interesting tidbit: "mi cuy" in Spanish means "my guinea pig", but "mikuy" in Quechua means "radio station". Two veeeeery different things). I guess this would be a good time to explain restaurants in the Amazon. Like Mikuy Peru, they're usually small, often part of the house where the chef's family lives (so you'll often see little kids running around playing), and are full of trees and pens where hey get their food from. You want fruit? They'll go and pick what you want off a tree. Chicken? They'll kill one in the back. Trout? They just caught some that morning. This is clearly amazing, but the only downside we encountered was quantity; if they only caught ten fish that morning, or only have four mangoes left on that tree, it's all people are going to be able to get. They don't import anything. Additionally, going along with the whole "we're happy you're here" thing, most of the restaurants we went to let you pick something, like flowers or fruit, and bring it home with you for free... your own little souvenir of the Amazon.
Sooner or later Wednesday came along, and that meant it was time for one of the best parts of the trip: the pre-Inca mountain fortress-city of Kuelap. This place was built in the 6th century by the Chachapoyans, making it more than 1000 years older than Machu Picchu, and unlike Machu Picchu the archaeologists had not cut down the forest that had spread throughout the city over the years. It therefore looked and felt like a long lost paradise; crumbled houses of stone and mortar were accompanied by trees with vibrant flowers the size of one's head. It became clear that while the Inca may not have been able to get through Kuelap's solid defenses (they had only won against the Chachapoyans by "peacefully" cutting off their food supply), the rainforest certainly could. It was, in my opinion, just as cool as any Inca site; and since there were only about 100 tourists in the entire 600 meter complex, you really got to experience the serenity of it all. Getting there and back was a bit of a challenge, due to the rain and thus slick conditions, but it was most definitely one of the most impressive places I have ever seen.
At this point, the group had conference and decided that instead of staying in Chachapoyas until Saturday, we were going to split up the 26-hour bus ride by driving 10 hours to Chiclayo on the coast of Peru Thursday night, and then drive back to Lima early Saturday morning. Therefore, Thursday was deemed a "free day" to do absolutely whatever we wanted before the bus left at 7:30. So, while most of the group went with Walter to complete the Chachapoyas bus tour that they had missed on Monday, Sam and I (along with two others) took a taxi to Gocta, the third highest waterfall in the world!!! It was definitely one of my favorite things we did; even though it was the dry season, and thus the waterfall was at only about 15% of its usual volume, it was still ridiculously impressive. Not to mention the landscape there was absolutely gorgeous; Gocta was at the end of a huge valley full of wildlife, flowers, and little streams everywhere. The original plan the group had planned for Gocta was to take a horseback ride to the base of the falls, but since this took 3 hours each way, and we only had four total to visit it, we just walked along the path for about an hour each way to take some pictures. It was here, in this beautiful, almost unoccupied valley where we encountered some of the absolute nicest people I have ever met; everyone we met along the trail stopped and asked if we needed anything (one guy even offered us his horse!), and when we got back into the town to have lunch, a little village with a population of about 100, they sang and danced for us just because they felt like it, and even let us join in! Everyone there just seemed so happy; it may be true that their healthcare system was below sub-par, but when I asked them about it, they replied "well of course we could use that stuff, but we're happy... we have everything we need here: food, water, family, friends, and a great land without any contamination of excessive development." Really put things into perspective for me.
And after Gocta (and a pint of beer and sangria later), we were off to Chiclayo! As usual, the bus ride was terrible, this time because the driver was a maniac flying around corners on unpaved roads... Yeah. Needless to say, when we got there on Friday morning all of us had had little or no sleep, but there was no time to waste! It was the day to visit the department of Lambayeque, a small dry coastal region that is responsible for producing more than half of Peru's sugarcane! Not to mention its past of being home to the pre-Inca Moche and Chimu cultures. Obviously then, our day was spend visiting museums and ancient ruins; in particular, the Museum of Sican, the pyramids of Tucume, and the famous Senor de Sipan! Unfortunately, we couldn't take pictures in the latter area, but that may have been a blessing in disguise, because what was in there was so amazing I might have single-handedly used up the rest of my photos haha.
Aaand then it was time to trek through the desert back to Lima. From our past experiences, we were expecting the 14-hour bus ride to be horrible; but, in actuality, it was quite decent. The meals weren't deadly, the bus had two bathrooms with toilet paper (a rarity for bathrooms in Peru), and they even provided games for us: I fulfilled my lifelong dream of winning a game of Bingo against old people!!!! Hahahaha. I must say, though, getting back into Lima was one of the most depressing things I've ever experienced; we went from fresh rainforest to beautiful, multicolored deserts, only to see signs of the approaching gray sky of Lima and smell the pollution in the air... yuck. Still, though, it was good to be back in a way... if only to do homework. Blaaaaaaah.
And that was my trip in a nutshell! Quite a big nutshell you might say, but you'd be surprised just how much I left out... it was just so awesome. I'm so glad Mama invited me!! Peru is an incredible country. =)
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