Up to the mountains

After a couple cloudy weeks on the coast, I decided to head up to the mountains, where there is always sun. I travelled on a bus by night to a city called Cajamarca. This was another important city for the Incas and looks a lot like Cuzco, without the swarms of tourists. There is a huge Plaza de Armas with two big churches, a lot of really old colonial architecture and cobblestone streets. There are also some really cool pedestrian walkways lined with colorful gardens and really different staircases. I arrived at 5 in the morning and had a hard time finding a hotel because it was the beginning of the Corpus Christi festivities. After I slept for a while, I walked around the town and met some new friends in the plaza. I met a couple artists, some locals and a french guy who is travelling the route of the chasquis (the Incan message runners) from Columbia to Chile entirely by foot, accompanied by a llama. We partied in the evening, going to a video bar until they started playing bad karaoke.

Friday, my friend Roy and I walked up the mountain to Cumbe Mayo. It took us 2 and a half hours to make it to the top, including a couple of rides that we hitched in a station wagon and in a big truck that was carrying bricks to the next village. On the way we also visited the ruins of Layzon, which tourists would never be able to find because they are in the middle of no where. There were not very well taken care of, but there were a few walls and tunnels. Where we got out of the truck, there were amazing views of these huge rock formations that they call Friars. We hiked up and around them and had lunch up on top with an amazing view of all of the surrounding mountains.

We then hiked around to the Cumbe Mayo itself (Cumbe Mayo means thin river in Quechua), except we took the opposite route that most tourists take. The place is called Cumbe Mayo because of the Incan canals that are cut through the stone and are all around the valley. There are also a couple places where there are geometrical inscriptions on the stones. We spent the whole day hiking around and then came left from the place where most people go in. There was a guard there, who told us we had to pay for the entrace fee. We told him that we did not have any money and gave him some apples and mandarines that were left over from our picnic. That seemed to appease him, thankfully!

Yesterday, Roy and I went a village called Llacanora where there is a river with three cool waterfalls. The first one was the tallest, probably 80 feet tall. The second one was small, but the sin was hitting it which made it nice. The third one was about 30 feet tall, but was really cool because the part where the waterfalls is like a stone room, almost entirely closed in. We went swimming in all three of the ponds and put our heads under the falling water, but it was FREEZING!!! It took a while to warm back up in the sun and then we started walking again through the mountains.

After about an hour of walking we made it to a cave called Callacpuma (mouth of the puma). The cave itself is huge, with a couple of passage ways that are probably pretty deep but we did not have any flashlights or a lighter to explore. There was a group of local people there who were trying to catch live bats. When I asked them why, they said they needed two live bats to use their blood to make a medecine for a heart problem of someone in their family. In the end, they ended up catching two bats, a mother and its baby, who was nursing. In the process of catching them, the mother died, and the baby still held on. It was pretty interesting to watch the whole scene. They were using blankets and were all covered in bat guano from the walls of the cave.

After we made it back to the road, we were in a town called Banos del Inca, where there are thermal springs. There was an Incan head carved out of stone that shoots out really really hot water. We washed our hands and ate ceviche with frito (seasoned and cooked potatoes).

Soon I will be leaving here and heading into the Amazon province. I am going to try to keep posting on a more regular basis so check back soon for updates!!