Amazonas Vacation

At the magnificent Gocta waterfalls

With Brian at the ancient Kuelap fort

One of the “perks” of Peace Corps service is 48 days of vacation over the 2 year term. And a “foreign” vacation , at that. I’ve been to the deep desert at Nasca and the jungle at La Merced. This time, I headed to the northern mountain state of Amazonas and the small city of Chachapoyas.

I started with 3 days in Lima, working with my PC friends Will, Dan and Brian. We were tasked with producing a master document for Cocinas Mejoradas (improved cookstoves) with the accumulated wisdom and experience of past projects. This will be used in future WASH trainings and by others wanting to create these life and energy saving stoves.

Then Brian and I jumped on the luxury ITTSA bus to Chiclayo. It’s an overnight 12 hour trip, but the accomadations make it very comfortable , even sleep-able. The seats are basically what you’d find in 1^st Class on an overseas flight – each one folds down into a bed, with individual headsets and TV screen. The cabin is spacious, clean, with good AC and in-flight snacks.

After a nice breakfast, we boarded a not-so-nice day trip bus to Pedro Ruiz. Leaving the rice basket of Lambayeque, we passed one of the areas huge, man-made pyramids, crafted of adobe brick, but well worn by hundreds of years of rain. Heading into the Andes, we crossed at the one of the low passes into the Amazon basin and a world of green rice fields along the river bottom and small hillside farms, travelling long hours between towns. We stopped only for lunch at a mountain restaurant, before passing through the nasty basin town of Bagua Grande at dusk. A collectivo – kind of a shared taxi - whisked us to Chachapoyas, passing huge landslides in the night.

The Villayas hotel is by far the nicest PC hotel in Peru – beautiful rooms with the BEST hot water shower I’ve had in over a year, for about US$13.50 a night. Chacha is an old colonial town, noted for its decorative balconies and fine woodwork. Food was world-class – while a tad expensive by Peruvian standards, still cheap (breakfast $4 and dinner $10) compared to US. The biggest surprise was the abundance of seafood, especially ceviche, high in the mountains and far from the sea. Amazonas beef was outstanding. It was wonderful to see so many of my friends from Peru 18 there – Brian and Sara, Chris and Baber, and celebrating Chris’ 24^th birthday in fine style.

I signed up for the tour trip to Kuelap, the nearby ancient mountain-top fortress. Getting there was half the adventure – 3 hours on one-lane dirt mountain roads, twisting and turning past many mud and rock slides. One had so damaged the road that the passengers had to get out and help push the van through. And looking down 500-1000 ft drop offs on the side of the road, with no guard rails. Arriving at the new visitor center – under construction – we hiked about 30 minutes up to the fort, feeling the 7000 ft altitude all the way. The locals all chew coca leaf, so I gave it a try. It’s like chewing a bunch of tree leaves – not tasty at all. Once the leaves are macerated into a plug, a small amount of lime (the mineral, not the fruit) is added to release the active ingredient. While I didn’t feel much of a lift, it did make my mouth quite numb.

The fort is impressively massive and imposing. Its walls were never breached and it’s easy to see why – only 2 very narrow entrances in the 80 ft outer wall. Even more amazing to learn that the limestones were all quarried about 10 miles away. The unique architecture of the site is the circle – virtually all structures were round, to withstand the frequent earthquakes in the area. Kuelap was a rather small residence, but its population grew dramatically during festivals or times of attack from the jungle people. The festivals included mostly animal sacrifice, but some human, as well. The fort’s location was strategic, with longs views in all directions, down each of the 4 approach valleys and of the field studded lower mountains. The stonework is impressive, but not as fine as Muchu Pichu or the construction I saw at Huaytara.

On the trip back to Chacha, we stopped to see some of the mountain-side burial tombs in the surrounding cliffs. Like the Wari, the Chachapoyans put a LOT of effort into honoring the dead. They were placed in funeral bundles with gifts for the next life and set into small caves and breaches in the vertical limestone cliffs. Some were placed in beautiful and ornate wooden sarcophagi. Unlike my Wari burial ground, these cliffs have offered more protection to the bodies and artifacts.

The next day’s journey was to the magnificent waterfall(s) at Gocta. Again, it was a long, 3 hour ride just to get to the small gateway town of San Pedro, where we picked up our guide, Don Ricardo. The 3 hour hike is hard, especially if not altitude acclimated – next time I would take a horse. The trail is beautiful and unspoiled. We passed a couple of coca fields that had been sprayed and killed by DEA, as well as bunches of wild orchids and mountain springs. And more burial cliffs. The lush jungle trails were full of exotic fruit trees and huge ferns.

The Gocta Falls is really two falls, upper and lower, which combined are the 3^rd highest in the world. We hiked to the base of the upper fall, but had views of the lower falls along the way, as well as spectacular vistas of the surrounding mountains and valleys. The lower falls hike is even longer and harder, though it is possible to go in on one and out on the other. At the upper base, we found a unique fern tree, growing to 50 ft , and a deafening roar of water and rush of displaced air , as the water thundered to the rocks and water pools at the base. The river then travels about 200 yds, to the top of the lower falls. The moisture creates a micro climate of ferns and odd , brilliant green landscape.

For the return trip to Lima, I took a direct bus trip of 26 hours, not nearly as comfortable as the trip in, but tolerable and scenic. Most PCVs travel on the more comfortable night buses, which deny the scenic trip through the Andes pass.

Now, it’s back to work, readying for the Renewable Energy conference I’m hosting for 30 PCVs and community partners at the Goat Farm, designing a skate-park and engineering a new concrete toilet seat for nearby pit latrines.