When we started that 4-hour hike 24 hours before none of us
truly knew all that would be required of us to become true warriors of the
cloud forest. To arrive at the ancient Peruvian city of Kuelap there are two
options, and while choosing the first option, to pay a tour agency to arrange
all our transport and arrive directly at the base of the ruins, would have been
the easier of the two, our choice option was to walk the trails that the Chacha
people had walked and to pass through the walled city declaring that we were
true warriors, just like those who had passed before us.
The beginning of the trail
When the combi (Peruvian public transport) dropped us at the
start of the trail we entered a local eatery and chose the only option on the
Menu, one that we had eaten for several meals before this one: chicken and
rice. Once we were sufficiently fueled we started off. Three women in our
mid-20’s, with water and snacks to get us to the top. The 8.9Km trail started
off relatively flat and straight. We passed families coming down from the
mountains with their day’s harvest carried on the backs of their horses. One family we saw had attached their 2-year
old daughter to the horse. She was steering the beast! We arrived at our first descanso (rest stop) feeling
accomplished and thinking that this was going to be a relative piece of cake.
The map at the rest stop showed the trail and the 6 more rest stops along the
way.
We continued on our way and as we went the trail began to
get steeper with tighter bends in the trail. This was not going to be the piece
of cake we imagined. At the next rest stop we took out the sacred coca plant,
performed a ceremonial coca offering to Pachamama, thanking her for providing
for us, and chewed this leaf in the backs of our cheeks, extracting the liquid
that is full of nutrients and is a natural solution of the increasing elevation
we were undertaking.
We were the only ones on the trail at this point. The views
were spectacular, and as we got higher, the mountain ranges in front of us
continued to change their form, exposing new houses, new peaks, and new bends
in the river below. The sheer expanse of this world and the realities that
existed on those mountains made us feel small. Not quite sure where the trail
was taking us, except up, it required endurance to push on up that mountain.
Four hours later we arrived in the town of Kuelap, a small
mountain town with homes along the trail as well as off in the distance on the
mountain ranges behind us. We arrived at the 20meter high wall of Kuelap and
were informed that it was closing for the day. We walked back down to the town
and checked into our hospedaje
(lodging) for the evening. As the sun set behind the mountains I looked out at
the mountains beyond us and felt like I was on top of the world. It became
increasingly colder and we layered up in what we realized would not be enough
clothing for this temperature…for our jungle clothes would not hold up in this
weather.
After a nice dinner and cup of tea with the family who runs
the rustic hospedaje, we climbed
under our layers of wool blankets and rested after our long day of hiking…for
warriors need their sleep too. We awoke early the next morning to the sound of
the first rooster’s crow and climbed back to the base of the wall to watch the
sunrise over the mountains. We performed a cleansing ceremony to prepare
ourselves to enter this sacred city and ask the spirits that had come before us
to allow us to enter. After returning to the hospedaje for a hot breakfast we climbed back up to the giant wall
and entered this city of warriors.
Its hard to describe the sheer size of the city of Kuelap.
The wall that surrounds the city is over 700m long and sometimes reaches up to
20m high. There are over 400 circular structures that were used as homes, but
most of these homes are still covered by weeds and dirt and the trees growing
through the middle of them make you realize the age and mystery of this place.
I imagined myself an archeologist, an explorer, coming across this place for
the first time. Not realizing that under the overgrowth was a city that was
once filled with life.
The outer wall
We passed the morning exploring, taking pictures, and
sitting in the presence of the warriors that had passed there before us. After
a lunch in one of the circular structures the growing crowds of tourist groups
were overwhelming our solitary journey of discovery and we began to attempt to
return back to the city of Chachapoyas. Little did we realize the challenge
that was ahead of us, or that this was the final step to us becoming true
warriors of the cloud forest. All transport options available at the base of
the ruins were full of tourists, and our hopes for a public transportation
vehicle were quickly crushed. I quickly realized that the only way for us to
find transport would be to be pushy and ask everyone around if they could take
us. The task fell upon me to walk around to the vehicles, knocking on the
windows, waking up the sleeping drivers, and using my smile combined with my
Spanish skills to get us a ride. The option that came was to split the three of
us up. Laura in the tourist combi, and Abby and I squished into the van of a
nice Limeñan family who had put their children in the trunk so that Abby and I
could fit, Abby either sitting on the floor, or when she got car sick, on my
lap.
We unloaded in the plaza of Chachapoyas exhausted from our
journey, and feeling accomplished in our task of becoming true warriors of the
cloud forest.
