to Nuevo Tingo: and a visit to Keulap

March 12, 2017

“The downhill was nice but did pedal more than I expected” Rachel says. The ride is supposed to be mostly downhill along the Rio Utcubamba, but there are several “surprise” climbs that our legs sure notice.

We are in no big hurry to leave Leymebamba because our plan is to only ride about 50km to Nuevo Tingo and take a restday there tomorrow to visit Kuelap, the ancient citadel city of the Chachapoyas “people of the clouds”. The valley is lush and green with many small farms. We pass through a village where the Sunday market is in full swing, everybody must be down from the hills for it because the place is crowded. Collectivos roofs are loaded with supplies as tall as the van, many horses are “parked” just at the end of the town and as we ride downstream, occasionally spooking groups of green parrots that take off squawking. People say “Buenos Dias” as we ride by.

Tingo is made up out of several pieces, the old town right on the main road and along the river, and the new town up on a plateau, about 100 meters higher. There are several hospedajes on the main road, but we have decided to go up the Nuevo Tingo for easier access to Kuelab. This was a couple km on a dirt road with a few steep switchbacks. To go to Kuelap it used to take an hour and a half by car up a narrow dirt road, or a steep five hour hike. Since ten days ago though, the new cable-car is open, it now takes only 30 minutes to travel from Nuevo Tingo up the entrance of Kuelap. Our plan was to do this tomorrow, but when we arrive at the Plaza des Armas at noon and find the choice of accommodations not quite as nice as we expected, we decide to go see the ruins this afternoon and move on tomorrow.

Patrick checks out three hospedajes around the Plaza, the first one looks the nicest, but all three rooms he is shown are not yet cleaned. Across the road is another place, but they do not have hot water until evening and the rooms are dark and no toilet seat. Next to the church is a third place with small dungeon-like rooms. Back to #1, and this time a cleaned room with attached bathroom and even a toilet seat!

At this point we decide to move-on tomorrow and see Kuelap today. We have a quick lunch and walk to the cable car station. It costs 20 soles for a return ride, quite reasonable we think. It starts with a short bus-ride to the valley station, then about 20 minutes in a gondola to climb almost a thousand meters to just over 3000 meters altitude. The ride is interesting; we have to cross a very steep and deep valley and are high over the river. Then steep up the mountain side to the top station. There you have to spend another 20 soles for the entrance ticket to Kuelap. It is roughly a half-hours walk up the mountain to the citadel which is perched on top.

Kuelap is often called a fortress, but it really was a fortified city. It was constructed between AD 900 and 1100. A 700 meter long oval is surrounded by a 6 to 20 meter high wall with only three narrow entrances up to the flat topped mountain. On several different levels are the remains of more than 400 circular dwellings that once housed about 3500 people. The amount of stonework is staggering; our guidebook says more stone was used than for the Great Pyramid of Egypt.

Just as we were about to enter the site we run into David and Barbara, the Oregon couple, again. We spend about two hours in the citadel. There is a well-marked route that takes you past the most important sights. A large part of the place is closed-off for restoration work, although by the looks of all the new stone that was hauled up here it looks like they might be doing more re-constructing than restoring. Kuelap is sometimes labeled as the “Machu Picchu of the North”, and while Keulap doesn’t come close to the grandeur of Machu Picchu, they are marketing this place to bring in the tourist dollars.

We get rained-on a couple of times while up there, but the sun also breaks through and we get some nice views into the valleys. After about two hours we hike back to the cable-car station and ride back down. The ride is awesome and convenient, but it did come at a cost to the local people. Along the old road up are several villages that had hospedajes, restaurants and souvenir shops for the tourists. They all get by-passed now by a big-money French-Peruvian operation.

Back in Nuevo Tingo, we have again fried trout for dinner and enjoy a couple of cold beers. We discover quite a few mosquitoes in our room, it has been a while since we needed to use our mosquito net.

Friendly old lady walking down the road in Lyemebamba.

Following the Utcubamba River down a green valley.

Family on their way to the Sunday market.

Nuevo Tingo. There a are two "nicer" looking guesthouses on the plaza, neither of them are completely finished..... The one in this picture does not have toilet seat or hot water until the evening. So we pick the one on this side.

Keulap has only three entrances, this is the only one open to tourists right now. A narrow rough stairway between two vertical walls. At the top are several flat plateaus.

Wall section with the typical Chachapoyas "zig-zag" or rhomboid design.

House bases. Around the outside was a shelf, probably protected by the roof overhang. The inside wall was about 4 meters high with a high-pitched wood and grass roof.

Some Llamas wandering around the ruins. We take a couple of photos of them and expect to be asked for a sole.

The clouds break and we get some views into the valleys.

A six to twelve meter high wall surrounds the citadel.

Headed back down the path to the gondola station.

Today's ride: 49 km (30 miles)
Total: 28,982 km (17,998 miles)

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