Chachapoyas - Thanksgiving vacation

So Chachapoyas. As Volunteers we get 3 free days for Thanksgiving in which we don't have to take vacation. As much as I love the beach, I had been dying to explore other parts of Peru. The original plan was to meet in Pacasmayo, a beach town about as close as you can get to Cajamarca, while still being on the coast. Unfortunately the road from Cajamarca to the coast is awful and it now takes double the time to get there. Regardless, I was willing to suck it up because we were going to have a traditional Thanksgiving feast that a volunteer who lives there had arranged. However, once I got into Cajamarca I started to hear rumors of yet another strike. The bus company still sold me my ticket but they wouldn't give a definite answer about whether buses were running. So Bron and I, the two Cajamarcans went to the bus station at 10pm hoping to make it to Pacasmayo, only to be turned away. This was very disappointing but we weren't going to let it ruin our whole vacation. The strike didn't have an end date so the route via the coast was ruled out. Chachapoyas is actually in the department of Amazonas on the edge of the jungle and happens to border Cajamarca. There is a nice paved road that runs from the coast through northern Cajamarca into Chachapoyas and this is the most common route. However, luckily there is also another way that doesn't involve going to the coast. This road is very narrow and windy, with drop offs almost the entire way. I was hesitant about going on this road but it was the only way to meet up with everyone in Chachapoyas.

We made it to Chachapoyas safely and met up with everyone else there. Our first stop was to visit Kuelap - very large Pre-Colombian ruins.

Below are some pictures of Kuelap:
The next day we went to go visit Gocta Falls - a very tall waterfall. They claim it's the 3rd tallest in the world, but there is some controversy and others report that it is the 5th or the 14th tallest. Regardless it was tall and very cool. We really lucked out with the weather and had sunny skies the entire time. The hike was long, about 2.5 hours each way but once we got to the waterfall we were able to take a dip - very refreshing! Although it's still the mountains, you can tell that you are getting close to the jungle because of all the vegetation and insects and animals.

The original plan was to hike the 2.5 hours into the middle of the falls and then come back and camp in the town. The next day we were going to do a similar hike from another town to go visit the bottom part of the waterfall. As luck would have it, there was a landslide blocking access to the other town and prevented us from going to see the bottom part of the fall. So we all opted to go back to Chachapoyas and sleep in the incredible comfortable hotel.

Gocta Pictures:
Our last day we decided to go check out some of the other stuff to see in the area. We decided not to hire a guide and just hired a car to take us out to the middle of nowhere. Our first destination was called the city of the dead and it was basically a 30 minute hike straight down to these tomb like things hanging over a cliff. I didn't actually get to see all of it because it involved walking on cliff edges that were crumbling and basically only one foot wide at parts with several hundred meter drops below. I am very clumsy and didn't trust myself so I sat back and watched as some of the braver people continued on. The hike back was not fun. It was all uphill and all the false summits kept teasing me! I think everyone was pretty beat by the time we got to the top so we decided not to go visit the other thing that was on our schedule. Unfortunately that was the thing most people wanted to see, but it involved a similar hike and we were not up for the task.

I decided to take the same route via the mountains back to Cajamarca, because I wasn't sure if the strike was still going on and it is technically faster. It involved another 14 or so hours of thinking I was going to die so I don't think I'll ever take that road again.

For more pictures from the trip, click this link: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2028883&l=b52ff&id=4600077