In celebration of our nation’s independence, Peace Corps gives its volunteers four days to spend as vacation wherever they may like in the country. After recently arriving back from the states, I wasn’t sure that I wanted to be leaving site again. However, a vacation is a vacation and I ended up weighing that I wouldn’t get another opportunity to travel in Peru during Fourth of July. The destination? Chachapoyas.
Chachapoyas is located in the department of Amazonas, a good 24-hour bus trip from my site and where the jungle meets the mountains. The result? Gorgeousness. The Chachapoyans were a people of Peru that existed both before and during the reign of the Incas. Note how I include “during.” The Incas tried to conquer the people who lived up high in the mountains but without any luck. I’m pretty sure the Chachapoyans were one of the few (or the only ones) that resisted the might of the Incas. And after visiting some of their ruins, I can see why.
The first place we went to visit was called Kuelap. This place is referred to as the second Machu Picchu. After leaving the city, we traveled two hours in car and then hiked to the top of a gigantic mountain/cliff. There we found the remnants of something like 500 houses, tombs with bones still included, guard towers, and the biggest fortress wall I have ever seen. It measured probably forty feet high and was 700 meters long. It was baller. In order to enter the fortress, we had to pass through the wall with resembles a 100 foot tunnel while the guide told us that the Chachapoyans would chuck rocks and arrows down at the Incas that were trying to pass through. Impressive.
Overall the trip was a great escape from the coastal heat and lack of green mountains. It rained a decent amount and made everything covered in a mist. We hiked five hours one day to the third tallest waterfall in the world where we proceeded to go swimming an stand under the waterfall which was so cold we all ended up with serious colds after having to hike back in our wet clothes while it rained. It felt like we were in an Indiana Jones movie. I do close to no exercise here and was dying during the five-hour hike up and down mountains at the altitude. But I made it! And I had a delicious beer afterwards.
The only downfall Chachapoyas has is its location. There’s no airport and is very hard to get to by road; the roads that exist snake around and cling to mountains and can make even the most iron-stomached volunteer feel carsick. I had my head in a plastic bag for a solid hour before my Dramamine kicked in. However, if I had left a day later, things could have been much worse.
Nine volunteers took the night bus that left the day after mine. Unfortunately, the roads are verrrrrry skinny and it’s difficult for two buses to pass each other as is. So it obviously didn’t help when a truck being driven by a drunk driver crossed over the road and skimmed the front part of the volunteer’s bus, sending it into the guardrail that protected it from falling down into a river. I can only imagine the heart attack I would have had if I were woken up to a situation like that. Apparently the bus had to wait 6 hours for a back up bus to come along and take the passengers to their destination. I felt especially badly for Ian’s friend John that had come from the states to visit.
Poor John must have left with not a very great impression of Peru. On his trip down with Ian, they took the usual bus we all take from Tumbes to Piura. Upon passing through customs (which we always do because Tumbes is a border town), the police found quite a large amount of cocaine stored amongst the bus’ cargo. Lucky for the lady that was smuggling it, she was able to pay the police off and continue on her merry way with her goods, no problem. That experience, compounded with the near cliff-dive experience and intestinal issues must have left Ian’s friend wondering what the heck Ian had signed into for two years. Sometimes I question myself the same thing.
A huge group of volunteers decided to do this trip together so it was good getting to see people I hadn’t seen in months. The next time I will see them will be for our Close of Service (COS) conference in early September.
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