Kuelap - Ancient Fortress of the Chachapoyas Culture of Northern Peru

We went to a place near the present town of Chachapoyas, Peru in September 2014 to learn a little about this ancient culture which flourished between 500 and 1,400 a.d.  The ruins are located somewhere above 3,000 meters and twenty-some kilometers from a paved road down in the valley.  We went with a group in a 12 passenger van  and just the shelf road was quite an experience.  Photos do not do justice to the views.


Residences were circular.  Archiologists speculate that this design was more resistant to earthquake than rectangular structures - an important consideration in the Andes.  The structure shown below is a controversial reconstruction.

Before I forget, let me apologize to my Greek readers who patiently tell me that it isn't Ancient if it is less than 3,000 years old.

Though the pictures don't show it, early phase of the construction involved building a wall around the whole site with limestone quarried five kilometers away.  Then fill material was placed within the wall to make a relatively level space for residences and temples.

When the Incas came to conquer the Chachapoyas, they had to find another way to breach the citadel or run the gauntlet through one of two access ports with Chachapoyas warriors raining death and destruction down from above.

Apparently there was a third option which was to prevent the Chachapoyas from leaving to access their water supplies beyond the walls.

Trekking the Andes

Calling it trekking probably sounds grander and more challenging than it is but we are walking through the mountains near the town of Celendin in N Peru.  Here is how part of the trail looks.

We are sitting on a hillside above Celendin looking over very dry alpine mountainsides.  The land is overgrazed and over cultivated with thin rocky soil.  Cattle and sheep graze but no llamas.  Two men plow the hillside with two oxen yoked to an antique iron-tipped wooden plow.  The oxen, Deb and I wait for the farmers to return from lunch.  A calf roams free, describing a wide orbit around the oxen.  Two cattle egrets orbit the calf.  Dogs bark in the distance, clouds gather – an empty promise of rain.  The oxen are in yoke with no food or water.  Most of the mountainside is not cultivated, but we see a few plots of corn.  Some trees including eucalyptus, and something like Cyprus decorate the hills.  Smaller brush, including two kinds of aloe abound, but the overwhelming majority of the flora is short dry grass marked by braided trails of grazing animals. 

When the men resume their plowing, they graciously invite Deb to take photos, even posing.  The older man shows a badly injured foot, bandaged and bleeding that still does not keep him from his work.

 

North Peru: Beach, Desert, Mountains, Archeological Wonders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .


We are taking a couple weeks off the boat and exploring northern Peru.  Currently we are in Cajamarca where many of the people on the street look like this:

Lady of Cajamarca ethnic heritage

We find the economy here includes production of wonderful cheeses and a gold mine owned by a company in USA.  The mine is reported as causing water pollution and I saw the visual pollution and erosion problems first hand.