Kuelap... mountain fort.

After a ¨lovely¨overnight bus that arrived in Chachapoyas at the ungodly hour of 5am, I grabbed a few hours sleep and signed up for a tour to the ruins of Kuelap. (about 3hrs away)

On the way we passed through the town of Tingo, which was having a celebration. Their main square was decorated with sand and flower carpets (being judged in the photo), there was a band and noisy fireworks, and also a parade and soccer game we missed.

The Kuelap ruins really are on a mountain top, on a naturally rocky outcrop with great views of all the surrounding valleys. But the Chachas built up further huge walls to create a fortress town with only 3 well protected entrances. (Theres apparently more stones used in walls here than the largest pyramid in Eqypt if you believe the guide book)

Anyway history wise, they were a group with a few sites in the mountain area, and were later conquered by the inca, and the site was apparently abandoned by the inca following the spanish invasion and left until it was re-discovered in 1843.

The Chachas built these round houses with thatched roofs (unlike the incan square ones) and had some distinctive diamond stone decorations. They also used some of the walls as burial places... our guide pulled out a few stones to display a skeleton.

Over all I`d have to say I was impressed, but left a little mystified... where did they get their water from?(the valleys a long way down) how come the houses were so close? I also found out back at the hostel that the whole area has some kind of unique archeological remains - giant stone heads which mark tombs or are sarcophagi, mummies... and more. But I`ve headed off inland again... heading towards the Iquitos and the Amazon which is at least a few days bus ride then boat ride away.