Chachapoyas Explorer. Kuelap Discoverer Peru Adventure tour

Day 03 Chachapoyas

After breakfast you will enjoy an excursion to observe the burial towers of Macro, an outpost of the Chachapoyas culture built into cliffs overlooking the Utcubamba River. It’s unique location allowed for contact via signal fires with the fortress, high above in the mountains and visible through a cleft in the valley hills. Then you will enjoy an excursion by horse to visit the colorful funeral buildings of Revash perched on a ledge up high on a cliff. They overlook a valley and tributary of the Utcubamba, near the town of Santo Tomas. The Cliff walls at Revash are decorated with geometric designs and figures of camelids. Some of the tombs are decorated with T and cross-shaped niches. You will return to Chillo. Dinner and overnight at Hostal El Chillo. (B/L/D)

Day 05 Leimebamba/Cajamarca

Morning visit the museum of Leymebamba with its amazing collection of well preserved pre-inca mummies discovered in the Laguna de los Condores. Then continue to you will drive to Cajamarca, crossing two cordilleras and several different habitats, such as cloud forest, agricultural land, desert-like areas and the Marañon Canyon. Box lunch on way. Overnight at La Laguna Seca Hotel. (B/L/D)

Comments : The journey from Leymebamba to Cajamarca, by way of the Maranon Canyon, is one of Peru’s most spectacular drives. The Maranon River forms one of the world’s deepest canyons, and you will descend through different ecosystems from over 10,000 feet in altitude to the town of Balsas at 4,000 ft. After crossing the river you then ascend back through the various habitats to nearly 10,000 ft above sea level.

Day 06 Cajamarca

Morning light trek through the Cajamarca countryside to see local people in their daily activities including children going to school. Then we visit the Ventanillas de Otuzco, a pre-Inca cemetery that features a gallery of secondary burial niches (located 5 miles from the city). After lunch exploration of the main points of the city: Main Square, the Cathedral and the 17th Century San Francisco church, which houses the Museum of Religious Art. Continue on to the Ransom; which Atahualpa, the last Inca emperor, filled once with gold and twice with silver so as to obtain his freedom in 1532; to the Belen complex which includes the Belen church constructed entirely of sculptures volcanic rock and finally on to Santa Apolonia Hill, for a scenic view of the valley of Cajamarca and where one may also see the ceremonial Inca seat. Finally we will take a delicious cup of coffee at local cafeteria. Return to hotel to enjoy its swimming pools with thermal waters or a nice massage at the Spa. (This service is not included in the price). Farewell dinner and overnight at Hotel Laguna Seca. (B/L/D).

Comments: Cajamarca was a major center of the Inca Empire. It is most famous for being the place of first contact between Pizarro and the Inca army, which he defeated in a one-sided battle shortly thereafter, and captured Atahualpa, the last of the independent Inca monarchs. Although the Inca city was razed to the ground, Cajamarca boasts many beautiful colonial buildings, as well as the Inca-era “Ransom Room,” where Atahualpa was kept as a prisoner of the Spanish before being garroted.

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OPTIONAL EXTENSIONS

F.D. Kunturwasi

Visit this ceremonial center of formative period (1200-50 BC) of ancient Andean civilization with an architectural complex and stone monoliths. Includes: Transportation from Cajamarca to Kunturwasi, Box lunch, entrance fee and transportation to Trujillo’s airport to take the night flight to Lima.

One more day in Cajamarca

It includes an additional day to explore different parts of the city and visit Cumbemayo where we will admire the Hydraulic knowledge ( a canal cut into rock) from the Incas use for the management of water and land. Includes: an extra night at Cajamarca, private transportation, guide and entrance fees.

Trujillo Extension for Chachapoyas Explorer

Day 07 Cajamarca/Trujillo
You will depart Cajamarca in the morning via private car/bus for the overland journey down through the mountains to Trujillo. Early afternoon arrival and visit the colonial city of Trujillo. Overnight at Libertador Hotel.

Day 08 Trujillo/Lima
After breakfast visit the beautiful Moche Sun and Moon temples, and then continue to the beach for a relaxing lunch in the town of Huanchaco. After lunch you will visit Chan Chan, the sprawling ruined city of the Chimu culture. At the end of the afternoon you will transfer to the airport to take the flight to Lima.

Comments : The pyramids of the Sun and Moon, just south of Trujillo, are the largest structures ever put up in South America, and are second in the Western Hemisphere only to the Pyramid of Cholula, Mexico, in size. They formed the spiritual center of the Moche Empire, a highly sophisticated yet mysterious culture that pre-dated the Incas by nearly 1000 years. It is quite certain that the Moche Indians had contact with other civilizations in the ancient Americas, and there is good reason to believe they may have been influenced by Asian ocean-going voyagers as well.

The Pyramid of the Moon contains a central, vaulted chamber, and the mountain directly behind, Cerro Blanco, appears to have been shaped by humans into a pyramid form as well.Despite their achievements in architecture, metal-working, and ceramics (one can still find countless pottery shards in the sands surrounding the site), the Moche were very militaristic, and scenes from their pottery depict ritual bloodletting and torture. They may have evolved a system of “black” magic that aided them in their conquests of neighboring peoples, or they may have taken spiritual teachings from Asia and twisted their meanings into bizarre new practices over the centuries.

Huanchaco is a fishing town where “caballitos de totora” are still used by the local inhabitants, who venture into the cold currents of the Pacific in these precarious-looking reed boats.

This massive adobe city, really a series of royal compounds built by the Chimu, was a major source of gold for both the Incas, and later, for the Spanish. Though well-looted over the centuries, gold artifacts still occasionally appear in the drifting sands.

Contacts between Chan Chan and the Asian continent have never been proven, but there are tantalizing hints. Pottery figures depict Asiatic men with beards and turbans; even the name “Chan Chan” seems to be Chinese in origin. Don’t miss the famous “honeycombs,” where strange acoustic effects allow visitors to whisper to each other over long distances inside the adobe structures. (NOTE: We hope that recent El Nino rains have not altered this peculiar archeological and architectural feature.)