Peru - Lonely Planet Publications [354]
Relaxing sulfur thermal baths (admission S2), a 30-minute walk south of town, house four private baths and one larger pool. Keep your eyes peeled for a small, signed path that leads down to the river. Horse riding on Peruvian pacing horses can be arranged through the Cafetería Renato (Click here) for S20 per hour (including a guide).
From Chavín you can hike for a few hours into a lofty valley, in the direction of Olleros, to a high pass with stirring views of Huantsán (6395m) – the highest mountain in the southern Cordillera Blanca. If you’re interested in longer treks originating here, Don Donato (45-4136; Tello Sur 275) of the Asociación de Servicios de Alta Montaña, offers a four-day trek that circles the back side of the Cordillera Blanca, passes by several alpine lakes and exits through the Carhuascancha valley.
Sleeping & Eating
Chavín has a surprisingly good selection of accommodations. Camping by the ruins is also possible with permission of the guard.
La Casona (45-9004; Plaza de Armas 130; s/d S25/50) Nestled in an old house, the well-kept rooms here are a little on the dark side, but the beautiful courtyard, dripping with plants, is an excellent place to hang out and soak up the ambience. The hot water here can be erratic, however. Some rooms have a TV or a plaza balcony and there’s a restaurant.
Hotel Chavín (45-4055; Inca Roca 141; s/d S27/45) This hotel is modern, has hot water and a TV in all rooms and a restaurant. Around the corner is the affiliated but cheaper and more basic Hostal Chavín. Between the two of them you’ll find a room to suit; guests bargain for the best deal.
Hostal Inca (45-4092; Plaza de Armas; s/d S30/40) The reputation of this secure, popular place is as solid as its hot showers and it boasts very respectable rooms. There’s a small garden and the family that runs it is super-friendly and helpful. Hostal Inca also houses the lab for the ongoing excavation project of the ruins.
Gran Hotel Rickay (45-4068; Calle 17 de Enero 600; s/d S45/85) With slightly pricier digs, this grandiose neocolonial option has top rooms, is newly renovated and has a patio, restaurant (serving pizzas and pastas) and modern rooms with hot showers and a TV.
Most of the town’s eateries can be found along Calle 17 de Enero and in hotels. Restaurants have a reputation for closing soon after sunset, so dig in early.
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CHAVÍN CULTURE
Named after the site at Chavín de Huántar, this is considered one of the oldest major cultures in Peru, strutting its stuff on the pre-Inca stage from 1000 BC to 300 BC. The Chavín wielded their influence with great success, particularly between the formative years of 800 BC to 400 BC when they excelled in agricultural production of potatoes and other highland crops, animal husbandry, ceramic and metal production and engineering of buildings and canals. Chavín archaeologists have formerly referred to this cultural expansion as the Chavín Horizon, though Early Horizon is also used.
The principal Chavín deity was feline (jaguar or puma), although lesser condor, eagle and snake deities were also worshipped. Representations of these deities are highly stylized and cover many Chavín sites and many extraordinary objects, such the Tello Obelisk in the Museo Nacional de Chavín (Click here), the Lanzón, often referred to as the Smiling God, which stands in mystical glory in the tunnels underneath the Chavín site, and the Raimondi Stone at the Museo Nacional de Antropología, Arqueología e Historia del Perú in Lima (Click here). The Raimondi Stone (which is currently considered too fragile to move to Chavín) has carvings of a human figure, sometimes called the Staff God, with a jaguar face and large staffs in each hand – an image that has shown up at archaeological sites along the northern and southern coasts of Peru and which suggests the long reach of Chavín influence. The images on all of these massive stone pillars are believed to indicate a belief in a tripartite universe consisting of the heavens, earth and a netherworld, or as an alternative theory goes, a cosmos