Peru - Lonely Planet Publications [375]
Virgen del Carmen (79-3558; Salamanca, cuadra 8) departs for Celendín (S30, 10 to 11 hours) on Mondays at 6pm, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays at 4am, and on Sundays at 6am, stopping at Leimebamba (S10, three to four hours). Transportes Karlita (Salamanca, cuadra 9) also goes to Leimebamba at noon and 4pm for S10.
Transportes Roller (Grau 302) has two buses to Kuélap (S10, 3½ hours), via Tingo, Choctámal and María, at 4pm. These return from Kuélap at 6am and 8am.
Colectivo taxis to Kuélap (S14, three hours) depart throughout the day when full from Grau, but be warned that safety is a low priority for these drivers, who sometimes take unnecessary risks and proceed at excessive speeds to save time. It sometimes helps to ask drivers what their maximum driving speed is and if anyone says that can get you there in a ridiculously short amount of time, move on. This block also has frequent minibuses (S5, 1½ hours) and colectivo taxis for Tingo (S5.20, 1½ hours); the taxis may continue on to María (S10, three hours). Minibuses to Leimebamba leave at noon and 4pm (S9, three to four hours).
To continue further into the Amazon Basin, take a colectivo taxi to the crossroads at Pedro Ruíz (S10, 1½ hours) and wait for an eastbound bus. Ask around for trucks and minibuses to other destinations.
If you start early and have plenty of time on your hands, you can see some of the attractions around Chachapoyas by public minibus. For Karajía, you can take a minibus to Luya (S7, 50 minutes), from where regular minibuses go to the nearby village of Cruz Pata (S5, 50 minutes).
A taxi for the day to Kuélap or to sites around Chachapoyas and Leimebamba costs S150.
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AROUND CHACHAPOYAS
Relics of Chachapoyas and Inca civilizations and daring, rugged scenery speckle the mountains surrounding Chachapoyas. Scores of archaeological sites dot this area, most of them unexcavated and many reclaimed by vivacious jungle. Below is a list of some of the main points of interest, though there are many others – and even more await discovery.
Catarata de Gocta
This 771m waterfall somehow escaped the notice of the Peruvian government, international explorers and prying satellite images until 2005, when German Stefan Ziemendorff and a group of locals put together an expedition to map the falls and record their height. Various claims ranging from the third-loftiest waterfall on earth to the fifteenth resulted in an international firestorm in the always-exciting contest to rank the world’s highest cascades, Gocta’s current measurement is probably correct, give or take a few meters, putting it solidly after Norway’s 773m Mongefossen Falls. Whether you’re hung up on numbers or not, the falls are impressive and accessible, although it’s better to go with a tour company from Chachapoyas for about S50. They provide transport and a local guide for the two-hour hike to the falls, which are dripping in lore about a mermaid who guards a lost treasure (who knew there were mermaids so far inland?). With luck you might see the bizarre, orange bird called the Andean Cock-of-the-Rock or the rare and endemic Yellow-tailed Woolly Monkey.
Gran Vilaya
The name Gran Vilaya refers to the bountiful valleys that spread out west of Chachapoyas, reaching toward the rushing Río Marañón. Abutting the humid Amazon, this region sits in a unique microcosm of perennially moist high-altitude tropics and cloud forests – an ecological anomaly that gave rise to the Chachapoyas culture’s moniker, People of the Clouds. The fertility of this lush area was never a big secret – the valley successfully supported the huge populations of the Chachapoyas and Inca cultures, and to date more than 30 archaeological sites have been found dotting the mountains. Important sites like Paxamarca, Pueblo Alto, Pueblo Nuevo and Pirquilla lie connected by winding goat-tracks as they did hundreds of years ago, completely unexcavated, and can be visited on multiday hikes. Immaculately constructed