Raiding the lost city of Kuelap

Please listen to this while reading!

In 2012, the BBC broadcast a programme led by Dr Cooper which explored the Lost Kingdoms of South America. We were already off on our adventure by then, but recieved a fair few e-mails from people recommending sites for us! We decided it would be pretty terrible if we missed the city of Kuelap, especially having already missed Tiwanaku in Bolivia due to riots - even though its location seemed somewhat trecherous! 

 

We headed North and to a higher altitude to the city of Chachapoyas, translated as 'Warriors of the clouds'. All the accounts we had read of people previously exploring the site of Kuelap involved broken journeys and long difficult hikes, so we expected the town to be relatively desolate and untouched by tourism. However, when we got there we were greeted by people offering us their hostels to lay our bags, and a row of tourist agencies offering tours. We settled in to a private room and proceeded to sleep for the whole day, as the overnight bus journey to the isolated city had been pretty turbulant and uncomfortable. We had intended to bypass the tourist agencies and make our own way to Kuelap, stopping in various un named villages and making good use of the camping poles, but when we spoke to others that had done the tour we found it would actually be cheaper for us to combine our transport and guide and go with the tour - so we arranged one for the next day. 

The tour left early, and was a group of about 10 people. The journey was long, and we didn't see a single one of the promised collectivos transporting groups of DIYers, so were happy we'd chosen the security of the tour! When we arrived it was clear that the site does not recieve many visitors - there was no ticket office, or hoards of tourists, it was pleasantly peaceful and undisturbed. As we walked up the grassy hill discussing various things we had heard - Kuelap was the original inspiration for Indianna Jones, Raiders of the Lost Arc...and therefore the inspiration for Temple Run...The Grandfather of Machu Picchu... our guide told us a little of the brief history of the site. It has been dated back to the 6th century AD, and has mostly been described as a type of fortress - possibly used as defence against Huari people, and various other hostile groups. There are very little accounts describing the uses of Kuelap, or the people that inhabited it.

Soon our eyes were met with the looming outside walls of the fortress. Overlooking the Utcubamba Valley, the structure looms over 19m high and stretches across 600m across the clifftop. It is both intimidating and inviting, and we felt so lucky to be there. When we entered it only got better - the ancient passageways were overgrown with moss and crumbling away in parts, adding to the overal sense of mysticism and ancient wonder. The air was ripe with the feeling of discovery, and with each new turn our imaginations were fuelled by the dazzling surroundings - high up in the cloud forest, everything covered in a thick coating of living green, birds of the amazon perching and skwalking from their trees, the sun beating hot upon our backs but the thick felt of rain in the air. 

 

The site is so lacking in information that speculation and imagiation run wild among the ancient stone walls. Decorations and wall carvings can be interpreted in any way you chose (though it is easy to see themes running through the ancient civilisations of South America - snakes, pumas and triangles are everywhere!) There have been numerous human remains, both mumified and left alone found deposited in a couple of areas in the site, though it seems most of them have been moved several times before they were found and so it is difficult to find any real evidence for what happened at the site. 

 

 

At one area there are structures which have been reconstructed to how archaeologists believe they would have all looked when Kuelap was inhabited in its hey day. The roundhouses are adorned with tall straw roofs. The houses are in close proximity, and to imagine them all with the rooves atop of them really brings a different view again to the place and makes it easier to imagine as a hub of people interacting together. The combination of this picture of a defensive fort and a place where people lived together in harmony is strange, but to be expected of a place so thick in the forest.

 

 

 After a couple of hours wandering around, we exited the site through the South Side, the high walls reaching over us and the corridor narrowing sharply so that we had to walk single file - an ancient self defence mechanism which was pretty effective!

 

And then, as we left, it started to rain.