Chapter 2: Gocta and Beyond

 

2 Oct 25

(Randy)  We had a nice breakfast at the hotel, checked out, grabbed our luggage and walked to the terminal which was just across the street.   Our flight was on ATSA , a domestic carrier that primarily uses Bombardier 400s, twin turbo prop airframes - one of my favorites.  Once again, very efficient boarding, though it’s been a while since we’ve been bussed out to the tarmac and actually used the stairs for boarding.  Flight time was about 90 minutes.  When the sun came out the views of the Andes were spectacular. 

Good airframe, front and rear loading, bada bing - we're outa here!!

(Randy)  The Chachapoyas Airport is small and rests on a mountain plateau at about 8300ft so the air is a little thin, the runway a little short, and the landing a little more exciting!  It’s all quite casual, walk down the steps, the ground crew is already unloading luggage onto a small trailer that they use like a dolly, they roll the luggage over to the terminal, pile it up by a garage door like entrance, grab your stuff, and go – 20 minutes or so start to finish.

Our driver met us, we loaded up a late model KIA K4 and were on our way to the Gocta Andes Lodge in the small town of Cocachimba about an hour away.  At that point I thought the roads were a little shaky, little did I know . . .our driver was Laver, little English, but probably better than our Espanol.  We arrived around noon, got checked in, and unpacked a bit as we’re spending 4 nights here.  The room was large so we, of course, spread our crap everywhere for easy access.  It overlooks the pool area with a spectacular backdrop of Gocta Falls, the hotel’s namesake.  Here’s a few pics before we trashed it.

This was such a perfect room, functional, comfy, and incredible views

You know the room is a bit large when you need to go panorama to get it all in.

Good TV, but no NFL viewing (or any English speaking) to be found

Obviously the decorator had a thing for the "square" theme, except for the mirror

Gocta Falls from our balcony, upper and lower - about 3 miles away

Nice pool - very cold!

The duel purpose landscaping and security alpacas

Grabbed a light lunch (yeah, right) and went exploring starting with the Gocta grounds.  Everything was in great shape, but not over manicured  – very comfortable.  Lots of birds and even alpacas.  Very nice without being over the top.  It was a bit cloudy so the view of the falls changed by the minute.  By any measure it's an exceptional place.  It is the highest waterfall in Peru and third highest in the world.  It's relatively new as a destination as it didn't become "known" to the outside world until early 2000s.  I suspect, based on the amount of construction going on in the local area, it will soon be a top Peruvian destination.  

After that we headed out to the metropolis of Cocachimba, which is a small town, really more like a village, maybe ¾ of a mile end to end. The streets are dirt, and of course we ran into rain, but it was still nice.  There is a lot of work going on to enhance its ability to support a growing tourism industry.  Murals of Peruvian wildlife is on virtually every building, a few hostels, restaurants, and small stores line the streets and construction is active almost everywhere.  I can only imagine how this place will look in 5 years.

(Kathy)  It was an interesting drive to our hotel through the capitol city of this region, Chachapoyas, and through the countryside winding through the mountain hills and along a river.  This region of Peru (called Amazonas) is beautiful.  You'll probably get tired of my saying that as we're here for 4 more days.  The Gocta Andes Lodge is at the far end of the small town of Cocachimba.  This was to become our favorite hotel of the trip.  It was small, charming, very comfortable, scenic, the staff were very nice and we just loved everything about it.  We quickly unpacked and went to explore the town.  It was raining off and on when we headed out but that quickly turned into a downpour which made navigating the dirt roads interesting. The town, like the lodge, was charming (but with some rough edges) and you could tell the residents were fixing things up anticipating more tourists in the future.  They were putting down cobblestones on some of the dirt roads and there were murals everywhere - I counted over 15 of them.  We wandered around for a couple of hours and then headed back to the hotel after stopping at a small store to get some beer and snacks for the room. 

The screaming metropolis of downtown Cocachimba - very Manhattanish!!

Local convenience store - common pride of ownership everywhere.

So two dogs jump into a taxi . . . .  stop me if you've heard this one!

Typical small Peruvian town square that double as the soccer field

Every town in this area of Peru has horses - serves as transportation and hauling things

Below are my favorite murals or as Randy says "death by murals". Enjoy! 

Not sure how long it took to come up with this clever name!

So, who invited the Cock of the Rock??

(Kathy)  After being a bit cold and wet for the last couple of hours, the hot shower felt great.  This would be the rainiest portion of our trip, though it would only rain off and on and didn't prevent us from doing everything that we wanted to do.  Other than one lunch during a 13 hour day of touring, we had all our meals at the hotel restaurant.  While we were there the hotel was never crowded and we may have had the restaurant to ourselves this first evening.  The food was a mixture of international and Peruvian and everything we had during our stay was excellent.  They had only Peruvian wines and I thought they were quite good.  All their desserts were wonderful and Randy particularly loved their crepes.  

Outdoor dining was a bit of a risk - the weather could literally change in minutes.

Luckily I had a reservation.

Local wines were quite good though I thought the reds better.

Crepes!  Ice Cream!  Somebody stop me!!

(Randy)  We walked around for about 2 hours and headed back to the hotel, of course in the middle of the heaviest rains of the day.  The rooms are not heated (or air conditioned) so drying wet clothes is a bit of a challenge.  Having the larger room is helpful as we could spread stuff everywhere!!

We got cleaned up and headed down to the dining room for dinner - all very casual, just grab a table you like and have a seat.  Wait staff was excellent!  All the meals are included which makes it convenient.  They have a fixed menu with daily specials, a quasi full bar, and inside or outside dining.  Outside dining provides the best views, but this time of year one can freeze one’s cookies off and eating bundled up is seldom a good time. We always had breakfast on the patio and dinner inside.  Remember, it’s early spring here, we’re at 6,500”, and surrounded by mountains that make for early sunsets.  Dinner was good, a variety of Peruvian dishes, and the desserts were very good:  crepes with lot of good crap topped off with vanilla ice cream.  We headed back up to the room and I spent the next 45 minutes in vain trying to find Thursday Night Football, another 15 minutes looking for anything in English; failed again and went to bed.  Very comfy bed!!

3 Oct 25: 

(Randy)  Today’s agenda is a hike to the bottom of the lower Gocta waterfall.  The trail is rated “Arduous” which is really too fancy of a word for death.  We had a tour guide as we are too inept to follow a well-marked trail.  We met our guide, Roger.  I anticipated something a little more Latin and exotic such as Gustavo or maybe even Dario??  The trail head was about a ¼ mile from the lodge so we headed out.  The trail went thru the valley, mostly running along the river.  Our original reservation called for us to go by horseback – nope, that’s not going to happen though I think Roger would have preferred it, especially when he saw us.  Let’s just say he may have been anticipating a somewhat younger version of us.  To his point - so were we!  LOL!

The falls weren't too much higher in elevation than the hotel, but the trail was a collection of ups and downs to the point where you were seldom on level ground.  Many times there were steps which probably makes it easier for most folks, but not so much for us.  Along the way supply caravans of horses and donkeys passed by us carry everything from tourists, supplies for the two small stores along the way, to bags of concrete for the ongoing construction.  All that being said, it was a great, but challenging hike.  Lot’s of terrific views!  We shared the trail with high school students out for the end of year class trip, a few tourists, and construction/maintenance workers. 

We finally made it to end of the trail where it makes a pool from the lower waterfall.  It was incredibly noisy which makes sense when thousand of gallons (okay, we're in Peru, we'll go with liters) are crashing into the pool from a couple thousand feet. 

Roger was a trooper.  He probably could have made it up and back quicker that we made it up, but he was a constant source of knowledge and history about the area or anything else Peru.  We made our way and he advised us that the older gentleman that manned the ticket booth at the trailhead was the original "founder" of the falls and helped hack the first primitive trail to it.  More impressively, he had recently made the hike at age 89!   Here's a pic of him and Beanie.

I was kinda wondering where his right hand might be . . . . just saying.

(Kathy)  Randy took this time elapse video while we were having breakfast this morning on the patio.  You can see Gocta Falls in the background and why they call this a cloud forest.  

(Kathy)  Roger was our guide for today and the next three days.  We couldn't have ask for a better guide and probably got lucky because this was the slow season for tourists. He was born and raised in this area (more about that later), is very knowledgeable about archeology, history, flora and fauna, and knew people everywhere we went.  He has guided everybody from international archeological teams to smooth brains like us. His favorite guiding trips are backpacking trips into the difficult to get to archeological sights in the mountains because even he had not seen some of these sites before - oh to be young again.....but with money to fund this kind of trip too!  It was wonderful to see his enthusiasm.    

I am so glad Randy and Roger convinced me I could do this hike.  Seven years ago when I first started planning this trip, hiking up to Gocta Falls was one of the things at the top of my list of things to do.  It didn't even occur to me I couldn't do it.  But seven years later, with two bad knees, I wasn't as confident.  Some things I read said the hike typically takes 4 to 6 hours, though I'm sure the high school kids did it in less!  We got a later start than we had hoped for, and what with stopping for pictures, listening and watching for birds, resting (me), some rain on and off, it took us 6 hours and we were lucky to get back before dark.  I'm pretty sure we were the last ones off the trail because right behind us was the man who cleans up the trail from trash and horse poop at the end of the day!  As far as birds go, Roger heard a Cock of the Rock, but we never saw it.  Spoiler Alert: We may or may not have seen one of these weirdly beautiful bright red birds later in the trip.   But we did see a huge flock of small green  parrots and an assortment of other birds.  At the beginning of the trail we passed some farms, but it quickly became forest and we passed through both old growth and new growth forest.  We crossed over many beautiful suspension bridges.  The noise and spray of the falls as we got closer and closer was incredible. 

Me and Roger!

Steep terrain and very Jurassic Park feel to it

It looks like she's holding my hand, but it's really just protection!

One of the many suspension bridges

Looking back towards Cocachimba

This is how many people and supplies get up and down the mountain:

Getting closer!!

Below is a good close up video from 300 meters (I am sooo international) or not!

A video to capture just how noisy, windy, wet, and cold it is at the bottom of the falls.

Beanie coming down the homestretch!  She loves it when I video her!  Maybe not . . . . 

4 Oct 25: 

(Kathy)  Roger and our driver picked us up very early this morning as we had a lot of ground to cover.  We headed out to visit both Revash and the Leymebamba Museum.  Lucky for us, we didn't know that most people don't do both of these things in one day.  We talked to a woman in the dining room that night and she said "you did what?!".  It would turn into a 13 hour day but worth it!  Neither of these places are near each other so it meant a lot of time in the car on mostly dirt and gravel roads through the mountains but it was interesting to see the small villages, farms and ranches and the scenery was stunning.  Roger took a detour on the way to Revash to show us some platforms on the side of a hill where houses had been built in the 6th century.  The houses are long gone but the platforms have survived.  Talk about a view from your house! 

Can you see the platforms?

Oh, here they are!

(Kathy)  We then headed to the small town of Yerbabuena known for its Sunday market and it is also the access to the trail that goes up to Revash.  Revash is one of the many cliffside buildings built by the people in this area, long before the Inka arrived, to house their mummies.  It's basically a burial site.  Many of them were destroyed by the Inkas when they arrived in this region; however, a few like Revash are so remote they survived. They look like tiny houses and are too small to hold many mummies but actually most of the mummies were in caves behind the houses.  The mummies are now gone because they were stolen but we will see many mummies in the museum in Leymebamba later today.  Here is a short but excellent article about Revash:    https://www.perunorth.com/revash 

We parked in the town square, where Roger seemed to know everyone.  We made a stop at one of the houses along the road in the village and Roger introduced us to the family and they gave us a tour of the house.  Roger knew we were interested in the raising of guinea pigs and this family raised them in a room attached to their house.  It's a way to make extra money.  They are primarily eaten on special occasions like birthdays, anniversaries, etc.  So cute and so noisy with their high pitched squeaks! No, I could never eat them.

A work horse. Note the "saddle" designed for carrying vs riding

Bedroom, hard packed/stone floors

Second bedroom - same home

Very functional kitchen, propane, running water, electricity, and good space. Yep, I hear HGTV calling!

Beanie's favorite room!  Very noisy w/guinea pigs separated by age/sex for retail.

Home to the richest family in the village.

This kid was fun!  A bit precocious, but lots of energy!

From the outskirts of town it was about 2 hours up the trail to Revash.  We had fantastic views of the valley.  Other than two young women harvesting some trees off the side of the mountain for firewood, we didn't see anyone else on the trail.  Note the rope.  It's used to get up and down the steep hillside and once they have the firewood chopped, to secure and transport.  BTW, that's a machete - not a saw she's handling, with a big smile I might add.  Be very, very nice to her!!

Nobody is this happy chopping firewood!

The trail gets you pretty close to Revash.  It was amazing.  I had read about it but didn't realize you could get this close.  The following video was required to meet OSHA standards.

Little overview video of what's ahead.

Getting closer to the actual tombs.

As we made the next couple of videos, the question kept coming to my simple mind - how did they do this?  Thousands of years ago no less.

    

If you didn't know they were there, I think you could miss them.

Amazing the colors are still holding up.

You can see the art/decorations.

No! No! We're not tourists!  Why do you ask??

(Still Kathy)  We made it back to the car and headed to the town of Leymebamba for a late lunch and to see the very nice little museum there that holds the mummies that didn't get destroyed by the Inkas or taken by the thieves.  It was a 2 hour drive.  I wish we had more time at the museum but we got there only an hour before they closed so had no time to take many pictures or to explore their extensive gardens that have more than 200 different kinds of orchids.  I'm glad we had time to see some of it.  For a small, underfunded museum it was very well done.  The mummies are kept in a temperature controlled room.

(Randy)  To me these pics look like they came out of some horror movie!  It's hard to believe they were once alive so long ago, but are still so recognizable.  I wondered what the significance, if any, of how they are posed might be.

    

(Kathy)  It was another long drive back to the hotel, mostly in the dark.  Now that was interesting through these mountains and with the horses and other animals on the sides of the roads!  The power was out in the town and the hotel when we got back.  Luckily the hotel has a generator and we were able to shower and have dinner before they ran out of gas for the generator.  There was no more gas in the town.  No worries it was time to hit the sheets anyway!  

5 Oct 25: 

(Kathy)  We woke up to a beautiful sunny day but still no power.  We were very glad they use gas for cooking and heating water!  Big day planned - Kuelap Fortress!!  Visiting Kuelap, along with climbing up to Gocta Falls, was a major reason we wanted to visit this region of Peru. The driver and Roger picked us up bright and early for the one hour drive to the small town near Kuelap that has a cable car system that was built by the French in 2017 that takes you up to the ruins.  Prior to that it was an hour and a half bus ride up a dirt road to the ruins.  You can still do the bus ride but why would you!!! We made a new friend at the cable car station.  This sweet little dog is called a Peruvian Inca Orchid.  It's a hairless breed, though obviously this cutie was a mix with her hair tufts.  I was hoping to see this breed on the trip so wanted to spend more time with her but our cable car was waiting.  We would see several more of these dogs later on in the trip but none were as cute or sweet as she was.

UGH!!  Is that your kitty I'm smelling on you??

Beanie is right, this little girl was a sweetie.  Ironically, I ran into another of her breed back in Mesa.  The owner said he has to be real careful with her here as she can easily get sunburned.

Gondola to the top

Here's a time elapsed video of the ride to the top.  Very nice set up, especially when you consider the previous route to the top was by bus on lots of switch backs!!

(Kathy)  Kuelap was built by the Chachapoyas people in 500 AD, so it predates Machu Picchu by 1000 years!  It was permanently occupied until the 1500s.  After that it was abandoned and became covered over by forest.  It wasn't until the mid to late 1900s that serious excavations at the site started.  Today it is visitedprimarily by Peruvian tourists though international tourists are beginning to discover it.  Here's some good info about Kuelap.  https://www.rainforestcruises.com/guides/kuelap-fortress

The first thing you see after you get off the gondola and start climbing the hill towards Kuelap is the tall wall that completely surrounds the fortress. It was part of this wall that collapsed in April 2022 and the site was closed to tourists.  It didn't reopen until 16 months later and repair work on the wall is still going on.   This video shows the trail up the hillside to the top.  Very well done.

Excavated and reconstructed wall of the ruins

Work underway to repair/reconstruct more of the outer wall.

Work in progress site - like a big, 3D jigsaw puzzle.

All these circular walls represent where a family lived.

This design is found throughout Kuelap

More homes. When Kuelap was inhabited there were no trees on the site.

The stone covered "tunnels" were there for the Guinea pigs.

This video is the "Grand House", the home of a very important, high-ranking official.

The excavation is ongoing with a significant portion still to be done.  The video below gives you some idea of what the excavated part looks like now and what is left to do. You really can't see the ruins because they are completely covered over by dirt, plants and trees.

Just a couple crazy kids wondering around, hopelessly lost.

(Kathy)  Roger told us that the village in the foothills of the mountain that Kuelap is built on is his village.  He grew up playing with his friends in and around the ruins.  His great grandmother owned the mountain and much of the surrounding land.  It was passed down to his grandmother and now his mother.  The Peruvian government "took" Kuelap, without compensation to his great grandmother, sometime in the 1900s, it wasn't really clear from what he was telling us exactly when.  But he adequately expressed how unhappy the family was!  And now the government is trying to take more property in the foothills of the mountain.  Hard to know what is fact and what isn't.  There's probably several sides to this story.  Roger's family still lives in the village and they now sell cerviche and souvenirs to the tourists at the base of Kuelap. We met his mother, his uncle and his niece.  Very nice and we could tell they were very proud of Roger, even though they didn't speak English and, well, you know what our Spanish skills are. 

Roger and his mom

Roger, his mom, and his uncle.  Really nice people!

Below Kuelap - lower right, Roger's Mom's home, square house with square courtyard in middle

And as a closing treat, Roger's niece performing her Olympic Trail for the tumbling competition.  She is a real sweetie!

(Kathy)  The drive back to the hotel felt short after yesterdays.  The power was out again when we got back but luckily they had been able to get some gas for the generator and it was running.  It wasn't quite dark yet, so we decided to pack up quickly for our flight tomorrow in case the generator ran out of gas again later this evening.  And it did!  We had another excellent dinner.  It was another incredible day.  Tomorrow morning we fly to Lima and then catch a connection to Cusco.  We leave early so they gave us a large flashlight in case the power is still off and we have to get ready to go in the dark. 

What an amazing 4 days this has been!  We hate to leave.