Finally, the outstanding notes on Kuelap, the site outside Chachapoyas where it took me 48 hours on the bus to get there. Was it worth it?
As you may have noticed, I like the mountains more compared to the jungle. So, if I had a choice of being 3000 m up in the mountains or 3000 m in the jungle - NO DOUBT would choose the first one. And therefore the Kuelap ¨fortress¨ standing on the top of a mountain at 3000 m altitude was nice. Not just nice, but magnificent.
Some historic data (which you can read on the web anyway): it was supposedly built in 12th century, way before Incas, constructed on the top of the hill, stretching 1,5 km from South to North, and having maximum widths of 120 m. The settlement is surrounded by a murall structure of about 19 m high, and inside you can see bases of houses.
While we all (the group we went with) agreed that there is yet lots of work to be done to see what it really was, we also agreed that is was very nice to get up to and to see it before all the restorative work is finished. Basically, as more and more things are excavated and researched on the South side of the settlement, it starts appearing that the site was not only a fortress as it was believed in the beginning, but had also a religious meaning. It still remains to see whether they had water supplies for storing rain water, but appears that there were no elaborate water supply systems, so everything had to be carried from the spring much lover. My guess is though, that once the achologists get deeper into the exploration work, they will find more and more that is at the moment only left to speculations and imagination, and the culture may appear more elborate than what it seems now.
At first it seems like Chacha culture was not that elaborate, only few ornaments were found on some houses and on some stones, neither they had very elborate terrace system for agriculture, but the way things are built, the round shapes of the houses indicate they were extremely good architechts, and constructed in a way that earthquakes did not damage their structures much. So, in short - see the pictures (the link that we posted earlier) and when I get time I may put comments to those. And, if you like mountains you will like the site.
What else? - well, dont go there without a giude, or if you dont have a guide, read before and prepare for extensive use of your imagination. As said, the work there remanins for some 10-15 years ahead, and imagination is needed.
The question of whether it was a fortress or a religious city, or just a regular city, yet remains to be answered, but it was clear that one could only enter the ¨fortress - settlement¨ through 3 narrow entrances between the walls as high as 19 meters. From a defense point of view, very well designed. What we could not get, was how Incas conquered it. Guess it was water supplies that faded, but that we will have to read up somewhere. Incas however did not stay there long, only some 50-60 years, then the Spanish came. This had helped to retain own languages, while Incas did try to impose use of Kechua. Thus, there are sites that are in Chacha languages, but nobody knows thier meaning.
This was also the place where I learned about Inca strategies in conquered cities and lands... Gosh, they were war criminals! (By current standards). Basically, they entered the place, took some 50% of population and sent them over to another territory, thus extinguishing the languages, local habits and traditions, and imposing Kechua as only language, by moving own people to live there. Strategioes seem very familiar.... Did Stalin study that? Now we would call it genocide, since it was done with purpose to extinguish other populations, and guess some of the 20th century leaders really took example of that.
Another discussion Karlis had with the guide was, how Spaniards, led by Pizarro and only 160-170 men could conquer all the area?! They had the suppressed nations on thier side - all of those who did not like Incas and they were also lucky to capture the main Inca guy in Cajamarca immediately that saved them much fighting. Must be many other factors, but wont go into that discussion, just remain saying that it is rather incredible, but it happened.
What is interesting, the people in Chacha look different. Incas did not leave much of genetics there, so people are relatively tall, and with lighter skin. Now of course the mixture is greater, but we did not see many ¨andian¨features. Those will of course increase we head to Machu Pichu, the Inca headquarters.
Another site we passed, but did not enter was a Chacha cemetery. They had a tradition of bussying people, then later taking thier bones and reburrying the walls of the houses in Kuelpa, or leaving in the cemetery. And, we are talking of a cemetery on a cliff! Since the structure of mountains here is less stone more mud, they did extensions-platforms on the ¨cliffs¨made of mud, stone and who knows what, since they still stand! When you see all the mudslides and road blocks, I would think the road constructors would have to analyse the contents of the burial site platforms to use the same mixture for fortifying the sides of the mountains when they dig out a road... But, that would be too much ¨long term¨thinking. So far we have noticed too mcuh short term thinking, but have to admit that resources seem to be scarse, despite abundance of natural resources! Good governance maybe would be useful...
BUt, back to the cemetery - that was also¨round houses¨ on the extended platforms and built the same way as the houses in Kuelap. View from afar was great, but unfortunately, we were late in dropping off one of our coturists for the bus and did not go up there. This only means, I have a reason to return, as there were many things left unseen.
As for myself, I think the factors that contributed to liking Kuelap very much were, among other things, the process of 48 hours getting there, learning to know people, and also the process of getting to Kuelap itself from Chachapoyas. Supposedly it takes 3 hours, but with my luck it took more, as usual... We happened to see another rumbo... or road block. This time not mud, but stones (with some mud of course), and we had to climb over it.
The road goin up in the mountains was not the widest or best built one, so having parts of the road almost distroyed, was of no surprise anymore. And since the road ended in Kuelap, it was also fun to see 2 taxies (we guessed - from Chachapoyas), who were stuck on the other side of the road block and could serve the rote ¨roadblock - Kuelap¨ for something like 5 days until they would clear the way for them to return to the city. Guess it was good business for them, since it seemed there was sufficient traffick of people and not only of tourists, but also peopl living in the 4-3 villages that were between the Kuelap and the road block, and no transportation.
We were also contemplating whether falling down the slopes would hurt or not?... Sure, our conclusion was that while it is not that steep, there was practically no trees or other stronger vegetation examples that would allow to hold onself in one place, and therefore the fall would be if not lethal, then would definitely hurt. And, with that conclusion we remained certain that none of us would like to try it. Even less so in the car, so at one point of our ¨roadblock - Kuelap¨ driving part, we actually had to get out of the car to the guy can drive over another mud+stone pile, while we walked over it. This of course can not compete with Karlis walking from Ecuador borded to San Ignacio where he lost his shoe in the mud, but was enough adventure for me. At least we are told that further south where we are heading , the roads are supposed to be better, and so we hope.
Agh, and on our way back from Kuelap, on that roadblock where we changed cars we met a cuople that was sitting on our last row in the Lima - Chacha bus, and one more girl. They were to rech 72 hours by the time they got to Kuelap. Guess also an adventure for them, as they were not doing the Chacha - Lima trip more than once-twice a year.
Here we finish with history, and more stories on Incas and their conquests will follow as we are heading south.
As you may have noticed, I like the mountains more compared to the jungle. So, if I had a choice of being 3000 m up in the mountains or 3000 m in the jungle - NO DOUBT would choose the first one. And therefore the Kuelap ¨fortress¨ standing on the top of a mountain at 3000 m altitude was nice. Not just nice, but magnificent.
Some historic data (which you can read on the web anyway): it was supposedly built in 12th century, way before Incas, constructed on the top of the hill, stretching 1,5 km from South to North, and having maximum widths of 120 m. The settlement is surrounded by a murall structure of about 19 m high, and inside you can see bases of houses.
While we all (the group we went with) agreed that there is yet lots of work to be done to see what it really was, we also agreed that is was very nice to get up to and to see it before all the restorative work is finished. Basically, as more and more things are excavated and researched on the South side of the settlement, it starts appearing that the site was not only a fortress as it was believed in the beginning, but had also a religious meaning. It still remains to see whether they had water supplies for storing rain water, but appears that there were no elaborate water supply systems, so everything had to be carried from the spring much lover. My guess is though, that once the achologists get deeper into the exploration work, they will find more and more that is at the moment only left to speculations and imagination, and the culture may appear more elborate than what it seems now.
At first it seems like Chacha culture was not that elaborate, only few ornaments were found on some houses and on some stones, neither they had very elborate terrace system for agriculture, but the way things are built, the round shapes of the houses indicate they were extremely good architechts, and constructed in a way that earthquakes did not damage their structures much. So, in short - see the pictures (the link that we posted earlier) and when I get time I may put comments to those. And, if you like mountains you will like the site.
What else? - well, dont go there without a giude, or if you dont have a guide, read before and prepare for extensive use of your imagination. As said, the work there remanins for some 10-15 years ahead, and imagination is needed.
The question of whether it was a fortress or a religious city, or just a regular city, yet remains to be answered, but it was clear that one could only enter the ¨fortress - settlement¨ through 3 narrow entrances between the walls as high as 19 meters. From a defense point of view, very well designed. What we could not get, was how Incas conquered it. Guess it was water supplies that faded, but that we will have to read up somewhere. Incas however did not stay there long, only some 50-60 years, then the Spanish came. This had helped to retain own languages, while Incas did try to impose use of Kechua. Thus, there are sites that are in Chacha languages, but nobody knows thier meaning.
This was also the place where I learned about Inca strategies in conquered cities and lands... Gosh, they were war criminals! (By current standards). Basically, they entered the place, took some 50% of population and sent them over to another territory, thus extinguishing the languages, local habits and traditions, and imposing Kechua as only language, by moving own people to live there. Strategioes seem very familiar.... Did Stalin study that? Now we would call it genocide, since it was done with purpose to extinguish other populations, and guess some of the 20th century leaders really took example of that.
Another discussion Karlis had with the guide was, how Spaniards, led by Pizarro and only 160-170 men could conquer all the area?! They had the suppressed nations on thier side - all of those who did not like Incas and they were also lucky to capture the main Inca guy in Cajamarca immediately that saved them much fighting. Must be many other factors, but wont go into that discussion, just remain saying that it is rather incredible, but it happened.
What is interesting, the people in Chacha look different. Incas did not leave much of genetics there, so people are relatively tall, and with lighter skin. Now of course the mixture is greater, but we did not see many ¨andian¨features. Those will of course increase we head to Machu Pichu, the Inca headquarters.
Another site we passed, but did not enter was a Chacha cemetery. They had a tradition of bussying people, then later taking thier bones and reburrying the walls of the houses in Kuelpa, or leaving in the cemetery. And, we are talking of a cemetery on a cliff! Since the structure of mountains here is less stone more mud, they did extensions-platforms on the ¨cliffs¨made of mud, stone and who knows what, since they still stand! When you see all the mudslides and road blocks, I would think the road constructors would have to analyse the contents of the burial site platforms to use the same mixture for fortifying the sides of the mountains when they dig out a road... But, that would be too much ¨long term¨thinking. So far we have noticed too mcuh short term thinking, but have to admit that resources seem to be scarse, despite abundance of natural resources! Good governance maybe would be useful...
BUt, back to the cemetery - that was also¨round houses¨ on the extended platforms and built the same way as the houses in Kuelap. View from afar was great, but unfortunately, we were late in dropping off one of our coturists for the bus and did not go up there. This only means, I have a reason to return, as there were many things left unseen.
As for myself, I think the factors that contributed to liking Kuelap very much were, among other things, the process of 48 hours getting there, learning to know people, and also the process of getting to Kuelap itself from Chachapoyas. Supposedly it takes 3 hours, but with my luck it took more, as usual... We happened to see another rumbo... or road block. This time not mud, but stones (with some mud of course), and we had to climb over it.
The road goin up in the mountains was not the widest or best built one, so having parts of the road almost distroyed, was of no surprise anymore. And since the road ended in Kuelap, it was also fun to see 2 taxies (we guessed - from Chachapoyas), who were stuck on the other side of the road block and could serve the rote ¨roadblock - Kuelap¨ for something like 5 days until they would clear the way for them to return to the city. Guess it was good business for them, since it seemed there was sufficient traffick of people and not only of tourists, but also peopl living in the 4-3 villages that were between the Kuelap and the road block, and no transportation.We were also contemplating whether falling down the slopes would hurt or not?... Sure, our conclusion was that while it is not that steep, there was practically no trees or other stronger vegetation examples that would allow to hold onself in one place, and therefore the fall would be if not lethal, then would definitely hurt. And, with that conclusion we remained certain that none of us would like to try it. Even less so in the car, so at one point of our ¨roadblock - Kuelap¨ driving part, we actually had to get out of the car to the guy can drive over another mud+stone pile, while we walked over it. This of course can not compete with Karlis walking from Ecuador borded to San Ignacio where he lost his shoe in the mud, but was enough adventure for me. At least we are told that further south where we are heading , the roads are supposed to be better, and so we hope.
Agh, and on our way back from Kuelap, on that roadblock where we changed cars we met a cuople that was sitting on our last row in the Lima - Chacha bus, and one more girl. They were to rech 72 hours by the time they got to Kuelap. Guess also an adventure for them, as they were not doing the Chacha - Lima trip more than once-twice a year.
Here we finish with history, and more stories on Incas and their conquests will follow as we are heading south.
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