Forgotten through time, ancient Kuelap in Peru an ethereal escape
Forgotten through time, ancient Kuelap in Peru an ethereal escape
MELANIE CHAMBERS
KUELAP, PERU — Special to The Globe and Mail
Published Thursday, Jun. 02, 2016 3:28PM EDT
Last updated Thursday, Jun. 02, 2016 3:58PM EDT
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Matched in grandeur only by the Machu Picchu, the ruined citadel city of Kuelap is made up of milions of cubic feet and
stones. (Rafal Cichawa)
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The taxi climbs endless switchbacks until we’re level with the clouds. Then, after a two-kilometre walk to a breathless elevation of 3,000 metres, I’m a speck against the ancient and dramatic 20-metre-high stone walls of Kuelap, dubbed the Machu Picchu of the North.
Not much is known about the mysterious ruins or the Chachapoyas, the Cloud Warriors, who lived here in the northern Andes almost 800 years before the Incas.
Feeling like the walls are closing in as I walk through the narrow west entrance, I pass under giant red bromeliad flowers and twisted mossy trees busting through the stones. The site was discovered in 1843 – abandoned after the Incas conquered the Chachapoyas before the Spanish arrived. Much of it was damaged by poor water drainage, fires and wind erosion.
In 2004, Kuelap was put on the World Monuments Watch list. Much of the ruins in the region are steadily deteriorating and still unknown to travellers – even to locals, as I discover.
Bookended by a rain forest to the east and a canyon to the west, this unrestored and quiet area, part cloud forest and part tropics, is like a new world for a lover of unusual and distinctive places. But that will soon change. In July (local workers predict that it will be more like October), the region will open a high-speed gondola from the village of Tingo Nuevo. It will take 20 minutes to reach Kuelap, compared with the current hour-and-half drive or four-hour hike.
More:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/travel/forgotten-through-time-ancient-kuelap-in-peru-an-ethereal-escape/article30248270/