One of the full-day activities to do from the city of Chachapoyas is organizing a visit to the Fortress of Kuelap. The fortress, built by the chachapoyas indigenous people (a.k.a. warriors of the clouds) back in the 6th century BC, lies on the top of a huge hill close to the villages of Maria and Tingo. In the past, getting to the site was a long journey (2h+ on poor dirt roads) but the recent construction of a gondola service has made the trip much more pleasant.
Initially, when we heard about “Kuelap” being the second Macchu Picchu in Peru we were kind of wondering why we never heard this name before. Huge fortress, relatively cheap entrance ticket, not-so-hard to reach and low tourism: isn’t that the perfect backpacker cocktail? After all, it took us exactly something like 10 seconds to figure out that the trip was the bestseller in town!
Nevertheless, if you like us cannot afford (or don’t want) to spend 80 soles (25$/20€) for a tour, don’t you worry: doing by yourself is pretty easy!
Chachapoyas colectivo terminal
On the way to Nuevo Tingo
Our adventure starts on a relatively freezing morning, just after a lazy taxi ride from our hostel, at the colectivo terminal on Calle Triunfo. Here we are, waiting for a colectivo to Nuevo Tingo (and not just Tingo) that should theoretically drop us off right in front of the ticket office for the gondolas. Even though the taking the gondola (20 soles/pp return) might be quite expensive, by many we were told that the hike up from Tingo (or Tingo Viejo) would have been long (3-4h) and under the scorching sun so for today: very little hiking.
Nuevo Tingo central plaza
After 5min minutes a colectivo pull in the terminal and some guy starts shouting “Nuevo Tingo” and “Kuelap” at different speeds, making sure that even all the non-spanish speaking tourists understand him. Thankfully, this morning there’s just a few of us and the van fills up quickly with some other locals going in that direction (fare at 7 soles/pp). An awful dirt road, several stops due to roadworks, many bumps but we finally arrive at the gondola ticket office Nuevo Tingo after 1h30min (usually takes more or less 1h).
Now, as mentioned before, back in the past tourist had to go all the way to Maria village and then take a short trek (or keep driving if on tour) until the site entrance at 2300m but the gondola has take away 1h of driving on shitty roads in exchange for a breathtaking (and pretty scary) 20min ride up the side of the mountain. The facilities are pretty new and buying the gondola ticket also include the small bus ride form the ticket office to the actual gondola station (a.k.a Andean 1) 10min up the road.
Ready to tackle the fortress
Once arrived at the top (Andean 2), we see that for the fortress there’s still work to do. In fact, the gondola drops you off at a small touristy center where you can visit the museum, go to the bathrooms, take some food/water or take in the views of the surroundings. Here is also where you pay your 20 soles entrance ticket.
To reach the fortress, we set off on an uphill path that after a short but sweaty 15-min walk brings right in the front of the fortress impressive outer walls. At a first impression, the place looks much bigger than we thought! The walls are about 10m tall and we have yet to see the inside: expectations are high!
Another short walk around the walls bring us to Access 2, one of the two ways to enter the site, which has currently become the “official” entrance as long as works are going on at the third more scenic Access 3.
Around the Pueblo
As expected, the fortress or Pueblo is spread over a huge area that covers nearly all of the hill is standing on. Amazing! We take a left on the path and end up at the Templo Mayor (you cannot get to the Plataforma sur anymore) which give us the first taste of the beauty of Kuelap ruins. TIP: the path to the temple is a cul-de-sac but make sure to visit it cause you won’t have another chance later on.
Unfortunately, due to late discovery, bad weather and little budget funds, most of the structures in Pueblo Bajo (southern part) are in a bad shape but this is not the case for Pueblo Alto (norhtern part where the richest people used to live).
In Pueblo Alto is where most of the decorations, patterns and houses have remained intact (or have been/are being restored). Needless to say, that this really deserves to be compared to Macchu Picchu! And the views: no wonder they were called “Warriors of the clouds”.
Trying to take in the views and the spectacular ruins is not as enjoyable when you figure out that 90% of the site’s tourist spend nearly all of their time chilling in this spot. But it is not until we reach Torreon Norte (the last stop on our 1h30min inside-the-fortress walk) that we really appreciated the beauty of Kuelap. Here, by standing on our tip toes and looking back on the Pueblo Alto, we have an awfully gorgeous view over this past culture.
What a place, what a history: the silver medal for Peru’s best archaeological site is well-deserved!
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