It´s hard to believe, but we are in the home stretch with our final stop of Cajamarca, before we head to the US! For this final stop in Peru, we decided to get off the usual gringo trail and head to the northern highlands of Peru. It´s supposed to be more laid-back, less touristy, and have excellent Andean food. We hopped on an all-nighter bus heading to Cajamarca from Lima and after a relatively comfortable night (we got to see trailers for the next Star Wars movie, a cooking show in the spirit of Naked Chef, and a dubbed version of About a Boy- it´s not the same without Hugh Grant´s distinctive voice.) we reached Cajamarca.
Cajamarca is best known to be the city where Pizarro (the Spanish conquistador aka murderer) killed the Inca king Atahualpa after kidnapping him, demanding ransom, and faking a promise to release him after the ransom was paid. In fact, what happened is that even though the ransom was paid in full (estimates by our guide were about 6000 kg of gold and about 12,000 kg in silver), the conquistadores ended up killing Atahualpa and setting up a puppet ruler so they could march into Cuzco as ´liberators´.
(On the flip side, I am currently reading a book called ´What If? 2´ which has essays speculating how the world would be different if key historical events had been different. And wouldn´t you know it, there´s an essay on what would have happened if Pizarro hadn´t found potatoes in Peru. Ireland might never have used the potato as a main subsistence crop! )
My first impression of the town was that it was green and wet! In the rainy season, the countryside blooms with tons of different wildflowers, some of which look like they would be home in the Alps. Some of these flowers have adapted to the terrain - for example, the yellow flower on the left now has no stem to protect it from the wind. However, there are no snow-capped mountains- Cajamarca is a mere 2655 meters above sea level.
Like most other colonial cities, the Plaza de Armas 
has a large park in the center with a fountain, topiaried trees and bushes and lots of locals strolling around at all times. Not as crazy in terms of trying to get us to buy handicrafts like it was in Cuzco or Lima. But maybe because it´s low season. In fact, in our three days in Cajamarca, we only saw a few other non-local tourists!
Deciding to skip the churches and focus on more earthly matters, we made our first stop at Los Banos del Inca- a natural hot springs site where Atahualpa was camped when the conquistadores came- hence the name. They have a public pool as well as private cabins where the thermal waters (70C or 158F) are piped in and you can enjoy a lovely spa experience (allowing for the sulpherous smell!) We ended our experience here with a great massage. (By the way, it doesn´t always look like this..I think the artist was going for some ´artsy´photo!)
The next day, we went to Cumbemayo, a large valley area at 3,390 meters dotted with carved water canals that archaeologists trace to a water cult about 2000 years ago. As we drove up and saw the ´rock forests´or what locals call ´frailones´(because the geologic formations resembles pious friars in prayer), my jaw dropped. They towered to a height of 20 meters (65 feet) above us and were marked with petroglyphs and many carvings sacred to the people who once worshipped here. To get through to the water canals, we actually climbed through the rock through a 12 meter pitch black first uphill then downhill tunnel. It was disconcerting, to say the least!! Thoughts of being swallowed up in the rock (ala Picnic at Hanging Rock) kept coming to mind!
But once we were safely out, the scenery dramtically changed. The path we walked upon become grassy-spongy due to the high water table amount. Rock formations seemed to be recognizable as a face (can you find it in the picture above?) , a witch´s hat, or a gigantic conch shell. We could see little caves dotted all through the higher reaches of the formations. According to our guide, these formations came about through tectonic and volcanic movement and rock and lava being pushed up from the earth´s center. And it might sound hokey to say so, but you can definitely feel some vibrations or energies swirling around in the air (let me stress that I felt them. Dev....not so much) .
The channels themselves are well made. The builders created some 90 degree angles and varied the width of the channel to regulate the water flow. Pretty modern of these Pre-Inca peoples!
There´s a huge sacrifical stone carved through with zig-zags - thought to be the place where llamas were sacrificed. Our guide noted that the blood would be carried down the water channels to the crops...good for planting!
On our way back, we noticed some modern-day graffiti by locals that had almost eclipsed the original petroglyphs. Very sad to see that some people can be so ignorant and disrespectful of these amazing archaoelogical finds. (There was no real control of the site, either- which could be good as there were no people trying to drown you in souvenirs) On the other hand, we could see some people going beyond set boundaries and chipping off bits of rock to take with them.
Our final visit around Cajamarca was to the Ventanillas del Combayo (Little Windows of Combayo). It´s about 20 km away from Cajamarca through some amazing winding unpaved roads that provide vistas of the valley and the Chonto River. The ventanillas is a necropolis from 500 years before Christ to 100 years after Christ where those of high social status or rich buried the bones of the dead along with ceramic pots and textiles (representing what would be needed in the afterlife). This site was chosen due to the volcanic rock and the ease of carving out the windows or niches. 
Of the 500 plus windows, most have been looted unfortunately, but luckily they have not been destroyed. It´s quite eerie looking...all the windows face towards the sun in accordance to the religious beliefs of the pre-Inca civilizations. There is a much closer site at Otuzco (about 8 km away) but the site at Combayo is much better preserved, and there is (as we found out) the added thrill of climbing up 300 meters on a wet and often unmarked slippery hillside!
Some of the tombs are so high up, you wonder how the creators got up there! Our guide took us through a sheep pasture, over grassy tussocks, through mud puddles and over large sheer rocks (luckily, we found footholds and handholds easily). He had told us when we booked this tour that not many people come to Combayo, and now I understood why. Defintely not a Sunday stroll! Oh, and on the way down, it started POURING with rain.
Well, that´s it for Peru....and our trip! We´ll be posting some more stuff soon, including our travel tips on RTW travel and also stuff about our favorite places and more. Stay tuned!
-Smruti
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