PowerCycle

04/20 I’m going to miss Cocachimba. What a great place to spend a day. After stopping to chat with a fellow traveler over some coffee I set off. Heading back down was quick and then it was an uneventful, but very scenic trip to the turnoff for Chachapoyas.

Lonely Planet says the paved road bypasses Chachapoyas but that’s not quite right. The road to the turnoff is paved but if you continue on it’s unpaved. The road to Chachapoyas is paved all the way. Getting up here is also twice as far as the ITMB map shows– it’s 10 miles from the junction; not 5. It was tempting to just turn back around after a few miles of endless climbing but I really wanted to have a pizza and there’s supposed to be a good place in town.

I booked 2 nights in the Hostel el Dorado and went shopping for food and more bike tubes. The front tire went flat this morning and I screwed up one of the 2 new tubes so now I have no spares again. I walked around forever but couldn’t find a single bike shop. They also don’t sell coffee creamer of any kind in any of the stores. Had to resort to powdered milk. Ugh.

This is still the greatest town in Peru so far though– there are no moto-taxis here! Not sure why but what a difference it makes. I almost feel safe crossing the streets and it’s so much quieter. This isn’t a touristy place to come visit– its more popular as a base camp for exploring the area. To keep us gringos happy the restaurants are open past 6pm and there are street signs. The locals are also a little more used to seeing gringos so I don’t get stared at as much.

Chachapoyas is also the name of the people who used to inhabit this area before they were conquered by the Incas in the 15th century. They were also called the “People of the Clouds” since they inhabited the cloud forests. There are dozens of ruins in the area but the one I’m heading for when I leave here is the fortified city of Kuélap.

I’m going to leave a different way than how I came in. There’s an old Inca road that looks like it climbs up into the mountains before dropping back down near the village of Tingo where I can hop on a bus to Kuélap.

GPX track