Amazonas : Chachapoyas
Chachapoyas
Chachapoyas is a city in Amazonas.
Get in
- Movil_Tours[1] has direct buses Lima/Chachapoyas that pass through & leave Chiclayo. Also a nightly service from Trujillo (4pm) and Chiclayo (7pm and 8pm) & arrive in Chachapoyas around 5am. CIVA three times a week from Lima and nightly from Chiclayo. Transervis Kuelap and Transportes Zelada both have nightly buses from Chiclayo.
A more arudous route takes 2 days from Vilcabamba & Zumba in Ecuador [2] crosses the frontier at Balsas & goes via San Ignacio to Chachapoyas. You can also arrive from Tarapoto to the east. Getting down from the buses in Pedro Ruiz and catching local transport for the final leg up to Chachapoyas. Movil Tours also runs a three times a week service from Cajamarca. This is a spectacular road to travel and in a big bus definitely not for the faint hearted.
Get around
There are kombis daily & taxis from Chachapoyas to Kuelap, Leymebamba and Luya. Most leave from their respective stations 2 to 3 blocks from the main square.
See
- Kuelap - largest ancient stone structure in South America.
- Karajia - anthropormorphic sarcophagi built on a narrow cliff ledge.
- Revash - cliff tombs that look like small houses with many pictographs.
- Museum of Leymebamba - houses and cares for 219 mummies and thousands of artifacts recovered from cliff tombs in 1997.
- Gran Vilaya - a popular trekking route through cloud forest.
- Tajopampa - cliff tomb sites.
- Precolombianworld[3]has interesting links.
- Gocta the world´s 3rd tallest waterfall. And Yumbilla a huge cascade.
Do
There are many agencies and guides available, and trekking offers from the 1 day trip to Gocta (a 6h walk there and back) to a 4-5 days trip visiting other archaeological sites. Turismo Explorer[[4]] does day trips and a trek to Gran Vilaya. Vilaya Tours[[5]] higher end tours and treks all around the Chachapoyas area.
Tourist Week is the first week in June, with a large parade from many villages of all the provinces of Amazonas participatng on the Sunday. Lot's of traditional clothes and customs to be seen.
The Patron Saint of Chachapoyas is the Virgin of Asunta and they celebrate the fesitval in her honor during the first two weeks of August.
Buy
Eat
Drink
Sleep
Get out
There are kombis to Kuelap & Leimebamba daily. There are buses twice weekly from Leimebamba to Celendín, & several daily from there to Cajamarca & from there back to the coast. This means that it may take more than three days to get from Chachapoyas to Cajamarca. A kicker way is to go from Chachapoyas to Chiclayo (arriving at about 4 am) and then getting a Bus at 6am to Cajamarca (6h). Beware of robbers at Chiclayo Bus station!
This page was last edited at 00:41, on 17 March 2009 by Rob Dover. Based on work by David, Stacy Hall and Colin Jensen, Wikitravel user(s) TrujilloPeru and Anonymous user(s) of Wikitravel.