Chachapoyas is very near a lovely deep canyon called Sonche, which is spectacular. Yesterday morning we got up early and took a 3 sol ($1.25?) shared ride with other locals to the town of Huancas, which is a very traditional town which has preserved the tile roofs over the adobe. Exquisite. nothing at all there to do or buy, nothing at all, so we had prepared by having breakfast in our local market in Chacha and buying some rolls, cookies and my favorite chocolate bar with peanuts which is called Sublime. Because of the rains and it being sunday we were not quite sure how long it would take to be back and we needed to be back by 12 to get a ride up to the higher mountain town, Levanto, where we would be staying the night. so we chose the shorter of 2 hikes from Huancas, out to the lookout. Luckily, we got lost! I love the back streets if you can call them that of these spread out andean towns. the little houses are widely spread and there are lots of fields and animal life. Sheep with babies, cows, many puppies and kittens. remarkably few people, I get the feeling mostly the older folks are populating the villages now and lots of women with small kids.
anyway, the area is lovely. the stone walled fields are full of cabbages and potatoes and root crops, and are sometimes lined with tall eucalyptus trees, there are some low bushes that fill the fields that have been let go, there are very pretty wildflowers everywhere. and the canyon is SOOOO deep with waterfalls.
We had a great surprise when we got back to town. it´s been raining and the hilly streets are coated with thin wet goo so our shared car was having a time, trying to go up the hill. it stopped next to a courtyard of the local university, the streets were PACKED with young students in funny costumes getting ready for a parade in honor of the ten year anniversary of this university (Chachapoyas is a regional capital but has only had good road access for about 20 years). It teaches dentistry, nursing, surgical nursing, engineering, things like that. the floats included fake surgeries, staffed by the nurses, giant teeth, staffed by the higienists, but als o lots of people in traditional costumes, bullfighter costumes, fake machines, clowns, and, there wer some fabulous peruvian paso horses. The parade was around the square with lots of speeches and flags and cheering. really fun.
at noon we met one of the local men from the village of Levanto who we had arranged with to take us up, again in a shared car with locals, up to Levanto. Levanto is a tiny town at the intersection of a few ancient roads, which the Spaniards tried to use as a capital but it was too cold and high for them! now it is mostly left to its original quechua speaking residents. nowadays, according to our hotel´s manager, a sweet shy single mom of two named Juana, they mainly speak a mix of the two languages! the spanish is hard to understand and lots of quechua words thrown in. its the usual town with plaza and old church but it spills down a hillside and there are some very nice wide trails coming through the town. you quickly can walk on these roads out into the forests and fields. the vegetation is tropical, ferns, long grasses, lots of flowers, lots of bromeliads and orchids in the trees.
although young folks wear western clothes many of the older folks wear the unusual hats, ponchos and skirts that used to characterize the highlands. And they are shy, but very friendly. in the next town over, a canadian anthropologist had the men in the town re-create one of the original Chachapoyan round houses with conical roofs and they are proud of it. it´s beautiful and eerie. our little hotel was built by foreigners but is basically two of these round houses, one containing little, but very classy bedrooms and one with a nice bathroom and kitchen combination with a dining room around a fireplace. the hotel also has little flagstone paths and lots of flowers and hummingbirds. it is enclosed by a stone fence so a little private but you can look out over the rest of the town. and apparently, all very safe! we didn´t get a key to our room and it didn´t matter anyway, as the manager was always out playing with her two elementary kids and a lot of the other kids in town. ball sports are big, probably cause there is little else to do! but there are radios and cell phones and people obviously like to live here and are having fun. until 25 years ago there was no road other than the old, wide, but steep inca trails. we really enjoyed xploring these and talking with the older women who would be coming along with a big load of firesticks on their backs accompanied by their little puppies who were quite friendly. there did not seem to be a nasty dog in the place! and there are lots of sheep, horses (horses Everywhere!, cows chickens, turkeys, ducks and small kids. we visited the combination grocery stoor-bar, which is a dirt floored adobe building on the square - bought a large Pilsen beer and she was surprised we didn´t want to stay and drink it there with the two rather soused men but we went and enjoyed it sitting on our stone steps watching the full moon rise and gazing around at the phenomenally deep river canyons in front of us. Life on the hillsides in the cloudforest is really lovely.
I think, this is a picture of our little Levanto hotel... we are the only guests...
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