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After 60km of comfortable cycling in the valley of Río Utcubamba, I arrived in the early afternoon Tingo, the „basecamp“ for visits of Kuélap, the famous fortress of the ancient Chachapoyas culture. This culture dominated the Amazonas region from 800 to about 1300 AD when the Incas conquered, assimilated and transformed it. Its main residues are round stone towers, the Kuélap site itself counts about 450 remaining ruins, living space for about 3000 persons.
It was already too late for the climb to the mountain top at 3000m, so I visited the ruins of Macro instead: a rather well-conserved settlement at a steep mountain side whose location was indicated to me by my landlord Luis. A wild river crossing, no signs at all, just a small path traversing cactus groves to these completely relinquished ruins. Eye-catching the typical decorations, proving an amazing sense of proportion. Walking around, I spotted little caverns in the hillslope: as later explained to me, these served as tombs, but some of them as well as tunnels to the other hill side.
Early the next morning, before sunrise, I set off for the 2,5 hours climb by 1200m to the main archaeological site. I won’t ever forget the moment when out of the clouds the main fortress wall appeared. Apart from the lonely guard, there was no one else, and I enjoyed three hours of absolute silence, alone with the wind and the stones, surrounded by red, steep rugged mountains covered by sunny spots. Nature had recaptured the site where formerly life with all its placeres y sufrimientos took place, living towers, assembly houses, market place, and a seemingly quite elaborated water infrastructure (el tintero). The work of generations, carving stones and stacking them with a paste of loam, sand, chalk and the juice of tuna, a cactus plant. I stood wondering what will be left in a thousand years of our sophisticated civilisation.