Where is Peru?

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So, with our adventurous spirit in top gear, let's forget about the more well-known Peruvian attractions like Lake Titicaca and Macchu Picchu (after all, they are old-hat compared to what we are about to discover!) and head north to the department (province) of Amazonas in the north-east, close to the border with Ecuador. Our destination is Chachapoyas, the capital of this region - a city with a heavy Spanish influence, characterised by spacious mansions, tiled roofs, lush gardens and beautiful balconies.

The town is very welcoming, and accommodation is rather spartan but cheap. It appears that the hotel that is recommended as coming "closest to international standards" is the Gran Hotel Vilaya. Other hotels include El Danubio, El Dorado and Hostal Residencial Kuelap.

After a good night's rest (which apparently you will really need) the next step is to reach the village of Luya, a 40-minute car journey away (if you came by car) - probably a little longer by local bus. In Luya it is recommended you hire a guide (and donkeys are available too, if you don't trust your feet).

Touring the tombs

Next day you hike into the gorge, prepared for the long, perilous climb up to visit the recently-discovered tombs of the ancient "Cloud Forest" or Sachapuya people.

These remarkable tombs, containing extremely well-preserved mummies estimated at 500 years old, were discovered in November 1996 by a group of ranchers clearing trees. The site was excavated by Sonia Guillen, a Peruvian archaeologist, who has since been studying what appears to have been a flourishing lost culture, conquered by the Inca.

The trail to the site of the tombs is narrow and rises steeply through dense vegetation up the side of the deep gorge. You will also have to make a circuit around the "Lake of the Dead" with its dark waters said to have held some spiritual significance for the Cloud People.

This will bring you to the base of a cliff, and if you look upwards, you will see windows in the stone face. The cliff is usually shrouded in mist, adding to the mysterious atmosphere, and only the very brave will venture to attempt a cliff climb up the sheer, slippery face with the help of ladders made from tree branches. Here you will literally have your head in the clouds, explaining the origin of the "Cloud People" epithet.

Entrance is gained through the roof of each of the mausoleums. Inside, the tomb is about 2.5m high, divided into two log platforms on which several hundred mummies were placed. Many mummies and burial artifacts have been removed by researchers for safe-keeping, but the rest have been tidily arranged by local officials.

When you have had your fill of the mummies, it is time to hike back to Luya - but our adventures are not yet over! Now we are off to enjoy the local colour.

Again a bus ride will take you to Jalca Grande, through the Utcubamba valley, passing picturesque villages. As the bus climbs out of the valley, you will see the conical rooftops of Jalca Grande, where the big attraction is the museum containing relics of the 16th century Spanish priests and Sachapuya ceramics and stone utensils.

From Jalca Grande it is possible to see the imposing ramparts of the Kuelap fortress, but to get closer from here necessitates a four or five-hour climb on foot. The sensible thing to do is to return to Chachapoyas and hire transport to take you there on the new road, recently constructed from the city.

Kuelap, stronghold of the Cloud People, is a megalith of huge dimensions, discovered in 1843 by judge Juan Crisostomo Nieto. Here is a description from an article by Alvaro Rocha:

"The Incas must have had a hard time taking the fortress, because another enormous wall looms inside the first. The only three entrances narrow progressively the further in you go, until they are only wide enough to accommodate a single person, making the attackers easy meat for the defenders."

"However, not everything about Kuelap is monumental; there are circular constructions adorned with friezes showing orchids and trees, giving them an appearance that is at once wild and poetic.

On the southern edge is the "Tintero" (meaning inkwell), the inside of which is shaped like a long-necked bottle. Its walls lean outwards at an impossible gravity-defying angle and a face is carved into the stone at the base. Some claim it was an oracle or an observatory, others that it was used for human sacrifices, while the more fanciful say that a jaguar prowled the bottom, waiting to be thrown a nice fat enemy."

An interesting fact for southern Africans - speculation is rife about the astonishing similarity between Kuelap and the ruins of the ancient Great Zimbabwe!