EMERGENCE
Ripstop coccoon
Like butterflies, we emerge from our ripstop cocoon. The feint Sun peers at us reluctantly, and decides to let her evil cousins The Clouds lead the day. It rains. Well, at 3000 metres we’re effectively living in The Clouds home territory anyway, so what can we expect. Looking around, we find we’re in an area we have long wanted to explore… there are remains of Chachapoyan house platforms pock-marking the hillsides, and the bold tiger-stripes of ancient agricultural terraces cross every slope.
Since ’97 we have passed through this patch 6 times and marveled at how huge the population must have been in the area, but always we have had another destination in mind so have carried on. But not today. We have Porridge Courage. Our staple highland breakfast (which incidentally makes Rob wretch at every gloopy mouthful) has inspired us to start our work right here and now; our very first GPS mapping session of (to quote a rather dull phrase) sites of archaeological interest.
- Rob would rather eat manure, but it doesnt have the carbs!
also see video ‘Rob Hates Porridge’ above.
The Dark
Thank heavens for technology or curse it? A few years ago in the days of rubbish head-torches and 1 hour batteries, we would have slept in a stable. (Yup that’s what we have done… Rob gets the manger). But tonight our legs our twitchy. Our combined LED lighting power is something like 200 lumens!!! So we don our packs in front of a completely bewildered village Plaza of children involved in some candlelit festival, and we stride off to shouts of “Good Morning” and “My Name Is” (English they have learned in school).
The head torches are brilliant. Mine is a Petzl RXP with a flip-diffuser, Rob’s a Kathmandu 1.5w XP-E Cree. (for the tech minded out there)
For 2 hours we trudge through the dark along an ancient Inca trail. Sometimes the full moon is unobscured and we switch off and walk by moonlight… an eerie but beautiful experience. At 11pm, after a wholly uphill evening, we find a flat area near the trail and camp is made. Our first night-hike has been good. A shame that dinner is just a square of flapjack!
How To (not) Enjoy the Scenery
Pedal to the Metal
Our trip starts with a 6 hour drive from Chachapoyas to X. The longest straight stretch of road must last about 22 feet, the tarmac is over before it’s begun, Rob drives at a speed more suited to the M4, and part of the car is, he informs me, falling off. Adding to that he warns me that Bandits can lurk on these roads at night, looking for someone carrying a $500 roll up solar panel.
Rob thinks it's a DeLorean
I keep the machete at my feet and a few Peruvian Soles in my hand, thinking somehow I will be able to do a Jason Bourne, and chuck the money at the armed robbers to distract them from my swishing blade. We get to our destination safely. It’s 9pm.
The First Time to Jagged Horizon
In 1997 during my first month in Chachapoyas, I read a locally written guidebook about the area. In one section it mentioned a range of mountains where twelve planes had supposedly crashed and hence believed to be like a Bermuda Triangle of the Andes. Nick being mad about anything that flies was coming out to see me and these mountains according to the topo map were high and rugged and far from any roads so a hike to these parts seemed a perfect place for an adventure.
Strangely the name of the mountain range translated from the quechua name means Where Birds Die. Was there any connection between feathered birds dying and man made metal birds “dying”? Continue reading →
Rob writes:
Nick arrived in Pedro Ruiz with an enormous bag of camping, of gadgets and camera gear (more about those later). Both of us are fired up for yet another trek in to the mountains to the east. We are past our prime and we have had to train hard to get the fitness we know the mountains demand.
Short intensive workouts have followed, getting ready for a heavy pack as we walk where no horses (can) go. In the evenings, digitizing videos we took in the same area, from the days when I still had hair and Nick had to have a brick tied around his neck to slow him down. One longer day to Tajopampa (again more later) an area surrounded by cliff tombs and ancient Chachapoya settelements – that day we got try out not only the camera/video gear but also our new head torches as finished walking down in the dark.
Now making the final preparations because today we head out for a quick trip to our favourite area. This forms part of the adventure objectives of mapping and exploration that we will do in the area in general.
