Trujillo to Cajamarca

Thursday March 6th 2007, Chachapoyas, Peru

We made it! Stewart and I successfully made it over the course of the past three days from Trujillo to Cajamarca, Celendin, Leymebama, Maria, Kuelap, and now we have bedded down for the night in Chachapoyas Peru. It has been a long, fun, hot, sunburn, tired, and scenic four days and I dont even know where to begin, as this is the first time I have found internet since I left Cajamarca on Monday.

I think I am going to go back and post my journal entry for the bus ride from Trujillo to Cajamarca on Sunday:

11:30 a.m. March 2nd 2008

Despite having a wealth of Pre-Inca culture in Trujillo, and a few sights nearby, Stewart and I knew we had to move on if we hoped to make it over the Andes in time and into Peru for our flight on the 13th out of Quito (will explain later). So, we bought tickets Sunday morning for a bus to Cajamarca leaving at 11:30am that morning, the same morning we arrived at 6:00 am from Lima.

Nonetheless, Trujillo was an incredibly neat town for about 5 hours, and the colourful colonial coastal architecture we found here was like no other. (see earlier blog, pictures to come as soon as I find a fast internet connection next Tuesday in Quito)

When you think of Peru, you think of the Inca race, jungles, Alpacas, and maybe the rainforests, but to generalize it in this way is to call California just a land of sunny beaches, suburban sprawl, and L.A. smog. We found this out for ourselves as we left Trujillo. We had come into the city at night, so we didn’t realize that in addition to being a coastal town, Trujillo was firmly planted in the middle of the driest desert this side of the Sahara. If it were not for the poverty and the Hispanic culture of the people we passed, we could have just as easily been in southern New Mexico. The mountains in the distance of this vast sea of sand actually reminded me of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains in northern New Mexico.

Stretching out for an eternity, after two hours of driving from Trujillo we finally began to climb into the sandy hills we had seen in the distance. The brown bushes that dotted the landscape and rushed past my window gradually began to gain color. The valley narrowed and from the bottom a flood plain of green grew around the river we were following up into the hills. It now blanketed the valley floor and inched up the sides of the hills.

About halfway along the trip, the river we had been following inland from the desert emerged from the bottom of a giant hydraulic dam. The dam formed the base of a semi-alpine desert lake that expanded across the hills bridging the gap of miles of land. This lake set against the backdrop of still rocky and barren hills was about as out of place as the two gringos travelling inland into northern Peru.

The lake gave way to the river feeding it and the green grew back around the floor of the valley, and now the hills too were covered with a thin green flora. From a distance the green was the same green of any plant life you could find at home, but up close the bushes and trees were not exactly the same ones you knew and had grown up with; they are slightly foreign and out of place.

Just as soon as this forest emerged from the desert, it was obscured by the afternoon rain clouds descending from above. The road continued to climb into the mountains, hugging the sides while we stared off into the foggy abyss.

The clouds cleared by the time we reached Cajamarca, just in time for us to watch a purple sunset behind the hills of this alpine outpost of a town. As the sun set, the lights were turned on throughout the city, bathing it in the orange sulphur glow characteristic of most Peruvian cities at night. Above the city, a giant statue of Jesus with open hands was lit and looked down on the people below.

Already we could feel the altitude, and at 8,000 feet, this city defined the beginning of the true Sierrian Andes. After a pizza and sangria, and a visit to the local club, we called it a night and prepared to head for Celendin on Monday.

Blog point:
1.) Only here in Peru does a pizza with pepperoni cost much more than any other pizza on the menu. Apparently it is hard to get pepperoni here!