The cathedral in the main plaza

The stairway up to the church on the hilltop in Cajamarca

Looking down on the city at sunset

The cathedral in the main plaza at night

The rock spires near Cumbe Mayo

The rock spires near Cumbe Mayo

The rock spires near Cumbe Mayo

The rock spires near Cumbe Mayo

The Inca aqueduct at Cumbe Mayo

Carved angles in the aqueduct representing the stairway to heaven

Carvings on the wall of a bath

The old cathedral from the 17th century

Colorful art from the museum

Colorful art from the museum

Another view of the old cathedral

Small sculpture from the museum

Close-up of the bell tower

Cajamarca, Peru

A City for a Change

February 6, 2008

Synchronicity, a connecting principle

Linked to the invisible, almost imperceptible,

Something inexpressible

- The Police

Cajamarca is the first real city of any size that I have encountered since Cuenca, Ecuador. This is good because it has given me a chance to upload some pictures, since the internet is finally fast enough to accommodate this, and to buy a few necessary things before I depart for the mountain towns on the road south towards the Cordillera Blanca. It is also nice to have some variety in food options and many shops to choose from, and for the most part Cajamarca seems like a reasonably nice city. In many ways it reminds me of a more rundown and less upscale version of Cuenca. Nearby Cajamarca are numerous archaeological sites, but the one that I chose to visit was Cumbe Mayo.

The site consists of a 6km long aqueduct carved into the mountains above Cajamarca by the Incas in order to bring fresh water down to the city. Cajamarca is located at an elevation of about 8,000 feet and the mountains around the city are at a little over 11,000 feet tall so the aqueduct carries water all the way down to the city via gravity. It is carved out of the stone with amazing precision, especially considering the tools available at the time. Around part of the channel located high in the mountains are these strange rock spires forming various shapes, some resembling animals and people, in a lush green landscape that is rather damp and cold when the wind is blowing and the sun isn´t shining. With ruins and the rock shapes together it makes for quite the amazing landscape.

Other than that, Cajamarca is merely a stopover on the way south towards the taller mountains to come. From here, I will have to take a bus south to Cajabamba and a combi from there to Huamachuco, totaling over 5-6 hours of travel. After that, the travel information seems to be rather thin as the road, or what passes for a road here, splits into two different paths. According to the maps both seem to arrive somewhere near the northern end of the Cordillera Blanca, although it is supposed to be a very rough journey, especially this time of year during the rainy season. Hopefully some of the people in Huamachuco will have some advice and information that I can use to continue my journey south.