Chachapoyas valley

Escaping from San ignacio we made our first real Peruvian journey. A long stretch of 7 hours by bus going through very diverse landscapes. Deep valleys with rice fields and massive rivers, huge cordilleras and desertic plateaus. For the first time we realised how big Peru is and how long it would take us to cross it. But we were still wishing we would get our own ride and discover it at our own pace.

Rice fields

After the long and strenuous journey we arrived in the city of Chachapoyas by night. There we had an interesting night based on local liquor to forget the moto taxi failure.
We did a bit more investigation on vehicle purchase. We developped a taste for doing very untouristy things like visting administrations and notary, it kind of amused us to have an insight into the day to day life in Peru. We still took a bit of time to walk around the market (a classic in any south american town) a wander in the streets.

Chachapoyas market

Our investigation on car puchase in Peru started to pay off. We got clear information on the paperwork needed, one of which was a stamp from the migration office only available in a few big cities. The closest office was in Chiclayo at a good 12 hours by bus. It is incredible to see how centralised the administration is in Peru. This cutted down our ambition to get a vehicle in these remote parts of the country. So we relaxed a bit and changed back our mindset to "classic" tourism.

The valleys surrounding Chachapoyas are full of natural wonders and pre-inca and inca ruins, many of which are still undiscovered or inaccessible for tourists.

We did a nice circuit to go see gigantic gocta waterfalls (771m in total which ranked Gocta as the third tallest waterfall in the world).

Then we started to make our way towards the coast taking a small back country road going through a beautiful valley. We made a stop to go visit the Kuelap ruins. A pre-inca fortress built by the Chachapoyas people at 3000m.a.s.l. Impressive piece of work and not too many tourists. Only a few Peruvians insisting to take pictures with us, shouting  "gringos gringos, fotos, queremos nuestro gringo cada una", I have to admit we felt a bit like exotic animals. We did it the "respectable" way with a 10km hike climbing about 1200m.

Fortress entrance

View from the top

Stripping on the other side

Locals

Tree invasion

Then we hopped to Leymebamba, a town lost in the mountains. We had heard that people had seen a paraglider there once, so we were hopefull we could get airborne again.

Leymebamba reminded me a little bit of Cevennes's (french massif) villages. Isolated inbetween mountains with a narrow valley. At first sight it didn't appear to be a classic paragliding spot with few landing options and possibly a strong valley brease. But nevertheless we took the gliders for a hike. At the top the fields looked like Alpine meadows and the people were very surprised to see foreigners. We surprised an old lady milking her cow asking why we came to her field in a mix of Spanish and Quechua. It was indeed very hard to make her understand that all we wanted was to find a take off area.
Finally we found the perfect field. The breeze was starting to be pretty strong but I took off. Geo decided not to. It was an interesting flight down and the first flight in Peru.

Leymebamba

Geo hiking up

View from take off

Flying in the valley

The landing was tricky. After 3 minutes all the kids from the neighbouring school arrived completely out of breath. They started to ask me tons of questions. They took me back to the school where they helped me pack my glider and listenned to my explications on paragliding.

School kids

In the playground

Bonus:

Always by your side

Geo starting to lose it