The Milky Way

In Leymebamba we had heard of an alternative way to carry on our journey towards the coast. Apparently it was possible to hitch a ride with a milk truck for the strip of road going from Leymebamba to Celendin. This section of the journey was meant to be breathtaking with the ascent of two cordilleras on vertiginous roads.
The figures were the following: 144km for a 7 hours journey going up to pass the first cordillera at 3600m and down to cross the Marañon river at 700m and then up again at 3000m. An exciting ride!
So we enquired in the local shops to get the milk truck schedule. Finally on the friday evening the truck arrived from Celedin. We spoke with the driver who told us, "no problem I leave tomorrow morning at 3 a.m. sharp". The exciting thing was that the milk truck had a sort of platform above the cabin that promised beautiful views and some fresh air, a thing that painfully lacks in the Peruvian busettas.

The ride!

So we setted the alarm for 2 a.m. and went to bed.
We met the sleppy driver nearly on time, not something we are used to in this country and setted off to fill the truck of the precious liquid.

Waiting for the man

We had the chance to sample some fresh milk. Simply delicious. This milk is the product of the small farmers up in the mountain whom each have a couple of cows and milk them manually. No machines or big farms here.

Filling up

Around 4 a.m. we left for good. We started the ascencion of the cordillera in the cold night. We could feel the presence of these huge mountains and imagine the views as we were winding up the narrow road in the dark. The driver offered us to stay in his cabin for the first leg as it was freezing cold outside. We had a nice chat. As we reached the top of the cordillera we could start to see a faint light and make out the shape of the deep valleys. So we asked the driver to climb up on the roof. There he had installed a few benches. The perfect balcony!

At the crack of dawn

The spectacle that followed was just magic. Little by little we started to see everything and to realise how high we were. Difficult not to think of paragliding down...

Morning view

Passing through little villages we picked up a few more people. The truck started to fill up.

At around 6 a.m. we stopped to get some lunch. Huge portion of rice with beans and plantain bananas, accompanied with porridge, the typical breakfast. The floor was crawling with guinea pigs, surely the next lunch.

After the pit stop we carried on getting more and more people and more and more stuff as we were going down the cordillera.

People started to speak more as the air was getting warmer. The milk truck turned into a terrace with a view. We got asked tons of questions on our country and our continent. It was pretty hard for them to accept the fact that where we come from the days are not always the same length. It was funny to compare our ways of life

At the top of this truck we discovered the melting pot that Peru is. There was all type of faces: asiatic, indians (native people), spanish decent.... It was quite funny to hear a man with slanted eyes say " I don't see what you are talking about" when I mentionned a connexion between Peru and Asia.

Going down the landscape started to be more and more arid. We could see Oasis down in the valley.

Getting to the oasis was an other world all together. The valley was baking hot and full of cultures that they managed with the help of an ingenious irrigation network. The exotic fruit variety was ubelievable, we tried some that we had never seen before.

After crossing the river we started another long climb with stunning views. 

River Marañon

At around 10 a.m. we retreated inside the truck in a sort of wooden box. Perfect spot to read protected from the sun.

Finally we arrived in Celedin close to 1 p.m. after an unusual trip. It is rare to be able to really enjoy one of these long rides, usually it is either crowded bussetas or long hold night buses. And after all the journey is part of the experience!

Arriving in Celedin we decided that it was time for a trim and change our look radically opting for the footballer look. A must under these latitudes.

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