Kuelap is an unknown giant just waking up.  Peru is a
huge country the size of the 5 west coast states, California, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, and Montana.  At present 99% of the tourists only go from Lima to the south while only 1% goes to the void north of Lima. Until this new century, the largest unexplored mountains in the in the Americas was in this zone. The Andes would stretch from San Francisco to London, with only the Himalayans higher.  When the Spanish arrived, the Incas ruled the Andes. 

The reason this zone is America's best kept secret is that the first dirt vehicle road came only 35 years ago. Previous to this the natives say that few came or went by their only access, -- a two-month walk on ancient Inca major routes.  One “Inca highway” goes through here in a partially explored zone from Columbia to the Inca heartland. Another unexplored lateral route goes from Levanto and Kuelap to the coast through Cajamarca where the Inca was captured. This former Kuelap East-West road may have been the “gold and feather route” used by the spectacular Moche and Chimu cultures from the coast to the Moyobamba jungles zone. No other cultures reached their superior level of goldsmiths, and hundreds of pyramids.

Kuelap’s mystery has barely been studied. Construction began about 800AD at the same time that the Andes’ most spectacular empire began its expansion from Bolivia.  This was the Tiahuanaco or Wari Empire, known as “The Golden City Building Era of the Andes”, or the Middle Horizon. The Wari (or Huari) built most of the “Inca roads and trails” and almost every ancient city. They were in power 300 years compared to less than 100 years of the Incas. The  Wari evolved to an empire of cities sustained by a sophisticated transportation system implying specialization of labor, engineers, artisans, etc. Today the Wari Empire is barely known because the Spanish did not discover and document them with their gold. A parallel comparison would be similar to the Mayans which the Spanish ignored because of their decline in power and gold.  Today the world’s interest in the Mayan Culture has grown to pass the Aztecs, as studies reveal their ability to write and build spectacular cities & structures.  A great reference book about the complete Andes history is “The People and Cultures of Ancient Peru” by Luis Lambrates, translated into English by the Smithsonian Institution Press. 

Now it seems that Kuelap was not built by the empire but rather a confederation of the Chachapoyan Cloud People to stop the Wari invasion. A relative short distance across the Marinon River was the most advanced stronghold cities of the Wari in the north of Peru at Cajamarca and Huamachuco. A glaring fact is that on the other side of the river, all of the pottery and artifacts mirrors the Bolivian style of the empire. The total lack of Wari artifacts in this zone would indicate the Wari either could not defeat the Chachapoyans, -- or were themselves defeated at Kuelap causing the collapse of the empire at that time. 

The greatest mystery of the Chachapoyan Cloud People was, “who were they”? How would they know to start construction of mountain top citadels and fortresses 250 years before the Wari advanced to conquer them?  Was it a coincident that Kuelap was completed at just the right time to stop them?  John Hemming wrote in “Conquest of the Incas” that Kuelap was the strongest fortification in the Americas, and if the Inca could have made a stand there, - the Spanish horses and artillery would be useless and history might have been different today.  Keith Muscutt wrote in his book that this zone was so heavily populated in the past, -- it would be unlikely today to go to any likely peak in the cloud forest, and NOT FIND a lost stone citadel. Being made of stone, these ruins can be found today.  I have been approached 10 times in the last couple of years by pioneers wanting me to see an “undiscovered ruins” they have found on their land. 

Vanquished cultures of the Andes usually were displaced to lower areas and the jungles.  An interesting fact was the Incas first began their conquest after Inca Pachacutec defeated the Chancas from Wari.  At that time the Chancas were the former Wari Empire culture, - but now in decline. Later when the Incas were approaching their peak, the former Wari nation bolted and fled from the Inca influence.  Their king said that their elite class were like the Incas in that they came from a strange land elsewhere, so their pride wouldn’t allow them to remain under Inca domination.  So, where did the former Wari flee as the most secure place of the entire Andes?  They fled down in the lower slopes below Kuelap in the jungle of Lamas.  Did they perceive that the Incas couldn’t defeat the Chachapoyans to get to them?  Even today these former Wari people contrast drastically in their customs, clothing and appearance from the jungle cultures.  Now ANOTHER large stretch of speculation of displaced cultures being forced to lower jungle areas.  PERHAPS one could conclude and believe a predominance  of the fair skin and often blond people living in the nearby jungle of Rodrigues de Mendoza were the former Chachapoyan Cloud People?

Inca chronicles and legends persist that the Cloud People were tall fair (skin and hair) warriors.  This is reinforced by an unusually large proportion of blond, fair natives in this zone who know of no European ancestry.  However Julio C. Tello and anthropologists speculate the Chachapoyans may have been a jungle culture that migrated there through the Magdalena Valley of Columbia, and preferred the mountaintops.  Whatever case, the Cloud People don’t fit the pattern of other Andeans.  They lived behind walls in well crafted stone round houses with a pointed thatch “tepee” roof. One would suspect they farmed better land below the cloud forest, which wasn’t leached out and eroded, but lived on the peaks.

This zone gets seasonal rains from November to April, but Kuelap is always accessible.  The dry season is from June to October but still has brief showers that are usually tiny droplets.  This is caused by moist air of the jungle, pushed up over the peaks causing it to chill. This humid air condensates forming almost perpetual clouds, -- just before the droplets get large enough to rain. In this environment air plants dominate so bromeliads, orchids and moss cover the trees and stone citadels.  Rapid clouds coming and going create photogenic panoramas adding a veiled mystery to the peaks.

This zone is called “la ceja de la selva”, - meaning the eyebrow of the Amazon. Above the ceja is the nightly freeze line which is a bald grassland high on the crest of the cordillera. Below the cloud forest are often desert river valleys where often only cactus will grow. A dense forest forms a band 2/3 of the way up the cordillera, resembling an eyebrow overlooking the Amazon Basin. After the clouds were chilled being pushed over the peaks, they dive downwards and warm up so the vapor turns to gasses, and the clouds disappear before your eyes. There are spectacular rainbows every day.  The rainfall may be a drastic 2 to 3 meters difference from the valleys to the peaks and only a very few kilometers vertically away. All of this creates thousands of mini ecological zones, depending on elevation, sun orientation or prevailing winds, etc. The Incas had access to many jungle medicines, -- but a majority of their best medical plants were adapted to these mini-ecological zones. Today’s fad is to search for lower jungle medical plants while neglecting these more likely ones at higher altitudes, which have even a greater threat of deforestation.

Kuelap’s five walls inside of walls contain over 400 buildings.  Each wall is from one to two telephone poles high with its 2nd level walls being the highest, extending a kilometer along a mountain ridge overlooking the Utcabamba River.  Some think Kuelap was positioned to defend the Gran Vilaya region that was heavily populated behind Kuelap and the cordillera. There are some mysterious structures inside the fortress.  One is a large cone shaped stone structure, defying gravity with the top much larger diameter than the bottom.  Now the inside of this “tenador” (ink well), is shaped like a rose bud vase, - or a light bulb without the plug. The top hole is about ½ meter diameter, and a few meters down below, it opens into a large circular room.  Some think it was a prison. Others think it was an oracle observatory where the shaman can be inside to observe a special star pass over “the lens” to signal an exact time or event of the year. A separate odd stone structure is an 8 pointed star with the longest 4 points pointing EXACTLY to north, south, east & west. Now at the north end a high stone tower is called the mitador, or observatory.  From here signals could be sent to Choctomal that could relay the signal around the valley’s bend to another ruins high on the Abra Yumal Pass.  This would then relay the signal to Gran Vilaya (which some think Kuelap was built to defend).

HOW TO GET THERE:
Chachapoyas now has several buses daily that come from Chiclayo, (the same distance north of Lima, but on the coast).  Otherwise a flight and bus can come from the jungle cities of Tarapoto or Moyobamba, but require a transfer in Pedro Ruiz.  A third punishing bus trip of many hours comes from Cajamarca where the Inca was captured.  The easy way is a direct flight from Lima.  From Chachapoyas it is a 3 hour trip to Choctomal and another 45 minutes to a level parking area barely below Kuelap’s outer first level of walls. From here you have another 20 minutes walk to the caretaker’s office and one of Kuelap’s 3 gates trough the 2nd level walls. Don’t get duped into walking up from the river. I recall a trip report in the South American Explorers Club saying the climb up was the single worst mountain climb they ever made in Peru! It starts out hot and there is no water until you reach the top.  Today Kuelap is easily accessible by an all weather road. It climbs up one side of a river valley. Then high in the cloud forest the road makes a “U” turn at Choctomal, and continues on a gradual gradient up the other side of the valley to the fortress. 

The Instituto National de Cultura (INC) has a small 2 room lodge without water, - but a solar electric system donated by Los Tambos Chachapoyanos. The best and only modern facility close to Kuelap is the lodge of Los Tambos Chachapoyanos. It has wide balconies with panoramic views of Kuelap on one side and the Abra Yumal Pass to Gran Vilaya on the other side. The views of clouds below are spectacular.  It was built beside a Chachapoyan ruins near a village with the original name in the Cloud People’s lost language.  The adobe lodge features modern conveniences inside, and electricity from a generator donated by Los Tambos Chachapoyanos, which provides the villages of this valley with electricity.  Expeditions arrive from the Inca Road through Gran Vilaya to soak and drink a beer in the lodge’s hot tub. 

An excellent website with even more photos of the zone is www.kuelap.org

Agencies and travelers benefit this zone by using Los Tambos Chachapoyanos’ lodges that donate 1/3 of their income to the village, 1/3 for stabilizing and restoring the Inca roads, and another 1/3 is for lodges in other tribal lands. These are the only lodges strategically located to access the best ruins of the zone. They are cooperatively owned & operated by the natives, who in turn protect the ruins while making the best possible trips for the travelers.