PLANETA

Cajamarca Guide
by Ross Mitchell

PLANETA FORUM

PERU -- Cajamarca seems to live in another time.

www.flickr.com

One of the largest cities in the Inca Empire, Cajamarca played a crucial role in the Spanish conquest of the Incas. Site of the fateful encounter in 1532 between Francisco Pizarro and King Atahualpa, the city has withstood the sands of time. Its largely indigenous rural people still work the land as they have for centuries. Farmers practice intensive rain-fed agriculture on steep mountain slopes, growing wheat and maize at lower elevations, but potatoes, beans, and cereals such as barley and quinua at higher elevations. Dairy farming is common on the irrigated valley floors, but cows as well as sheep also graze in the high mountain pastures.

Today, thousands of tourists, mainly Peruvians, flock to the city every February to take part in one of Peru's biggest festivals, the Carnival de Cajamarca. The town literally comes alive with its many bands playing coplas, the traditional music of the northern Andes, similar to the huaynos of Ayacucho, Huancavelica, Cuzco, and other Andean cities.

Face painting, water throwing, and brilliantly colored streamers, floats, and costumes turn the streets into an explosion of color and activity. At a few key spots in the city, people take turns chopping down a capuli (cherry) tree loaded with gifts. The person with the winning chop organizes the next year's tree in this tradition called palos cilulos.

Cajamarca's impressive plaza contains a beautiful fountain and sculpted cypress trees. The city's many ornate churches and cathedrals with their intricately carved facades and gilded interiors are well appreciated by visitors. Notable religious monuments include the BelÍn complex, San Francisco, La Recolecta, and the Cathedral.

The climb up to the Santa Apolonia chapel and the Inca Chair (La Silla del Inca) overlooking the tiled roofs of the city and its green valleys is also well worth the effort. Two interesting museums are the Museo de EtnografÆa and the Museo Arqueolžgico.

Not to be missed is the Ransom Room (El Cuarto del Rescate), the last remaining vestige of Incan architecture in the city. According to legend, Atahualpa offered to fill one room with gold and two with silver in exchange for his freedom. Although he apparently fulfilled his promise, Pizarro's men later executed Atahualpa.

For many visitors and locals alike, it is probably the Ba“os del Inca just 6 kilometers east of Cajamarca that receive the greatest attention. When the Spanish conquerors arrived on the northern Peruvian coast almost 500 years ago, Atahualpa and his court were resting in these thermal baths -- Atahualpa's army had just defeated his half-brother HuÝscar in a bloody civil war. Today, visitors wishing to reinvigorate themselves can do so in one of the individual or communal pools. The best time to submerge in the hot waters is in the morning when the mists are rising and crowds are few.

Another worthwhile attraction is the pre-Incan site of Cumbemayo, an ancient canal still serving Cajamarca's water supply and considered one of the most notable hydraulic engineering works of prehispanic America. Built 3,600 meters above sea level, the water channels are carved from rock and run in zigzag fashion at perfect right angles, apparently to reduce the speed of the water flow. They also reverse the naturally flowing current to the Pacific back toward the Atlantic until it reaches Cajamarca. Despite running downhill at a steep angle, the water bubbles along at a gentle pace. Locals claim that the petroglyphs and carvings at the site depict tunnels that run as far as Cuzco. Nearby are huge, mysteriously shaped "forests of rocks" called Los Frailones (The Stone Monks) that can be easily explored on foot.

Other sites include the nearby villages of Llacanora, Hacienda La Colpa, and Las Ventanillas de Otusco. The latter are open tombs carved into a cliff about 8 kilometers northeast of Cajamarca. Renowned Peruvian historian Julio C. Tello conducted expeditions to study these important archaeological remains, apparently built by the Tiahuanaco civilization more than 500 years ago. Also near Cajamaraca are the highland communities of Porcžn with their extensive pine forests and cheese production. For the more adventurous, the pre-Incan sites of Kuelap near Chachapoyas are well worth the two-day journey from Cajamarca. Kuelap, with its curved stone walls and perched amidst thick vegetation of the high jungle, rivals some of the pre-colonial structures of the Cuzco region.

Cajamarca lies "off the beaten path." Of the more than one million tourists that visit Peru annually, most prefer to visit Lima, Arequipa, Nazca, Cuzco, and Puno. North of Peru is virtually unknown to most foreign tourists. Trujillo, Huanchaco, Chan-Chan, Sipan, Piura, Chavin, and Cajamarca are tourism gems virtually left alone except for savvy Peruvians. These links of culture and land to centuries past still have much to be discovered.

Culinary Tips

VISITING?

By air: From Lima, you can take Expreso AÍreo or AeroCžndor.

AUTHOR

Ross Mitchell is an Environmental Sociologist with the Alberta Research Council. He holds a Ph.D. in Rural Sociology and a B.Sc. in Forestry from the University of Alberta , Canada, and a M.Sc. in Rural Planning and Development (University of Guelph). He may be reached by email.

REFERENCES

Green Ponchos and Inca Gold: Natural Links to the Past in Cajamarca
Cajamarca

PERU

PLANETA

SEMINARS

Learning never ends. See if one of our seminars is right for you.