From Chiclayo I decide to ride the night bus to Chachapoyas, which is inland about 10 hours. The bus ends up being top quality and we even get served a lovely stir fry on board by a hostess. I´m impressed. Would have been better with a few wines but beggars can´t be choosers. The road is really windy and sitting in the very front seat it´s hard to get sleep with all the bumps and driving on the wrong side of the road (i.e. the bus driver went onto the left quite a bit). So at 5am I arrive in Chachapoyas and trundle off to find a hostel and get some sleep.

Along with a German lassy and two Israeli chaps we catch a taxi to a massive canyon to fill in time. It´s an impressive void in the earth and is one minute clear and the next filled with that same south american fog that rolls in at a rate of knots. We walk back thinking it will take an hour and 1.5hs later hitch a ride in the back of a ute into town. That was a blast and I don´t know how the ute kept tread on some of those slippery roads but we made it back although had to slip the girls inside the cabin before any policia saw them.

It´s Friday night and we hit the town. First of all a pool hall where they serve a weird cocktail of whisky and coffee with cream and then onto a nightclub, which is later closed down by the policia due to license issues. We hung out with some locals in the club before it closes down and although my spanish is picking up well, chatting to fast speaking locals in a loud club is kinda hard but non the less funny.

It´s up early the next morning for our tour to the ancient ruins of Kuelap, which lie a 3 hour mini van ride away. The ruins are rated as only being surpased by those at Machu Pichu althougha are less touristy due to their location. The ride is along the side of a rather steep mountain and there are some tense moments but with no other traffic we trust our driver. On tour in addition to our group yesterday are some Brits moving to Aussie and a Brazilian guy working in the Andes. It´s a good mix and to distract ourselves from the steep drop we chat most of the way.

The site of Kuelap has to be one of the highlights of my trip so far. It dates back to around 800AD and was built by the Chachopoyans before being beseiged and taken over by the Incas in around 1400AD. I guess before building those massive walls they really didn´t think about storing food or water for long period of time as the Incas took controll pretty quickly i understand. Spanish Concuestadores then took it from them some time later. The ruins are stone and you can still get a really good feel for the set up of the place.

It´s Saturday night but instead of another night on the whisky coctails I opt for a night bus to Trujillo, where more ruins and pyramids await to be explored.