Ten hours after leaving Celedin, we arrive in Chachapoyas. The next morning, we head out for Kuélap, a pre-Incan fortress built
around 800 AD and the largest stone structure in South America. Recently, Macchu Picchu was granted the title of one of the new 7 wonders of the world. Now, I haven’t been there, but Wes and Cass have and said they were more impressed by Kuélap. Our guide for the day was a boy who lived 15 minutes down the mountain, grew up surrounded by the lingering traditions of this ancient civilization, and told us all kinds of interesting details about the site. For those of you who are curious, I’ll relay some of the interesting tidbits I learned (if not, I recommend glancing at the pictures and calling it good).
The entire city was built so that it is very defensible (and considering how often the Incans attempted to take over the city, it was definitely necessary). First of all, it was situated on top of a mountain, then for a little extra security, a huge outer wall was built around the entire area. And then, there was another wall built around the main city (did I mention that the Incans really wanted this town?). This wall rivals that of any medieval castle ever constructed. The wall was incredibly thick (I want to say 100 meters thick, but I may be a little off) and there were only three ways through it, all of which were narrow enough that any army that attacked would be forced to enter a few at a time and could easily be taken out by arrows, rocks, etc before
getting remotely close to the end of the passage. I mean, take a look at these pictures. That’s Wes, Frank, and I standing at the main entrance, and then the next one is of another group of tourists walking through the passage. I can’t be that far off when I say this wall is 100 meters thick. Here and there, our guide would also point out parts of the wall that had been converted into tombs. How creepy would that be if you were trying to take over the town, passing tombs as you charge to an almost certain death? I guess it could have been strangely fitting. However, the walls weren’t just useful; they were also a great place to 
show off the town’s artistic abilities. Here and there, you could still see where they had carved figures into the stones comprising the wall. This being the jungle, the favorites were generally monkeys and snakes.
The city itself was separated into different sections. 
It had the lower partition, where the peasants lived and worked (as seen in the photo to the right). Then there was a middle section, where the aptly named middle class lived, followed by the very top portion, where the rulers lived. The separation of the classes of this civilization was very clearly demonstrated. The elite classes were situated higher on 
the hill and separated from the peasants by a wall. The buildings were all circular structures made out of stone, with the main difference that I could see between the social classes being the size of the structures and the quality of the view from your front door – the higher the social class, the better the view. They weren’t really into painting, but that did not stop them from decorating their houses. The favorites by far were variations of the design signifying the eye of the jaguar, which was one of their gods. They are in the process of reconstructing the city, and as far as the archaeologists can tell, this is what a complete house would have looked like back in the day.
If you are interested in ruins and history, this is definitely a place you should hit up. It turns out, for as much as I like ancient structures, I am 
even more interested in bright splashes of color in unexpected places and therefore spent most of my time trying to get the perfect shot of the trees that filled the ruins. This could also be the result of living in a desert for over a year, who knows? What intrigued me so much about these trees was the way this other plant had just taken up residence right in its branches. It’s not like there was a lack of ground space or sunlight or anything like that. There seemed to be no reason why this plant couldn’t have grown on the ground like all the others were doing. But instead of going the normal, start-at-the-ground-level-and-work-your-way-up route, this plant hops on up a tree for a better view of the gorgeousness it is surrounded by, 
shucking the normal green coloring favored by most vegetation and throwing in splashes of red just for fun. It turned out that this was going to be a pattern that I saw repeated throughout my jungle experience, and you know, I never lost my attraction to it. That plant showed a lot of spunk. And if there is one thing I appreciate, it is spunk.
Next up, Gocta and all of its falling water…
