Marian Johns' Journal of the Desert
Explorers trip to Peru in 2002
Images by John Page unless otherwise noted
Day 26, September
29, Sunday
Celendín to Cajamarca See
Map
Sept. 29, Sunday – This was Sunday market day, and the town was bustling with activity. When Paul went to fetch the truck from the cochera,
he found a near-flat tire on the right rear. This is the second flat the Mazda has had on the trip. We pumped it up with the battery-operated tire pump that had been brought from home, and then drove it to a little hole-in-the-wall tire repair shop.
The leak was in the side-wall and the only way to fix it was with the addition of a tube. The shop owner then discovered that the spare was also flat. It had not been properly sealed to the rim, so he fixed that too. A few days ago, when we got on the bumpy dirt road, we began to hear a persistent rattle. This morning, I noticed that a spring shackle on the left rear looked loose and when I kicked it, it rattled. That is the source of our noise - it seems one of the spring leaves has broken. The men wrapped some duct tape around it, to silence the racket.
On the way out of town, we were side-tracked by an animal market where we stopped to watch and photo the sea of tall hats and animals - mostly cattle, but some pigs, goats and sheep.
It was supposed to be six hours to Cajamarca, and that’s about what it took us. We passed through a small town, not far from Cajamarca, that was just as lively as Celendín. As we squeezed our way through, we saw another livestock market, another anything-everything market, and some sort of political rally.
By lunchtime, we reached Cajamarca. Actually, we stayed in the Hostal Galvez right across from the Baños de los Incas, about five kilometers outside of Cajamarca. We ate lunch in a nearby restaurant popular with the locals. We all had the “set” lunch which was soup, fried chicken, rice, and potatoes in a good, but mysterious, orange-colored sauce.
The Baños de los Incas is where Atahualpa, the Inca noble, was camped when Pizarro arrived. That was the beginning of the end for the Incas. Atahualpa was captured and held for ransom. Pizarro demanded a room filled with gold once and twice with silver, and then executed Atahualpa anyway. Today, the baths are modernized and crowded with local Peruvians; we didn’t go in.
At 2:30 a guide came, who had been contacted, at our request, by the hotel manager-lady. His name was Edwin. Peruvians seem to use Anglo first names frequently. He brought his little boy along who slept most of the way. We asked to be taken to see the cave paintings near the village of Llacanora that are said to be 7,000 years old. It was a steep hike up to these red-colored pictographs.
There were only a few and they were not in a cave. Our guide explained that they had once been in a cave, but it collapsed. There were a couple of other caves there too, but neither had pictographs, so we didn’t bother to walk over to them. It was interesting to know the pictographs are so old, but for such a strenuous hike, I was disappointed there wasn’t more to see.
There is supposed to be a waterfall nearby that I wanted to see, but our guide said they haven’t had much rain lately, so it is currently dry. He then took us to the Ventanas Otusco. Near Cajamarca is the suburb of Otusco where a cliff-side is riddled with ancient burial niches.
These niches are carved into a soft, tufa-like rock that reminds me of modern mausoleums with several rows stacked on top of one another. I didn’t feel like hiking uphill again for a closer look, so I stayed at the truck and watched some workmen building a new adobe house nearby and two young men on their little Peruvian horses all decked out with their silver-studded bridles and saddles.
Back at the hotel, we walked down the street looking for a restaurant. Pickings were slim – only a couple of very simple places. We chose one and I had Lomo Saltado, small pieces of meat - beef I think - fried with onions, tomatoes, potatoes, and served with rice - actually quite tasty.
On the way back to the hotel, I saw and petted a Siberian husky! I told the shop owners, who were also the dog’s owner, that I had three, like theirs at home. Theirs was named “Dinky”. Made me homesick – a month is a long time to be gone. Oh yeah, I miss Neal too.
