Adventure Log #5: The Quaint Town of Cajamarca

After a 15-hour travel day, we finally arrived in the town of Cajamarca at 5 am. This was an hour earlier than expected so we hung around for 30 minutes until our Airbnb host messaged us back.

Thankfully we were able to check in immediately, otherwise, I’m not sure what we would have done all day. Because of the long travel day, we ended up resting for the entirety of it.

When visiting a new town, the best thing to do is to get to its highest point for a great view. So, that’s what we did. Our Airbnb was a little bit outside of town so it was a 25-minute walk to the town square. From here we hiked a few sets of stairs to a church and got a great view of our new home for a week.

Some other activities that we did for the week were going with a tour group to visit Cumbe Mayo. This is an old archaeological site dating all the way back to 1500 B.C. Although it wasn’t much of a hike, it was at 3500 meters and was a good way to get back into the high-altitude life.

We also visited a ransom room believed to have held the last known Incan prisoner. Here, the emperor was held and told to gather gold if he wanted to leave. He did this but ended up being killed anyways. This is what began the Spanish conquest of Peru in 1533.

We leave Cajamarca on Tuesday and head for Huaraz. Huaraz is a beautiful region known as the hiking capital of Peru. We will be in this region for the next 2+ weeks as we start checking off some hikes.