warning: there are a ridiculous amount of pictures in this post…it was just too hard to not share all of these…also, i live in the flat, brown desert, so the green mountainside just captivated me.
for our first day in chacha, we took a tour to kuelap, which is an ancient incan fortress about 2 hours outside of chachapoyas.
view from the car ride.
behind me are some more ruins where people had created homes inside of the mountain.
more scenery.
the fortress from below, before we started our hike. historians have concluded that if the incans had made kuelap their center capital, then the spaniards would not have been able to conquer them and history would have been forever changed…
entering the park…
zack, robert and i right outside of the ruins.
more of the incredible view.
one of the three entrances into the three-level fortress.
you can see where it’s raining.
hiking up the entrance to the first level. i am convinced that the incans had to have incredible legs….
the crew with some of the ruins and the incredible view.
robert’s dream pose.
pretending to lose my balance and fall…or that is exactly what is happening…that is up to you to decide….
a tiny cottage LITERALLY in the middle of nowhere.
this picture seems pretty accurate.
i was there.
the incans buried themselves in the walls there. not creepy or anything…
the three lines mean: god of the heavens, god of the earth, god of the underworld.
one of the kitchens…the line of the rocks on the right are thought to be where they stored their cuys (guinea pigs).
eye of the puma.
sepent and eye of the crocodile.
it was said that more than 3,000 people lived in this fortress. also, loved that there were llamas EVERYWHERE.
a mochika face.
some pato (duck).
the crew with the the bottle-shaped “great temple.”
the exit…nbd…
robert making the hike down.
the most breath-taking exit i have ever encountered.
the hike back.
perusing peru... 
wow. i want to do that hike. i recently did the grand canyon (http://tcchildslifethroughmyeyes.wordpress.com/2012/10/22/rim-to-rim-and-back-again/) but its nothing compaired to this adventure. thanks for sharing the picts
Wow Kuelap looks amazing! I cannot believe the things they were able to build back then.
love the pictures..I must go there gran