Chachapoyas

Chachapoyas takes its name from the Chachapoya, the "Warriors of the Clouds", who lived in the cloud forests of what is now the Amazonas region and were conquered by the Inca shortly before the Spanish arrived. Their settlements, burial cliffs and the fortress of Kuélap, built on a ridge above the Utcubamba, surround the town on every side. Because the Inca and the conquistadors were the main early sources on them, much about the Chachapoya remains uncertain.

The Spanish town was founded on 5 September 1538 by the conquistador Alonso de Alvarado as San Juan de la Frontera de los Chachapoyas. It was first set up near La Jalca and then near Levanto, but these sites were abandoned because of the climate, disease and attacks by local groups, and the town is believed to have moved to its present location in about 1545. It grew into a provincial centre of large colonial houses, and was the birthplace of Toribio Rodríguez de Mendoza, an academic counted among the forerunners of Peruvian independence. On 6 June 1821 local fighters won the battle of Higos Urco, remembered in the Plaza Independencia.

The diocese based in the town took the name of Chachapoyas in 1843, and the town is the capital of the Amazonas region. An earthquake in 1928 almost completely destroyed the town, and the cathedral had to be rebuilt. For most of its history the town was cut off from the rest of the country by its mountains; only recently have better roads linked it with the northern coast, and a cable car to Kuélap, finished in 2017, has made the fortress much easier to reach.

The town's own dance is the chumaichada, which no local festival can end without. Its music is probably of Indigenous origin, while its figures come from Los Lanceros, a French dance introduced by Emilio Lissón, a bishop of the diocese. Villages nearby keep other dances, among them the Danza del Levanto, performed in dark grey ponchos with dried seed pods rattling at the ankles. At carnival dancers bring down the humisha, a tree hung with gifts, and whoever fells it must put up a better one the following year.

Religious life follows the Catholic calendar. The Virgen Asunta is the town's patron, and her festival fills the first half of August; in neighbouring Huancas the patron is the Señor de los Milagros, kept there as a statue rather than as a painting as in Lima. Huancas is also known for its pottery, traditionally made by women while the men work the fields.

Local legends are part of the town's identity. The Pozo de Yanayacu, on Luya Urco hill, is said to have been opened by Toribio de Mogrovejo to end a drought, and whoever drinks its water is said to stay for ever. Football is the most popular sport, and Tourist Week in June brings villages from across Amazonas into town in traditional dress.

The town had about 32,000 people at the 2017 census, and its population was estimated at around 36,000 by 2023. As regional capital it lives largely from government offices, schools, the diocese and the Universidad Nacional Toribio Rodríguez de Mendoza, as well as trade with the surrounding farming districts, which grow sugar cane, coffee, cassava, cereals and orchids. Tourism, centred on Kuélap and Gocta, has grown into an important source of work for agencies, drivers, guides and guesthouses.

The oldest barrios — La Laguna, Yance, Santo Domingo, Luya Urco and Higos Urco — form the historic core, while newer housing estates have spread around them. The former lagoon in the centre, once ringed with reeds and palms used to build the early churches, is now the site of the Kuélap stadium.

Life is unhurried. Mornings start early, with vans leaving for the villages before dawn and the market busy by first light; the main square fills with families and students in the evening. The town remains far from Peru's big cities, and long, slow roads shape its economy and the cost of everything brought in.

Chachapoyas sits between the Andes and the Amazon, and its food draws on both. The valleys around it grow cereals, cassava, sugar cane and coffee, and trout from mountain streams appears on menus in the villages of the Utcubamba valley. Highland staples found across Peru — hearty soups, roast cuy (guinea pig) and dishes of potato and maize — are everyday fare.

Most eating is simple and local. Set lunches, the menú, of soup and a main course are the everyday meal, served in small restaurants around the main square and near the central market, where farmers bring in produce from the surrounding valleys. Coffee and sugar cane are among the crops of the district around the town.

The town's cafés serve visitors returning from Kuélap and Gocta, and the restaurants in Cocachimba and Tingo feed walkers on the way to the falls and the fortress. María, a village on the road to Kuélap where visitors can stay overnight, has several small restaurants known for trout.