Graceful, you are

The northern part of Huancabamba Valley holds a dreaming landscape and the mythical Huaringas.

 

    HUANCABAMBA, Peru – It’s six hours tripping, maybe the steepper one connecting Piura City with an Andean province capital city. After Canchaque, the road leaves the flat to climb the mountain until the point where, in clear days, is possible to have the same view, like a bird, of the entire Upper Piura Valley. However, we go almost sticked to the soil, on a bus.

 

Above 9240 feet altitude is Cuello del Indio (Indian’s Neck), a throadt with a boulder what ends in a rock that, seen so far, seems a person’s head shape. Still, we have to climb up. Above 11,220 feet is Cruz Blanca Pass. It’s not only the end of the steep road from Piura but it’s a landmark – a divortium aqarum. If it rains, what falls at the east goes to Huancabamba River, a far tributary of the great Amazon River, what falls at the west goes to Piura River, and luckily to Pacific Ocean.

 

From this point to Huancabamba City is hour and a half going down through a dramatically changing landscape: the puna of Ushupata, the aagricultural quechua of Ulpamache, the Inter-Andean valley where the little city is mixing up landscape, effort to enter the modern times, and the disorder that non-formality has created in every respect.

 

    The walking city

Finding a good hotel is a matter of luck, and reservations are useless. The quietest place is the Albergue Municipal [Alberggeh Mooniceepal] (Municipal Hostel) but it’s far from downtown, and it’s complicated getting to it at night by public transportation. Nevertheless, walking is a safe option. The city is built on hills separated by torrents, which biggest depression is Huancabamba River.

 

Those unevenesses make it ideal for photograph due to the peculiar skyline watched by Güitiligún and Colorado (or Pariacaca) Mounts. The tower of its cathedral marks 6500 feet over sea level, but according to somebody’s moving, this mark is changing.

 

Next to the temple is the Main Square, where any circuit can be started from. Its whole perimeter is decorated with cut cypresses forming shapes of horses or geometrical abstract designs. It’s also known as La Samaritana (The Samaritan Lady)because of the statue on the top of its water font, at the center, a work by the local artist Ernesto Jibaja Carnero Ché.

 

If you watch carefully,  you will notice the work has cracks everywhere. It’s and it’s not an architecture failure. The answer is on a street running in paralel at the northern side of the square, Huáscar [Waskar], where the bricks of the lane are separating, and in the long-time, they will form a deep crack. It’s a tectonic fault making that a sector of downtown displaces toward the river.

 

    Cheese and elder

To have breakfast, the best places are next to the main gate of the local Bus Terminal. The little hot sweet bread is a Huancabamba’s classic(and mondonguito or boiled sheep intestines and rice on early Sundays), and enriches more if adding cheese.

 

The White delight is not made in the city but in Sapalaché, capital of El Carmen de la Frontera District, one hour and a half by a road across the countryside. The way passes through a surveilled area by Segunda y Cajas Farmer Community. There is a variety of cheese and curd cheese in Sapalache to taste and choose. It’s also the home of capulí [capoolee], the Huancabamba’s emblematic liquor obtained macerating ground cherries in schnapps.

 

Yes, the capulí is too heavy, but some years ago, another lighter and tastier feature has been playing its part – elder. NGO Care trained many locals to transform the Berry and one of its products is a type of soft wine, much more recommendable if you don’t use to drink alcohol.

 

Otherwise, the town keeps that Andean portrait surrounded by lands where cows graze, pure water torrents, and Chinguelas Mount, that holds the better attraction of this zone.

 

    Healing lakes

The best treasury of this valley is the water because makes possible the life. Does it heal too? Many people thinks so and comes here to praise for health or prosperity. From Huancabamba City, any transportation mean is taken to reach, after one hour and a half, to San Antonio or Salalá, where you must climb to any of Huaringas, a dozen of lakes located at the top of Huamaní Range (what Chinguelas belongs to).

 

The geologists coincide they formed in the last glaciation 25,000 years ago (some chronicle autors, inclusive, assure it snowed in the summits of this sector until 500 years ago, and many moreines remain as evidence). They are above 10,560 feet altitude in páramo or jalca [halka] ecosystem, one of the Piura’s water generators eco-regions.

 

If you have faith, the best is contacting a healer or shaman maestro, but you have to be careful at the time of choosing the right one because, as most right locals say, the authentic ones are counted with your fingertips. Second and third opinions are recommendable before any election. It’s not recommendable letting hook by who work at the Bus Terminal because nothing guarantees that, really, they represent whom they say to represent.

 

    Amazon also borns here

The most highlighted lakes are Toro, Negra, Arrebiatadas [Arrabeeitadas], and Shimbe [Shimba]. This last one is the nascent of Huancabamba River, and the most occidental source of Amazon River. If you don’t go for the magical issue, you can’t miss the landscape – it’s overwhelming. It’s possible to reach by foot or horse back according to your adrenalin degree.

 

Huancabamba is explained by the water, like almost all the region, but a review of its touristic promotion strategies will allow to turn it into a sustainable and eco-friendly activity. This community will benefit so – the environment, especially.

 

Produced by Luis Paucar. With reports of FACTORTIERRA Archive and Ciro La Madrid in Huancabamba. Edited by Nelson Peñaherrera. © 2011 Luis Claudio Paucar Temoche, Asociación Civil Factor Tierra. All Rights Reserved.