Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Northern Highlands
Includes »
Why Go?
Vast tracts of unexplored jungle and mist-shrouded mountain ranges guard the secrets of
the northern highlands like a suspicious custodian. Here, Andean peaks and a blanket of
luxuriant forests stretch from the coast all the way to the deepest Amazonian jungles. Inter-
spersed with the relics of Inca kings and the jungle-encrusted ruins of cloud-forest-dwelling
warriors, connections to these outposts are just emerging from their infancy.
Cajamarca's cobbled streets testify to the beginning of the end of the once-powerful Inca
empire, and remnants of the work of these famed Andean masons still remain. The hazy
forests of Chachapoyas have only recently revealed their archaeological bounty: the stag-
gering stone fortress of Kuélap, which clings for dear life to a craggy limestone peak. At
the jungle gateway of Tarapoto, the Amazon waits patiently on the periphery, as it has for
centuries, endowed with a cornucopia of wildlife and exquisite good looks.
