Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
( 47-7830;
www.hostalbelen.com
; Ortiz Arrieta 540; s/d S45/55; )
Also on the
plaza in a well-maintained building, Belén has 11 small but tidy rooms, each with one
brightly painted wall to cheer up the relative darkness.
Hostal Johumaji $
( 47-7819; hostaljohumajieirl@hotmail.com; Ayacucho 711; s/d/tr from S20/30/45;
)
The better of the town's super-cheap hotels, Johumaji has small, spartan rooms
that are well lit and have electric hot showers, though travelers have complained about
street noise. Regardless, it's a tidy, friendly choice. Tack on S5 for cable TV.
GUESTHOUSE
Hotel Karajía $
( 31-2606; Calle 2 de Mayo 546; s/d without bathroom S20/30, s/d S25/45; )
The
moodiest of the budget options. Rooms are fine, with hot water and cable TV and the oc-
casional frilly touch as is the case with the toilet seat covers and kaleidoscopic bed-
spreads.
HOTEL
THE ROAD TO CHACHAPOYAS: TWO THE HARD
WAY
Having sufficiently soaked up both the coastal sun and highland colonial atmosphere in the mountains, travelers
often find themselves itching for a little cloud forest and jungle action. Off to Tarapoto and Chachapoyas you go,
right? Not so fast. First, you must decide: do you have the heart, patience and nerves of steel to brave the astonish-
ingly scenic but hopelessly nerve-wracking mountain route via Celendín and Leimebamba? Or would you be
more comfortable taking the long way round on the paved route from Chiclayo? Decisions. Decisions.
Via Celendín
This rough but beautiful road climbs over a 3085m pass before plummeting steeply to the Río Marañón at the
shabby and infernally hot village of
Balsas
(975m), 55km from Celendín. The road climbs again, through gor-
geous cloud forests and countryside swathed in a lush quilt a million shades of green. It emerges 57km later at
Abra de Barro Negro
(Black Mud Pass; 3678m), which offers the highest viewing point of the drive, over the
Río Marañón, more than 3.5 vertical kilometers below. Ghostly low-level clouds and mists hug the dispersed
communities in this part of the trip and creep eerily among the hills. The road then drops for 32km to
Leimebamba at the head of the Río Utcubamba valley and follows the river as it descends past Tingo and on to
Chachapoyas. The final 20km approach into Chachapoyas is freshly paved. Before that, your life teeters precari-
ously on the edge of The End around every corner, your only hope that the driver knows the nuances of the road
