Llanguat
We took a 5 hour daytime bus from Cajamarca to Celendin on a bumpy steep pot-holed dirt road. Apparently they are widening the road since it is barely wide enough for me to walk on it alone and think I will not fall down into the steep valleys, let alone for 2 coach buses to pass each other without crashing or tipping over into the beyond. This road project of widening a dirt road full of potholes and steep switchbacks may last until January. The ride was beautiful and frightening at the same time. We had to stop a few times (once for about a half hour) so the workers could clear the rubble for us to pass. Buses in this country are amazingly hardcore. Great views, big mountains, lush green valleys and low clouds.
Anyways, 5 hours of up and down and around these mountains, seeing not much more than some little cottage or farm here and there, and we come to Celendin. Which has plazas, electricity and very friendly people. We spent most of our time in the town eating and sleeping, which is basically all there is to do. Oh, and I bought some yarn and now have a project for future bus rides, if I can ignore the bumps. The town is cute and has huge potential for developing tourist-wise, if only the road there wasn’t so uncomfortable or scary.
Our reason for heading this way was because the ride is beautiful and the less-taken route to Leymembamba. Plus there’s a hotsprings and mud bath near Celendin that we had to check out. When I say nearby, I mean a 2 hour cargo bus ride (at 7am) up a mountain and down the other side into the valley below. When I say cargo, I mean lambs in the aisle, shite-ing on my sneakers and socks, giving me fleas, momma lamb tied up and lounging on a front seat with baby chicks in a bag underneath her. We were obviously the only non-locals. It was an entertaining and smelly morning. Just in time for the hot springs in the town of Llanguat.
I don’t know if it’s really a town, a few houses clustered together and a church at the valley floor. We went the the thermal baths, which seemed to be in some guy’s backyard. He was very friendly and very interested in having volunteers or some sort of assistance to help him develp an eco-tourism project. It makes me so happy to talk to locals that care so much about protecting the environment around them. Not only does he live on the river, but there’s a day hike to a tunnel and a waterfall nearby (but we ran out of time). We spent our afternoon swimming in the brown pool filled with river water and hot springs water. We attempted to get to the mud baths across the river but it was quite dangerous to cross the water. We got halfway across and had to turn back. Hopefully I will find mud somewhere else to roll in. We also got to use of of his baños, which were similar to the private baths at Cajamarca, where you get a room and can fill the tub up as high as you like and relax. All of this for sl. 2 per person! The scenery was gorgeous and on our adventure to try to cross the river, we hiked through some farmland and found some free range cows that didn’t mind us trespassing to find a suitable river crossing.
We assumed we could just find another combi to return to town (we saw a bunch passing us on the way down…but apparently in the morning the trend is to go TO Celendin, and in the afternoon it is to go the opposite direction…which we didn’t know). We walked in the rain for about 2 hours (6 km) before a bus came and squeezed us into backwards unpadded seats for the bumpy remaining 15km. Lucky for us they got us just in time because a few kilometers up the road we passed some other people but there was no room for them. I don’t think I had the energy after a hot bath and a muddy pool to hike the entire 21 kms.