Northern Highlands

Introducing Northern Highlands

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, darkest jungles of the Amazon. Interspersed with the relics of Inca kings and the jungle-encrusted ruins of cloud-forest-dwelling warriors, these outposts of Peru remain barely connected by disheveled and circuitous roads.

The cobbled streets of Cajamarca testify to the beginning of the end of the once powerful Inca empire, and remnants of the work of these famed Andean masons still line the surrounding countryside. The delicate colonial structures lining Cajamarca’s heart, meanwhile, attest to the final outcome of the 16th-century battle of swords and wills.

The hazy forests of Chachapoyas have only recently revealed their archaeological bounty – the rarely seen yet staggering stone fortress of Kuélap, which clings for dear life to a craggy limestone peak. Hundreds of misplaced archaeological remnants from this mysterious alliance of city-states can be visited on a trek or by horse while meandering through pristine forgotten countryside. At Tarapoto, where the paved road reaches its final conclusion, the jungle waits patiently, as it has for centuries, endowed with a cornucopia of wildlife and exquisite good looks.

Last updated: Feb 17, 2009