Must-see attractions in Northern Highlands

Travelers have their heads literally in the clouds when visiting the walled jungle fortress Kuélap in the northern highlands of Peru – the gateway to the…

This 771m waterfall somehow escaped the notice of the Peruvian government, international explorers and prying satellite images until 2005, when German…

The mummies found at Laguna de los Cóndores are housed in the Museo Leimebamba, 5km south of town. The museum is owned by the local community and located…

The name Gran Vilaya refers to the bountiful valleys that spread out west of Chachapoyas, reaching toward the rushing Río Marañón. Abutting the humid…

Perched on a mountaintop overlooking the small town of San Pablo, these seldom-visited pre-Inca ruins are well worth the trip from Cajamarca. The site is…

This spectacular collection of rugged ruins sprawls over a windswept plateau at a dizzying 3600m. The 3km-long site dates from around 400 BC and has…

A tiered waterfall falling in four sections, Yumbilla, rather like Gocta, was not properly surveyed until the early 2000s. And with all the recent…

This excellent museum at the foot of the Kuntur Wasi ruins houses many objects from the archaeological site including amazing gold crowns and jewelry. Be…

This historic site protects several brightly colored funerary buildings tucked into limestone cliff ledges high above a valley near the town of Santo…

This largely unexcavated archaeological site dates from around AD 1100 and is located 17km south of Chachapoyas near the village of Levanto. A visit here…

Cumbemayo (derived from the Quechua kumpi mayo, meaning ‘well-made water channel’) is an astounding feat of pre-Inca engineering. These perfectly smooth…

This extraordinary funerary site hosts six sarcophagi perched high up a sheer cliff face. Each long-faced tomb is constructed from wood, clay and straw…

Dense jungle lies just 3km from the city limits of the crazy, cacophonous metropolis of Tareapoto. This section of the Aréa de Conservación Regional…

This part of Peru hit the spotlight in 1996 when a group of farmers found six chullpas (ancient Andean funerary towers) on a ledge 100m above a cloud…

The 2960-hectare Abra Patricia-Alto Nieva Private Conservation Area is a bird-watcher’s paradise managed by the Association of Andean Ecosystems (ECOAN)…

This town, a short drive from Tarapoto, is remarkable in the way that it is split into two distinct halves with mestizo (person of mixed indigenous and…

The most captivating of the many ancient ruins strewn around Leimebamba, La Congona is definitely worth the three-hour hike needed to get here. The flora…

The Ransom Chamber, the only Inca building still standing in Cajamarca, is where Inca ruler Atahualpa was imprisoned. The small room has three trapezoidal…

The tiny and agreeably unkempt village of Huancas (pronounced like the English ‘wankers’!) has a small artisan community making clay pots the old…

Drawing your eye on your way into Moyobamba from the west is a craggy hill rising abruptly out of the flat forest. This is the Morro de Calzada (550m), a…