Cajamarca Sites

Porcon -

Porcon is a co-op farm about an hour and a half outside of the actual city of Cajamarca.  It is also the area's zoo.  It is quite religious.  As soon as you get on the grounds of this farm, you start seeing signs all over the place with bible verses on them.   But before that, we got to stop at a stone carving shop.  We stayed there for a very long time.  We didn't get to see them carving anything; they just wanted us to buy the stuff.  We did not.

When we go to the main part of the farm, the first thing everyone did was run for the bathroom.  Paolo discovered a hidden bathroom around the corner.  Jo and I went, but it was locked.  Buu.  So we got in line to use the main bathroom.  It was gross and smelly.  Delish.  Hand sanitizer, check.

We started the little tour by first looking in a room where women were making cloth handicrafts.  Then, we peeked in a room that we couldn't enter where they did something with metals before heading to the zoo portion.  The zoo was huge.  I thought it was never going to end.  We saw lots of birds and random animals.  There was a woman that took our photo, but couldn't actually figure out how to take a proper pic.  Grr.

When our zoo walk finished, we went to the little store to buy food.  There was corn, cheese, cheese and honey, ceviche... ugh.  Jo had the cheese and cheese.  Didn't taste like anything.  I had the cheese and honey.  Not suggested.  Then we got back on the bus and headed back into Cajamarca.

Baños del Inca

The Inca Baths are hot springs that are around 71C.  I don't know how hot that is in F.  This is supposedly where the Spaniards found the last Inca emperor.

When you go there, you pay a few soles and walk on in.  The first set of baths are for locals, and the second are for tourists.  However, I think the local baths looked nicer than the tourist baths!  We should've gotten the massage package, but we did not.  Grr!

It was relatively relaxing because you could mix cold water in to make the water the temperature you preferred.  However, the little rooms aren't exactly soundproof, and the little kids canon-balling and screaming in the next room doesn't do much for the tranquilness of the place.  Also, I don't think the tubs are very sanitary.  TGFS!  Thank goodness for swimsuits!

Ventanillas de Otuzco

The Ventanillas de Otuzco are little windows in a mountain, basically.  In the little windows, they would put the bones of people who had died.  It appears that only the bones were placed there - because the bones found were not in a position that could have been natural.  This area is deteriorating because up to recently, the site was not protected.  Our guide was telling us that when he was a teenager, he and his friends would go there and climb all over.  Now there is a fence made of cactus.

Before going to the Ventanillas, we went to a hanging bridge.  The Peruvians really liked it - they were trying to make it move and having a grand old time.  We thought it was kind of ridiculous that we stopped there, but whatev.  Paolo bought some fruit that tasted like a sweet tomato.  Hm.

After the Ventanillas, we went to what appeared to be a dying botanical garden.  We spent a lot of time in the gift shop.  We did see a woman there with a HUGE basket of bread on her back.  We bought a bread for 10 cents.  (That's about 4 cents in the USA).  It was interesting.

From there, we went to 2 little shops - both that sold cheese.  The second one was actually not little at all, but in a huge factory.  It smelled awful. BUT we got some delicious manjar blanco there!  Yum!

Cumbe Mayo

Cumbe Mayo is a rock forest about an hour out of the city of Cajamarca.  It was a pretty drive to the site...the sky is really blue there.  When we arrived, we had to use the grossest bathroom ever...well.. one of them anyways, lol.  No water, no toilet paper, no toilet seat...horrendous smell.  There was a woman that would go in every so often and put a pail of water in the toilet.  Great job (gag!)

After that, we entered the site.  It started by going through a tunnel which was pitch black and uneven.  It was also uphill.  Eek!  It was pretty small though.  When we got out on the other side, we got to go on a 2 hour walk through different rock formations formed by the wind and the rain.  We saw pirates and elephants and kings and brides!  It was really quite cool!  We also saw an aqueduct in which water went UPhill!  There were stone etchings (my favorite was the smiley face!) and sacrifice rocks as well.

On the way back, we stopped at a lookout point.  It started to rain around that time...but the lookout over the city was still pretty neat!  This was definitely a worthwhile tour.

Ransom Room

The Ransom room is the room where the last Inca emperor, Atahualpa, was imprisoned.  He was taken prisoner by Pizarro and Atahualpa told Pizarro he would fill the room as high as his raised arm could reach once with gold and twice with silver in order to be released.  Pizarro agreed, Atahualpa filled the room as promised, but was killed anyways.

The Ransom Room in Cajamarca, however, was the room where Atahualpa was held, NOT where the gold and silver went.  That location is unknown.

The room is barren besides a line that showed where Atahualpa's hand would've reached.  There were some paintings in the hallway before you entered the area where this room is located.  You cannot go in the room.  There were some signs explaining things, but they were written in old Spanish.  In general, the room left a lot to be desired, LOL.  But, it has a history!

Other Attractions:

We went to a few different churches and museums.  Most were free to enter.  There was one that cost 5 soles, but it was free if you had your ticket from the Ransom Room.  We didn't go on the last excursion to another farm and the Baños del Inca because we wanted to have more time at the Baños, and we had already seen one farm!

There is also a relatively new mall.  Don't worry, the bathrooms don't have toilet seats either! ;)