Tarapoto: Being tourists

Last year when Liz came to visit me, we spent a couple of weeks travelling around Peru. We visited several places on the mountains and on the coast, but we didn't make it to the jungle. On her (what will hopefully become annual) visit this year, we decided to remedy that and chose Tarapoto as our first foray into the jungle.

As we had a lot of different things we wanted to do, we decided to customize a tour with Sacharuna Adventures...and we couldn't have been more pleased with the results!  Our tour guide, Daniel, took us to many places that we wouldn't have been able to access on our own.  It ended up being the perfect mix of tourist activities, eco-tourism & artisanal activities that we were looking for.

Tarapoto is known for a number of waterfalls in the area, so our first activity was to visit Ahuashiyacu Waterfall:

The legend of the origin of the waterfall involves the beautiful daughter of a village chieftain (Ahuashi and the love of her life, Shilly (of whom her father, of course, did not approve).  To further compound this sad tale, some witches turned the girl into the beautiful waterfall we now see and turned the lover into a black bull who was charged with guarding the waterfall's pool. [And you thought your love life was complicated.]

Though the jungle was hot, the water was quite cool...thus, merely wading was refreshing enough for us to enjoy our trip there.

We also took a trip to the nearby town, Lamas, to learn more about the native culture there:

Originally only a temporary home for nomadic tribes, Lamas is considered to have been conquered twice-once by a tribe who decided to settle there and once by the Spanish conquistadores.

Ayahuasca is not just a trendy hallucinogenic substance, but in the jungle is considered to be the mother plant and is represented by a snake with ears.  (Apparently it is common to see a snake with ears as one of your first visions under the influence of ayahuasca.)

Clearly, a snake with ears. Not sure I'd want to meet that, even in my dreams.

There, we learned about some of the myths and legends associated with the jungle:

The chullachaqui-the protector of the forest.  Identifiable by his one goat or deer-like foot.  He sometimes appears to you as someone that you know.  [The moral: if you're approached by someone that you are surprised to find in the jungle, check out his feet!]

El Tunchi-something like the Grim Reaper in that he appears when someone is about to die.  Identifiable as a shadowy figure that whistles so shrilly that it produces goosebumps.

This picture depicts the legend of the Chicharra Machacuy.  It seems that if you are bitten by this insect, the only cure is to have sex...immediately.  [Why do I suspect that a man came up with this story???]

We took in some traditional dancing in the native village of Wayku:

But, one of our favorite touristy parts was visiting the castle in Lamas.  After visiting both Chancay castle as well as Unanue in Cañete, I must admit I had pretty low expectations of the use of the word 'castle'.  So you can imagine that I was pleasantly surprised to turn the corner and find this real, honest-to-goodness castle...in the middle of the jungle!

Does anyone else see a face on this tower???