Cajamarca & Celendin

We left our big bags to holiday in Trujillo while we packed a few things and got on a night bus to Cajamarca. At about 2700m Cajamara is warm and sunny and remembered as the scene of the capture and execution of Antahualpa, an Inca Emperor in 1532. Antahualpa had beaten his brother in battle and before heading to Cusco to take up reign he stopped in Cajamarca to soak his wounds in a hot pool. He had 80,000 soilders with him and they were all down the town eating cake celebrating the victory. Francisco Pizarro had been marching for weeks with a bunch of soilders too (less than 200) and wanting to meet with Antahualpa, they too stopped in Cajamarca. Word was sent to Antahualpa who said goodbye to his rubber ducky and got out of the bath to go to town to meet Pizarro. The Spaniards had arrived in town first and hid themselves to ambush the inca warriors. Some sort of multi-lingual exchange occured which involed the spanish making demands and waving the bible. The Inca king, sorry that he had not got his soilders out of the bakery was captured in a bloody battle that seemed to last less than an hour but saw thousands of soilders killed. They had never seen horses, never mind fought against steel swords. Their top commanders were killed first, which left the soilders disorganised. Antahualpa tried to bargin for his release, and holding his arm aloft in the room where he was kept prisioner he marked the wall. This was to show the height of gold he would give Pizarro, and 2 rooms of silver, in exchange for his release. The Spaniards were delighted with this offer but killed Antahualpa anyway. From this day on the inca empire crumbled. We went to see the ranson room which is still standing and also bathed in the famous hot baths, but not Antahualpas one. (Looks like the water has been changed since but still a bit grotty!!)

This being a bit of a whistle stop tour, we left the next morning to travel to Celendin. Settled in a lovely hostel we wandered down town and through the market. A lovely town with very few cars and well preserved and freshly painted colonial buildings. The plaza, immaculately kept with lovely flowers and a huge catherdal fronting onto it, being enjoyed by the locals , sitting in the sun. We have seen a lot of hats on this trip and Im sorry to not have more photos of them. In this town they had wonderful sambreros. Hand made by the ladies and sold to the hat shop for finishing off. On Sunday morning everyone was in their finery and in town for the market. At 6am the livestock market starts. At 7am the hat market. It continues through the day and by the end of it the streets are full of contented shoppers cluthcing hens, dragging pigs, carrying reeds to make more hats and much more! It is so enjoyable to wander the streets and admire all the lovely fruit and vegetables, neatly arranged in piles. We went to visit more hot springs in a lovely valley nearby. The springs were at the bottom of a wonderful lush valley with the trees heaving with fruit. This time we really got stuck in and baked in the mineral enriched mud for a while before getting in with the locals for a wash! The scolding hot water bubbles up in pools beside a river. So, you can sit in the river and build a wall so that you trap sone of the hot water coming from a pool and mix it with the river water to enjoy a nice hot soak. We were very taken by Celendin. I hope to do a slide show of photos the next time I am at a computer.