Cajamarca

THE SURROUNDING TOURIST PLACES

Baños del Inca (Baths of the Inca)

It is located 6 Km from the city of Cajamarca at an altitude of 2,667 m. It is the most important spa of thermal waters in Peru, for the size, the quality of waters and the historical profile. In this place was resting the Inca Atahualpa when arrived the Spaniards in 1532. The waters spring, out from natural sources at a temperature of more than 70 C., have a great therapeutic value and have been used from the pre-inca time. Now, it is a tourist complex that has family bungalows, a youth hostel, several pavilions with wells, a big tempered pool, a sauna and an establishments to sale crafts and local foods that offer all conventional comforts for moderate prices which delights the tourists and visitors.

Necropolis of Otuzco and Comóayo

They are known locally as "windows". The necropolis of Otuzco is located 7,5 Km from Cajamarca and the one of Combayo is 20 Km in the same direction. Both are characterized by the crypts built in rocky hillside. The majority of cavities are simple niches; still others are multiple types that intercommunicate by means of lateral passageways. The windows of Combayo are more numerous than those of Qtuzco. They also are on the territory of "Cometa Ventrigris", a variety of unique hummingbird in the world, which is in danger of extinction and has its habitat in the Sangal Canyon formed by river Chonta.

Cumbemayo

It is located to 20 Km, to the South West of Cajamarca at an altitude of 3,500 m It is an archaeological place surrounded by a picturesque landscape that is supplemented by numerous geologic formations in form of a forest of stone pillars, that accompany us on a side of the itinerary. They form silhouettes that look like friars in a silent procession, reason for which these rocky formations have acquired the appellative of "Friars". However, the whole tourist complex includes:
The Aqueduct.
It is considered as one of the most remarkable works in hydraulic engineering of pre-Columbian America. Formerly cut in country rock, it served to transfer the water, that had a natural destination the basin of the Pacific, toward the basin of the Atlantic, separating with incredible mastership the waters of the continental divide.
The Sanctuary.
It is a pillar that has the appearance of a human head, in which a grotto of 2.50 m diameter was made, in form of an open mouth, with rudimentary steps to access the interior of what looks like a mouth cavity. In one niche, petrogliphes and other designs can be appreciated. To cross the sanctuary through the described opening, it is still a hallucinating experience that one never forgets.

The Cave.
It contains important petrogliphes to be defined, although some can be identified with anthropomorphic and of not very clear felines forms.

Cooperative Atahualpa Jerusalén or "Granja Porcón"

This fascinating place is constituted by an Andean community made in a kind of village that is located to 30 Km to the North of Cajamarca and an altitude of 3,500 m. Its importance resides in the fact that it constitutes the only successful experience of cooperative that is in the world. It has developed in the last 25 years, in an exemplary and only way, as an integral project of reforestation of the Andean high areas of this part of the country. It is conducted on 10,000 hectares of plantation with exotic species such as the pines pátula, radiate and seudostrobus and with native species like the quinual and aliso. They have achieved besides the climatic benefits that regenerate the forests, a better protection of soil, the restoration of wild Flora and Fauna in an environmental victory without parallel over the geographical adversity. In Granja Porcón the whole existent forest theory is made a reality.

The Collpa

The Collpa was a farm dedicated to the raising of bovine livestock, the production of milk and its derivatives. It was affected by the agrarian reform, becoming a cooperative that, as an agricultural experience, become a big failure. Now, it is again a private property. Like almost the whole countryside of Cajamarca, it is a beautiful place covered with pastures and sprinkled with plantations of eucalyptuses. It is famous for a ritual sui géneris that is translated as the "call of the cows", which goes to the place of milking, when called by their names. Besides the picturesque country house in the Collpa, it can be visited a small artificial lagoon dedicated to raising pekinese ducks and swans. One can stop to look at the stables and visit the slender Chapel in honour of the "Virgen del Carmen" to say a prayer and then to ascend the mirador, next to the steeple, to survey the green and colourful mountains at a horizon.

Three Mills

Up to now, it keeps in operation uses and customs of the "country property" that it is. However, the modernity also has already made an indispensable presence there. The large house is, simply, of a beauty and of nonpareil architectural style. In the stables, the most productive milk cows can be appreciated and like in any agro industry centre, here are found the cheeses, the butter and the cream, more genuine and more flavourful of the region. Continuing on the road in front of the stables, we will be able to discover the "Garden of the Hydrangeas" where, besides savouring a plate of typical food, a desert or the rich jora chicha, one can relax seeing a great varieties of hydrangeas and crafts to take home as souvenirs.

CAJAMARCA THE SURROUNDING TOURIST PLACES PICTURESQUE VILLAGES THE MAP