By Roberto Cortijo
The Peruvian government has presented ambitious plans to turn the stone fortress of Kuelap, a remote pre-Inca site in northern Peru, into one of the country's main tourism attractions.
Kuelap is located on a mountain top on the eastern ridge of the Andes, 3 000m above sea level and about 700km north of Lima.
The original inhabitants, the Sachapuyo or Chachapoyas, were known as the "people of the clouds" because their stone cities were built on a site where the cold Andean air meets the warm tropical air from the Amazon basin, resulting in a semi-permanent layer of mist and fog.
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Air links between Lima and Chachapoyas are spotty, and land access on dirt roads is difficult.
It currently takes more than an hour to get from the floor of the Utcubamba valley up a steep zig-zagging road to the site itself - and the view is so spectacular visitors have dubbed it the Machu Picchu of the north.
Peruvian tourism officials are convinced that Kuelap can become one of the country's main tourist sites, and have devised an ambitious $47-million (R305-million) plan for that purpose.
The plan, which is to start in the next months, includes $21-million (R132.3 million) to build eight tourist stops with museums and an archaeological research centre in the area.
A second phase is to build a 53km long road linking the towns of Pedro Ruiz and Leimebamba, improve tourist access to the Utcubamba valley, where several Chachapoyas sites, including Kuelap and the Gran Pajaten, are located.
And $4-million (R25,2-million) will be assigned to build a 2,7km-long cable car to carry tourists from the valley floor of Kuelap, cutting the wait to 15 minutes.
The government is seeking private partners, including local communities, to join in the effort for a cut in the profits. Kuelap is about 450ha of stone structures surrounded by a rock wall 20m high.
The site was inhabited, initially by about 500 people. During its heyday around 3 000 people are believed to have lived there.
In the 1470s the Chachapoyas were conquered, after fierce resistance, by the Incas, who in turn were defeated by Spanish conquistadors in the 1530s. Kuelap was abandoned around that time and only re-discovered in 1843.
Of the more than one million tourists who visit Peru each year, seven percent travel to the southern Andean city of Cuzco, the capital of the former Inca empire, and on to the much-visited ruins of Machu Picchu.
Fourteen percent travel to northern Peru - mainly mountain climbers heading to the country's highest mountain chain in Ancash, north of Lima - and 13 percent to central Peru.
- This article was originally published on page 26 of Tribune on October 26, 2004
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