When I checked out at 4 a.m. I was surprised by the price of my hotel room. They gave me a discount without me even asking for it. This never happened to me in any other city (usually you have to be alert, because they try charging more than the list price), but this is already the second time here in Cajamarca. Well – I don’t mind.

The bus to Chachapoyas was pretty ok and comfortable, althogh the bumper was missing. We stopped in Calendín for some time and when the bus suddenly left ahead of time I had to ran after it (luckily I always stay close to the bus, because you just can’t trust the bus companies here) and nocked the door. They let me in, but pointed out they were just changing some oil and would come back. I guess they could have just told us earlier.

The ride itself was scenic, but Wikitravel nails it: “This is a spectacular road to travel and in a big bus definitely not for the faint hearted.” We were driving about thirteen hours, out of which 2 hours were on what we would call “road”. It was shaking so badly most of the time, that reading was difficult, but managable.

All the six Gringos on the bus turned out to be Germans (counting one Swiss girl as German too), which was quite funny. I had no idea what to do or where to stay in Chachapoyas and the Swiss girl was so kind to give me her a map and recommended a hotel.

Chachapoyas is really small, so taking a taxi is completely needless.  As always just walking to the Plaza de Armas offers a variety of Tour Agencies and Restaurants.

I find it quite interesting how different all the towns are. For example I was always looking for Panaderias to buy some bread, but they are scarce in almost all Peruvian towns. Here every second shop seems to be one and I’m in heaven.  Unfortunately I’m having difficulties finding a store offering fruits, but it seems like you just can’t have anything at the same time 🙂