La Jalca

La Jalca Grande sits at about 2,900 metres in cold highland country south of Chachapoyas, and its interest is continuity. The Chachapoya built circular stone houses with conical thatched roofs, and in La Jalca that form did not disappear at the conquest - a number of round houses remain in and around the village, some still occupied, alongside the rectangular colonial pattern imposed elsewhere. The church of San Juan Bautista, begun in the sixteenth century, is among the oldest in the region and incorporates stone from earlier structures, with a carved font and a wooden interior. There is a small local museum. The village keeps traditions in dress, farming and language use that are thinner elsewhere in Amazonas, and it is far enough off the Kuélap route that it receives very few visitors. Facilities are minimal and the road is slow.

What you actually see

• The round houses - Chachapoya circular form still standing and lived in.
• The church - a sixteenth-century foundation reusing earlier stone.
• The continuity - dress, farming and language traditions maintained.
• The isolation - a village well away from the Kuélap tourist route.

When to go

May to September; the road is poor in the rains. Half a day including two hours of travel each way from Chachapoyas.

Honest expectations

Two hours each way on rough road for a small village. Cold at 2,900 metres. Very few facilities and limited food. The round houses are people's homes - ask before photographing or approaching.

Nearby

Chachapoyas is north; Kuélap and the Utcubamba valley are west.