Cajamarca is a city of about 200,000 people at 2,750 metres in the northern Peruvian Andes, and something happened in its main square that changed two continents. On 16 November 1532 Francisco Pizarro, with about 168 men, took the Inca ATAHUALPA prisoner in the middle of his own army of tens of thousands. Atahualpa then offered to fill a room once with gold and twice with silver for his release, did so over the following months, and was executed anyway in July 1533. THE CUARTO DEL RESCATE, the ransom room, is the only Inca building still standing in the city. Everything else here is colonial or later, which is itself the story.
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What Is Here
THE RANSOM ROOM IS SMALL, PLAIN AND WORTH THE VISIT FOR WHAT IT IS RATHER THAN HOW IT LOOKS. A single trapezoidal-doored stone chamber a few minutes from the Plaza de Armas, with a line on the wall said to mark the height the treasure reached. Historians argue about whether this was the ransom room or Atahualpa's cell; either way it is the one surviving piece of Inca Cajamarca and the ticket covers the Belen complex and the archaeology museum too.
THE CHURCHES HAVE NO BELL TOWERS AND THAT WAS A TAX DODGE. The Spanish crown levied a tax on COMPLETED churches, so builders in Cajamarca simply never finished them, and the city's great baroque facades, carved from local volcanic stone in extraordinary detail like the one in the third photograph, stand under stumps where towers should be. The CATHEDRAL on the Plaza de Armas and the SAN FRANCISCO church opposite it are both worth going into, and San Francisco's catacombs are open.
THE MARKET IS THE SECOND PHOTOGRAPH AND THE HATS ARE REAL. Cajamarca's rural hinterland is dairy and cattle country, the city's market is where that trade happens, and the tall straw hats the women wear are a working regional dress rather than a costume for visitors. The city is also Peru's dairy capital, which means the cheese and the manjarblanco are genuinely good and are what people take home.
THE BANOS DEL INCA ARE WHERE ATAHUALPA WAS WHEN PIZARRO ARRIVED. Six kilometres out, thermal springs the Inca used and still in use as public and private baths, which is an unusually direct piece of continuity: you can sit in the water the last Inca was bathing in when the Spanish rode up the valley.
TWO ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITES ARE WORTH THE TRIP. THE VENTANILLAS DE OTUZCO are pre-Inca funerary niches cut in rows into a cliff face, which is what most of this library's Cajamarca rock frames actually are, and CUMBEMAYO is a carved aqueduct at 3,500 metres, roughly three thousand years old and cut through solid rock with astonishing precision, surrounded by eroded stone forest.
AND THE CITY IS A MINING CITY, WHICH SHOULD BE SAID. YANACOCHA, in the hills above, is one of the largest gold mines in the world, and the long dispute over the proposed Conga expansion dominated regional politics for years. The mine is why Cajamarca has money and why it has protests; both are part of the place.
When to Go
May to September is the dry season and it is the right window. Daytime in the high teens to low twenties, cold clear nights near freezing, and the roads to Cumbemayo and the countryside passable.
CAJAMARCA'S CARNIVAL IS THE BIGGEST IN PERU AND IT IS A WATER FIGHT. Held in the days before Lent, usually February, it fills the city, books out every room months ahead, and involves being soaked with water, paint and worse by complete strangers for days. If that appeals it is the best time to come; if it does not, avoid February entirely and do not expect to stay dry if you are here.
October to April is the wet season, with heavy afternoon rain, mud on the unpaved approaches to the sites, and Cumbemayo sometimes unreachable. Daytime in the high teens, which is mild, and the hills are green.
THE ALTITUDE IS 2,750 METRES, which is less than Cusco and still enough to make the first day slow if you have flown up from Lima at sea level.
Getting There
Lima is about an hour and a half by air to Cajamarca's airport, which is the sensible way. By road it is a long haul, around 14 to 16 hours by overnight bus, and the route from the coast climbs hard.
Trujillo and Chiclayo on the coast are each about six hours by road, which is the usual overland pairing for a northern Peru trip, and the descent to the coast is spectacular and slow.
The city centre is walkable and the hill is not. The Plaza de Armas, the ransom room, the churches and the market are all within fifteen minutes on foot. The MIRADOR SANTA APOLONIA above the city, which the first photograph looks up towards, is a climb of a few hundred steps and is worth it at the end of a day.
The Banos del Inca, Otuzco and Cumbemayo need a taxi, a colectivo or a tour. Cumbemayo in particular is a rough road at 3,500 metres and the usual arrangement is a half-day tour, which also solves the altitude question by not making you walk up to it.
The Cajamarca Packing List
Strong high-altitude sun, cold nights, a genuinely wet half of the year and a long climb in the middle of town.
Our merino base layers are 100% Australian merino at 17.5 micron, and a long sleeve merino wool base layer for women is the right base at this altitude for the reason every Andean city shares: THE DIURNAL SWING IS LARGE AND THE BUILDINGS ARE UNHEATED. A twenty degree afternoon becomes a four degree night, and almost nothing in Cajamarca has heating, so what you wear in the evening is what keeps you warm. Wool handles that and handles the climb to the mirador without arriving wet. Add a heavyweight merino base layer if you are coming in the dry season, when the nights are coldest.
A Columbia Fast Trek II fleece for every evening of the year, and a Marmot PreCip Eco rain jacket, which from October to April is essential rather than optional.
A wide brim UPF 50 sun hat, because at 2,750 metres in the tropics the ultraviolet is severe even when the air is cool, and sunburn at altitude on an overcast day is the classic Andean mistake.
Waterproof walking boots for Cumbemayo and Otuzco, which are rough ground, wet grass and rock rather than paths.
Not linked and worth packing: CLOTHES YOU DO NOT MIND DESTROYING IF YOU COME AT CARNIVAL, which is not a joke; SOLES WITH REAL GRIP for the steps up Santa Apolonia and the polished colonial stone, which is slick when wet; PERUVIAN SOLES IN CASH for the market, the colectivos and the baths, since cards are patchy outside the hotels; HIGH FACTOR SUNSCREEN AND LIP BALM; AND SOMETHING FOR THE ALTITUDE, which here means arriving slowly, drinking water and taking the first afternoon gently rather than any product.
Recommended Tours and Experiences
Essential Resources for Women in Cajamarca
Emergency numbers in Peru: 105 reaches the Policia Nacional, 106 the ambulance service and 116 the fire service. IPERU, THE FREE STATE TOURIST INFORMATION LINE, IS ON 01 574 8000 and is the number worth having: it answers in English, it is the body the FCDO names for checking whether a tour operator is licensed, and it also handles tourist complaints. There is a tourist police presence in Cajamarca. Coverage is good in the city and patchy on the Cumbemayo road.
THE ADVISORY GEOGRAPHY IS SIMPLE HERE AND SAYING SO IS THE POINT. UK FCDO: Peru has TWO advised-against areas and neither is on the normal tourist circuit. The FCDO advises against all but essential travel to THE VALLEY OF THE APURIMAC, ENE AND MANTARO RIVERS, the VRAEM, where remnants of the Shining Path occasionally attack police and military and where it notes both Peruvian and British Embassy assistance is severely limited. IT ALSO CLARIFIES, IN ITS OWN WORDS, THAT 'SOME PARTS OF THE APURIMAC RIVER IN THE DEPARTMENTS OF CUSCO AND AREQUIPA ARE NOT WITHIN THE VRAEM', which is the sentence that matters for anyone travelling in the Sacred Valley. The second area is within 20km south of the PUTUMAYO RIVER on the Colombian border in Loreto, excepting the Amazon River itself and the triple-border stretch from Caballococha to Santa Rosa de Yavari. Separately the FCDO warns that ARMED ROBBERS HAVE ATTACKED LONE WALKERS AT LAKE TITICACA and advises travelling in a group at the southern end at night, that ARMED RIVER PIRATES operate on the Amazon, and that states of emergency are declared from time to time with the current list published in El Peruano. CAJAMARCA IS IN NEITHER AREA. It sits in the northern highlands, nowhere near the VRAEM in the central jungle or the Putumayo on the Colombian border, and a reader who searches Peru and finds two advised-against zones should know that neither reaches this city.
Peru's real risk is ordinary crime handled badly, and the FCDO is specific about taxis. It warns that tourists, especially those travelling alone, are at risk of EXPRESS KIDNAPPING, where someone is held and forced to withdraw money from ATMs for their release, usually at night, and that incidents often involve armed criminals POSING AS TAXI DRIVERS or drivers working for gangs. So: use licensed telephone or app-based taxis, never hail one in the street, ask your accommodation to book, and at an airport or bus terminal use only the registered desks inside the terminal. The FCDO also records armed hold-ups of provincial and inter-city buses, robberies at gunpoint of British tourists including in the Lima tourist districts of Miraflores and Barranco, and advises not resisting and agreeing to any demand for cash. Street crime, muggings and bag-snatching are a significant problem in Lima, Cusco and Arequipa: use ATMs inside banks or supermarkets in business hours, do not use a phone at the roadside because motorbike riders snatch them, and do not walk alone in quiet areas or at night. COUNTERFEIT US AND PERUVIAN BANKNOTES CIRCULATE, and the FCDO notes street money changers in Cusco's tourist areas passing off intis, a currency withdrawn decades ago. Carry ID at all times, which the police may ask for. And note that it is illegal for foreigners to take part in political activity or demonstrations, with detention or deportation the stated consequence, while protests and mining strikes are announced with little notice and close roads and railways.
ALTITUDE AND SUN ARE THE DAILY HAZARDS AND MINING PROTESTS ARE THE OCCASIONAL ONE. At 2,750 metres altitude sickness is less likely than in Cusco or Puno and is not impossible, particularly if you fly up from Lima in ninety minutes, so the first afternoon should be slow, flat and dry: headache, nausea and breathlessness that do not settle, or any confusion or unsteadiness, mean going down rather than pushing on. THE ULTRAVIOLET IS THE MORE RELIABLE PROBLEM, because the air is thin and cool at the same time, so people burn badly on days that feel mild. THE WET SEASON FROM OCTOBER TO APRIL brings heavy afternoon rain, and the real consequence is landslides and mud on the unpaved roads to Cumbemayo and the countryside, which close them without notice. MINING PROTESTS AND ROADBLOCKS have closed roads around Cajamarca in the past, sometimes for days, over the Conga project and water rights, and the FCDO's general Peru advice notes that STATES OF EMERGENCY ARE DECLARED FROM TIME TO TIME with the current list published in the official gazette, EL PERUANO. The practical response is the one this library gives for Mexican roadblocks: do not argue, do not film, turn around, and keep a day of slack in an itinerary that depends on a single road. THE BATHS ARE HOT SPRING WATER and the usual cautions apply about not going in alone, not going in after drinking and not staying in too long. And ordinary altitude-city advice: the nights are cold in unheated buildings, the stone is slick when wet, and the steps up Santa Apolonia are steep.
US State Department travel advisory: the Peru advisory. Read the current level there directly rather than relying on a figure printed in any guide.
UK FCDO travel advice: gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/peru, and read the safety and security page rather than only the landing page, because that is where the substance sits.
Main hospital: the Hospital Regional de Cajamarca serves the region and there are private clinics in the city, which are the faster option if you are insured. Anything serious is a flight to Lima, which has genuinely good private hospitals, and that is an hour and a half away rather than a drive. Travel insurance that covers air evacuation is the sensible precaution at this distance from a major centre. Dial 106 for an ambulance. Peru has no reciprocal health agreement with the UK or the United States, so insurance with medical cover and repatriation is essential, and it should cover trekking at altitude if you intend to walk. Private clinics in Lima, Cusco and Arequipa are good and will want payment or an insurance guarantee up front; public provision outside the cities is thin. A farmacia handles minor problems. DO NOT DRINK THE TAP WATER anywhere in Peru. ALTITUDE IS THE REAL HEALTH RISK rather than anything exotic: Cusco is 3,400 metres and the Sacred Valley around 2,800, soroche is common, and the honest response is to arrive low, ascend slowly, drink more water than feels necessary and treat a bad headache as a reason to descend. YELLOW FEVER vaccination is recommended for the Amazon lowlands and some onward countries ask for a certificate.
Official health authority: the Peruvian Ministry of Health, covers the health ministry's own pages and the altitude guidance
US Embassy: the United States Embassy in Lima.
Official tourism authority: PromPeru, the national tourism board, covers the country, and iPeru maintains an office in Cajamarca that publishes the site opening hours, the Cumbemayo road status and the carnival dates
Takeaways
The Inca empire ended in this square in 1532. The ransom room is the only Inca building left.
The churches have no bell towers because Spain taxed finished ones.
Carnival in February is the biggest in Peru and you will be soaked. Plan accordingly.
Neither of Peru's advised-against areas reaches Cajamarca.
Solo women safety assessment: Cajamarca is a manageable and reasonably easy Peruvian city to travel alone, and it is quieter and less touristed than Cusco or Arequipa, which cuts both ways: fewer touts and fewer other travellers. The centre around the Plaza de Armas is compact, busy and ordinary by day, eating alone is completely normal, and there is a tourist police presence. THE ADVISORY POSITION IS CLEAR: Peru has two advised-against areas, the VRAEM in the central jungle and a strip on the Putumayo river, and NEITHER REACHES THIS CITY. The FCDO's Peruvian crime advice is about opportunistic theft and about taxis, and the practical version here is to use a booked or hotel taxi rather than a street cab after dark, to carry a day's cash rather than everything, to keep a bag closed and in front of you in the market crowd, and to avoid the quiet streets above the plaza late. If you are robbed, hand it over. THE REAL DAILY RISKS ARE ALTITUDE AND SUN. At 2,750 metres the first afternoon after a flight from Lima should be slow, and symptoms that do not settle mean going down. The ultraviolet at this height burns people on days that feel cool. The wet season from October to April closes the unpaved roads to Cumbemayo with mud and landslides. And mining protests over the Conga project have blocked roads around the city for days at a time, so keep slack in an itinerary and, at a roadblock, turn around rather than argue. IPERU ON 01 574 8000 IS FREE, ANSWERS IN ENGLISH AND IS THE BODY TO ASK WHETHER AN OPERATOR IS LICENSED. 105 is the police and 106 the ambulance.
Reading On
Cajamarca is the main city of the northern Peruvian highlands and this library covers the country from the desert to the lake. South in the Andes, the Huaraz packing list covers the Cordillera Blanca, the Cusco packing list the Inca capital Atahualpa never reached, and the Machu Picchu packing list and Ollantaytambo packing list the Sacred Valley. Further south, the Arequipa packing list, Colca Canyon packing list and Puno packing list cover the white city, the condor canyon and Lake Titicaca. On the coast and in the jungle, the Lima packing list covers the capital you will fly through, the Huacachina packing list the desert oasis, and the Iquitos packing list the Amazon and the high jungle. For the country, the Peru travel guide for women carries the regions, the altitude and the seasons in full. For why wool suits a twenty degree afternoon and a four degree unheated night, read the guide to merino wool base layers for women. Every destination we cover is indexed at the travel packing guide for women, and the base layers are at the Roman Trail collection. Elsewhere in Peru, the Chinchero packing list covers the Sacred Valley weaving town above Cusco, the Nazca packing list the desert geoglyphs and the overflight the FCDO warns about by name, and the Tarapoto packing list the high jungle where the Andes drop into the Amazon.
If the outer journey is calling you, the inner one usually is too. Explore SoulMap at romantrail.com/blogs/soulmap.
