This little piggy went to market (Celendin, days 14-15)

Saturday morning we had breakfast of tamales and humitas with bread and coffee at a small restaurant on the Plaza de Armas in Cajamarca, next to Clarin tours. Tasty!

We headed over to Av. Atahualpa around noon to find a bus to Celendín, where we would catch the Sunday bus to Leymebamba. In Cajamarca there are a number of bus companies making this trip, all of them calling themselves "Inca Atahualpa" to add to the confusion of picking the right company. The first two companies we tried only had early morning buses. Fortunately practially every bus company in Cajamarca is located on the same stretch of this one street, so it's just a matter of going from one to the next until you find the bus you want. We found a 1 pm bus with CABA for s/10 each. The bus was fine, although it did contain a large number of children, and someone needed to have their diaper changed. But hey, at least there were no chickens.

The trip from Cajamarca to Celendín takes between 4 and 5 hours, almost all of which is on gravel road. The road winds through the altiplano, climbing mountains and passing through beautiful countryside with rolling hills of red, green and gold fields. Basically the most picturesque farmland you can imagine.

Plaza de Armas, Celendín:


Celendín is a small town with a thriving Sunday market. The main mode of transportation here is horseback, and the building material of choice is rammed earth. There is not much to see in this town, other than the market. It seems that most tourists are passing through on their way to or from Cajamarca and Chachapoyas. The other hotels probably cater to people from nearby areas who are in town to trade, sell, or purchase supplies.

Example of rammed earth construction:


We had some trouble finding a clean, quiet place to stay. Most of the hostals and hotels are in the budget category, and we actually tried several places before finding one that was just OK. The one place that seemed far cleaner and more pleasant than the others (but had no vacancies) was Hospedaje Naranja, just one block off the Plaza de Armas (on Unión, to the left when facing the Hostal Celendín). This is the ONLY place in town I would reccommend. The other places were dumps.

We had dinner at La Reserva, which had surprisingly good food. Everyone else in the restaurant was ordering chicken, so we did too. As a bonus we got to watch some great Saturday night wrestling (WWE). Dinner cost about s/15.

Sunday morning I got up early to purchase tickets for the 8-hour bus ride to Leymebamba. The market was just picking up, and there was some heavy cuy trading (guinea pigs)... basically huge mesh bags filled with squirming furry things. Other animals (pigs, chickens, bulls) were also being sold in a big open area nearby.

There are political signs posted on many walls all over Peru - usually for various candidates, but it seemed clear in this town that Mauro was the most popular:


Our bus to Leymebamba left at 11 a.m, with Virgen del Carmen and cost s/20 each. The emblem of the bus company is very similar to the emblem for a certain college some of us went to...

Overall Opinions:
Celendin: 5. Not much here, but the market was very interesting, and this is a necessary stop for travel between Cajamarca and Chachapoyas.
Hostal Celendin: 4. Not too clean, and the restaurant in the courtyard is very noisy. Cost for a double: s/30.
Hostal Imperial: 2. Quieter than Hostal Celendin, but we had to ask them to change the sheets when we discovered that they were (very) dirty. Eeew. Cost for a double: s/30
Hospedaje Naranja: 10. We didn't stay here, but from what we saw it looked WAY better than anything else.
La Reserva Restaurant, Celendín: 9. Good chicken dishes.
CABA "Inca Atahualpa" bus: 6. Fine bus service from Cajamarca to Celendín.