The Leymebamba Museum, about 80 km south of Chachapoyas by road, holds one of the most significant collections of Chachapoyas mummies and artefacts in the world — 219 mummies retrieved from a cliffside burial site at Laguna de los Cóndores in 1997, along with hundreds of associated textiles, ceramics, and wooden objects. The museum was built to international standards with climate control and professional conservation, an unusual level of care for a rural Peruvian town.
The mummies are displayed respectfully but accessibly, with explanatory material in Spanish and English. The textiles associated with them — some still strikingly coloured after 500 years — give the most direct sense of the sophistication of Chachapoyas culture. The museum is in the town of Leymebamba itself, which is worth a night if time allows; the area around the town has cloudforest bird-watching and access to more remote Chachapoyas sites. A day trip from Chachapoyas is feasible but long — the road takes two to three hours in each direction.