San José de Lourdes

Remote Peruvian district near San Ignacio, on a dirt road toward the green Chirinos valley.

San José de Lourdes is a district in the north-eastern part of San Ignacio province. The capital is merely a small village on a dirt road. The town can be reached crossing the river Chinchipe close to the point where the Jaén-San Ignacio highway heads west into the mountains.

The friendly people of its capital aren't the main reason to visit this place - nor their fresh bananas and home-made coffee. More important is that it is on the road - dirt track - to the valley of the river Chirinos. The road itself is an attraction, if you've got a robust stumache. First it goes on up to an altitude of over 2000 meters. I like to call this highest part of the route Little Ireland because of it's grassy plains and rolling hills. The locals call it Los Llanos. You could just get out of the collectivo here and try to rent a horse somewhere. There aren't many houses around though. About ten kilometers further it goes down again, into the valley. Vegetation changes completely again, down into cloud forest patched with small plots. Halfway down the valley you reach the first village, after about four hours of roads that make the strong meek.

As tourism is a very exotic phenomenon, you'll have to rely on mountainfolk hospitality here. Don't worry about that though. In any village, a good idea would be to ask for the local Ronda president: he'll be able to help you find a place to sleep. The Ronda's are village organisations that spontaniously developped to counter rampant theft and crime in parts of the country where the state is hardly represented. Over time they have acquired more functions, such as local justice and policy. Restaurants are available: a good opportunity to try the specialty of Guinnee Pig! The best way to explore this valley appears to be on horseback, unless you've got your own transport you want to ruin. Public transportation is available, but only on a daily basis. Hamlets aren't very far apart, and cars only take half the time a horse needs.

Going ever deeper into the valley, plots and hamlets become smaller and the forest becomes denser. In the end the forest is everywhere, and you reach native territory. Some 3000 indiginous people of the Apo tribe live here. Most of them don't speak Spanish.

You'd want to hurry visiting this place: you might be the first and last tourist to see this place in all it's glory, as almost the whole forest has been given in concession to foreign mining interests. If you're interested in the social movement that has arrisen to protest this, and their reasons to fight, a good resource is www.vima.org.pe .

Guide

Getting There

From San Ignacio town, take the highway heading west toward the mountains. The road crosses the Río Chinchipe — the river crossing is the clearest landmark that you've left the main route behind — and then begins climbing into the hills. The surface quickly turns to dirt and stays that way.

Collectivos run between San Ignacio and the valley, but only occasionally and on no fixed schedule. Ask around in San Ignacio's market area or at the informal transport stops near the river; other passengers are your best source of current information. A 4WD vehicle is strongly recommended if you have your own transport. For those without, horse hire is possible once you reach the highland section, though there are few houses along the plateau and you'll need to ask in whatever village you find first. The full journey from San Ignacio to the lower valley takes around four hours, longer after rain.

Guide

Things to Do

San José de Lourdes is not a destination for the comfort-minded traveler. There are no hotels in any conventional sense, no tour agencies, and the roads would make a goat hesitate. What draws people here — a small number of very independent travelers — is the journey itself: a road that climbs through open highland plains and then drops into a remote cloud forest valley, ending at one of the most isolated indigenous communities in northern Peru.

If you're willing to rough it, find your own way, and rely on the hospitality of people who don't see many outsiders, this corner of the Cajamarca region offers something genuinely rare: a place that hasn't been packaged for visitors and probably never will be.