Peru The Travel Show

It's the largest pre-Incan site in South America and three times

So why aren't there more people here?

I'm in northern Peru, exploring its remote archaeological

And Ben's in Serbia, getting a bird's-eye view

This week, we are in the highlands of Peru, 1000

kilometres from the capital, Lima.

It's a region still relatively untouched by the hordes of tourists

you will find in other parts of the continent.

I'm in the north of the country in a town called Chachapoyas

or Chacha as the locals here call it, over 1000km from Lima,

and this is my starting point to get to one of the most

incredible but lesser-known archaeological sites

The isolated ruins of an ancient civilisation, the remains of some

This is Kuelap, an architectural and historical wonder on the cliffs

It was rediscovered, and it was full of forest.

It was built by the Chachapoyans, who lived

here centuries before their famous Inca cousins conquered the region.

Building started here 1500 years ago and for the next 1000 years,

the site was expanded, making it one of the largest stone

At their peak, there were half a million Chachapoyas people living

I'm just fascinated by these perfectly round

Apparently, they used 30% less building material than your

traditional square or oblong house, and they're more resilient

The walls surrounding the structure are 20 metres high,

But as the Chachapoyans left no written records, very little is

yet known about them or the type of lives they lead.

But one thing we do know is that they had elaborate

More or less 200 mummies were found in the lake,

on the shores of the Lake of the Condors

These mummified remains were discovered by farmers

and are now carefully stored in the Leymebamba museum.

Farmers open a new clearing, a new field,

There are thousands of sites, undiscovered sites, in this area.

So they discover a site and they think about making money.

When they find mummies, they try to sell them.

So most of the funeral sites we know are looted already,

These mummies, I know, they looked terrified, don't they,

but apparently they were put in this position

after they were dead so that you could bundle

them and store them and transport them to be buried in the cliffs.

The people that lived here went to great pains to preserve

the remains of their ancestors, embalming them to hide them

It was their way of keeping their memories and identity alive.

And archaeologists are making new discoveries almost every week.

All these archaeological sites, I would say

90% of the archaeological sites we know locally

Very few governmental institutions are investing money in investigation

So, maybe some tourism, there will be more funding

Despite the fascinating history, it's still a region relatively

unknown to tourists and that's mainly due to the remoteness.

So, we are in Tingo right now, which is where most travellers

will start their journey to Kuelap, which is just on the other side

For me to get there, I'd be treking for about half a day

or stuck in a car for about two hours.

But now there are new developments that could change all that.

The town of Chachapoyas will benefit from the expansion of a nearby

airport that will take a direct flights from the Peruvian capital,

Lima, making the whole area more accessible.

And this multi-million pound cable car is due for completion by the end

Jose Luis, how will this cable car transform the travel experience?

This cable car will transform this region, this economy,

this people, because, now, in 20 minutes,

But in the future, it's 100,000 people.

It's eerie to be able to explore such a historic site virtually

The crowd pulling Machu Picchu receives more than 1 million

So many people, in fact, that they had to introduce quotas

to limit the number of people going there.

Do you think more and more tourists will have an effect

And although Kuelap may lose some of its tranquillity,

it's hoped that one day it will be as celebrated as Peru's

Still to come on this week's Travel Show:

Our Trip Star Ben is at the bottom of a bottle in Belgrade.

I've left a happier, slightly more disorientated man.

And I'll be getting to grips with one of the tallest

The Travel Show, your essential guide whereever you're heading.

We're exploring six great cities around the world

using only a smartphone and your recommendations.

We've had quite a time so far and this week,

we're in a part of Europe that our Trip Star,

Benjamin Zand, knows very little about.

These days, it's all sunshine, sightseeing and staying up late.

But in the late 1990s, the war in Kosovo prompted Nato to

launch a bombing campaign here that changed the city for ever.

But that was all a long time ago now.

I want to find out how life has changed here since.

The truth is, I still don't really know much about the place so

my challenge is to use this to meet the people who can tell me what life

is really like here today in the city.

My first suggestion points me towards some tasty Serbian treats.

I've tried Rakja before but never at 1pm in Serbia, so...

It smells like what I would imagine Rakja to smell like.

It's dangerously fruity and refreshing.

She's giving me smaller portions now.

I've left a happier, slightly more disorientated man.

This tower was built to commemorate 1000 years of the Austro-Hungarian

On the one side, you've got a real Mediterranean feel and on the other,

you've got these brutalist buildings that tell

I'm not a big fan of those Soviet style blocks but,

as I'm finding out on Instagram, some people really are.

He has some good framing skills, I'll give him that.

Teach me the art of framing brutalism to the max.

Try to be as low as you can and go wide.

So what composition are you looking for?

It's more like break dancing than photography but I'll do it.

If it makes it more enjoyable, then...

Oh, wow, that's beautiful because you've got the sun

From here, I think it's a nice angle.

They are very ugly buildings and they're are also quite

But I really wanted to see the view from the

It's a beautiful thing, because you are living with the

You have every morning the beautiful view

It's a great thing, especially in the summer,

when you have a clear view.

My next suggestion was made in such enthusiastic terms that I demanded

to meet its owner and get a personal tour.

Please step into our little 5-star yacht.

How do the splavs kind of reflect the history?

Yes, we did have a pretty hard time during the 90s.

During that time, a lot of people went

to the shelter underneath all these buildings, and

spent their time over a period of 90 days together in

these shelters and really got to know each other, got to see,

kind of going back to the roots of relationships,

friendships, about the true meaning of life.

Up to 200 splavs line the river here and Andreja reckons

they are busy every night of the week.

People just generally having fun doing what they love and

you can't really complain about that, can you?

And finally this week, I'm in the tiny town of Cuispes

just north of Chachapoyas in northern Peru and we're about to

head to the jungle to discover one of the area's best kept secrets.

Tucked away in the eastern Andes, Cuispes didn't feature on the

But a few kilometres away lies a spectacular discovery that has

Hidden in these rainforests are some of the tallest

The only way to get close to the waterfalls is on

So, we've been walking for more than an hour, so

I'm not surprised that not many people have heard of this place

And we're going to walk underneath it?

This is just one of some 30 waterfalls concentrated in this

They were recognised internationally in 2005 after a

German explorer stumbled across them.

Since then, the local guides have invested their time to make the

trail accessible to tourists, moving heavy rocks to create hiking trails.

But the main attraction here is Yumbilla waterfall.

At a whopping 895 metres, it's the fifth tallest in the

And people are now seeing that this is the perfect backdrop for

something more challenging than hiking.

This team is setting up the first professional venture here.

Yumbilla is split into four almost sheer

drops and I'm going to try to abseil down the bottom section with a lot

I'm going to rappel down here, down this little

waterfall about ten or

12 metres into a pool and then from there,

we'll abseil down the rest of the waterfall which is

And I'm one of the first people to do this.

Before we can start, the team must meticulously

anchor a system of ropes into the rock face.

Never that glamorous getting into a wet suit, but I'll be

I'm attached to a harness and instructed on the safety

apparatus that will allow me to control my descent.

I put my feet against the wall and slowly

It's hard to stay up with the constant

pressure of the water pushing me backwards

and I'm told this is the easy part.

We reach the tiny ledge overlooking the last 70 metres

So far, so good, but halfway down, I'm in for a shock.

Slightly unnerving that we're going to lose the rock now and go

Without the rock face, I'm literally hanging.

Basically, this rope is holding my body weight

and I'm having to release the rope to get me down.

This way of coming down is faster and scarier than

We reach the last part of the descent

and I'm so relieved to finally get to the bottom.

I know it's crazy, I didn't expect quite so much water.

And once the cold and the terror disappear, I feel

lucky to be one of the few people to have experienced this wilderness

while it's still a bit of a secret from the outside world.

That was an amazing experience but I tell you

what, I'm glad to be back on solid ground and out of that wetsuit.

That's all we've got time for the programme this week.

Coming up next week: Christa's on the west coast of Ireland

project that's attempting to reintroduce rare birds

And don't forget, if you want to join the

rest of the Travel Show team on their travels in real-time,

you can check out our social media pages.

All the details are on your screen now.

But until next time, from me, Carmen Roberts, and

the rest of the Travel Show team here at Yumbilla Falls in