Cumbemayo Stone Forest Tour with Hotel Pick-up

A Cumbemayo Stone Forest tour starts at your hotel in Cajamarca, where a vehicle collects you for the ride to the hills southwest of the city. The road, about 45 minutes and 20 km long, passes through Bellavista, Layzón and the forest park before the rocks of Cumbemayo appear. The complex, discovered in 1937, is known for rocks nicknamed "frailones", because their silhouettes look like devout friars.

With a guide beside you, the walk takes in the full circuit of the complex:

• the Stone Forest and its curious formations
• the Aqueduct, cut into the volcanic rock by the Cajamarca culture around 1000 BC, running 9 km from a starting point at 3,555 metres above sea level
• the Sanctuary, a cliff shaped like an enormous human head, plus Las Cuevas
• the Sacrifice Stone, and the nearby caves with engravings, a place some researchers believe was used for sacrifices
• the Bellavista Vantage Point and the scenery around the San Nicolás Lagoon

Anyone curious about engineering will enjoy the aqueduct, called the most important of pre-Columbian America; the guide explains how it was built and how it worked.

The tour lasts about three and a half hours and ends back in the Plaza de Armas of Cajamarca. Hotel pick-up, an English or Spanish-speaking guide, transport and admission tickets are included; food, drinks and tips are not. It is not suited to people with mobility impairments, wheelchair users or those recovering from recent surgery.