Over the past few years, the village of Nuevo Tingo has been growing alongside the rising profile of its most important nearby tourist attraction, Kuelap; which is considered the to be the Machu Picchu of Northern Peru. In 2015 Kuelap received 36,000 visitors and by 2019 the number had risen to over 100,000.
Much of the increase in visitor numbers can be attributed to the inauguration of the impressive cable car in 2017, which takes visitors up to the fortress of Kuelap from Nuevo Tingo in about 20 minutes. Before the cable car service began, Kuelap was only reached by a long drive on a dirt road. Though others did take the challenging 4-hour hike up from the bottom of the Utcubamba Valley.
Now, in October 2021, as the vaccine rollout continues in Peru, tourism is slowly resuming and visitor numbers to Kuelap are again rising. This growth is sure to continue with the rising profile of this important destination. For example, this month, the website, Lonely Planet listed Kuelap as one of the ten experiences that make a trip to Peru so memorable. Also this month, Kuelap, along with the amazing Gocta Waterfall, was named one of the world’s top 100 green destinations by the NGO greendestinations.org. This award reflects the work carried out at both sites to ensure sustainability. For example, it was noted that the Kuelap cable car had helped reduce carbon emissions from road transport.
These are not the first awards that Kuelap has received. In 2017 National Geographic readers in the UK named Kuelap as the world’s best “Far and Away, Overseas Attraction“ and the New York Times listed Kuelap as one of the top 52 places to visit in 2018.
It is important to note that Kuelap is not the only important Pre-Incan Chachapoyas site near Nuevo Tingo. In fact, in its 2019 admission to the tentative list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites, it is one of 8 sites around the Utcubamba Valley that are listed together.
Hopefully, this listing will soon lead to the full status of a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Once this happens the profile of Kuelap and the surrounding area will reach another level.
At the moment less than one percent of visitors to Peru visit this area of Peru. This is sure to change soon.
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1 comment
Karla Solis
Thank you so much for creating such an informative website for Nuevo Tingo as it is the closest town to beautiful Kuelap.
Back in 2018 together with my family we had the chance to visit Kuelap and stayed in Nuevo Tingo. We had an amazing time! The town is small, friendly and very accommodating. Nuevo Tingo is not mentioned much in the information available online; this surprises me as the town is just 5 minutes walk from the point of departure of the cable car. This website will be very useful for visitors to Kuelap as Nuevo Tingo is a charming town worthwhile of visiting.
Staying in Nuevo Tingo allowed us to rest after the visit to Kuelap and to go for day trips to other local attractions. We truly enjoyed interacting with the locals and discovering more about its culture. We fondly remember the local souvenir shop and coffee place of Mr. Anaximandro Valdez. He and his wife talked to us about the history of the area and how Tingo and Nuevo Tingo developed through the years.
Looking forward to continue reading your website with news about Nuevo Tingo. Thank you so much.
Wiers