01x03 - The Cloud Warriors

[bunniefuu]

Ah, radio check,

do you guys' copy?

This is Albert.

Yeah,

copy that, Albert.

Since I was young,

Peru's mighty Inca empire,

and that iconic stone

complex of Machu Pichu,

have fascinated me.

And

still we're climbing.

Roger that.

But what if I was to

tell you that there was

another, mighty culture?

Who ruled Peru's Northern

highlands for nearly

1,000 years before the

Inca even arrived?

And built an even

larger, older, stone complex.

This place must be

up in the clouds.

Copy you.

The Inca called these

people, The Cloud Warriors.

Why don't we just stop

right over this ridge and

see if we can see Kuelap?

Today the giant stone complex

of Kuelap is the best clue

we have to the Cloud

Warriors forgotten world.

That's got to be it,

right there.

But tragically, the future

of this amazing site,

is under threat.

You wouldn't believe

what happened here.

The rain just soaked all the

land, and then this happened.

Look at this.

-Wow.

-Woah, oh my god.

That is

soul destroying.

Can you believe it?

Just disappearing

before our eyes.

The place is in danger.

Landslides are slowly destroying

this 1,000 year old monument.

Yeah, let's get up there.

Let's go.

As Kuelap disintegrates,

so too does the story of

The Cloud Warriors.

They're huge.

That's incredible.

Talk about altitude,

8,500 feet.

You start to hear it

in your breathing.

This may be my last chance

to find their lost world.

Look at this place.

I mean, Kuelap, built

by the Cloud Warriors,

on top of this mountain,

these are the remains

of their buildings.

But where are the people?

Kuelap is one of the largest

structures of its kind in

all of South America,

a religious and

administrative hub

that served a vast community.

Archaeologists estimate

the Chachapoya population

at half a million.

Yet sites, including Kuelap,

account for just a

fraction of these people.

This culture almost disappeared,

and now we know virtually

nothing about them.

In the 15th century,

in what is now Peru,

the Inca expands their empire

along the Pacific coast.

In the high mountains of

the Chachapoya region,

Inca warriors face such

fierce resistance from the

ruling tribe that they called

them, the Cloud Warriors.

But after around

60 years of fighting,

the scale and sophistication

of the Inca military,

finally defeat the Chachapoya.

There's a story of a people,

The Chachapoya,

who built their world up here in

the clouds, that remains hidden.

Hidden in the

whispers of these rocks.

You know, there's not even a

written record that remains

by their own people.

Somewhere in the

vast cloud forest,

must be the remains of a

lost Chachapoya world.

That is what I hope to find.

Oh my God!

Yoo! You see that

drop over the edge?

Ha ha ha, woo!

Cloud forest!

Chachapoya were climbers.

This is their territory.

This is their land, they

lived in the mountains,

they lived in these cliffs.

I'm headed with my tech

team from Kuelap to the

remote village of

San Jeronimo

and the ancient Chachapoya

burial site of El Tigre.

.

If I can find where the Cloud

Warriors buried their dead,

it may lead us to

where they lived.

-Que Juan?

-Juan.

Yes, they're over there

Let's just

be a bit gentle,

it's all about respect, right?

Because even if we're gonna

get access to do the scans,

this has never

been scanned before.

This person is going to be the

one that gives us access, so.

Hello. Juan?

Nice to meet you

Welcome to San Jeronimo

Is it possible

that we can actually

go to the sarcophagi?

We don't always allow

visitors this kind of access

because it's a special

place for our community

We actually were

hoping that we could scan

some of the site with

our different tools.

Like LiDAR and photogrammetry.

If we can scan it, then maybe

we can share it with the world

when it's, even though

it's so difficult to get to

they can see it virtually.

Would you be willing

to take us to the site?

We can send it to

you to educate everyone

Yes, I

think that's great

Many thanks

Do we need

all this stuff?

It's

fairly light as it is.

Juan can see the

value in our scanning mission.

It's five kilometers.

But he has shown a

lot of trust in us by granting

access to such a sacred site.

Muchas gracias.

I hope we don't

disappoint him.

Si.

We're about to

get to the most difficult part

Si, si.

You guys doing

okay back there?

Yeah, we're

getting there.

I'm starting

to feel the altitude.

The tombs?

There they are

Yes, that's it

Right up there.

See way up there on the edge?

On the left side

of the escarpment.

That is incredible.

-Si.

-Unbelievable.

It's difficult from here,

we've still got a long way to go

ALBERT: OK.

This is as

far as the horses can go.

Ok let's

set up down here.

We'll unload the horses.

We're losing light,

let's set that camp up.

What a place to

spend the night.

Tomorrow, I climb

the mountain.

No idea what I'm going to see.

I just feel this big

sense of, responsibility,

to be reverent.

I'm here among the

spirits of the past.

Time to get some sleep.

That's them.

That's amazing.

Maybe the first step

is I get up there somehow,

scramble out there with Juan

and then give you a spot and

we get a full scan of that,

and then we go and do

a bit more exploration beyond.

Perfect.

Ok, let's go.

See you guys.

As we follow the river deeper

the environment becomes

more challenging.

This terrain gave the

Chachapoya natural protection

from their enemies.

This way

Let's go

ALBERT: OK.

It's slippery?

-Uh Huh.

-OK. Alright.

Go slowly

Careful, it's slippery

Can we go around?

There's no other way

Let's, let's see.

I have a rope! I have a rope.

I'll go up first

Of course

And I'll tie off the

rope, and then I'll pull you up.

Ok.

Wait!

You good?!

I got you.

Ha ha!

We did it Albert

You see

We made it

Wow!

Let's keep going.

Oh man.

That's how

the monkeys climb

Now I just feel like I'm

in some other worldly magic.

Ahh!

Where are we?

Is it ancient?

Yes, pre Inca

As we reach 9,000 feet,

there are signs of life,

and death all around us.

It's a deceiving

drop, ok buddy?

It goes, it's just a cliff

and then you got trees,

but the cliff keeps going so,

make sure you don't fall.

Amigo Alberto.

It's difficult here

I'm going to stay here

It's up to you if

you want to climb

It's up there?

Mmm Hmm.

Ok, well ok.

Ok.

There's definitely a

sense of anticipation.

I'm exploring the most intimate

parts of someone's story.

There's hair.

That's hair, that's hair.

I'm just a few

feet from human hair.

This is the remains

of the Chachapoya.

This is a person.

Oh my.

I've never seen

anything like this.

I don't know why; I just

feel like I have to whisper.

You know, it feels

like something so sacred.

Unbelievable.

I think I have

I think I can see the skull,

of one of the

inside one of the sarcophagi.

Oh, it's incredible!

It looks like it's

made of mud and hay.

But look at those faces, each

one of the faces has eyes,

and smiles and teeth,

noses and face paint.

Ah, you got to wonder,

you got to wonder

whether or not that's what,

the faces of

those entombed within

looked like, you know?

If these were supposed to

be representations of the

personalities of

the people within?

I've just come face to

face with the Chachapoya.

Joe, Duncan, do you copy?

Copy that.

Why don't you get

the drone up right now then?

Awesome.

Copy that.

Taking off!

Our drone cameras

can sh**t hundreds of

super high-resolution

images, in minutes.

And the LiDAR technology

will map this remote site

and scan for evidence

of any nearby city.

We're getting close?

That's an affirmative.

I mean, that's the point of

all this, to try and tell the

forgotten story of the

Chachapoya and reveal

where they might have lived.

So now dropping down.

Yeah roger,

you're clear right now.

Copy

and moving left now.

Is that OK?

You are

OK to move left.

Copy.

The team now

scans the surrounding area.

-We can see like pretty much

99% of the area from here.

It's really hard.

It's really hard to see.

No matter how much

we search, we can't find

any evidence of a

significant human settlement.

I think

we're gonna have to rethink,

relocate, ok?

That's an affirmative.

Juan!

You're finally here!

I thought you'd died up there,

that you wouldn't come back

Fantástico.

So cool right?

We might not have

discovered a lost city,

but I do want to share what we

have found with the villagers.

Some of whom have never visited

the tomb site of

their ancestors.

Zoom in.

So, this is, yeah right there.

Yeah, I

haven't seen that.

That's incredible.

There we go, see?

And then there's

the sarcophagi.

-Right.

-See?

And then you can rotate out.

-Look at this.

-Woah!

More.

One there,

there's one there,

this whole mountainside's

covered in them.

All this vegetation's

growing over these ones.

There's more

Yeah mas, right here.

In addition to the main site,

our technology has revealed

other burial grounds

hidden in even more remote

parts of the cliffs.

Look, look at that!

So, this is new?

Have you seen this before?

-No.

-No?

It's been an honor for us to

come here to learn more about

the Chachapoya, to learn who

they were and now we can see

their faces across

the whole mountain.

Thank you for

showing us where to go.

And I can't believe

we found new ones.

I'm really happy

for us too, for our culture

Thank you

Thank you

Si mi amigo.

Ahhh this is why

you do these things.

I've been traveling the

world for many years now,

looking for lost cities,

lost worlds.

But moments like that,

what just happened there

in that town, that's why.

That's why.

We're connected.

My time here has allowed

me to understand more about

who the Chachapoya

were as a people.

But I'm still no closer to

finding where they lived.

My mission to find a

Lost City of the Cloud Warriors

has taken me 100 miles south

of Kuelap to Chacanto

on the Marañón River,

believed to be a

critical trading route

for the ancient Chachapoya.

This goes into the Amazon?

It's an ancient river

-Luigi!

-Albert!

Thanks for meeting us.

Welcome to the Marañón.

I've met up with local

archaeologist Jeff Contreras,

who has spent many years

exploring this isolated area,

and river navigator,

Luigi Marmanillo.

I've been dreaming about this

y'know since I was a boy,

you hear about the Amazon,

you hear all the legends,

and now we're here.

Now we're here.

So, Jeff

said you had a map.

Yes here.

This is where we

are, Chacanto.

-Ok.

-And this is Tuen.

Ah, there's no

roads here, at all right?

There's no roads.

How far is this,

pretty far right?

This is

like 18 kilometers.

What I'm hoping

we find is some of the

ancient Chachapoya trails.

The mission is to try and

see if there's any roads,

you know, old Chachapoya

roads that would have

led towards Kuelap.

There are very

old paths that connect the

archaeological sites to Kuelap

Many of these paths

have been lost

And we have to find them

We have to find the sites

That's

what we're here for.

We're probably the

first to explore them

Well, great

let's get started.

Yes.

The Rio Marañón is

the western most border

of the Chachapoya region.

By rafting from Chacanto,

I'm hoping to follow

ancient trade paths, and

maybe find a Chachapoya

lost city between

here and Kuelap.

Hola amigos!

How bad is the river

in terms of rapids?

There's

some big rapids.

We have some big waves,

some ah, some big holes.

Ok.

Well maybe what we do is we take

as slow of a float as we can.

This is amazing.

The landscape looks different

but the weather's so dramatic,

you know I thought it was

gonna be so hot this morning.

But it's not.

What did you say earlier?

"In the tropics"?

Nothing is, what?

Everything is likely,

nothing is certain.

Watch out for

the shallow here.

Forward!

Ok, woah!

-It's not safe.

-Go backwards.

Go backwards!

Go backwards!

Watch out

watch out watch out.

Woah, my gosh.

Oh my gosh.

It's good,

it's good, it's good.

Oh my gosh.

Hold on, hold on!

It's good, it's good.

Watch out here.

Okay?

One, Two.

I got you.

I got you. I got you.

Ready? I got you.

I'm gonna get you up.

One, two, three.

Okay?

Yeah but, I

just couldn't get up.

I couldn't, I just did this,

in the end, just to get up.

We just lost a boat.

One of the boats flipped, the

main camera boat flipped,

all the camera gear

went in the water.

We hit the wall.

One boat went under the

other, and it flipped.

This is not what you

want to have happen

when you're in the most

remote part of the world.

Mother Earth,

guide them, show them, I beg you

Your blood, that is where

your children will flow

Mother Earth, guide them

We've come back,

faced our fears,

and now, we go on.

It's really weird being

back here on this river.

Following the

moment we capsized,

all sorts of things

started to happen.

Phone calls, plans,

medical assessments.

Cameras lost, storms brewing,

all that building up to a

final decision that said,

look, we can't keep going.

But that's in the past.

Now we go beyond.

Ready to find the

story of the Chachapoya.

I can't wait to

see what we find.

Woo!

All the rapids are done.

Ha ha ha ha!

-Woo!

-We did it.

Wow, look at that.

Who made this?

These paths, is it Chachapoya?

-They're Chachapoya.

-Where are they going?

From Balsas,

Chacanto, Tuen, Kuelap

The people would walk,

llamas would walk here,

taking their produce

Wow.

Chachapoya roads.

At the very top of the

ridge, and the ruins up there.

You can see, in between

those cuts there's walls.

Yeah I see

it right there, yeah.

Look.

Let's go.

Any of these pathways could

hold clues that lead us

to a lost city.

It's pretty incredible to

think that we're walking on

the road that Chachapoya

traders would have walked

thousands of years ago.

Pottery

-No.

-Si.

What?

You found it right here?

Yes.

Unbelievable.

There's just

pottery everywhere.

Is this Chachapoya?

-Yes.

-The serpent.

Yeah.

Oh look at these

walls. Is this a home?

It's circular,

so it's the Chachapoya style

Yeah.

I saw some very

similar over at Kuelap.

I mean it seems that the

Chachapoya who lived here,

they were at the frontier.

That takes, that

takes courage.

-Courage.

-Courage, si.

Shall we follow

the road a little further?

There's another place

-Oh, look at that one.

-Si.

Has this

place been documented?

No, it has not

been documented

Wow look at this site.

We just got up

to the top here.

What do you think it is Jeff?

A way-station,

an Incan way-station

-An Inca site.

-Yeah.

By way-station

do you mean for storage?

No, it was just a

small place to control the pass

They lived here?

As well, but

mainly to control the pass

Si.

Well we thought it was

going to be a Chachapoya site,

but these

rectangular structures?

Rectangles mean Inca.

Circles down there

mean Chachapoya.

Jeff thinks that these huts

might be evidence of a time

when the two societies

coexisted, side by side.

Before w*r broke out.

Y el camino.

Oh, that's the road.

Yes, yeah.

The following day we

tackle a four mile trek on

horseback, up old Chachapoya

trails, to meet one of the

only people in Peru who

still has knowledge of the

Chachapoya language.

Let's stop here yah?

Yah.

Jairo?

-Hi.

-Good to see you.

There's Mama Rosa. Yes.

Come on sir, come here.

Hola!

Hola Mama Rosa.

Mi nombre, my name's Albert.

My name is Rosa

-Rosa.

-Rosa.

I'm making bread.

Wow.

Ooh, look at this bread.

I came just in time.

It smells good.

Yes.

Lovely smell of bread.

Mmmm, I'm hungry.

It's not ready and

it won't be tasty yet

Oh, it's OK.

Let's sit down

while we wait

It's so beautiful to

hear your voice Mama Rosa.

To hear your words,

it's beautiful.

I'm hoping Mama Rosa's

deep understanding of her

native culture can

help me locate clues

to ancient

settlements on my map.

Mama Rosa has

evidence of a previous language

We find fragments of

Chachapoya there

Well how

about place names?

I was on the Maranon.

Here's Kuelap.

Kuelap is a

Chachapoya word.

The truth is I learned

everything from my grandmother

She said that they are

from the Chachapoya.

She spoke of Kuelap

and of Huiquilla.

"I've walked

through Huiquilla" .

That's how my

grandfather spoke.

-Huiquilla?

-Uh-uh.

Her grandparents

told her about sites like

Kuelap, Huiquilla

Her grandparents told her that

those places actually existed

Then that's where

I should go, right?

Huiquilla.

-Si, si.

-I will, I will.

May God repay you

Thank you

I'm very emotional

I'm so surprised, you've come

all the way from another country

I never dreamed this

would happen in my life

Gracias.

Mamma Rosa's knowledge of the

ancient Chachapoya language

is a bridge

into a lost world.

Could the mysterious

'Huiquilla' be the site

of the lost city that

we're looking for?

José, how are you?

Parker, it's a

pleasure to see you again.

Hello.

Albert, it's a pleasure.

Nice to meet you.

Huiquilla is a two-day

trek into dense cloud forest.

Local landowner Jose La Torre,

and my old friend, archaeologist

Parker Van Valkenburgh,

an expert on Andean Peru,

are here to help guide us.

After a grueling jungle hike,

we make camp.

What a journey this has been.

I don't know if we're

gonna find a city or,

or uh, small homes.

All I know is that right now,

I'm sleeping in the same forest

to the Chachapoya

families of the past.

Okay, listo.

Ready, let's go

Chachapoya, Chachapoya.

Our search for a lost

Chachapoya city is now focused

on an area west of Kuelap,

over 86 million square feet of

dense cloud forest,

called Huiquilla.

Hey Albert

are you on comms?

Yeah copy that, we're

just making our way further in

and the jungle is very dense.

But if you can find a

clearing we should

definitely survey this ridge.

Standby.

Starting props.

Look at this place.

Joe and Duncan go to work.

Scanning for signs of ancient

settlements and primed to

deliver us GPS coordinates.

We're here

and ready, ready to go.

Hey, hey Joe!

Joe says

he's just spotted something

in the data, might

wanna check it out.

Do you

have the coordinates?

You need to go to

six degrees, 22 minutes

and 12 seconds south.

Have you

seen anything yet?

Yeah, I'm getting to

a little bit of a ridge, uh,

does the data show that we're

following the ridge line

all the way up?

Yeah, there

should be like, what looks like

an ancient path that leads

you all the way to the top.

Yeah, there's

no path here is there?

Let's find that path.

Ok copy that.

It's almost

impossible to see anything.

You know and to be honest I

don't know if I'm going to be

able to get a GPS read on my

watch 'cos there's no line of

sight to the sky.

It sounds

really difficult going for you

but the drone flying here's

really tricky as well,

with getting the drone Lidar to

hug the tree canopy at the

right height is

really difficult.

Whatever data we get,

it will be better than

what I'm seeing in here.

Yeah, copy that.

Wait, look

there's big stones here.

Big stones.

There's more and more rock.

Yeah.

Getting a glimpse

of a potential site,

just a kilometer west of

where you are now.

The first

part of a wall huh?

Ah, there is

something up here after all.

We're on our own.

But it says that the

waypoint they sent me,

is right around here,

I'm completely

lost my GPS signal now.

Ah, woo!

Oh wow, look at this one.

Look at that,

all these pieces.

Intricate masonry.

Oh wow.

Someone's home.

When's the last time you

think somebody stood here?

600 years maybe?

Wow.

Circular walls, terraced

into the hilltop,

it must be Chachapoya.

But if this is a city,

there's got to be more.

Oh, there's an

entrance over here.

Stairs!

You don't

see stairs like this.

You don't see

stairs like this normally?

Oh, that's awesome.

What do you think

we're standing on right now?

The higher you get,

the more sacred or the more

elevated the space becomes in

kind of a social sense too,

so, this could have been the

place where the leaders

of the society lived.

It's amazing you know,

Parker, to know that you're

standing on top of something

that's been hidden in this

jungle for the last 600 years.

I mean, look, we

didn't know that this was here

until we started today.

There's just so much

undocumented heritage and

culture in indigenous Peru.

And these societies were so

successful, I mean thousands

of years they managed to

live on tops of mountain tops.

So, this is new to

Chachapoyan archaeology,

in terms of knowledge?

Yeah, this site's

never been mapped before.

This has

never been mapped before?

No, it's brand new.

Woo!

It just

keeps going huh?

Check this out.

Wow! Look at that!

A spout!

A Chachapoyan, this is

Chachapoya irrigation huh?

Have you seen anything

like this anywhere else?

-No.

-Really?

No, seriously.

No, it's unique

It's an honor for

me to have you here.

It's an

honor to have you here.

An honor for me too.

And you, Parker,

thank you for being here

We are drinking from

the water of the ancients.

Look it just

doesn't stop, what?

Did you count

the number of walls?

I mean, I lost track.

The walls and

ancient water systems are

entirely new discoveries.

But when we process the scans,

will they prove to be part

of a lost Chachapoya city?

So, do you think that

that is the datum over there?

It is.

Let's put on the

projector, let's go big.

We brought our projector so

we can see it in full glory.

Where were we camping?

We were coming up

this ridge, right?

Yeah, that's right, that's

La Iglesia in the middle.

Alright Joe, let's

see it without the trees.

Yeah.

Here we go.

Woo! Oh wow.

Wow, that's great guys.

This is

completely weird to me.

I've never seen

anything like that.

So, this is with the

trees completely deleted,

this is the bottom most

layer of the LiDAR.

Ah you can see 'em right there,

you can see all the terraces.

Yep, right there you see it?

All the way up the ridge.

Almost every mountain we

scanned in Huiquilla is

covered in terracing,

a classic sign of

human occupation.

So, we've got some

kind of settlement on the

ridges with these circles.

So, we scanned one of

the huts and you can see

they fit perfectly in

these circles here.

-These are brand new

discoveries at Huiquilla.

Each circular indent represents

the location of a hut,

so we can use scaled

scans to bring these

settlements back to life.

See, they fit there.

Ha ha ha ha!

Ah, that's amazing.

You can use an

algorithm to populate

every single circular feature.

Oh no way.

Ah ha ha,

look at that! Wow!

Look at the top there!

Bringing

the Chachapoya back!

A town!

There's a town there!

As our software

tracks each circular site

on every ridge,

the true extent of this

Chachapoya society is revealed.

It's amazing guys.

We're back there.

Back in the moment of

the Cloud Warriors.

So, these are here and

Kuelap's right beyond.

They must be connected right?

Because when you

stand here now

as an ancient

Chachapoya homeowner,

part of this community,

your view line is

not limited to just

those around you

but across these valleys,

across the way.

Right?

You feel like you're part

of a larger metropolis.

This is evidence of a vast web

of Chachapoya settlements,

all within view of each other.

An interconnected,

sophisticated Chachapoya world.

It is a world in

the clouds, isn't it?

If we LiDAR'ed

the entire landscape,

we would see potentially

the same pattern repeated

over and over again

for miles and miles.

It's incredible, no?

Totally incredible

I really do feel proud

I feel identified

that my roots are

from so many years ago.

Sometimes you forget

just how meaningful

these surveys can be.

It's not just a story,

it's someone's story.

Ha!

I came to Peru in

search of a lost world,

almost entirely erased by

the Inca 600 years ago.

What we've uncovered here,

illustrates the scale and

sophistication of

the Cloud Warriors.

Thousands of Chachapoya,

developing complex

trading routes

from rivers and over land,

to thrive on the slopes

of these valleys.

With the extraordinary Kuelap,

like a beacon, above.