Peru Travel Report 8: From San Pedro de Cajas via Huancayo to Ayacucho

From San Pedro de Cajas to Huancayo

Huancayo basically served as a stopover between the tiring route from San Pedro de Cajas to Ayacucho. I stayed there only one night, but it was definitely worth the visit. Nice places. Great food. And for some reason plenty of vegetarian restaurants.

Huancayo featured one of the nicest "Plaza de Armas" in Peru

Again, the hotel was downright awkward. People coming and going, no need to show any official ID. One guy, when asked for his age, responded:

"45... erm... I mean... 60".

Ok...

The next morning I then made the trip to Ayacucho.

From Huancayo to Ayacucho

According to the Lonely Planet travel guide, the route from Huancayo to Ayacucho is "not for the faint-hearted" and "only the most hard-core travellers choose this mostly unpaved route". Ya, this is what I got from it - and this still happened on the PAVED route... Rollercoaster!

Well, at least I had time to take some pictures of the local fauna. 

But in fact I can consider myself being lucky: I survived the trip and arrived only with a slight wish to vomit in Ayacucho. The city was beautiful, but unexpectedly touristy. Apparently, the fear of the "centre of terrorism" is gone (Ayacucho was the "birthplace" of the Shining Path terrorist movement). 

But then again, considered Ayacucho's proximity to Peru's by far most touristic city - Cusco - there were not so many tourists either.

It should also be my most luxurious stay in Peru. I insisted again and again to get the cheapest room - and suddenly the boss gave me his best roof top suite for the price of the quarter. Later I found out that the cheapest room's ceiling was leaky. The owner probably didn't expect me to choose the most run down room.

My luxury room

Directly located at the central market, it was the perfect place to charge my batteries before starting in another day of walking and discovery.

View from my room

You know you are in holiday when the most difficult decision is which drink to go for... Maca? Quinoa? Apple? Oats? Aaah, everything tasty!

I think, here I opted for the hot maca juice

As I already mentioned, my rhythm in Peru was a wee bit different. I actually woke up at 5am and was outside at 6. Not only did I then have a unique tranquility and awesome lightning, but I cold also take some unforgetable shots. For example, I still don't know exactly were these guys came from. They just showed up - and were gone within seconds.

Also in the morning, on the Plaza de Armas (the central plaza) I also made the shot which turned out to be my favourite one of the whole trip. I really like the composition, atmosphere and lightning of it:

My favourite picture from Peru

Ayacucho is not far from Quinua (not to confuse with the grain), the place where in 1824 the Battle of Ayacucho took place. It was the battle that secured the independence of Peru and ensured independence for the rest of South America.

Independence monument

Interestingly, the monument's inscription uses the grammatical form of "vosotros". Literally "you", this second person plural is only used in Spain. In Latin America there is no distinction between second and third person plural. A bit weird to maintain this purely Spanish characteristic in a symbol which expresses the independence from Spain.

Quinua is also particualrly famous for its pottery, with churches being the most famous object, and accordingly spread all over the town.

Getting up early has lots of advantages. But in fact I arrived so early in Quinua, that no proper food place was already serving breakfast. So, just having drunken some juice in Ayacucho, I was slightly starving after retunring from the independence monument.

When finally the first places started to serve "real" food, I hopped into the first restaurant I came across and chose the "most vegetarian" option. As choice was limited, this meant fried fish. Probably due to my hunger I didn't consider the fact that Quinua, far away from the sea and probably not equipped with the most sophisticated cooling options either, was perhaps not the best place to indulge in easily spoilable seafood. Immediately after the meal I noticed some unwelcome grumbling in my stomach. Oh oh...

Luckily (or was it clever positioning?!), directly outside were waiting some women, selling herbal drinks "curing your stomach". Deal!

In retrospect, thinking about the hygienic conditions of such a drink, I'm not sure if it was thanks to the juice, or depite it - but actually my grumbling stomach calmed down and I could happily continue to discover the beautiful town, which slowly came to life.

One of the numerous pottery workshops in Quinua.

Once again, I made some heartwarming experiences. While waiting for the shared taxi to get packed with still more passengers, I waited outside and chatted to the ladies who sold their produce on the small market.

They were so kind - and at the same time obviously not prosperous at all. Nevertheless, when I left, they insisted to give me some provisions for the 30-minute journey. Three breads fresh from the wood-fired oven, and a huge fresh cheese. So nice... And apart from my most sincere "Thank you so much", I didn't have anything to give them in return...

After Quinua I did not directly return to Ayacucho, but made a stop at the immense Wari ruins.

I had a funny guide. When I didn't see what he indicated, he threw stones on the ancient construction to show me. He made me lick a narcotic plant (waaah, my tongue) and we climbed down a four-storey ancient grave, while another guide behind us unbelievingly explained to his group that this was strictly forbidden.

In an ancient grave... Lil' bit scary.

Yet, the most valuable information the guide provided me with, was the hint regarding the nearby celebration of the "Virgen del Carmen". I flagged down a taxi and headed straight to Pacaicasa, the town where the party was supposed to be held.

While I was inncoently taking some pictures of the spectacle...

... I noticed that I as the only foreigner was probably equally interesting to the locals as they were to me....

... And suddenly I was part of the dancing crowd. Peruvian people might not be more hospitable as the also incredibly people in Thailand, but the fact that I was able to communicate with the Peruvians in their own language made it much easier to temporarily become part of the community.

Well, actually I was not really able to talk to them in their "own" language, as they spoke the indigenous language Quechua. But some of them (by far not all of them) knew Spanish and so they switched and acted as interpreters when I talked with the ones who didn't speak Spanish.

In hindsight I feel lucky that they invited me to take part of their communal lunch. But back then I just felt like my stomach wanted to burst. I just had eaten the food which they ladies in Quinua had given to me as a present and so I was already pretty stuffed. But there was no way to explain this. "Gringo doesn't like our food" was shouted as soon as I put down the spoon. So, while many of the locals left half of the massive portions uneaten, I was "forced" to wolf down soup, main course - and dessert.

Really amazing the ability of a human's stomach to stretch...

Food was good, but rustic and therefore even more filling

Interestingly, most of the people didn't eat the omnipresent potatoes. Considered that this tuber originates from here, you should expect that they "need" it for a complete meal (just as many Asians don't feel like having eaten at all if the meal doesn't come with some kind of rice). But no - there seems to be some kind of surfeit.

The next part of the celebration was a bull fight. I was sceptical, because in Spain and Mexico this is a really bloody matter. Not so in Peru. It's all about youngsters testing their courage, luring the bulls and specatularly ducking away. But in the end, the animals are let to run off, without being hurt.

This "fight" goes on for several hours with looots of bulls. But my two companions and I decided to let it be when people intentionally lured the bulls on the grand stand.

Oh oh... bull coming up.. Panic!

Instead, we decided to dance a bit more. Still being totally stuffed, I was lucky that the traditional dance was actually a very slowly moving style, which I was still able to perform. Otherwise, the locals probably would have had some serious problems, too, as they (over)indulged in the not-for-children beverages.

At least, other than with the food, they accepted my excuse that I couldn't drink alcohol. Probably it also helped that I mentioned that I was already feeling a certain dizzyness after having taken some sips. Even in rural Peru Germans are "famous" for being able to drink a lot, so the "Peruvian macho" characteristic (which is much less pronounced than in Mexico, but still...) was probably pleased, having outdrunken the German guy.

Well, looking at my face in this photo, I'm wondering if my pretension to be drunk actually arose from a fact... Who knows. In every case, I had lots of fun. I love these unique moments, feeling that you are actually experiencing something "authentic", rather than just being another guy on the "gringo trail".

Ah, and again I was stunned about the cuteness of Peruvian children. Hey, I used to not like youngsters... what's happening?!