Ayacucho

Jeanette and I just had a weekend trip to Ayacucho, in the midst of the elections which turned out to be both a good thing and a bad thing.

We began with the 10 hour bus ride from Lima to Ayacucho, all fine till about 4am when the altitude began and the roads became windier and narrower. I felt extremely travel sick! Ayacucho has only had a paved road to the outside world since 1991, so we knew it would be an adventure to get there. We made it all fine, found a nice hostel on a street in the northern part of the centre of town and had the whole day for exploring. As we arrived so early first stop was breakfas. Outside the hostel was a market where we found 1 sol fried egg sandwiches and 1 sol hot choclate so 50p breakfast warmed us up. The weather was the watery, cold, bright mountain climate I remembered from Cusco. The trip brought back a lot of Cusco memories, or senses I suppose, that I had forgotton. The stares I realised I hadn't missed, but the colours, pure, thin air and views I have been missing from our time in Cusco.

That day was choc-a-block, as we knew the elections were the next day so most places would be closed. We began by finding museums but unfortunately they were all shut for the weekend. We found the main plaza, cathedral and basically got our bearings. The morning light plus complete lack of a McDonalds turned the cobbled streets back by a few hundred years, traditionally-dressed people going about their daily bartering and business.

At about 9ish we caught a 1.5 hour combi out of town to the nearby pueblo (village) of Quinua, where a huge monument for the Battle of Ayacucho can be found a short walk out. This battle was essentially a huge part of Peru's struggle to independence from the Spanish, where 5800 Peruvian soldiers beat 8200 Spanish, quite a feat! We had an early lunch of the traditional ayacuhan Puca Picante, which is rice, spaghetti (called Tallarin), a potato in bright red/pink sweet sauce and deep friend guinea pig. It was... interesting. We caught a combi back towards Ayacucho but got off early at some Wari ruins. The Wari were a culture that dominated the Andes before the Incas, though didn't stretch as far they made lots of agricultural advances the Incas then built upon. The ruins had no explanation other than the odd sign that said "sacrifice table", "temple" or "three floor underground tomb chambers" so we were left a bit bewildered but impressed all the same. Getting back from the Wari ruins to Ayacucho was interesting. There were no buses at all, and Jeanette, a Catholic, suggested we said a prayer to the Virgen Mary. We did, and a bus came within the next 5 minutes.

That afternoon we explored some of the 33 churches Ayacucho has, one for every year of Christ's life. (I am literally an expert on Catholicism now. If you want the four Cardinal Virtues or a post-confessional prayer lemme know :).)  We visited churches of different orders, affiliated to certain friars, and tried to find the altar of sea shells in one but couldn't see any. We got a pizza for dinner and an early night having been on a bus the night before, oe planned for the next night, plus nowhere sold alcohol anyway due to the elections so a chilling with a beer was not an available option.

The next day we got up early (6) to explore the streets. They are best at this time! We had a medicinal hot drink from a street seller which will be one of y best Peru experiences ever. It was just a social hub for the locals to gather round and debate the coming day's events - elections - and they didn't blink an eye that we were there too. I have no idea what I drank, something perhaps with aloe vera and apple, but it was hot and might have cured my liver, but then again might not. (My liver is fine!) We attended a 7am mass service, which was really simple and felt very community-based in that everyone knew each other and being the day of Ascension, the priest was talking about renewal and outwards looking (I think... we did sing one hymn in Quechua!).

The rest of the day was mainly spent eating (fruit juices, mondongo soup [inestines], ají de gallina [kind of a Peruian curry I suppose], street muffins, bread in the shape of dolls), and walking around. We walked to the mirador, on top of a hill in the middle of the city, and could see the city limits and mountains behind on all directions, but it wasn't that nice of a location (lots of dogs) so came down for a nap/read in the plaza. Ayacuchans are extremely talkative it seems. We couldn't shake two, perfectly pleasant but annoying, men off who wanted to talk about politics and world affairs, so ended up moving from the plaza to a much smalled one near a monastry we'd been at the day before.

That night the election results came in, with Ollanta Humala coming in just above Keiko Fujimori. Neither candidate is great and both are at opposite ends of the political spectrum. Ollanta is an ex-military man with links to Hugo Chavez, promising power and money to the people of Peru, i.e. the poor, and more nationalisation of the country and companies. Keiko wanted to finish off what her father started, as President a while back though he is now in prison on charges of corruption and organising death squads. He is unpopular in the mountains on account of a huge forced-sterilisation programme that occurred during his time in office. If Keiko had won while we had been in Ayacucho things would have got very bad for us. As it was we made it to a cafe on the plaza just in time for the parades to pass by. It was by now, very dark. These are not so gringo friendly parades, with the Inca multi-coloured flags riding high and the Peruvian nowhere in site. Earlier in the trip we had been talking to locals who said Keiko was for the millionaires and gringos of Peru.

After half an hour of fine parading, the crowds got bigger and more excited. The results still weren't official but Ollanta was still in the lead and the time was getting smaller till voting stopped. Suddenly the power went off and it all got a bit scary from there onwards. We got a candle from the café but gathered our things to us so nothing could go "missing" in the dark. There were small fires in the middle of the plaza, lots of candles wandering round and riot police passing by the door every once in a while. We didn't feel safe going out but still had plenty of time will we needed to go catch the bus back to Lima, so just sat tight in the café trying to understand what was going on outside. There were loud noises, like back-firing cars or something, then people shouting Ollanta's name.

The power came back on just in time, and we put our heads down and hastily made it to the hostel to pick our bags up and then on to the bus station 5 cuadras down, without passing the main plaza again. At least the people were happy, and for that reason I am glad Ollanta won! There was NO support for Keiko, no walls painted advertising her or flags or banners prior to the voting, so the whole city would have been unhappy with a Keiko result.

The journey back was fine. I have 3 days now till Tanya gets back, so not long. Time is rushing by my ears and eyes like invisible ropes I can' catch hold of to slow down. Leaving the orphanage is a very daunting thought but our itinery at current is looking something like:

1/2 weeks in Peru (Arequipa, Huaraz?, Lake Titicaca)
2/3 weeks in Bolivia (La Paz, Salt flats, Potosi, Sucre, all with the Bolivian PT volunteers)
1st August arrive in Buenos Aires to stay 1 week with an Arequipan friend we have made out here. Jeanette is meeting us there.
7th August - 15th finish Argentina and race back to Lima for the flight home.

It might change, we need to sit down and have a proper think!

Love to all, Rach xxx