Our second visit to Ayacucho.

We have just returned from our second trip to Ayacucho this year. This time we had at least two reasons in mind. Firstly to catch up with Sister Anne Carbon and visit the Clinic she has established and secondly to show Elena some of the sights before she moves on from Ayacucho to Cusco and then La Paz in Bolivia.
Also we were so lucky to be able to coincide our trip with a return visit of Angela Keane from Ireland. Angela figured prominently in the June 28th blog of “Our trip to Ayacucho”.

We visited Sister Anne Carbon, a Columban Sister who is the Director of the Hospital for Mental Health in Ayacucho. This is an extraordinary clinic which caters for people of all ages and all forms of mental health. There is nothing else like it in Ayacucho. On the day we visited, one of their former nurses, Angela Keane, had returned for a visit from Ireland. She had worked at the clinic for two years with children who have physical and mental disabilities. The staff and patients combined to give her a wonderful ‘welcome back’ party, many speeches and lots of singing and dancing.

Anne also took us to visit one of the local orphanages which exist in Ayacucho.
The particular one we saw was managed by an Argentinean woman and her husband, staffed by local women both on a paid and volunteer basis. In fact we met three young volunteer women, one from Italy, one from America and the third German. There were just over fifty young people living in this orphanage and their ages ranged from babies through to eighteen years of age. You could not but be impressed with the care and love all these children were receiving.

Elena and Marion having fun with the children.
Bus rides to Quinua and then Huanta followed over the next two days. By the way if it is any help these places are pronounced ‘key-noo-ah’ and ‘want-a’. You may struggle to find them on a map!
Quinua is famous for the nearby battlefield site where the Peruvians conquered the Spanish in 1824. To commemorate this occasion they have built a huge, white obelisk – forty meters in height. It can be seen from Ayacucho, thirty seven kilometres away, in fact we saw it while dining in a restaurant – Marion and Elena eating cuy or guinea pig, while I chose the pork!

Rather a pleasant place for a battle with or without the imitation canons. They have an annual reenactment of the battle on the 9th December, we would have loved to have been there.

The victor, General Sucre, with the obelisk in the background.

The rather impressive obelisk.

Quinua is also noted for its ceramics, especially the small ceramic churches and figurines they place on their roof tops.

The ladies chose to visit the nearby waterfalls, by horse back! I chose to sit under a tree and enjoy the view for an hour or so! Once again we found out that it is amazing how the negotiated starting price can alter once it comes to the price for the return journey.

Will we? Won't we? Decision time for the ladies.

Off they go on their journey riding just like a pair of naturals.

The waterfalls.
On the second day we visited Huanta, forty eight kilometres from Ayacucho, and I am still not quite sure why! Did we ‘wanta ’go in the first place?

The neat and colourful Huanta main Plaza.

The bustling Huanta mall!

We then travelled for another few minutes to Luricocha. It is a quaint little pueblo and described in one travel brochure as “the emerald of the Andes” with a wealth of flora and fauna and renowned for fruit liqueurs, honey and other quality products. We must have been too early for the shops to be open.

The streets of Luricocha.

I was amused to see the different architectural styles of the local church and the presbytery. For such a small town the interior of the church was most impressive and well looked after.
The church and presbytery of Luricocha.

Back in Ayacucho, right beside the Cathedral is the University of Ayacucho, and this institution would be classified as the birth place of the “Sendero Luminoso”, the Shining Path, the terrorist movement of the 1970’s and 1980’s which claimed so many lives in areas of Peru and most especially in this Province of Huamanga.

Their leader, Abimael Guzman, began lecturing in this University in 1962.
The statue of General Sucre standing in the main Plaza of Ayacucho was receiving a scrub and air brush prior to a fresh coat of paint.

Even with very questionable work practices the end result was most impressive. In fact the entire Plaza is most impressive and well worth the visit.

Elena’s farewell was something special. In the first instance we had to find the Celtur Bus Depot tucked away in a side street.

Then she was strongly advised to take an early morning bus to Cusco because of the robbers who still operate in the mountains around Ayacucho! Seeing that it was to be an eighteen hour journey she inquired about the eventual night journey. She was reliably informed that you would be out of the danger area by then! Most consoling news for her mother and father! The 7.00 a.m. departure was classic. One woman would not get on board because there was no space for her fifteen to twenty parcels, packets and bags. After much yelling and hand waving and then realising that there were six people on board who were on the wrong bus, space was found somewhere for her belongings.

You have to see to believe what people will put on buses. There seems to be no limits on amounts or sizes! We heard later that she did arrive in Cusco even though it was ten hours late, an avalanche had blocked the road and everyone had to wait until it was cleared.

Dad was thrilled to hear the news of the robbers!

And would you believe it, we are returning to the area in ten days time for a big Christmas celebration in the village of Cayara. This is the area where Sacred Heart Primary School, Mildura, sponsored a very important cuy or guinea pig breeding program. One small problem is that this pueblo is another six hours by steep, winding dirt roads through the Andes from Ayacucho. We drive five hours to Huancapi and then one more hour to Cayara.
More about this trip at a later date.