To Want, To Need, To Hunger For Adventure

"It is in all of us to defy expectations, to go into the world and be brave, and to want, to need, to hunger for adventure, to embrace change and chance and risk so that we may breathe and know what it is to be free." -- Mae Chevrette 


First of all, sorry I am such a terribly unfaithful blogger. I've been having a bit of a love affair with real life. And, as usual, it's been fabulous! 

As mentioned, we headed to Ayacucho last weekend for Semana Santa celebrations! We stayed in the home of a local family, which was nice in comparison to a hotel or hostel because they gave us lots of good tips on things to do and foods to eat! (And this time we were bedbug free!) We stayed in the city of Huamanga, the capital of the district of Ayacucho famous for its 33 colonial churches (one for each year of Christ's life.) We wandered the city and got to see several of these beautiful churches! The oldest we saw was built in 1552! 

Four of the TEN churches we visited over the weekend.

What did we do besides visit all of these churches? So many things! We arrived Friday morning at about 8 a.m. and spent most of the day wandering through town exploring. We took a taxi up to the mirador, a high point overlooking the town, and got a beautiful view of the city, mountains, and incoming storm clouds! We tried various restaurants throughout Huamanga, discovering our favorite was a place that served up a huge plate of French fries for about $1! I guess we're true Americans after all! In the evening, we admired beautiful flower carpets covering the streets near the Plaza de Armas. They were absolutely spectacular! Once it got dark, a Good Friday procession began through the Plaza with the body of Christ and the Virgin Mary accompanied by nuns, priests, members of the army, and many others. It was a beautiful procession, especially when the parade stopped and a group of women began to sing a song in Quechua.

The view from the mirador.

The Plaza de Armas.

Completely made from flowers! 

Kaylie, Victoria, and I posing with one of the beautiful drawings! 

Christ being carried through the procession.

Whoo! The first of four days and already so many amazing experiences! Saturday was no different! We began the day with a delicious breakfast of chocolate-covered pancakes, scrambled eggs, toast, fresh pineapple juice, and mate de coca for the altitude! Next up: the Jala Toro-- literally "Bull Pull." This was a bit like the running of the bulls only the bulls were on leashes for safety reasons, so it amounted to a couple of cowboys riding through the crowd every half hour with a bull on a leash. There was a huge crowd and, while waiting for each bull, they got up to some crazy stunts-- human pyramids, throwing people in the air, playing guitars while standing on people's shoulders, stripping while standing on people's shoulders... I opted to participate in the first two! 

The Pascuatoro

Me gracefully (haha I joke) flying through the air. 

Once the Bull Pull was over and the huge crowds were finally beginning to diminish, we headed back up to the mirador for a fair/large market. The crowds were insane here too and I was almost robbed! I was holding my purse fairly carefully and felt something unusual. I looked down and a young woman had her hand inside my purse! My instant reaction was to slap her hand away and, fortunately, she simply walked away without taking anything! I was torn because I felt completely indignant that anyone would try to do that, but, at the same time, can't imagine how desperate you must be to turn to stealing. Either way, I'm glad I managed to avoid having my camera or wallet swiped! The fair experience was fairly so-so and we left just in time to miss all but the beginning of a big rainstorm! We hid out from the rain and ate cookies till it ended! We took an afternoon nap, knowing that we wouldn't be getting much sleep Saturday night...

The ferris wheel at the fair. 

Saturday night was an all-nighter for a good portion of Ayacucho. There was drinking and dancing and fireworks galore! It was a lot of fun to see the city celebrating so much! At about 3:00 a.m., we lined up outside the main Cathedral to wait for the doors to open and then all crammed into the church when it opened for 4:00 a.m. mass! In the middle of the church was a giant float, covered in candles and topped by Jesus, which was carried out by hundreds of men at the end of the mass! People were so eager to be a part of the procession that, as we crowded into the church and tried to find an empty pew to sit, many people leapt under the float and stayed there for the whole mass so that they could help carry it! It was an amazing experience to see such a dazzling procession so early in the morning! Unfortunately, my camera is not a fan of nighttime, so my only decent pictures are of the float while it was still inside the church! 

With Kaylie, Veronica, and Megan in front of the float pre-mass.

Fireworks being set off from tall wooden structures built that evening.

All lit up! 

We returned "home" at about 6:00 a.m. and crashed until noon! We spent a very relaxed Easter Sunday doing a bit more exploring. We went back to one of the markets in Huamanga, watched some very talented street artists, and bought a few souvenirs! Kaylie, Megan, and I settled into bed around 7:00 and the other girls were nice enough to pick us up some of those previously mentioned French fries for a very unhealthy dinner! 

This building wasn't anything special-- I just loved the colors! 

Monday was our last day in Ayacucho and it was a very full one! We headed out on a tour in the morning with Wari, the Pampa de Ayacucho, and Quinua on the list. Each was unique, interesting, and lovely! The beautiful drive was worth the price of the tour! We first went to some Wari ruins, the former capital of the empire! We got to see examples of Wari pottery, mummies, and manipulated skulls as well as a couple of council meeting sites, a jail, and a burial ground! The Wari lived before the Inca and were powerful for about 700 years! They were some of the first people to have planned city structures. We also learned that in a cave on a nearby hill the first evidence of humans in Peru was discovered-- and it dates back about 20,000 years before Christ! Also, I was completely in love with all of the beautiful flowers and cactus at this site and we lucked out with a tour guide who seemed to know everything about everything, even showing us the parasitic bugs on the cactus that are used to make lipstick! 

Look at that sky! 

A cactus with unripe fruit. We sampled some of the ripened fruit-- it was surprisingly sweet! 

A circle with 18 seats for representatives from the 18 Wari districts.

We left Wari and drove on to the Pampa de Ayacucho. The Pampa was the site of the Battle of Ayacucho, the last battle for Latin American independence from Spain. There are a couple of monuments here, a more modern-looking one built in the 1970s and a ceramic one built by local artisans, which, unfortunately, is falling apart a bit. While we were at the Pampa, Veronica, Martha, and I also snuck in a (very brief) horseback ride! 

I never can resist a good horseback ride.

The two monuments at the Pampa de Ayacucho.

Our last stop on the tour was the small town of Quinua, known for its beautiful ceramics. We visited several small shops in the village and were able to find some fun gifts for family and friends! Each of the buildings in the village, and in many other parts of the district, have small ceramic houses and churches cemented atop their roofs to bring good luck! 

An example of the many different ceramics! 

Note the little ceramic building on the roof! 

One last time-- in love with the sky! 

We squeezed in one more activity before calling an end to our trip to Ayacucho: a visit to La Universidad San Cristobal de Huamanga. Although the Easter celebrations in Ayacucho, the local ruins, and the art were beautiful and fun, we thought it was important to acknowledge a darker side to Ayacucho's past as well. Ayacucho was the birthplace of the Sendero Luminoso terrorist movement which wreaked havoc in Peru throughout the 1980s and 1990s and killed tens of thousands of people. It was all started by Abimael Guzmán, a professor at this university. Although we couldn't go inside, it was pretty powerful to stand looking at this impressive university, the second oldest in Peru, and realize that something so terrible was born on that very ground.

The university where it all began.

Phew! A very long post to summarize a very amazing trip! The rest of the week has been relatively calm: classes, running, another presentation, a flood in my bathroom, and my designation as the official dog trainer of the house! This weekend will be calm as well and then, on Wednesday, I'm headed to Cusco! I'm so excited for all the adventures to come (and there are going to be a lot of them!) and so ready to just embrace everything that comes my way! 

I also want to give a quick shout-out to my amazing younger siblings: Ethan, congratulations on your soloist award at State Jazz Band and Ellie, you are doing so amazingly well at track! Keep it up! I'm so proud of both of you & wish I could be there cheering you on!! You rock!