Ayacucho Hotels
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Central Highlands
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In order to get of the Gringo Trail (all the places most tourists visit in peru) for a while we decided to make our way to Cusco through Peru´s Central Highlands instead of via Lima. We were expecting beautiful Andean villages, snow capped peaks and herds of Alpaca. Instead we spend most of our time in various busses, slowly making our way from one town to the next. The different towns are not all that far from each other but all the roads go through mountains and valleys and many of them are unpaved. It took us 10 hours to get from Huancayo to Ayocucho, a mere 365km seperating the two towns.
After a while all the different towns gets jumbled in your mind and all though we had a lot of memorable events it takes some time to recall exactly where it happened.
The first time we knew that we were really of the beaten track was when we walked through a very small village on our way to some Inca Ruins. Everything was dead quiet and when we did see people they would hide behind a wall as we come closer. At the one house someone was standing in the door but when we approached he went inside and closed the door. We felt like the baddies in a Western. At another place we were stopped 3 times by groups of girls asking if they could have their picture taken with us. The one town I won´t forget is Cerro de Pasco, which lies at 4300m on a pampa. It is the coldest place I have ever been to. The days are very cold even when the sun shines and the nights are absolutely freezing. It never really gets warm at that altitude.
The one thing the every single town had that we visited is fiestas. No matter what town or day it is there is always a festival going on complete with processions, brass bands and fireworks. After a week and a hald mostly spend on buses we decided to cut our highlands tour short and seek out the sun and fellow travellers in the coastal desserts before heading to Cusco. More thumbnails ...
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