Time for another update!
I´ll get to yesterday´s stuff from our last day in Huancayo shortly, but first, I´ll write about Huancavelica, since it is most fresh in my mind (having just arrived here).
Woke up at 4:15am this morning to find my alarm clock had died. Needed to be at breakfast for 5:30 to catch the 6:30 train from Huancayo to Huancavelica, so I just stayed awake. Ughhh. Sooo... tired. Breakfast was good, as always at La Casa (fruits with yogurt, bread, homemade jam, tea). We got to the train on time, thankfully, and began our 5 hour journey (I´m told it usually takes 7 hours). The train is very old, and is apparently the second highest railway in the world (the highest being a commercial one in Nepal that was built recently). It was a very chilly morning, but despite all, the ride was great - the scenery was AMAZING. Imagine driving through giant, green and gold mountains for 5 hours, complete with rivers, valleys, tiny villages with farm animals wandering around... beautiful. Took some pictures from the train window, I will upload them whenever I have more time to do so.
Got to Huancavelica... nice small mountain city of about 30 or 40,000 people. Very safe, and the people are friendly, although they stare at us (as always). Pics to follow, I hope. Our hotel seems OK. They gave us more coca tea, which is ALWAYS nice... hehe.
So now I´ve got a couple hours of free time to spare before we meet for dinner at 7:30 tonight. I will probably explore a bit more after I´m done with this. Tommorrow, we´re going to hike out to an old abandoned mercury mine (apparently a 4 to 6 hour scenic hike). I like hiking, so this should be great.
Ok, a quick sum of yesterday. We visisted (pardon my spelling) a Wari ruin site from about 800 A.D. It was a site built around a sacred spring, called Wari Wilka (literally, "sared spring"). Our guide spoke some English, and was great, explaining to us the varoius rooms, and showing us through a museum that included some artifacts of pottery, as well as a skeleton of a woman that they found there (creepy... it still had hair and skin and everything). Best of all, the skull from a priest... they bind the young boys´ heads to enlongate the skull when they are young, and only the men/priests could do this. Creepy.
After that, we hiked around some villages for a couple hours, and I got sunburned like never before, despite wearing copious amounts of sunscreen (the sun at altitude is HOT). It was neat to see the people working in their fields, washing their clothes, etc. They were all very friendly, and allowed us to observe their chores and activities.
After that, we took two taxis out to Ocopa Monastery. This was a Catholic monastery/convent/church built to help spread the religion to the area and to the jungle to the north. It is very old, and very beautiful... we had a guided tour, where we saw the church, the catacombs, paintings, gardens, a small musem, etc. I took a few pictures, but I always feel guilty taking pictures in religios places, so I didn´t take quite as many as I may have liked.
On our way out, we were ambushed by a group of local dancers and a film production company, who were making a small film to promote tourism and the Santiago festival in the Mantaro valley. They were dancing, so we went to see, and before we knew it, they were suckering us into dancing with them. I tried my best NOT to participate, but eventually they got the better of ALL OF US. All the locals in the village came to watch and laugh at us. I´m sure we´re famous there now... hahaha... and yes, I do have pictures. How embarrassing. The film company loved it, and promised to use it and also email it to Denicia. Oh dear... what have we done...
Ok, I must also mention that I tried raw fish 2 days ago, in the form of ceviche (trout marinated in lemon sauce and herbs). Surprisingly not bad! But I won´t have it again. The texture of the raw fish is just too weird for me.
Well, I think my time is almost up here. More later, when I have time!
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