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Published: March 26th 2008
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This trip took place way back in November 23, 2007.
On our day off Delphine and I decided to go visit Quinua and the Wari (also spelled ‘Huari’) ruins.
Early in the morning we boarded a small minivan to Quinua and we got off at the Wari ruins, halfway to Quinua.
The
old city of Wari, located 25km northwest of Ayacucho. As the first complex urban center in the Andean area, Wari shows a natural, spontaneous growing process as a city resulting from demographic growth. Once densely populated, it is estimated that the city of Wari had 100,000 inhabitants. Some buildings were made of stone united by mud, whereas others were made from stones finely shaped. The difference was due to the difference in function of the buildings.
Wari was the political, religious, and military center of this important pre-Hispanic culture from about 500 to 1200 A.D.
Wari’s biggest expansion occurred during 600-1000 A.D. reaching up to Lima, where Pachacamac became another powerful center of the Wari culture (Pachacamac ruins can be visited from Lima). The goods manufactured by the Wari metropolis allowed them to dominate other regions through intense trade, imposing the use
A Wari funerary mask
from Lima's Museo de la Nacion of ceramics, metals, textiles, with designs and patterns established by the central power.
After the 11th century, however, the Wari culture slowly disintegrated as people abandoned the cities and returned to their local villages, which enjoyed social and political autonomy.
Currently, the site contains ruins from the former capital city and a small museum dedicated to the Wari culture.
The day of our trip was such a beautifully sunny day and Delphine and I had an enjoyable one-hour walk through the ruins (with lots of photo stops 😊. We were the only ones walking the ruins at that moment so we were also able to benefit from the silence and view of the place. It’s been my favorite walk in Peru.
After Wari, Delphine and I tried to catch a minibus to Quinua but that was impossible since all the vans that passed were full and it was lunchtime. When it’s lunchtime in Peru everything stops. So we waited at the little clearing across from the ruins where buses normally stopped. And we waited. And waited. Then it started raining, luckily there were little hut-type roofs so we
managed to stay dry. After an hour we finally got a ride with some cement-transporting truck drivers who were driving all the way to San Francisco in the
selva ayacuchana . They were quite nice and after inviting us to San Francisco they dropped us off in Quinua. They also said that we had very pretty names and expressed doubt whether we had told them our real names 😊
Quinua turned out to be my favorite place in the province of Ayacucho.
Quinua is a little village an hour away from Ayacucho where the
Battle of Ayacucho was fought on December 9, 1824. The battle was a turning point in the Latin American resistance against the Spanish. It was the battle that sealed the independence of Peru, as well as the victory that ensured independence for the rest of South America. The
white obelisk, which is seen for several kilometers as you approach Quinua, is 40m high and features carvings commemorating the Battle of Ayacucho. The whole area is protected as the 300-hectare
Santuario Histórico Pampas de Ayacucho. Every year on December 9th, there is a reenactment of the Battle of Ayacucho on the pampa
to celebrate this historical moment.
Anyway, the pampa is absolutely beautiful!
Delphine and I
rented horses (+ a person to lead the horse, which we didn’t know about until we already agreed to take the horses) to take us to the
catarata only half-an hour away. Although small, the waterfall was a nice view and on Delphine’s initiative we even went all the way to the bottom of the waterfall. My feet were entirely wet by the time we reached it. On the way to the waterfall there were lovely little huts where we could rest and just enjoy the view. I was very impressed how well the area was maintained with tourist infrastructure.
We walked back through the village of Quinua and it is such a cute place. For example, I cannot say I find Ayacucho such a cute city. It has its charms, definitely, but the houses in Quinua are so cute. The red-tiled roofs are elaborately decorated with ceramic model churches. Quinua is famous as a handicraft center and these model churches are especially typical of the area (although they can be bought in Ayacucho, the houses in Ayacucho do not have them).
We also passed the house where the Spanish surrendered on paper. Very cool 😊
By the time we got to the bus stop it was already 6 p.m. and we couldn’t find a bus to take us back coz it was late and we weren’t sure if another bus was coming. First Delphine and I thought we would start walking back (we had to work the next day) but we were told that no one would pick us up at night. We couldn’t believe our luck with transportation that day. So after waiting for 45 min and wondering what to do, there were ten of us who had got stuck in Quinua and wanted to get back to Ayacucho so we all squished together in a single taxi. The taxi driver was very nice. It had already grown dark and on the way to Ayacucho we got stopped by the police at the police checkpoint because the taxi was overcrowded (which is such a joke because all the vehicles in Ayacucho are overcrowded ALL the time - they fit two people on the front co-diver’s seat and four in the back seat. Not comfortable!). The taxi driver first lied
that we were all family but the policeman requested get out of the car and follow him to the police station to show his ID, etc. One of the other men in the taxi went with him. The rest of us waited in the car and after nothing happened Delphine and I got out of the car to go help the guy out coz we were
gringas and obviously not family. So we told them that the taxi driver was so nice to take us into the taxi because we had missed the last bus, etc. It’s a good thing both of us speak such good Spanish. The policeman finally let us go. The taxi driver said that if we hadn’t come in the policeman would have most likely asked for a bribe. Lesson learned: get out of Quinua before nightfall.
So that was Delphine and Izidora’s little Wari and Quinua adventure.
*
Quechua Word of the Day:
pampa =
plain; valley
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