Day 8: Huancayo/Ahuac and eating cuy again

This morning I got to Juliana's house at 9.30am - we plus the other volunteers Oscar, Sasha and Sonia would be taking a day trip! We waited for a bus, then after a while gave up and took a taxi (taxis pass every two seconds here, if that) to Chupaca, about twenty minutes outside of Huancayo. From there we took a second cab to Ahuac, where our day would begin. We were dropped off next to some steps, and we climbed - for about twenty minutes or so we climbed, taking in the view of the fields and the mountains and cows and small houses. It was quite a sunny day, so the view was gorgeous. At the top of the steps (about 50m higher than our starting point) was our destination: the ruins of Arwaturo. The name's Quechua for 'burned bones' - Juliana explained that burned bones were found in the ruins, and that the ruins were supposedly used for food storage and as a watchtower. We stayed there a while, walking round the ruins, then lay in the sun - Sasha regretted that we hadn't brought a picnic lunch with us, it was that sort of day.

We walked back down the steps, then through some very soggy and marhy ground to the lake, where we waited for a cab. A man came up to us and gave us some drink made from corn - I think it was slightly alcoholic, and he looked delighted to have visitors from so far away. We then took a cab back to Chupaca (at one point a peasant and her daughter jumped in the boot - the lady looked at us, smiled, and said delightedly "Gringos!"), and from there a bus to a restaurant near Huancayo. Juliana said that it did really good food - I ended up eating pachamanca (meat cooked in a ground oven) with pork and cuy (guinea pig). It tasted great :) We were also served humitas (Sasha compared them to corndough - I can't stand humitas, Oscar was happy to take them off my hands). So that was a great lunch.

When we got back, I went with Sonia and Sasha to the weekly market - it's over 1km long, so we only managed to see a fraction of the stalls! I couldn't find much that I liked though, so I'll have another look next week, or maybe go to the artesans' market in town. It was wonderful browsing though. After that, Sasha and I did a bit more shopping in the town centre (I had a quick look in the artesans' market, but I was running low on money by this time), then we headed back. I hung about for a while at Juliana's, then walked back to Hilda's house.

I only stayed up a short while - Yesy's friend was visiting, so we all chatted for a while, then i started to get tired and took an early-ish night.