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Ayacucho, Peru, in 1998
Ayacucho, Peru, in 1998
Truk_mazzy2003-12-04 21:43:31
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13 Julio 1998 - AYACUCHO! The trip to Ayacucho was extremely long and dusty. Kath and I got up on time for the bus (7 am) to Ayacucho, but, of course, the bus left late. We didn't get out of Huancayo until 9 or so, and the road was terrible. It is packed earth most of the way, and the shocks on the bus probably went out before Fugimori became Prez here. The bus kept stopping at every single village and almost every farmhouse picking up and depositing passengers. Sometimes, a lady in native garb (a cholita) with a child would just get out of the bus in the middle of nowhere. We would drive off and she would be left standing there.
Note for future reference: When the bus stops at a restaurant and everyone gets out and starts to eat, join them. You don't have another chance.
Well, it was one of those long bus rides - almost 11 hours of topsy-turvy, crowded, bumpy riding. Fortunately for me, the Dramamine kicked in and I slept, head bobbing, most of the first six or so hours. Our driver must have taken us through every god-forsaken town between Huancayo and Ayacucho. We picked up people, dropped them off. There were people on the bus with live animals - chickens and such. Vendors of ice cream, bread, juice would invade the bus at every stop. At one point, it was so crowded that an older man half way sat in Stacy's lap. All the while music, too upbeat and distracting to be good, blared from the radio and the mountains rose and descended all the way. The colors of the stone and earth below changed as we traveled south - tan to tan covered with gray - green shrubbery and cactus - to red almost clay, like New Mexico, and some dark black stone as well. The cacti changed as well, from hand shaped (mittens) to the desert cacti you see in old westerns - the waving hand kind. We followed the river for a long time, up and down the canyon - sometimes close enough to see the fishes swimming or children bathing and other
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See photographs from:
Peru Gallery
