Ayacucho
We successfully made it to the highest driveable pass IN THE WORLD on our way from Huancavelica to Ayacucho. Ayacucho is a nice enough city, but when you read about it, it is usually referred to as the stronghold for Sendero Luminoso. If you don’t know about Sendero Luminoso you are not much behind me, and it is probably better that you do your own research rather than depend on what I know about them. In a nutshell, they are either terrorists bent on killing everyone who does not subscribe to their philosophy, or they are a group trying to empower the oppressed campesino masses. Probably the truth is somewhere in between, but good luck finding it.
In the town of Ayacucho we stayed in a hotel that served as the headquarters for journalists trying to bring the story to the world. Sadly, several of them were killed years back in the conflict between the government and SL. The police we talked with said there has been no SL activity recently and there was nothing to worry about. The leader of the group, a former university professor, was captured a while back leaving the group disorganized.
On a happier note, we got to play AAA by yanking a truck out of the ditch on the side of the road, which was just about a half a mile from the highest driveable pass IN THE WORLD.
In the market at Ayacucho, the vendors were incredibly friendly. We would walk through and some of the women would say, “Oye Papi, Papicito,” come have a look.
Alejandro Gallardo is a master weaver in Ayacucho. He’s carrying on his family’s tradition of high quality weaving. He described to us with great passion the process of the craft.
Tags: Travel
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