Day 6- Archeological Day tour & Taj Mahal

Mayo seis 05-06-06

Today was an exciting day! We went on a full-day, 7hr acheological tour with ¨Peruvian tour¨and visited all kinda of archeological sites, lakes etc. On our way there, we visited a feria (animal trade market), ancient Wanka site (they arrived before the Andes of Machu Picchu!), Lake Ñanhuinpugnio, Ancient Spanish cross, city of Chupaca, and finally pArque Identica Wanka!

Our friendly tour guide, Julian narrated the history of each site throughout the tour. All the Peruvians we have met so far are truly warm and welcoming, and it was fantastic to have Julian as our guide! We met up at el Centro, the center Plaza of Constitucion and 8 of us (my WST site group) & 3 other tourists from Lima fitted ourselves in a mid-size school bus kinda van. On our way to the feria, we passed by a troupe of traditional dancers/band so we stopped and took some pictures!! The dancer had colorful clothing and a scary-looking mask, apparently the dnace is a Pagan tradition for the festival (cant rem the name...), which takes place in May.

We arrived at the feria and tit was like nothing I´ve ever seen before! It is a animal/livestock market, whee people traded and sold horses, torros (cows), obehas (sheeps), servados (pigs) etc. The market is about 6blocks long with al kinda of ropes, food, clothing, fruits etc. In the middle of it, a man had a HARP and was playing for the crowd! This is definitely new from the typical guitar street performance ;) They slaughter animals foor ´fresca´meat (fresh) though, so we saw a dead pig laying in a cart and a pile of wool...

We then headed to the mountains, where we visited an ancient site of te Wankas. We ´hiked´450 steps of stairs up to the top of the hill-mountain, and its TOTALLY worth it. The view was breath-taking with stretch of farm fileds, mountains, and rolling white clouds! Julian showed us the stone tools Wanka used for cutting meat/grinding fruits & herbs, and explained how Wankas designed their stone houses so that in the winter, some storage room serve as natural refrigerators! We had a great view of Lake Ñanhuinpugnio too, which is a natural lake (but surprising square-shaped) and we paid 2soles (around 60c USD) for a boat ride + horse ride around the lake. After the lake, we ride in the bus for around 1hr to a iglesia (church site). The Spaniards brought Catholic religion with them and forced Peruvians to accept their religion, whereas before, Peruvians worshipped the nature, spirits, mountain, moon etc. So we saw the OLDEST cross/Crusifix statue in Peru, with carvings of the Spanish king on it. Interesting fact: the locals resisted Catholic beliefs, thus build this church FACING a far-away snowcapped mountain which they used to worship. Thus they ¨pray¨ to their gods, while pretending to go along with Catholic religion.

By 2-3pm, we went to the city of Chupaca where we had a traditional mean of the¨¨Pachamancha¨. The meal consists of beans, potatoes, lamb/pork/chicken of ur choice and Peruvian dish ¨ümise¨, which is mashed up corn + flour, baked in the husk (leave on the outside of corn) to create corn-bread like desser. The mean was amazing... I chose lamb and it was grilled to perfection... yummy.... =P At the end, we visited a park built entirely by diff color/size/shape stones! The park is dedicated to Wanka traditions, thus had many statues of well-known figures. It was beautiful and every stone was hand-picked by group of architects, the park took 4years to built!!

The tour was over by 6pm, and our group split off to go shopping. Neha & I went to the Casa de Artesan, which is a artesan market filled with crafts, hand-made jewelleries, tapestries and PERUVIAN UGGS! The most popular material in Peru is Apaca, which is llama fur. So they had slippers with suede exterior and apaca interior, I am looking fwd to buying a pair =)

in the night, Juan and Patty (directors of Mosoq Ayllu, the organization we are volunteering with) brought us out to the ¨best club¨in Huancayo: Taj Mahal. We walked in the club and felt as if we entered a set-up for some 80s movie, it is the ¨best club¨= rich, wealthy middle age customers. Definitely older group than we expected... but it was cool because they played all Salsa music, so people actually DANCED SALSA formally and boy, even the guys are super-good at it!! Whereas in Ann Arbor clubs are opened till 2am, in Peru clubs are opened till 6am! We left at 3am+ and Juan drove us back home safely =) Clubbing in S. America is definitely different!!

Si finito! Buenas Noches!