Puquio - History and camelids in the peruvian highlands

Ayacucho is a region located in the central peruvian Andes and encompresses the province of Puquio, an extensive area with historical arqueological sites and home of a living culture that mainly speaks the Inca language “Runasimi”. Through a visit made to that area, I could experience a close touch with the rural world and andean nature.

Puquio must be reached by bus, thus it offers the chance to see marvellous landscapes among the route, such as the Nazca Lines and the magestous National Park Pampa Galeras, where a huge number of vicuñas, llamas, etc, can be seen very closely. Puquio can be reached after 8 hours bus ride from the city of Lima, and the first thing that will capture the visitor’s attention is the construction of its streets, many of them built with stones, as well as an overview of the surrounding highlands, which perfectly represent the Andean structure. It was worthy to spend the night over there and enjoy walking around.

On the next day, we head to the Andamarca valley (3 hours from Puquio), an impressive area where the andenes (terraces that were built by the former peruvian kingdoms for growing crops, such as potatoes, corn, among others), are still in use and match perfectly with the landscape. The valley is well designed on both sides by these impressive structures, and in the main town of Andamarca, there is also a preserved archeological site surrounded by flowers and sheeps. On the way back to Puquio, we could enjoy again the sightseeing of farmers and nice views from the river and small snow peaks.

The third day was planned for visiting the neighbor province of Cora-Cora (2,5 hours from Puquio by bus) and from there, the Sara Sara Mountain and the Parinacochas lagoon, two incredible natural beauties located in the highland pampas, and which made us enjoy the energy of the Andes and several birds completing the natural scene. This was a good opportunity to take a rest in the grass and to take a time for enjoying the balance of the nature and calmness of the rural world. By the afternoon, we catched a local bus in the road and head back to Puquio, enjoying as well the several small lagoons and camelids walking freely. On the last day, we visited the town of Cora-Cora, which was celebrating a farmer-fair, where the best animals where shown and products derivatives from milk where offered.

This visit represented a nice experience for visiting a non-well known tourism destination and enjoying the living culture of a province that starts appearing in the map through the construction of an international highway which will connect it to Brazil in the near future. There is no official site for this province yet, so I would recommend you to search on wikipedia for further information.