9th December, Battle of Ayacucho

This Tuesday was a holiday in Ayacucho, to commemorate the victory at the Battle of Ayacucho in Quinua in 1824, and independence for Peru. As there was no school, I went up to Quinua with Cassandra who´s staying in the same hostal, Wilber who works in the hostal, and a couple of CCS volunteers. Quinua is a 30-minute scary, bumpy bus ride into the mountains above Ayacucho.

Just above the village there´s an obelisk commorating the Battle of Ayacucho. I had visted this place before, but this time it was packed with people, who had all gathered to watch the re-enactment of the battle. We sat around for an hour or so in true Peruvian style, with no idea when anything was actually going to start. And in the middle there were two groups of young lads, half of them dressed as Peruvian soldiers in blue, and the other half as Spaniards in red. They too were sitting around for ages, waiting for something to happen. Every now and again some soldiers on horesback turned up and they all stood up and chanted´Viva Ayacucho!´,´Viva Peru!´...

Eventually there were some speeches and ceremorial stuff at the obelisk and then the Peruvian soldiers surrounded the Spaniards and marched them off and that was it! We were all hoping for a bit more of a battle!

There were lots of stalls set up for lunch and the locals were happily tucking into chicharrones(fried pork), mondongo (tripe stew), and cuy (guinea-pig) amongst other things that I couldn´t identify. It all smelt very nice, but I´m looking after my stomach and decided to skip the experience and play safe!