Andahuaylillas and Huacarpay

A couple of Sundays ago Sarah and I went on a little jaunt to Andahuaylillas and Huacarpay – try saying those names five times quickly! The pronunciations, for those who are interested, in my best New Zealand accent, are something like Arn-dar-war-li-yas and wa-ka-pai.

It’s about an hour by local bus from downtown Cusco to Andahuaylillas, a small town that sits alongside the main road to Puno and Lake Titicaca. The town was originally founded in 1572, as part of the Spanish plan to round up the native population and resettle them in more easily controllable villages. It was then, and still is an agricultural centre for the surrounding district. The men farm the Peruvian staples of maize, potatoes and barley, while the women, even more hard-working, run the household – which here probably means looking after cows and pigs and chickens, baking bread and making cheese, weaving textiles, washing clothes by hand, tending to a large, rowdy parcel of children – as well as helping their husbands on the farm.

But Sarah and I did not visit Andahuaylillas to see cows or pigs or peasants toiling in the fields, though it is always interesting to see how people lead their lives. The spotlight shines on this little town, for us and for several busloads of tourists every single day, because of the town’s church. It is, in a word, magnificent. So magnificent, in fact, that it has been described by such travel aficionados as TripAdvisor and Lonely Planet and such knowledgeable institutions as the Smithsonian, as the ‘Sistine Chapel of the Americas’.

The front exterior of the church is currently obscured by scaffolding, as its multi-coloured frescoes are restored, but I still managed to squeeze between the poles to grab a couple of shots of its colourful adornment. The interior of this church is simply breathtaking – no photos are allowed, so you’ll just have to believe me and take these exterior shots as a miniscule indication of the awesomeness that lies within.

Built in the early sixteenth century, the church is Baroque in design and dedicated to St Peter the Apostle. Scenes from St Peter’s life are illustrated in a sequence of enormous paintings that decorate the walls, along with many stunning frescoes that date from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and a huge altar, intricate wooden carvings and ornate pictures frames that are completely enveloped in lustrous gold leaf. With the support of the World Monuments Fund, the church is being conserved and its wonders protected from the ravages of time and bugs.

But the church is not Andahuaylillas’s only treasure. Very close to the church lies a quaint little museum, containing much more ancient riches. As well as some dusty displays with fascinating information about Inca customs, there are mummies and skulls excavated from a local Inca site. These exhibits are mesmerising – you could be forgiven for thinking you’d stumbled on to the set of the Indiana Jones movie The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and perhaps this is where screenwriter David Koepp got his inspiration! The Inca tradition of skull manipulation, practised in the belief that enlarging certain parts of the skull would enhance motor function and creativity, has left us with craniums that look like they’ve come from alien beings.

We found Anduahuaylillas a quiet little town as we wandered its mostly empty streets. What people we encountered were friendly enough – a couple even spoke English and one, an old woman, demanded a fee for letting me take her photo – ah, but what a face! I may hate the wrinkles developing on my own visage but I love to photograph them on others. 

Many of the people we saw were accompanied by the ubiquitous donkey, the favoured beast of burden here, and were heading to the fields for a day’s labour. It was planting time so the paddocks needed to be ploughed, and the town’s one tractor was keeping very busy.

We also saw a lot of crosses on roof tops, some with bulls, some without - a traditional ornament in this region (see my previous blog: There’s a bull on my roof for more information on this phenomenon). And we had a delicious, though expensive lunch in the one restaurant that was open – tourist prices!

After a 10-minute bus ride back in the direction of Cusco, we alighted at the run-down little settlement of Huacarpay. Many of its buildings were damaged, some literally falling apart at the seams, others in a state of total collapse. I don’t know why this was – perhaps from an earthquake or maybe due to severe flooding from the nearby lake – which was the reason we stopped here. Huacarpay is most famous for its lake and surrounding wetlands, which, supposedly, have 60 resident species of birds and another 50 that visit in the right season. Obviously, this was not the right season as all – and I do mean ALL – the birds had gone on holiday! The autumnal colours of the reeds were still beautiful though and we had a pleasant stroll along the lake’s edge. We’ll go back in the rainy season to see if the birds are back.

Otuzco: a slice of rural life

On our last day in northern Peru, we decided to head out of the city into the countryside or, rather, into the highlands behind Trujillo. Our guide was 23-year-old Dilser, whom we had met during one of our outings with Henry. He was a pleasant and knowledgeable young man, and we had a good day with him and driver Leo. It took two hours of slow, careful driving to get there but we were glad of Leo’s caution as the roads were winding and hazardous. We passed two buses that had obviously been recovered after crashing off the road down to the river bed below, and the numerous roadside crosses were graphic reminders of how tragic the consequences of such crashes could be.

As we left Trujillo, we traversed field upon field of sugar cane, and saw another of the smoke-belching factories. This one only processed cane into sugar whereas the others we had seen process the syrup into rum and the cane fibres into a rough quality paper, for making bags and cardboard. We also saw a rather animal-like cane cutting machine, rather aptly named an air scorpion. Such machines are not very common as most cane is still cut by hand. 

As we climbed from sea level into the mountains, eventually to an altitude of around 2000 metres, the crops changed. The main highland crop is pineapple and we passed many plantations, stopping at one point to photograph this succulent fruit. There were also fields of orange and guava trees, as well as the ubiquitous maize, lettuce and cauliflower, beans and artichokes, and asparagus, a big export earner for this area.

At first, the skies were grey and overcast, with very low cloud blanketing the hills, but this cleared as we went climbed and, although we had been warned that it would be colder in Otuzco, the weather was actually bright, sunny and warm.

Though quite a small town, Otuzco is the hub for surrounding area. However, its main claim to fame is its local saint, the Virgen as la Puerta (Virgin of the Door), and people come from all parts of Peru to present her with offerings in the hope of getting favours in return.

The church that originally housed the statue of the Virgin proved too small to seat the crowds that flock to Otuzco for her special commemorations in December, so, when its roof collapsed during an earthquake, the locals took the opportunity to build a new, larger church next door and re-roofed the old church with corrugated iron. It is now a fascinating museum, housing the thousands of dollars worth of offerings donated by the faithful. Row upon row of glass cabinets contain the sumptuously embroidered robes that cloak the Virgin’s statue when she’s paraded through the streets, but there were also three cabinets of small shoes, offered by the shoemakers of Trujillo, tall cabinets of assorted whatnots donated by individual families, several cabinets of gold and silver jewellery of all types and sizes, even a cabinet of human hair, grown then cut off and offered as a personal treasure to the Virgin.

To me, there was a strong element of bargaining in these offerings, which seemed rather more profane than sacred and, in a country as poor as Peru, to leave such largesse in a museum seemed an unbelievable waste. Apparently, you can donate small items and money simply by depositing them in the capacious blue barrels in the new church but, if you want to offer something more significant like a robe for the Virgin to wear, you must first write to the church authorities for permission. They write back, approving and scheduling the date you may make your gift. For example, the wearing of the robes is reserved so far in advance that the Virgin may not wear a current donation until perhaps 2025.

The new church, adjacent to the old, is a solid grey concrete monstrosity – ugly in its utilitarianism. Visitors were having their photos taken in front of the altar and the statues of the various saints who occupy the walls. We went upstairs to see the ‘lesser’ Virgin – this statue is still considered sacred, just not as sacred as the larger, main statue inside. You had to pay for an appointment to see that one.

Leaving the Virgin to her followers, we walked up one of the steep streets that lead off the plaza and up the hill beyond, though, in fact, this was also part of the Otuzco religious experience. Climbing up the narrow pedestrian street, with beds of flowers running up it, small religious statues at various points as you ascended and a large cross at the top, also earns the faithful brownie points – so I made a couple of small non-verbal wishes – no harm in putting them out there! The view from the top was certainly worth the effort, as were the views from the surrounding streets which we also explored.

One interesting local tradition we noticed as we strolled around was the adorning of the roofs of new houses with bunches of flowers. And, when someone in the house is getting married, small figurines representing the bride and groom are also placed on the roof. I also noticed several roofs with small bull and matador statuettes – our guide was not sure of the significance of these.

We wandered around the local market and popped in to a small, but charming local chapel, where the Italian-born priest was delighted to have interested visitors and happily explained a little of the history of his building. We ate in a local restaurant, though declined the offer of guinea pig, settling instead for a big bowl of chunky chicken and vegetable soup. It was a refreshing change to be in a relaxed small town, away from the hustle and bustle of big cities, breathing the fresh mountain air, and exploring at a leisurely pace.

We were back in Trujillo by about 4pm, in plenty of time for a last piece of the local mouth-watering cakes, a last stroll around the streets for a few more photos, and a bite to eat before heading back to the Cruz del Sur bus station for the overnight bus back to Lima. It had been a laid-back kind of day, the ideal way to finish off a wonderful week’s holiday exploring northern Peru.

Trujillo day three: prancing horses and faded puppets

Holidays can be times of blissful relaxation or of intense activity; mine in northern Peru was mostly the latter, as we tried to see as much as possible in the little time we had. But, on this one day, there was no annoying alarm to wake us up, no early morning bus to catch, no reason to scramble quickly out of bed and into the shower, which was heaven!

After a leisurely breakfast at the café next door and a wander to the plaza for Sarah to top up her money from an ATM, we popped in to the tour agency adjacent to our hotel to see what other tours were on offer around Trujillo. We’d already done the main touristy things – the archaeological tours – but there was one other short tour available, to see the world-famous-in-Peru pacing horses.

So, off we headed. Unfortunately, the whole thing was in Spanish and, as our vocabulary didn’t include anything remotely equine, it wasn’t easy to follow what exactly was going on, though one of the other tourists kindly helped out a little. It started with an explanation about the horses themselves: they are quite small in stature and their claim to fame is that they run/walk like pacers, with both legs on one side moving at the same time as opposed to right front and left back, followed by left front and right back like normal horses. This gait makes their movement look very elegant and means that the rider doesn’t bob up and down as much as on a normal horse. Horses are not native to Peru – they were originally introduced to South America by the Spanish – so I’m not sure why or how their special gait developed.

There followed an explanation of the equipment used: a blanket; a rather rigid-looking saddle; eye pieces to calm skittish horses; a piece that sits over the horse’s rump and tail, with long straps that hang at the back; two bridles – not sure why – that bit was lost in translation; and two big wooden-box-like stirrups. To be honest, it all seemed quite heavy for the poor horse to carry around as well as its rider.

The rider normally wears a poncho and a sombrero, and the other tourists who decided to mount and walk the horses around all donned the full kit for their photo shoots. Sarah and I refrained. Next, the rider presented a riding-around-to-music display, then out came two dancers in traditional costume. These were the renowned Marinera dancers, a Peruvian coastal speciality with a national contest held in Trujillo every January. The girl was wearing a beautifully embroidered blouse/shirt dress (white with many colours, including peacock designs) and an over-skirt of purple satin, which was very full for flouncing around when dancing. She had traditional earrings with Moche designs and wore her hair in two braids, decorated with flowers, She said something about the meaning of the hair – maybe one particular style design for married women, one for single, one for having a boyfriend? I think the stripes on the girl’s belt also had a meaning but, again, there was much I couldn’t understand.

The youth was more plainly dressed, in a white ruched shirt, plain trousers and wide sash-type belt. The pair danced together, and with the horse and man also prancing around. It appeared that the girl was making amorous advances towards both her partner and the rider; her gestures were certainly flirtatious. The whole performance was charming but I wish I could have understood more of the meaning behind what was happening.

After another hearty lunch back in Trujillo, we wandered the streets taking photos and then visited the local toy museum, El primero museo de jugete en Latinamerica – truth be told, probably the only toy museum in South America. It was small, but interesting, and a definite blast from the past for older visitors like me. I recognised a Singer sewing machine and a tin whistle that I had as a child. There were lots of dolls, some very old, dating from the sixteenth century, and a doll’s house furnished in the style of the 50s and 60s. There were also lots of metallic model cars and trains – I’m sure collectors on The Antiques Roadshow would give their eye teeth to get hold of those. I recognised an old Meccano set, like one my brother used to have, and enclosed in a large glass case was a huge display of toy soldiers from England and France, dating from 1920-25.

The museum also had a separate display room for ancient, indigenous children’s toys and there was a skylight in the ceiling, from which hung many types of puppets, many old and dirty and in a sorry state of repair, not helped by their exposure to sunlight. Many of the exhibits were in poor condition and deserved to be restored and conserved but, as this is a private museum with a mere 5-soles-per-person entrance fee, the chances of the collection being properly cared for are probably quite slim.

Next came the afternoon’s cake treat, followed by more wandering to burn off all those calories! Trujillo has such a delightful and photogenic inner city that it was a pleasure to just walk and click the afternoon away.

Trujillo Cathedral at night