Warri Wilka and the oldest church in Huancayo

Today I rolled out of bed a bit late in order to get breakfast.  Tino said that he thought it wouldn't be a good day to go for a bike ride since it looked like rain.  He said it would be a better idea to go to a museum and to the oldest church in Huancayo.  Mari also said we would go to eat lunch at Los Girasoles.  James was too tired to go and Ylfa and Emil decided to do something else, so Lauren, Fiona, and I went with Mari and Mabel.

We took a taxi to the Warri Wilka museum.  It means sacred springs.  There are springs there that flow in little mini waterfalls.  It looks like the water is just running from the earth.  The people there built on this sacred ground and inside the ruins, there are two large trees.  They are hundreds of years old and the guide told us that they are very special trees that are sacred to the people.  One is male and the other is female by their shapes.  She told us to hug the trees and that if we did it would bring us luck.  Unfortunately the male tree had been burned and part had fallen over.  The guide said that they thought someone was performing a religious ritual, burning candles in the tree and had forgotten to extinguish the candles.  It is quite a shame since they are sacred trees and there aren't any others like it.

Me hugging the sacred male tree.  You can see the ashes where part of the tree burned.

We also went into the Warri Wilka museum.  There had been archaeologists who found the skeleton of a woman on the grounds.  She was pretty well preserved.  You could see her skin, hair, and nails.  The guide said she was killed when she was around 25.  From her teeth and other evidence, they think she was from a higher class.  She was killed by a blow to the head and also a blow to the pelvis.  There was a bird of prey tied to her and a frog skeleton was also found nearby her.  They think she may have been punished for some wrongdoing.  They also have excavated ceramics like water jugs and also tools they used like pointed rocks on the end of sticks and mortar and pestle.  They found many small jugs and bowls that were used as offerings.  They spent most of their time on agriculture.  There was also the skull of a priest.  The priests heads were shaped from birth so that the skull was elongated.  They put boards on the front and back of the skull from birth until they were four to deform the skull in this way.  It almost looked like a conehead.  Only priests had this done to them.  After the museum, we went into a small church next to the museum and then we took a combi to get us on our way to the first church in Huancayo.

The cross that's said to have healing powers.

When we first got to Chongos Bajo, we saw the Cani Cross.  There were people crowded around it and all the carts and stores sell candles and flowers to offer the cross.  It is supposed to have healing powers and Mari said that there is always a crowd around it, lighting candles and offering flowers.  She said that a lot of people claim to have been cured by the powers of this cross.

Bienvenidos a Chongos Bajo.  Welcome to Chongos Bajo.

The first church of Huancayo is in Chongos Bajo.  It was built in 1540.  Everyone really enjoyed this town and the area surrounding the church.  There was a stone path to get up to the church.  We were lucky enough to go when there was another group of women exploring the church.  One of them knew a lot about the church.  It was very peaceful and beautiful up there.

The church in Chongos Bajo.

The altar inside the church.

Mabel was picking berries from trees along the way.  They were really good, tasting almost like cherries.

Mari eating some of the berries Mabel picked.  Mabel is in the background eating more berries.

We looked around the church and then made our way around to an area with pretty flowers and some ruins of old structures.  There was cactus and aloe everywhere along our walk and up by the church.  When we walked back down to the town, Fiona, Lauren, and I wrote our names into one of the aloe plants using the sharp tip of the end of one leaf.

Our names carved into the aloe leaf.

After the church we went to Los Girasoles.  It was quite funny because when we drove up the the front of the restaurant, there were guys banging on the car and handing Mabel several corn husks filled with the cornbread that usually comes with pachamanca.  It turns out that they just wanted us to come into the restaurant.  Mabel had five bread-filled corn husks in her hands.

Los Girasoles (The Sunflowers) restaurant.

We got some juice that tasted fermented when we went in and on our left were two whole animals roasting on a large grill.  There was a band playing also, so there was a nice atmosphere.  Everyone ordered pachamanca except for me.  I got Chicharron Colorado.  It was pork in a nice, spicy sauce with potatoes and rice.  I also got chicha morada.  I was glad I ordered that because everyone said that the pachamanca wasn't as good as La Playita, where we had gone last weekend.  I'm not usually a fan of pork chops, but this was cooked really well and the sauce was amazing.  I guess drinking anise liquor is standard, because we got a small portion of it after our meal there as well.

Chiccharon Colorado...yum!

We went to the Mercado Libre, open-air market, that is close to the house before we headed home.  I was feeling like I could fall asleep standing up by this time.  But it was really an experience walking through this market.  I felt like I was in a film.  There were people selling all types of things.  There were chickens strung up by their feet in some of the stands, and I think I even saw a pig head in one of them.  There was a man with a monkey, probably trying to get money from pictures.  There were people selling all kinds of fresh fruit, every potato imaginable (there are several types of potato in Peru), purple corn, clothing, shoes, weaving, DVDs and music, and so much more.  Lauren and I were talking about going back tomorrow when we felt more awake.  We stopped at a stand selling cherimoyas and the woman let us try them.  They were so good that Fiona, Lauren, and I bought some.  The woman also let us taste some of the bananas and pomegranate.  As we walked along, Lauren laughed and said that a man had been staring at me while peeling potatoes and had missed the bucket when he threw a finished potato toward it.  People are so fascinated with us gringas.  We had some young boys yell, "Gringas!" several times at us.  Fiona and I yelled back at the same time, "Peruanos!"

When we got close to home, there was a band playing in the street.  Like Tino says, it seems there is always a reason for a party in Huancayo.  At the house we got some water and all fell into bed for a nap.  Dinner was ready shortly after we woke up from our nap, but since we had eaten so much at 3, we weren't as hungry as we usually are at dinner.  Lauren and I decided to stay in because I'm still feeling sleepy and she was feeling a bit off.  James and Fiona went off to a movie and Emil and Ylfa are already in bed.  I think I'm going to watch the end of Harry Potter that I missed out on last night when I was teaching English to Tino's family.

Until tomorrow...