By Piero Ponce

Ayacucho is a region located in the central Peruvian Andes and encompasses the province of Puquio, an extensive area with historical archeological sites and home of a living culture that mainly speaks the Inca language Runasimi. Through a visit to that area, I could experience a close touch with the rural world and Andean nature.

Puquio can only be reached by bus, thus it offers the chance to see marvelous landscapes among the route, such as the Nazca Lines and the majestic National Park Pampa Galeras, where a huge number of vicuñas, llamas, and other animals can be seen very closely.

Puquio is about eight-hour 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 worth spending the night over there and I enjoyed walking around the area.

On the next day, we head to the Andamarca valley (three 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 beautiful flora and fauna.

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 sites located in the highland pampas, where we could enjoy the energy of the Andes and several birds completing the natural scene.

This was a good opportunity to enjoy the balance of the nature and calmness of the rural world. In the afternoon, we tool a local bus in the road and head back to Puquio, enjoying as well the several small lagoons along the way and watching camelids walking by freely.

This visit represented a nice experience getting to know a destination not yet well-known, 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, but I would recommend interested travelers to search for further information on Wikipedia and other sites.

Piero Ponce

Piero has a degree in Economics with specialization on Global Management and vast international experience for 4 years, by analyzing and managing initiatives that promote cooperation among groups from different cultural background and activating leadership skills in youth worldwide. His life has been fortunately matched with his biggest passion: meeting cultures by traveling. Borned in Lima, Peru, his academic and professional actions took him to visit all continents. Because of this, he learned several languages and started working in the field of rural development. He currently lives in the city of Ayacucho and works as Director for Proyects & Research at the Regional Chamber of Tourism in Ayacucho, thus opening new opportunities for local organizations to further develop sustainable tourism initiatives.