After a long day in our train car, the lights of Huancayo started to come into view. People started waking up and most were feeling better now. However, I on the other hand, now had a headache as the drinking activities of earlier in the day started to catch up with me. As we pulled into the station, we quickly noticed that our train was a sign of good fortune for the people of Huancayo. We could hear live nearby. As we filed off the train, the first thing that we noticed was a military band playing local music and a couple pairs of dancers with native costumes welcoming us. As we made our way off of the platform, there was more evidence that we were indeed welcome travelers here. there was many people waiting right outside the gates of the train station, some waiting for specific people and some trying to sell their goods and services. It became quite obvious that these travelers would bring an injection of capital into the local economy.
We didn't have to go far to find transportation to our accommodation within the city. There was several free buses waiting to take us to our hotels. We quickly found out that the buses were operated by the local tour operators as a way to entice the travelers with their many tours and adventures of the area. After a short wait, we were on our way to our hotel, which we found to be only a block from the city center. I was pleasantly surprised by the choice of hotels our friends had made. It was only 75 soles a night or about $25 -$30 for a room. It was nice and modern and gave you a sense of security. After we arrived ad the hotel and booked our adventures for the next day through one of the tour operators, we went and grabbed some pizza at one of the local touristic restaurants and then relatively quickly passed out.
The next morning we woke quite early to start out our journey of the area surrounding Huancayo. Our tour guide was prompt and greeted us happily and quickly led us to our waiting bus. Our voyage then started after about a 10-15 minute wait on the bus. Our first destination was the virgin of one of the towns and then a local lake. As we made our way towards our first destinations, the area reminded me of parts of western Montana, especially of the area surrounding Missoula. The hills were nice and green and well forested, but the mountains were rounded and not like the jagged peaks of the main part of the Andes.
It was quite obvious that this area heavily relied on agriculture as one of their main sources of income as farms ran as far as the eye could see. After about 45 minutes to an hour in the bus, we stopped and saw our first sight which was one of the virgins that protect and bring luck to the towns and cities of Peru. This one was quite large and red in color.
After our quick stop at the virgin, we continued on to Laguna de Paca in the Valle de Mantaro. This small lake was full of tourists and full of boats to take them on a quick tour of the lake. The boats were all in quite rickety condition and the navigators of the boats didn't exactly give you a feeling of safety as they didn't exactly seem to have knowledge of any other boats around them. Luckily the lake is quite calm and quite small. The area is famous for its trout fishing and there was no shortage of it here. As we were on the boat tour, our navigator shared stories of the lake and of the couple small islands on it. One island being the "Love" island and known for two people going to it and coming back as three!
After our short time at Laguna de Paca, we were soon carried away in our bus to another site. Our next destination was a church that is extremely important to the people of the region. Santa Rosa de Ocopa now serves more as a museum than a church but remains extremely important. The church is kind of out in the middle of nowhere. From the outside, it looks like many of the churches scattered throughout Peru, but the inside is quite a different story. The library was extremely unique, full of a variety of subjects and very complete for a place that feels like it is quite far from everything. It also had a large amount of wood used within it, which is also unique for a country that primarily uses stone and concrete as it's main construction materials. The other and absolutely most unique thing about this church had to be one of the chapels. The only way I can describe this chapel is to liken it to the Sistine Chapel but with absolute Peruvian flair! The walls and artwork are so bright and tell such interesting stories. One can easily understand how it is considered sacred and why they wouldn't let pictures be taken there!
Next time, a soggy start to lunch and the afternoon!
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