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Any visit to Ayacucho will begin in the Plaza de Armas, which is also known as Parque Sucré. It is an elegant square, surrounded by colonial colonnades. As you might expect, the Cathedral is located right on the square, and there are also several other grand colonial houses around the Plaza which are well worth a visit - even if half of them have been turned into banks! You can still visit most of them (one is now the Regional Museum) and it's well worth taking the time to step off the square into their shady courtyards and imagine that you're stepping back in time to the 1600s...
The churches are also the best place to see one of Ayacucho's local specialities: the reclados. These wooden boxes showing religious scenes started out life as portable altars but over time have become devotional objects which are unique to this region. Ayacucho is famous for its handicrafts and jewellers. with the Santa Ana district offering a kind of Andean version of the Place du Montmartre in Paris. An afternoon spent walking through the streets and checking out what's on offer (with a bit of haggling, of course!) is definitely well-spent.
Outskirts of Ayacucho
As well as the sights and sounds of Ayacucho itself, there's plenty to see in the surrounding areas. There are two lovely colonial towns called Quinua and Huanta which are only about an hour away and so make a great afternoon out. Alternatively, if you'd prefer something a little older, then you could visit the ruins of the Inca regional capital at Vilcashuaman or, going even further back, the remains of the main city of the Wari (or Huari) empire, where you can still see much of the city and there is also an excellent site museum, which lays out the development of the city through the Wari, Chanca and Inca phases of its history.
Holy Week, Batman!
If you can make it, then its really worth visiting Ayacucho during Holy Week - the festivities here are generally acknowleged as being the most enjoyable in Peru and it is the Christian equivalent to the Inti Raymi festival in Cusco. Everybody who lives in Ayacucho, as well as thousands of other Peruvians and foreign visitors take part in the celebrations, which start on Palm Sunday with the making of a carpet of flowers in the main square and the ceremonial entrance of donkeys and llamas carrying fresh herbs into the city which are burned as part of the rituals on easter Sunday. Some of the highlights of the week include the huge procession on Wednesday where everybody (and we mean everybody!) simultaneously lights a candle while all the electric lights in the city are extinguished and also the celebrations on Easter Sunday itself, which feature images and tableaux so large that one requires 250 people to carry it!
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