The Old Cemetery in Yungay, Peru
Huaraz tours will often include a visit to Yungay, a nearby town that was completely buried in a massive landslide during the 1970 earthquake killing over 25,000 people, only 92 people survived, mainly children that were attending a circus in an area that escaped the rocks and soil that rushed down the mountain. The entire town was declared a national cemetery. The total area affected by the earthquake that caused this landslide was larger than Belgium and The Netherlands combined and killed more than 74,000 people, over 143,000 injured and over a million homeless.
The ruins of the church in Yungay, Peru
The valley where Yungay used to be is beautiful and full of good farmland but when you visit Yungay you will see that there it is covered in a deep layer of rocks and mud with huge boulders sticking out. There are also ruins of the church and a crushed bus that was high in the mountains when the landslide happened.
Outside Yungay, there is the Huascaran National Park in the Cordillera Blanca, it was declared a World Heritage Site by the UNESCO. The highest mountain is the Huascaran (6768 meters high, the highest in Peru), another important peaks are the Alpamayo, Pisco, Huandoy, Hualcan, etc.
It’s possible to walk in the mountains to an altitude of 6000 m without being en experienced climber, but there are another parts that are just for more experienced climbers.
There are beautiful lagoons like Llanganuco, Chinancocha, Orconcoha, etc. this lagoons have green- turquoise water and are popular with tourists and they are surrounded by forests. There are another very beautiful under the peaks Artesonraju and Alpamayo but the access is very difficult.
There are about 22 hotsprings, Monterrey is the most popular with tourist at 2073 meters above sea level.
In the 1960’s it was discovered that a cave in this area contained evidence of humans living in there between 10,000 – 12,000 years ago.
Ah! Yungay!
There is another funny fact about Yungay, it has a street in Lima named after it. In a famous Peruvian advert for a company that offered English lessons a beautiful ‘Gringa’ goes to a security man and says she wants to take him to her country and be his slave and says ‘I Love you guy’… but the man does not understand and thinks she said ‘Yungay’ and starts to give her directions on how to get to Yungay ‘…you walk six blocks and turn right’! Then the advert says ‘If you don’t know English you can miss many things in life’.
It became very famous in Peru and became a kind of phrase. When someone was explaining something to you and you wanted to show you understood you would reply ‘..Ahhh, Yungay!’
You can see the advert here on YouTube (in a new window) >>
