Joining the semana santa celebrations in Ayacucho definitely requires some planning ahead. When we booked our accommodation over four months ago most places were booked out. Also, you won't find any international hotel chains - the hotel we booked, one of the bigger ones in town, wasn't even on tripadvisor and we had to send money through western union to secure our reservation.
There are beautiful 16th and 17th century churches spotted all over central Ayacucho, and on the day we arrived there, Easter Thursday, the tradition is to visit each of them. We followed the crowds, witnessing all the final preparations for the big few days ahead.
The main event on Good Friday was a procession through the streets of town to mark the stations of the cross. In preparation, locals spent all afternoon constructing beautiful religious street art, predominately using colored salt. Once completed, this served as a form of red carpet for the procession that night.
The festivities concluded early on Sunday morning with fireworks running from midnight to 5am to mark the resurrection of Jesus.
Easter Sunday allowed us an opportunity to tour an increasingly quiet downtown before catching our overnight bus back to Lima. Although Ayacucho doesn't feature in many tourist guide books, we really enjoyed being able to join in the unique semana santa festivities and would recommend that others touring South America around that time of the year give it serious consideration.