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YUNGAY , a mere 58km along the valley from Huaraz, was an attractive, traditional small town until it was obliterated in seconds at 3.23pm on May 31, 1970, during the major earthquake , which registered 7.7 on the Richter Scale. Long before its final destruction the "Pearl of the Huaylas Corridor" had shown itself to be unwisely situated: in 1872 it was almost completely wiped out by an avalanche, and on a fiesta day in 1962 another avalanche buried some five thousand people in the neighbouring village of Ranrahirca. The 1970 quake also arrived in the midst of a festival, and although casualties proved impossible to calculate with any real accuracy, it's thought that over seventy thousand people died. Almost the entire population of Yungay, around 26,000, disappeared virtually instantaneously, though a few of the town's children survived because they were at a circus located just above the town, which fortuitously escaped the landslide. Almost eighty percent of the buildings in neighbouring Huaraz and much of Carhuaz were also razed to the ground by the earthquake. The new town has none of the beauty of the original, an uninviting conglomeration of modern buildings - including some ninety prefabricated cabins sent as relief aid from the former Soviet Union - has been built around a concrete Plaza de Armas. It still cowers beneath the peak of Huascaran, but hopefully is more sheltered than its predecessor from further dangers. On the way into town from Carhuaz, a car park and memorial monument mark the entrance to the site of the buried old town of Yungay (daily 8am-6pm; $0.50), which has developed into one of the region's major tourist attractions. The site, entered through a large, blue concrete archway, is covered with a grey flow of mud and moraine, now dry and solid, with a few stunted palm trees to mark where the old Plaza de Armas once stood. Thousands of rose bushes have been planted over the site - a gift from the Japanese government. Local guidebooks show before and after photos of the scene, but it doesn't take a lot of imagination to reconstruct the horror. You can still see a few things like an upside-down, partially destroyed school bus, stuck in the mud. The graveyard above the site, which predates the 1970 quake, is known as Campo Santo and gives the best vantage point over the devastation. A tall statue of Christ holds out its arms from here towards the deadly peak of Huascaran itself, as if pleading for no further horrors. The best reason for staying here is to make the trip up to the Llanganuco Lakes and Huascaran (trucks leave most mornings from the Plaza de Armas) or simply as a base for exploring from the heart of the Callejon de Huaylas. Despite its looks, modern Yungay is a reasonable place to stay, and there are a number of acceptable hostals . The best value and thus the most popular is the Hostal Gledel on Avenida Aries Graziani (tel 044/793048; $5-10), at the northern end of town; it has small rooms and shared toilet facilities but it is spotlessly clean and is a very pleasant environment, with a dining room where excellent food is served. Nearby there's the Alojamiento La Suiza Peruana, Avenida Aries Graziani, Lote 7 (tel 044/793003; $5-10) which has shared bathrooms and a bar with games set around a patio. For those on a tight budget, try the very basic Hostal Sol de Oro (up to $5), or you can camp in a eucalyptus wood at Hostal Blanco, next to the hospital, which also has doubles ($10-20). The Hostal Yungay, on the Plaza de Armas ($5-10), gives out free maps and information on the area. Also on the plaza is a reasonable cafe , the Comedor Yungay, which offers good, cheap set-lunch menus; and the Banco de La Nacion (Mon-Fri 8.30am-1.30pm & 2.15-4pm) for money change .
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