South of the Border - Down Peru Way - Part IV
October 27, 2008

I spent Monday 23 June in Cusco attending what must be the world record of parades.

After the outdoor Mass on the Cathedral steps, the parade commenced at 10:00 AM.

Every government department, village association, and other organization was marching and dancing. Each group had a small band associated with them. The bands all play the same special song - over and over. It was very hypnotic.

I watched the parade from 10:00 AM until 9:00 PM with only two breaks to return to the hostal to leave my jacket and then to get my jacket. It got cold very quickly at the high altitude of the city.

I went to bed at 10:00 and the parade was still going on. Later I found out that the parade finished at 1:00 AM.

Tuesday was the third and final leg of this "Trifecta" - "Inti-Raymi", Festival of the Sun. Inti-Raymi is the annual reenactment of the Inca Sun Ceremony. The reenactment has been taking place since 1944 after being banned for almost 400 years.

Inti Raymi is held in honor of the god "Inti" marks the winter solstice, and a new Andean year. During Inca times, the festival was one of the four most important ceremonies celebrated in Cusco. The ceremony celebrated the mythic origins of the Inca people. It went on for nine days comprised of parades, dancing, and animal sacrifices to ensure good crops in the future.
I walked down to Koriconcha through the packed streets with several other guests from the hostal. Koriconcha was the Inca "Sun Temple". It was destroyed by the Spanish conquerors. The Spanish completed the Santo Domingo church atop the remaining Inca stone work in 1654. Koriconcha is renowned for the quality of its stone work. It is not possible to put a razor blade in the gaps between the stones.

There was a ceremony at Koriconcha in which fire was started using sunlight. It was an impressive spectacle. After the reenactment concluded we walked to the Plaza de Armas. The entire square was vacant and roped off. There were thousands of people outside of the rope perimeter - half of them trying to sell something. We had a good group - we looked after each other and set up defensive circles against pick pockets. There was another ceremony at the Plaza. We watched some of the ceremony from the elevated balcony of a restaurant.

We walked up the hills to where all the tour buses were parked. The area must have been where all the marchers from the previous day's parade had partied. The streets reeked of urine. The smell was overwhelming. I remarked "They said that the streets of America were paved with gold. What do you think the streets of Cusco were paved with?" My two new English buddies, Kirk and Colin, shot back "Piss, mate!" We all had a good laugh.

We boarded our bus and picked up our box lunches. The lunches were huge and very good. There were cut up carrots, broccoli, and green beans - partially cooked to make them nice to eat. In the box lunch there were also four bite sized bits of chicken wrapped up with ham and bacon, a cheese sandwich, a ham sandwich, an orange, bottle of water, and Inca Energy Bar, and a package of saltines. We ended up trading components of our lunches amongst each other - just like school children. It was a lot of fun and the food was delicious. It took an hour to drive up the crowded streets to Sachsyhuama (pronounced as "Sexy Woman") the site of the big ceremony. Local people were driving up the streets in dilapidated cars with 8 to 10 people per vehicle. The trucks were in just as bad a state. It was quite a site - very festive.

Around Sachsyhuama, the locals had taken over the countryside. They were having picnics and tailgate parties. In fields that had been recently been plowed, the people took the clods of earth and built little ovens in which they were cooking potatoes.

We had great reserved seats for the pageant. There was music and dancing throughout the incantations in the Quecha language. There was a reenactment of sacrificing a llama. It was so realistic that one of our group's men threw up when the heart was lifted to the Sun.

The show was spectacular and lasted at least 4 hours - there was never an opportunity to become bored. After the show I and some others decided to walk down to Cusco rather than take the one hour bus ride down. BIG MISTAKE.

Thousands of people were going down the hill and were being channeled into two narrow stairways. It was shoulder to shoulder, butt to butt mass of people. It reminded me a great deal of the time of the near panic that I had been involved in exiting the futbol stadium in Curitiba, Brasil. The situation was a disaster waiting to happen. You could hardly see your feet. We stuck together and kept telling each other where the steps were. By the time that we realized what we were into, it was too late to turn back. At one point, I took a small group of people off to the side to let some of the madness pass by. Twice we had to climb down a gully and cross a sewerage filled stream. Eventually we made it back - safe and sound (no man or woman left behind)

After freshening up, I had dinner and some drinks with Colin and Kirk - a great way to conclude a great day.

I wanted to see three events on this trip and all three ended up exceeding my expectations. I was now entering bonus time of my trip - on to Lake Titicaca

!