Cusco Day and Inti Raymi

This past week, Cusco has been humming! June 23rd was Cusco Day and the 24th was the Inti Raymi festival. Even the week+ leading up to these holidays has been a flurry of activity. There have been parades and traditional dance competitions almost everyday. The parade on Cusco Day lasted from 10am until about midnight.

Inti Raymi is the second biggest festival in Latin America -second only to Carnival in Rio de Janiero. It is an old Quechuan (Inca) celebration of the equinox. Hundreds of thousands of tourists descend on Cusco from all over Peru and the world. The ceremonies start at the sun temple in Cusco which also has a cathedral perched on top by the Spanish colonials. The prosession them moves to the Plaza de Armas (main square) in Cusco which is where Josh and I waited a few hours so we could have a good view. Many dancers, male and female, dressed in traditional costumes, danced and sang around the square. Some were carrying offerings of corn, potatoes and coca leaves, some incan deities and others carried mummies of former incas. Eventually the man acting as the king (the inca) was carried into the square on a large throne. He was preceded by men sweeping the way with bundles of hay and women dropping flower petals. The Inca made a speech in the Quechua language and then eventually the whole procession left and headed towards Sacsayhuaman (pronounced sexy woman) which are incan ruins up on a hill in Cusco. The crowd followed. Thousands and thousands of people (including Josh and I) then watched another ceremony for their sun god. It was very interesting but not easy to follow since it was in Quechua and because of the huge crowds. They also had a mock llama sacrifice. Apparently, they used to kill the llama in a very slow and brutal way, so they don't do it for real anymore.

The whole week has been very interesting and we have culture pouring out of our ears! Tomorrow we head out on a 5 day hike around the highest mountain in southern Peru, Ausangate, so it will be a nice change.

Photos at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=53235&l=1411f&id=553935978
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=52920&l=8fddb&id=553935978
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=54567&l=6f37f&id=553935978

for those not on facebook.