Wandering around Cusco and Chinchero

On Saturday I walked to the Feria de Huancara (Huancara Fair) not knowing exactly what it was but my teacher said it was interesting and non-touristy.  Turns out it is the local State Fair.  The two most popular meats in Peru are beef and lamb, so I was not surprised to see cows and lambs in the animal exhibit.  It was the first time, however, that I have ever watched llama and alpaca judging.

The next most popular meat in Peru is guinea pig.  They look really cute in the exhibit area - like rabbits without ears.  They look a little less cute on the plate.

Unlike the California State Fair, the food is not all fried.  It is far more likely to be grilled.

Also, as you can see in the llama judging pictures, Coca Cola is a sponsor of the Feria.  But Peru is one of the few countries in the world where Coke is not the leading soft drink seller.  The top seller in Peru is Inka Cola, which for some reason is bright yellow.  The color has turned me off from trying it.  It is a little hard to tell in this picture but the bottles of yellow liquid in the third cabinet are Inka Cola.

Other sights in Cusco on the walk home from the Feria ... old guys playing four on four futbol on concrete - referee and all.  The next team is warming up.

There are openings in the Peru-German preschool.

Most of the sellers in the markets are women and many have babies with them. This little girl is sitting safely in a cardboard box.

On Friday, another student and I had returned to Sacsaywaman, the Inca ruins on top of the hill where the Inti Raymi Festival had been held.  This time we were able to take a tour without the crowds.  The Inca ruins continue to amaze, but one thing left me shaking my head.  According to our guide, the Cristo Blanco was a gift to the city of Cusco from Christian Palestinian refuges after the war in 1945.  I corrected him; there weren't refuges until 1948.  I confused him but he said the refuges came in 1945.  I went home and did what I do every time I don't understand something I saw:  I googled it.  Damned if Google doesn't agree with the guide.  Go figure.



On Sunday I returned to Chinchero, the first place I visited in the Sacred Valley, although Chinchero is not really in the Sacred Valley but on the way.  At an elevation of 12,000 feet, it is the highest point I have visited.  Chinchero is known for its native weavers.  On Sunday it has an artisanal and local market.  I took the collectivo to Chinchero like the locals do.  The vans won't leave until every seat is taken, but the price is only a dollar or two.

 After wandering through the market, I walked up the hill (stopping every fifty feet to breathe) to the Inca ruins on the top.  It was a beautiful day and I decided to sit in the grassy area and read.  But I saw one of the strangest sights I have ever seen.  Spread all over the grass were small ... potatoes.  Some were gathered into piles and the woman with the teal shirt is stomping them with her feet.  I asked her what she was doing and - maybe there is something wrong with my Spanish - but I thought she said she was mashing the potatoes to make ice cream tonight.  I cannot think of anything less appetizing than potato ice cream.  I must have heard wrong.  Although I was sitting more than fifty feet from her, I could smell the mashed potatoes.

It is really hard to see landscapes in pictures, but this was my view over the fields on the right to the snow capped mountains in the distance.

I watched another demonstration of dying and weaving in a woman's collective.  The woman on the right has a baby on her back and that is a little girl in the middle helping.

From my viewpoint at the Inca ruins, I could see the entire town and saw that there was a football game going on in the stadium.  So I walked over to watch the Sunday afternoon entertainment.  On a small field outside the main stadium the old guys were playing - eight on eight this time.  They were really bad and the crowd kept laughing every time one of them fell down.

Then I watched the main event in the stadium along with most of the town.  That is barbed wire on the fence between the stands and the field.  I didn't think the boys (or young men) played very well and thought my Encina boys could beat them.  Then I realized that at 12,000 feet, none of my boys would be running or breathing after five minutes.

Walking back around the old guys' field, I saw something else I had never seen before.  Is it a foul if one of the pigs takes out a player?

Back to Cuzco in the collectivo where I had sushi for dinner.  You can pretty much find anything in Cusco.

Inti Raymi Parte Dos

Inti Raymi, the Festival of the Sun, has been going on nonstop since I got here.  When I would go to the square in the morning, there would be a parade of dancers.  I would leave for hours and come back and there were more groups dancing and marching.  I have been told that there are over 1200 groups of dancers and I believe it.  Apparently every school and government department participates.  If they don't dance, they simply march.  My favorite was the department of engineering.  They wore suits and hardhats.  I was also told that costume rental shops make all of their money in the month of June.

 

 

 

The Inti Raymi festival lasts for ten days and there were always thousands of people in the street watching the parades.  I asked my teacher how there could be so many people there and she said: oh, no one really works in June.

The final day is June 24 which is a national holiday and everything is closed.  There is a cast of over 800 actors who perform the various Inca roles as well as dance.  It starts at 9 in the morning at the Inca temple of Coricancha.  Of course the Spanish built a church on the ruins.  I was told to be at Coricancha at 8 if I wanted to see but I didn't listen.  I got there after 9 and there were rows of people ten deep all around the plaza.  I could barely see anything.

Coricancha

 Then the parade moved to the main square.  I got there nearly and hour before the Incas got there and had to stand in my spot or I would lose it.  By the time the parade arrived, it was ten deep behind me and I couldn't leave if I wanted to.  When the parade finished in the main square, it moved to the Sacsayhuaman, the large Inca ruins on the hills above Cusco.  The thousands of spectators walked up the hill.

 
The natives sat on the hillsides while the tourist bought outrageously expensive tickets to the main event in a grassy area the size of a football field.  At the far end of the Inca ruin is, of course, el Cristo Blanco, the White Christ which overlooks the city and is visible every night.

Then the costumed characters marched in while the religious leaders chanted and symbolically sacrificed a goat's heart.  After two hours of chanting and dancing, there was a final procession as the Inca waved to the crowds.  And apparently there is a Mrs. Inca as well.

 

I do have to say that this was pretty spectacular although I have seen enough Inca dancing to drums and recorders to last me for quite a while.  And now that things have quieted down in Cusco, I can walk around and visit some of the sites.

Inti Raymi

I arrived in Cusco yesterday in time for the biggest celebration of the year:  Inti Raymi.  Inti Raymi means Sun God in Quechua and this festival is held for ten days around the winter solstice, culminating on June 24, which I don't understand since the solstice is today.  In the afternoon yesterday there was parade of floats.  They seem to be made of paper mache and were ... weird.  Oh, well, I liked it better than all those Catholic parades of full of Jesus and Mary.  Apparently the theme was about protecting the environment, but a lot gets lost in translation.  I don't think I understand the Peruvian sense of humor.

The sign says:  Baby Einstein.  My mother ate iron (heavy metal?) when she was pregnant.
I don't get it.

A Monopoly board with the names of foreign companies that are doing business (and ruining the environment?) in Peru

  

After the parade, they set up a huge stage in front of the cathedral in the main square and had a sound and light show:  a big concert followed by fireworks.  I think everyone in Cusco was in the main square.

When I got to the square this morning, there was another big parade but it was already too packed to sit in the front section near the VIP seats.  There were bleachers set up on the side of the square.  I figured the marchers had to go somewhere - they couldn't be like the band in Animal House - so I sat down on the highest bleacher.  Perfect seat.  Men in suits were marching together and ended right in front of me where they took group pictures on their iphones.  Turns out they were alumni classes from various high schools.  I guess this is their homecoming week.

Then it turns out I was wrong:  it was like Animal House.  Bands and groups of dancers started coming from the other direction toward a marching army platoon.  I was curious to see who would win.  Well, I guess if the Incas can change the direction of a river, which like the Chicagoans they have done, changing the direction of a parade is easy.  There were dozens and dozens of dance groups in colorful costumes accompanied by drums and recorders.  It went on for hours.  I left to take a two and a half hour walking tour and when I came back, they were still going.  And they didn't just march.  They stopped and danced on each side of the square, so again, my seat was perfect.  I was facing the sun, so my pictures aren't great.

The musicians resting after the parade

The walking tour I took was interesting mostly for the make-up of the group:  eleven Westerners and I was the only American.  Three young couples from Switzerland, Germany, and Lithuania, and solos from Canada, New Zealand, Australia, and Denmark.  We walked around the central area that I had already explored yesterday, but the guide was able to answer a lot of my questions.  Although even he could not make sense of the Baby Einstein float for me.  They have really different street food here, so I needed someone to tell me what it was.

Back to the Costco connection ... It's not perfect because there is no "t" in Cusco, but it is pronounced like coscoh and ... it means navel or center of the universe in Quechua.  The Inca symbol is a three tiered cross, so of course the Spaniards thought they were already Christian.


The cross does not, however, represent an ancient method of execution.  It represents the four corners of the Inca empire - north, east, south, and west, with Cusco in the middle as the navel of the world.  We all knew that Costco was the center of the universe.