Tuesday.
Today is Inti Raymi! Yesterday we went to the store and bought goods to make a packed lunch, including Bimbo bread, peanut butter (straight from Iowa), and mango marmalade. The little baby peanut butter cost a whopping s/16 ($5.63)!
Inti Raymi. This is the Incan festival of the Sun Gods. The Incan beliefs are still very important to Peruvians today, and you see a very creative blending of Incan and Catholic religion in all cities and towns. The parade starting Inti Raymi consists of 600 people, all with blood lines from the 14 different Incan regions. Inti Raymi is the fiesta of the winter solstice and re-enacts the traditional Incan festival of the sun. Jill and I got to La Plaza de Armas about 2 hours before the procession got there.
The performance was long, almost 1½ hours long. People dressed in all different kinds of clothing, dancing all different types of dances, all around the square. The Moon Goddess came in, carried by about 12 men, with very long black hair. The Sun God, the Incan warrior, was big and strong. Bigger by far than most Peruvians I had seen. When he appeared, carried by about 30 men, the crowd erupted in applause. The whole performance was beautifully choreographed and presented.
Jill and I ate Jello/custard from a tall Dixie cup, purchased from a street vendor for s/.50 ($0.18). We were getting braver with our street vendor experiences.
After the performance, the crowd rushed to follow the performers. The performers took buses up to Sacsayhuamán while thousand made their way up the steep vertical path to the ruins. The climb was tough and hot. I could feel the burn in my muscles and sweat dripping off me onto the dusty dirt path. The sun was hot, and at this altitude, the sun was close. We were at 11,000 feet in Cusco.
Sacsayhuamán (pronounced Saqsaywaman – or Sexywoman!) is a walled fortress outside the city of Cusco, constructed by many thousands of men. The Incan emperor, Pachacútec, began construction in the mid 15th century. Massive blocks of limestone and other types of stone were brought from as far as 20 miles away. Garcilaso de la Vega (the famous Spanish soldier and poet) wrote:
"This fortress surpasses the constructions known as the seven wonders of the world. For in the case of a long broad wall like that of Babylon, or the colossus of Rhodes, or the pyramids of Egypt, or the other monuments, one can see clearly how they were executed. They did it by summoning an immense body of workers and accumulating more and more material day by day and year by year. They overcame all difficulties by employing human effort over a long period. But it is indeed beyond the power of imagination to understand now these Indians, unacquainted with devices, engines, and implements, could have cut, dressed, raised, and lowered great rocks, more like lumps of hills than building stones, and set them so exactly in their places. For this reason, and because the Indians were so familiar with demons, the work is attributed to enchantment."
As thousands of people flooded up to Sacsayhuamán, street vendors sold goods all along the way.
Peruvians carried 2 liter sized bottles of soda with them. Vendors sold qui – guinea pig – whole and roasted (I admit, we weren’t not THAT adventurous with the street vendors. Mostly because Jill is vegetarian and I didn’t quite feel like embarking on that voyage solo). There were Cusco security, Cusco police, and national police patrolling all areas, one of the first times I’d seen Peruvians concerned with safety.
To see the reenactment at Sacsayhuamán of the two llama sacrifices up close, seats cost $90. They used to actually sacrifice two llamas, but they don’t do so anymore. They must want to appear animal friendly (I wonder what the roasted guinea pigs on the side of the dusty road have to say about that!). So Jill and I took a place on the hillside with most of the other Peruvians and tourists. We ate our peanut butter and jam sandwiches while Peruvians around us ate their boiled potatoes, meat, salads, and pasta served from cookware, by using silverware, forks, spoons, and knives, along with practically the rest of their kitchens. Vendors sold little kids toys and noise makers. It reminded me a lot of the 4th of July at Fort Vancouver - everyone all excited anticipating the big event!
Several areas on the steep hillsides were blocked off by caution tape, but every once in a while a few people would escape past the tape. The crowds of people would cheer and applaud! And all the police would run around trying to catch the escapees, weaving between the ruins and the cliff-like rocks. Finally, a large group of people broke through, which started a stampede of people rushing the hillside, trying to jostle for a prime spot on the cliff rocks to see the reenactment of the llama sacrifice. The scene looked like it could be pulled right out of a horror movie, right before people start pushing and shoving and the bravest start getting knocked off the cliff ten at a time. Hundreds and hundreds of people slammed into each other. People were even running with their llamas! Odds are that eventually people would start falling off the cliff side. But alas, no, nobody fell. Thank goodness…
From the cheap seats (meaning free on the hillside) we couldn’t really see or hear any of the reenactment. It didn’t really help that it was all in Quechua either. We did, however, see a “mami” take her son over to a dirt hill to take a shit. I shit you not. After the little guy was all done, she pulled his pants right up and they went on their merry way!
Although we didn’t see all of Sacsayhuamán, we did see the slides – big stones with deep smooth grooves kids use to slide to the bottom.
Having had enough of the heat and sun, we made our way back to town. Back at the hostel, we realized we had been burnt by that close sun, despite re-applying sunscreen two or three times.
We assumed there would be more partying and beer drinking and meat on a stick after the celebration, but if there was, we weren’t invited. The square that was so lively the night before had again turned back into a quiet, peaceful square. No meat on a stick tonight. We settled for a little café in Plaza de Regocijo, where we had pasta (I had a nice dish of pasta carbonara) and a glass of red wine for s/15 ($5). Since no fiesta was to be found, after dinner, we went to bed.
