Inti Raymi

Hi everybody,

HAPPY NEW YEAR! No, I'm not going crazy, and yes I know what day it is. Today marks the New Year for the Inca and Quechua people, and they celebrate it with multiple parades and ceremonies honoring the Sun god "Inti." I woke up early in the morning to spend the next few hours waiting in the Plaza de Armas for the morning parade to begin, I should have known better, these people run on mountain time...which means they're only a hair better than Bengali time. Being in a Plaza filled with thousands of people all squished together was pretty crazy, I was in the front but the constant pushing, arguments over spots, and general chaos makes me think that the festival life might not be for me...at one point they had police with those clear barricades and special forces come in just to enforce crowd control when two people started arguing and literally the whole block of people (probably at least 300 people) decided to get involved!! Besides that hiccup the parade ran smoothly, we saw old dances from the region, men came to sweep the streets with huge eucalyptus branches while the women followed throwing flower petals before the Inca (Pachacuti) arrived standing on a dais carried by at least 50 men. The Inca gave a speech to the people of Cusco (all in Quechua, the local indigenous language, of course), and the first ceremony ended. I would also like to point out the irony of hosting a parade for the Sun god in the Plaza de Armas. Why? Because the Plaza was built by the Spaniards when they conquered the area, and with the Spaniards came Catholicism. Now, over time the different sects of the religion built their own churches and cathedrals all within the plaza and each one trying to outdo the other with bigger and better things. So, now you have three churches all within a block of each other, and two of those buildings are towering to assert the dominance of Catholicism, and yet all of Cusco (and I literally mean all) was gathered in the Plaza for a pagan festival. Those Spaniards are probably rolling in their graves right now hahaha. 

Anyways moving on, there was a break between the two ceremonies so we went to get "paltas," which essentially is avocado toast and guess what? It only costs A DOLLAR. In LA people pay $15 for the exact same thing...having cheap access to avocado toast anytime I want just might sway me to live in these mountains forever. 

The second ceremony was the offering ceremony to the Sun god. There whole production had more than 500 people! It was held inside actual Incan Ruins which definitely helped to set the stage and make you feel as though you really were in the 1400's. There were dances from the West, North, South, and Jungle regions of Peru which was very interesting to compare. The West dances reminded me a lot of the Gujarati folk dances, from the basic structure of the costumes to the way they used the scarves and twirled. The Inca offered, chicha morada, fire, and a llama to Inti. Oh yeah, you heard me right, I think the llama was my karma for joking about offering myself as a sacrifice. They had all these life llamas off to the side to choose from for the sacrifice. Shout out to my Uncle Dolan for traumatizing me with that goat he told me choose at the farm, only to have it served for dinner rather than brought home as a pet. Well Uncle Ron definitely capitalized on this story and between him and Danilo I was convinced they really were going to kill a llama in front of all these people! Now, they say that it was all fake and they had a fake dead llama hiding behind the live ones but I had my ears and eyes closed for a good 20 minutes so I can't really vouch one way or another....let's just say we can add llama to the list of meats I refuse to touch. Especially because when I did look up to see if the coast was clear they held this bloody heart (which Danilo later said was just a prop but I don't believe anything he says anymore) up to throw into the fire for the oracle guy to read the flames and smoke to interpret the message from Inti about the coming year. Yup...this part of the ceremony is going to be compartmentalized in one of those let's never think about it again corners of my brain...hope you had a good laugh Uncle Ron! Remember, I know where you sleep...

I'm happy to report that the rest of the ceremony was much more lively and the finale was spectacular. It was a football field sized stage and the dancers did an incredible job of filling the space and moving about the field, they made it feel as if a football field was too small a stage! That's no small feat for a dancer. Overall the festival was a total cultural immersion and I almost loved every second of it. I noticed some foreigners in the morning parade, and apparently they do allow tourists who come early and practice with everyone to participate, so who knows, maybe I'll come back and actually be in the production next time! How cool would that be?!

Okay, off to bed for the sacred valley tomorrow! I also will fill you in on the night parade (that is still going on as I write this at 11:30pm) tomorrow. 

Love you lots,

Aisha