Dias 7 y 8

Yesterday (07.15.10) we left for Paucartambo at 8:30 AM. Paucartambo is a small pueblo in the mountains inhabited mostly by Quechuas, only about 70 miles North East of Cusco. Every year in Paucartambo they celebrate the Fiesta de la Virgen del Carmen, which lasts for a week and involves elaborate costumes, dancing, and a lot of drinking. Because the town is so remote and located in the middle of the Andes, it normally takes about four hours to get there.

As we drove out of Cusco, the scenary from the bus window morphed from a bustling town to secluded mountain landscapes.



I only realized in the above picture that there was a huge fire in the middle of my shot when I uploaded my photos to my computer.



We found out shortly after we left that the road we intended to take to Paucartambo was closed, because part of the mountain fell and blocked the road. Instead, we would take a different route that would take six hours instead of four. While we were driving, we passed over the river and through the towns of San Salvador and Pisco.



We kept moving forward until we stopped in another smaller town:



so people could use the facilities. I use this term loosely, because the facilities were really a small hole in the ground in a shed. Still, the view was impressive, so we took some pictures and then went on our way.



The journey was essentially driving up and over a couple:



monstrous mountains. We finally descended into a valley and over:



the river into the town of Paucartambo.



We drove and found:



Hostal, our hostal. It turns out it had an actual name, but we didn't know what it was until we had already left Paucartambo.

After we got settled in our rooms, we headed toward La Plaza de Armas (yes, there is one in Paucartambo, too) where the dancing had already commenced.



During the festival, there are fifteen different dances that procede through the town. The dancers are selected by the families that organize each dance. There were tons of different dancers wearing terrifying masks and hitting people with bags and sticks and fake blood. Different dances had different costumes and different meanings. They headed in a procession from the Plaza toward:



the church.

On one of the balconies:



these dudes, more formally known as Qollas, were waiting above the crowd, spilling beer over everyone's heads and sticking their tongues out. They also gave that alpaca with them a lot of beer.



We followed the procession of the Qhapac Negro inside the church, before heading back out to the plaza and towards Hostal.

We headed back to Hostal for dinner, and then went back out into the Plaza for more dancing and copious drinking. We went to one of the houses of the dancers where the dancers from the dance of the abogados (lawyers), who dance with gavels and books. They performed their dance for us, and let us dance with them all night. My roommate and I got to dance with the head honcho of the lawyers during their performance. Everyone was very jovial and very drunk, and we all had a fantastic night in Paucartambo. When they finished their dance, the lawyers headed back to dance more in the Plaza, and we went back to Hostal for an hour before we headed to:



Tres Cruces.

At Tres Cruces, the Andes meet the Amazon. This is a mountain where many people have come to watch the sunrise for years. We left for Tres Cruces at 1:30 AM and arrived at 3:30 AM. Then, we waited in the bus until 5:30 AM for the sun to rise and shine.



















Once the sun came up, we went back to our bus, which was stuck in the mud and had to be pushed out. Then we left Tres Cruces, got back to Hostal around 8:30 AM and had breakfast. We had the option to go back to la Plaza for more dancing and puree of frog, but instead I went to sleep until 12:30 PM, when I got up for lunch. Soon after, we packed up and left Paucartambo and took the four hour journey home through mountains with roads like Mario Kart tracks. Some of the roads were so narrow that if a car came in our opposite direction, we would have to reverse to find a space big enough to pass each other.

Please notice that in this picture:



the edge of the road is that bit of gravel in the bottom left corner. The only thing beyond that is your impending doom. I was still pretty impressed that our large tour bus could make the sharp turns and big inclines. It's also really amazing to think the people that live in the mountains along these roads stay in the mountains for their wholes lives.



We got back to Cusco around 6:30 PM. The whole two days were absolutely amazing, and our group really bonded. Tomorrow at 8:45 AM we're leaving for a tour of the city, and then Sunday we're going on another adventure.

Next time, I'll make sure my camera battery is charged enough so I won't have to limit how many pictures I take.

More entries to come,

Victoria