Market Day

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Last night was bizarre! There's not much to do at night, so we went to bed early. At 11:00 we heard a marching band go past the hotel. It certainly seemed strange, but we went back to sleep. At 3:30 a.m. there were several cannon shots followed by church bells from the cathedral that was across the street from us. A few minutes later, there were more cannon shots and continuous church bells. After a few minutes of silence, just long enough to fall back asleep, it started again! Then there were gunshots followed by brass band music. Between those noises we began to hear organ music from the church. Finally, at 4:00, we got up, threw on some clothes (remember that it's cold at 10,000 feet elevation), and went out onto the balcony of our little hotel. There was a candlelight parade in the square directly in front of the hotel. There were lots of people, a small brass and percussion band, and 2 big parade float kind of things being carried by what appeared to be pall bearers. They were singing in their Quechua language. After prayer and some more singing, they began to parade around town some more. Every few minutes they would set off a bottle rocket. We went back to bed, but the noises continued until 6:00. We gave up and went out onto the street. The parade returned to the square and went through some kind of ceremony where the floats were carried into a cage made of sticks, then released and taken on to the church. Then we realized the cage was strung with firecrackers. They cleared the area, lit the cage, and it exploded with a deafening roar falling into a small pile of sticks. WOW! A local man who spoke a little English explained that it was the first day of a 16 day celebration for the Virgin del Carmen. What a weird way to celebrate a virgin. As the parade broke up, people began setting up for the big market that takes place on Sunday. It took 3 hours to set up, and was amazing. We shopped for some great handicrafts made by these Incan people and sold at ridiculously low prices. Alpaca is an important product of this area, so there were lots of knitted items. They are also famous for their bright weavings and silver jewelry. We loved it. In the afternoon we hired a really nice cab driver to take us through the Sacred Valley to another little town, Ollantaytambo. It's the last town on the road. We stayed at a hotel/bed and breakfast called El Albergue. It's right next to the train station where we're taking the train to Macchu Picchu tomorrow. We had dinner at the hotel tonight, and it was really pretty good. This was our first good meal in Peru. Len is covered with mosquito bites (we've been taking our malaria medicine), and Sally fell in the bathroom while trying to find the light switch. She has a bruised tailbone, but she'll survive. This is certainly not a place where you'd want to need an emergency room. Tomorrow--the trip of a lifetime--Macchu Picchu.

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