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Incas believed that pretty much every natural phenomena had a god associated with it. The rainbow, lightning, sun, moon & surrounding mountains had gods. When the Spanish came to Peru they were not very comfortable with pagan beliefs & replaced everything with catholic images.
Today the mountain behind Walters house no longer has an
Apu (a mountain god) but has a chapel & a cross. Today was the day when the crosses were taken back to their chapels & Walter was the custodian of the cross this year & was holding a fiesta at his house to which all those doing the Inca project were invited. Most of the volunteers had gone to Machu Picchu for a few days which left just Geoff & I waiting at the bridge for the bus. We had gone to see if Abi was around but after the builders had let us into her house & we had called SeƱorita a few times in her courtyard with no response we set off alone. We knew Walter lived in Yucay but he hadn't actually given us his address so the first thing we needed to do was find his house. We stopped the bus when we
Our Cross
The Chapel is on top of the mountain behind. saw the Yucay town sign & walked back up the road to a house which had flags outside that we thought was an ideal place to have a fiesta. I asked the kid outside if he knew where the house of Walter Duran was. This wasn't it, I think it was the kids birthday party but luckily he knew that Walter lived at the other end of town near the Plaza de Armas. We set off in search of the Plaza. The Plaza de Armas in most Peruvian towns is the centre where everything happens, it is usually paved & will have a fountain, ancient tree or something else in the middle. This was not the case in Yucay. Yucay's Plaza was now a grassy field & there were two of them we found out having walked around them several times reading Yucays description in Geoff's guide book. We now had to find the Casa de Walter. One house had music playing & we gingerly stepped through the double doors to see if anyone was around & Geoff spotted Walter. We went into the courtyard where a shrine was surrounding the cross with huge lit candles in front of it.
Rachel explained that the cross had been here for a few days & that the night before had been a huge party for the cross. We were soon drinking beer & eating food that kept coming out of the kitchen while listening to music on a serious sound system that was to used later in the evening.
The plan for the day was to have lunch at Walters, then around 2pm carry the cross across the river & up to the chapel on top of the mountain. Having seen the ridiculously large mountain with the chapel on it Geoff decided he wasn't well enough to climb it & headed back to Pisac, leaving me drinking more beer & alcoholic chicha waiting to set off. At around 3pm I changed into clothes suitable for wading across a river & a band turned up to accompany the cross. Fireworks were let off outside the house & Walter carried the cross up the road to the church. The cross itself was plain green & seemed to be constructed from railway sleepers, this made it very heavy alone but on top of it were thick satin tapistries weighing it down further. It was only
a short walk to church but it must have been exhausting in the hot sun. At the church other crosses from other mountains had gathered & then everyone processed back down the road. Some of the other crosses were set in bases & carried by four or more people. They were decorated with gold & silver & had such items as pineapples, potatoes, bags of coca leaves & bread attached to them. Further down the street everyone stopped & each cross in turn came out, was walked in a circle with bowing at certain points. Some women came rushing out to kiss the cross under the tapestries & others were crying in the audience. We then continued on as passerbys through sweets & confetti over the cross. The road ended & we walked across a ploughed field to the river, we had to fight our way through people who had collected on the banks to see mad people wading across the river. Our strategy was that Rachel would take my dry bag & I had her rucksack as I could hold it higher above the water & then Walter, Rachel & I would hold hands as we crossed the river.
The Urubamba river is a fast flowing river that passes Machu Picchu & finally ends up as part of the Amazon. The bit we were crossing was only waist deep but the uneven, slippery stones & fast flow in the middle made the task difficult. At one point I lost my footing & got my arm wet but luckily didn't end up falling over. It was about a quarter to five when we got to the other side of the river & we still had to climb the mountain. Those with the cross went ahead & we remarkably speedy given the steep slope & poorly defined dusty track. Having just recovered from a bout of Peruvian sickness & drunk nothing but alcoholic drinks all afternoon, climbing the mountain was very hard going & I gave up about 50m from the top as the light was fading & I still had to get back down the mountain. At the top fireworks were being let off & lots of beer was being drunk, I waited for someone to come down so that I could follow them & be extra careful at the points they slipped. Back down at the river night had fallen & we crossed back over to where the fiesta was starting. Each cross seemed to had a band associated with it & each were playing at the same time as the others. Walters family was one band & as they had the best sound system they dominated. More fireworks were let off & those still coming down the mountain had lit torches so that trails of light trickled down all around us. Having drunk the beer I didn't manage to carry to the top of the mountain & eaten fiesta food including some great fries dumplings it was time to catch the last bus home. I first had to pick up my stuff from Walters which I was told was open & there shouldn't be any problem as the guard dog had seen me earlier in the day. The door was locked when I got there & a door that I found open left me standing in the dark in a tool shed so back to the fiesta I went. I collected Carol, Walter's brother & managed to pick up my stuff. I caught the attention of the bus driver by waving frantically under a street lamp & travelled back to Pisac. There was no running water at home to wash my dirty, scratched feet & I had to make to with a bucket before going to bed.
Drink of the Day: Chicha (The fermented kind which involves chewing the corn first to start the fermentation process)
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