Puno - Festival Virgen de la Candelaria

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Heading up the long hill to Puno, Peru

After a fairly short and beautiful 6 hour bus ride from Arequipa, we arrived in Puno (elevation approx. 12,500 ft) and found a nice place to stay, the Hotel de Los Pinos. We sure do feel the affects of the altitude, but are managing quite well. Those few days in Arequipa did us right in the acclimatization factor, as well as the Diamox and tons of water. Still, those flights of stairs are challenging for us lowlanders.

We arrived Puno at the perfect time, late after noon on Saturday admist the Festival Virgen de la Candelaria, which lasted essentially all night as far as we can tell. This was an unexpected treat and made our decision to skip the the Colca Canyon seem not so bad after all. As soon as we dropped our bags, we hit the streets to take in the festivities.

Basically, there were contingents from all over Peru and Bolivia - clubs representing different regions and towns parading up and down any street that was available. As you´ll see in the pictures there was many different takes on the main theme. Each contingent had traditionally dressed dancers, marching bands and other colorful costumed dancers. We must have seen at least 50 or more different clubs being represented on the streets of Puno. There were also lots of kids and families out and about. Many of the kids had something similar to "silly string", but was more like a spray soapy foam substance. Dave became a favored target of many young girls (we never quite figured out why...whether as the tallest guy around he was an easy target, or if they just *liked* him...ha ha)

The pictures describe the scene better than words, but it was quite exhilerating to see the different groups and of course the other normal activities of nightlife around the town square...

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Photos

Band Members of All Ages
There were bands from all over the region, and of every age group. ALL playing the same song over and over and over and....

Alpaca Kebabs
...with an apple and red wine sauce. They were really good!

Dave and the Still Life Guy
This guy was very nice to Dave after we put money in for a photo. But then he shot him with his little golden machine gun.

Meat on the Street
This time was beef on a stick and the hot sauce to go with it was to die for! Dave ate it too!

Comments

[Nick]

foaming deserved
Dave needs to get foamed more often.