Weekend in Paucartambo

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I spent my first weekend in the small town of ´Paucartambo´at the ´fiesta de Carmen´, a traditional Peruvian festival. I went with Anna (the other TAPA volunteer staying at Lola´s) and Carmen (who acted as our guide, most useful!).

Paucartambo is a 3 hour minibus ride from Cuzco, (Cuzco itself is 2-3 hours drive from Ollantay), along a very dusty mountain dirt-track. It was pretty hairy looking out from inside the minibus, when bearly a meter to our left was a sheer drop!
The fiesta got underway on Saturday afternoon, when ´the Carmen´ (see pic) was brought out from the church, (accompanied by a band, military presence and the carnival of elaborately-dressed locals), to begin it´s day-long tour of the town. I was really impressed by the effort that had clearly gone into preparing the event, especially the costumes.

The streets were packed with people, but I saw surprisingly few other gringos or tourists. There was much dancing in the streets throughout the day and well into the evening. The dances were inspired by everything from the fever of malaria sufferers, to the antics of the Spanish and Chileans. On top of this there were various groups of costume-clan Peruvians running around the place, various brass bands and plenty of street-sellers/stalls.
We spent most of the day watching the dances and exploring the town. One of the later dances seemed to consist mostly of dressed-up Peruvians lashing each other´s feet with whips! I´m sure no one was hurt. When the dancing moved into a sort of village hall, it became very akin to ´English Morris dancing´. Most of the singing was in ´Quechua´ the Andean language.

At midnight we took a minibus to ´tres cruses´ a further two hours towards the Jungle, where the Andes meets the Amazon. I was pretty shattered and slept though it all, apparently... At 4 am, we left the comfort of the minibus to sit outside and await the sunrise. Despite the freezing cold, the sunrise was well worth it, and probably the most spectacular I´ve seen. Unfortunately we couldn´t see the jungle basin bellow, as there was a thick mist, but it was still an awesome sight!

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Photos

´The Carmen´
The Carmen being brought out from the Church.

Comments

[Mum]

Buenas Dias!
Looks brilliant Tom! Love your Peruvian hat...plaits suit you!The pictures are very good quality. Looking forward to seeing more. x

[Dad]

Yo Dom, Looks fun fun fun... Very bleary eyed !! So where are the shots of the misty sunrise??

[RENATO]

PERU
NICE PICTURES IM PERUVIAN MYSELF BUT IVE NEVER BEEN 2 DOES WONDERFUL PLACES

[sara]

good job
cool pics im from cusco and let me tell you after i saw your pictures you made back to the time when i was enjoying that