Festivals in Cusco: Part 1- Winter Solstice at Tres Cruces

The Festivals….

During the month of June, there were parades or festivals going on almost every day.  There was hardly a moment when walking through the city when I didn’t see a bunch of parade floats lined up or people marching through the streets or music echoing off the mountain walls.  One week in particular there was something happening every day, the last full week in June.  That week I celebrated the Winter Solstice at Tres Cruces, Cusco Day in the Plaza de Armas, and Inti Raymi at Sacsayhuaman. 

Winter Solstice at Tres Cruces…

The Winter Solstice was the weekend before Cusco Day and Inti Raymi.  I remember this so clearly, my assistant manger invited myself and another volunteer to join him and a couple friends to camp at Tres Cruces to watch the Winter Solstice.  I was a little unsure about this, mainly because I really didn’t have the correct equipment to go camping.  Poor packing on my part, another lesson I learned a little too late.  After some convincing and custody of proper equipment, I gave in and participated in this adventure.  Now to get to Tres Cruces, which sits on top of the Andes Mountains, was a little scary.

The Ride to Tres Cruces...

We started on a bus, not some luxurious tour bus; oh no this was a simple public transit bus.  We were packed in like sardines with people in every seat and crowded in the aisle.  Typically this wouldn’t have been a big deal to me, but there were chickens on board which left a stench in your nose that made your eyes water.  There were five of us in our group and we were able to score a couple seats so we rotated sitting and standing the whole way.  The bus takes you through the outskirts of Cusco, other small towns surrounding Cusco, and across a river until we were face to face with our next obstacle…the mountains.  This was by far the most frightening thing I have experienced to this day, and I’ve even been skydiving & para-sailing.  As the bus got further up the mountain the road became smaller and smaller, how two vehicles fit side by side was beyond me.  The whole ride as I was looking out the window and seeing only the bottom of the mountain I kept picturing the bus going off the edge and well you know the rest. 

We started this journey in the morning and about an hour before we made it to the finally stop for the bus it was night time.  Yea it was a long day but it wasn’t over yet.  Remember me saying how I kept picturing the bus going off the edge?  Well with a half hour left on our ride, the bus blew a tire.. fabulous!  Waiting for the driver to change the tire most of the passengers were debating getting off and walking to the town.  We heard three different lengths of time it would take to get there on foot, “It’s only a half hour walk”, “I’m not getting off it’s a 3 hour walk”, and “An hour walk doesn’t sound so bad.”  That was enough for us to decide to tough it out and just stay on the bus. 

The tire was fixed a half hour later and then another half hour we were at the finally stop.  Thank goodness because we were all starving and needed a beer to celebrate surviving that ride.  I cannot remember the name of the town, I’m pretty sure I asked but immediately forgot the moment I heard the name.  This is the same town we stopped at to catch the next bus to Cusco.  There was more to this town than we saw the night before.  Having a couple hours to explore before we headed back to Cusco, we walked through the shops, hung out at a restaurant to watch the soccer game and grab breakfast, which was delicious.  As we walked along the river we saw a family washing their clothes and this little boy was so animated.  Once he saw us with our cameras he took that as his opportunity to pose for us.

The Journey to Tres Cruces continues…

 From this town to Tres Cruces you need to take a van, those sit about nine people including the driver, 10 if you absolutely needed.  This was another hour to hour and a half ride.  It was pitch black out so if we were on the edge of the mountain close to near death, I didn’t notice. 

FINALLY! We made it to Tres Cruces and let me tell you there was a lot going on.  The five of us practically being the only tourists out there definitely stuck out.  Everyone kept pointing at us saying, “GREENGO, GREENGO!”  It was a nice change to see more Peruvians than tourists; it meant that some celebrations can be kept untainted from westernization.  Assembling tents in the dark is no easy matter, especially when you wake up in the morning to find you tent is about ten to fifteen feet from a nice steep slope.  None the less we bundled up in hats, scarves, gloves, sweaters, pants, and shoes to crawl into our sleeping bags for three hours of freezing our noses off sleep.  The party around us just went on, not many slept because it would start around 3:30am.  We are up and have everything packed by 3:30am, which was perfect because we found a great spot to watch the Solstice. 

It begins…

These pictures were taken over a few hours.  It was breathtaking, I can’t remember if there was any commotion happening around me.  The only thing I remember hearing were the animals waking up with the sun as everyone gazed as the beautiful landscape became visible.  And once the sun was up it was remarkable to see how many people came to witness this treasured experience.  

 

Thank you for reading! Safe Travels!

 Get out and explore the world, you might be surprised with what you find!

New Life, New City

My New Home…..

As I walked out of the airport, I was greeted with tons of people calling for loved ones that have returned home from other travels.  I, on the other hand was being welcomed by a stranger whom I only communicated with through Facebook and only seen pictures. My assistant manager is tall with brown hair and from England.  I figured how difficult will it be to pick out a tall, brown hair, white English guy in the middle of a crowd of Peruvians.  Most of the Peruvians there were about my height, and I am only about 5’ 4”, so of course he should stick out, right?  Wrong, I probably looked around for about 15 minutes till I spotted a tall white man with brown hair looking right at me.  Bingo, this must be him.  We introduced ourselves and started making our way to find a cab.

               

*Here is a little tip for anyone who’s traveling to Cusco.  Hail a taxi outside of the airport parking lot not one within.  The taxis within the airport charge an additional fee just for leaving the airport parking lot.

My new home was in the San Blas neighborhood located higher up the mountain from the center of Cusco and is considered a pedestrian neighborhood.  There is a certain point where the roads stop and turn into sidewalks.  We were dropped off in the center and had to make our climb up, I swear, a hundred stairs or more just to get to my house.  (This is where the backpack would have been a better choice over a suitcase.) We made it to the top of the stairs, but we weren’t done with the stairs just yet.  After being let in to the house, I find my room was on the top floor.  The view, however, made all that climbing worth it.  My adventurous side smiled as if to say “I told you it would be worth it, and this is just the first day.  It can only get better.”

The House…

The Blue House was made up of four open levels with 7 bedrooms, two public bathrooms, one public shower, a kitchen, a TV room, and a dining room.  Now about three of those bedrooms had private bathrooms with a shower, mine was one of those.  Sounds pretty sweet right?  Until I found out that my bathroom was out of order and remained out of order during my whole stay.  Oh well, I still had a great view, a decent size bedroom and breakfast provided every morning. 

 Figuring out the shower schedule wasn’t as difficult as it would seem.  We all had different work schedules and different times of the day we showered.  You weren’t always guaranteed a hot shower but at least you were able to shower.  There was a trick to finding out if it was going to be hot or cold.  After turning the shower on run back outside to the water heater.  If there was a flame it was going to be warm if there was no flame than it was cold.  Other than the conditions of the water temperature some of the perks of the house were the two balconies with sitting areas and free Wi-Fi throughout the house.  The balcony quickly became my favorite spot to sit and read or just sit to look over the beautiful city.

South American Explorers…

SAE was down the hill from my house, which meant I had to walk up and down those monstrous stairs every day.  SAE was easy to miss considering the wall separating SAE from the street didn’t bare any signs that said “South American Explorers” other than a fly hanging on the wooden door.  The only indication was the butterflies that were painted on the wall leading to this door.  The SAE logo contains a butterfly with South American on the left wing and a pattern on the right wing. 

Then after using the intercom to request entrance, you walk in to see a beautiful garden on the left side and apartments on the right.  Passed the apartments was the little courtyard with chairs circled around a fire pit, a shaded sitting area, and a grill made out of bricks.  The clubhouse is one the second floor.  Inside to the right there are books of all kinds, DVDs to rent, couches, maps, a couple computers, and a small kitchen. To the left is for employees only, this is where I spent most of my days.  My position with SAE was Social Event and Marketing Coordinator.  My duties were to plan weekly events, create the flyers, and post the flyers around Cusco.   Events consisted of, weekly Pub Quizzes, a charity Pub Crawl, documentary showings, BBQs, holiday celebrations, bonfires, and grill outs for soccer games.  There were other miscellaneous duties I did but there is no need to discuss the details.

My New City…

The first couple weeks I walked around posting flyers I was a little nervous about getting lost in all the alleys and streets of Cusco.  But eventually I came to know the streets and short cuts through town as if I were home in St. Cloud.  The clearer Cusco got the more blurry St. Cloud became.  Then parts of home started disappearing from my mind, as though to make room for the cities and places in Peru I would soon visit.  I felt like a local all of a sudden, like I had been there most of my life instead of just a month.  People selling things on the streets I walked every day had stopped trying to sell jewelry, paintings, or postcards to me.  Even children carrying goats or walking llamas stopped asking if I would like a picture with them.  I had met so many people from all over the world and experienced so much in only a month’s time.  I smiled to myself thinking that my adventurous side was only half right.  Yes this was going to be a long walk but it was not a lonely one. 

Thank you for reading!! Next week: Festivals, Music, and Colors.. Oh my! Happy Travels!!