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!
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