We didn't really know what the festival of Inti Raymi (The Incan god was Inti), was going to include. For the last two days there has been a nearly perpetual parade around the main square, the Plaza de Armas. Different companies, government agencies, clubs, small towns, etc (basically any group of more than four people) participated. Most of the groups had a dance routine as they went around the square, though some just walked. All wore colorful native festive garb. Most of the time each group would have a few members with instruments (flutes and drums) who would play the same song as everyone else. Sometimes they dressed like cowboys, sometimes like Incans. One group we saw dressed up as monkeys. Our favorite though, were the multiple groups who dressed like cowboys and did a drunken stumble dance while they pretended to chug beer and then offer the bottle to a friend.
Today, we got to the plaza expecting more of the same, but that was not the case. The streets were empty. We asked some other gringoes what was going to happen and they didn't know. Whatever was going to happen, the police had cordoned off the inside of the plaza for it. At about ten or eleven, we figured out it was to be the ancient Incan ritual for the holiday when an Incan high priest led a procession of four Incan conch players to the middle of the square. Then came a band of flute players and drummers. Next came four groups of warriors. The two bookend groups (one wearing orange robes, the other grey) carried shields and weapons which I can only describe as flat stones on two foot sticks. The two middle groups carried shields and one had stone hatchets while the other had pikes with stone blades. Behind them came the Inca's (Inca was actually only the name of the king...calling them Incas is like calling all UKers Windsors) concubines and the virgins of the sun, who were all carrying bowls with food in them, which I supposed were to represent the bounty of the empire. The queen was brought out on a silver litter and she wore silver (Silver represents the moon, which is considered the bride of the Sun).
The last group before the Inca came out was a small group of what I can only describe as jungle indians, because they wore thongish garb with shell flaps covering the bits (the women wore shell bikini tops, the men wore cross leather straps). The lead indian held a python out before her. The women wore feather headdresses that looked like a peacock's splayed tail.
Finally, the Inca was brought out in his golden litter being hoisted by about twenty men. He had the most ornate robe, which had gold woven into it, and carried his great scepter, which was topped by a golden axe blade and corn husk. As he dismounted, all of the participants bowed and the other priest followed him as he walked up to the center of the plaza; a lackey held the train of his robe.
As for the ceremony, the Inca stood silently, arms out, basking in the sun for a time and then he delivered his speech in Quecha, the still- used Incan language. The jungle indians then did a highly erotic dance (how did the women not pop out of those outfits shaking like that?) that centered around the python, and, when they had finished, runners brought out colored beads to present to the Inca, which, since the Incas didn't have writing, functioned as the record of the produce of the Empire (I think).
The ceremony finished with the Inca speaking some more and then getting back on his litter. The participants rearranged themselves into a procession and made their way out of the plaza. The spectators poured into the plaza so that they could get as close to the Inca as possible.
At that point, Andrew and I headed up to Sacsayhuayman (Pronounced "sexy woman"), the site of Incan ruins just above the city, where we were told that they were going to sacrifice a llama. Suffice it to say that with entertainment like that, Sacsayhuayman was packed. Andrew and I found very uncomfortable "seats" on the side of a hill where we could see most of the platform where the sacrifice was to take place. We baked in the sun while the Peruvians blew their one o' clock start time. Finally, the Incan procession made it to their positions and the ceremony started. Without going into the nitnoid details, I'll simply condense it enough to say that they all got in their positions, the Inca spoke A LOT, they set fire to some bales of hay, the llama was finally hoisted up onto the altar an hour into the ceremony, a priest stabbed it and then cut out its heart and presented it for everyone to see, and Andrew and I got the hell out of there since that was what we'd waited two hours for.
As far as holidays go, it was pretty entertaining.
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