Video Blog: Inti Raymi -- Cusco, Peru
Friday, July 2, 2010 at 3:15PM Inti Raymi is the traditional Incan festival of the sun. It coincides with the winter solstice, and is an invitation for the sun to come back and play. The official Festival day is on June 24th, but in Cusco, the celebration lasts most of June. Cusco's Inti Raymi is the second largest festival in South America. Hundreds of thousands of people come from all over the world to join the party. On the actual day of Inti Raymi the population of this city explodes, the main square becomes a madhouse, and the beer flows like wine. Every car becomes a taxi, with a homemade cardboard sign propped in the window, and every able-bodied child becomes a vendor, selling foldable straw hats, homemade chicha morada (purple corn juice) in plastic baggies, on-the-spot shoe-shines, watercolor postcards, bracelets, cheap sunglasses, and gigantic kernels of sweetened puffed corn scooped from massive bags.
We weren't in town for Inti Raymi day. We headed up to Puno and Lake Titicaca to escape the crowds. The parade you see here was a few days before, when everyone was gearing up, and the town was nearing full swing. It features students at the university. Each different school has their own banner, their own costumes, and their own dances. Except the future lawyers, they're very dignified. But hey - check out the dental students! Those guys know how to party!!
Bob & Brenna Redpath | 4 Comments | Email Article | Stumble, Digg, etc. | in Peru, Video | tagged Cusco, Cuzco, Inca, Incan, Inti Raymi, Parade, Winter Solstice
Reader Comments (4)
The costumes are to die for, wonderful, vibrant colors. It figures that the four of you would land in the country during the biggest parties on the ;planet.
I think you should load up on Alpaca sweaters, bring them back to the US and sell them. You could pay for your trip to Peru and then some. Just remember, your dear ol mom had the idea so she gets a discount.
All love...........
Incredibly sharp video. Tell Netflix how you did it.
Irvin
Lama LOVES the video .. excellent celebration of life.
Lama likes the way the dental students Get Down .. but think he'd rather have the Law Students fix his teeth!
GG,
...Lama...
I took a moment to check out some of your old clips - Ella dancing home from the ballet, first snow...
What a rich and amazing life. And not because you sold all your worldly belongings and went to have these moments in far off and exotic places. Ella dancing home from the ballet can be just as magical in Los Angeles as Stuttgart; the magic is what Ella brings to it. Perhaps this will help:
I went to an amazing educational training thingy recently and this poem came out of it:
Alone beneath the tree I pause, I wait
Expectantly, I am hoping to hear
I know not what awaits beyond the gate,
I cannot enter; still I can draw near.
A tiny flower, exquisite in form
Commands as much attention as the sun.
The smallest grass, departing from the norm
Between the concrete stones decides to run.
The noise I hear is not outside my head,
A tune I recognize has come to me:
The Drummer Boy, but it is June instead,
So listen. Where can the equation be?
The tiny softest answer comes to say,
"What you have is sufficient to the day."
Aloha,
Nicole.