Recovering after Inti Raymi - by Ann Marie

Looking around the Peruvian city of Cusco today (where we have our office) you wouldn’t know that if you had been on tour here less than a month ago you could barely move through the central streets. For days on end the main square, the Plaza de Armas, was crowded out, and I mean solid, with locals and tourists from around the world, drawn to the centre of town to join in the celebrations. What was once banned by the Catholic Church as a pagan ritual is now one of the largest festival in South America – Inti Raymi, the celebration of the winter solstice and the beginning of a new year.

The actual day of Inti Raymi falls on 24th June. Since the festival celebrates the winter solstice it should vary by a day or two, but it doesn´t and the centre of Cusco is packed out for days before and after anyway. Huge models of the various saints are carried round and round the Plaza de Armas from morning til night, preceded and followed by marching bands, groups of folk dancers who never seem to run out of energy, and vast numbers of spectators, both local and foreign.You can tell who has never been on holiday here before and who makes a point of going every year.

The locals watch the proceedings with eagle-eyed concentration – you just know they are marking everyone out of ten on their performance. The newbies have their cameras glued to their faces, or have forgotten them entirely and are watching the whole thing with the same look of wonder as a five year old might regard the unopened presents on Christmas morning.The week culminates in a lavish performance at Sacsayhuaman, the Inca-built fortress which broods on the hill above its protégé, the city of Cusco, Peru.

The original ceremony involved the sacrifice of a white llama, but this is now rather frowned upon, so they act it out instead. From a distance you probably wouldn’t know the difference, apart from the lack of blood spatter blown on the wind. In Inca times the pattern of the aforementioned blood spatter was closely scrutinized by the priests in order to foretell what lay in the Inca’s future over the coming year. Sadly you can’t do this with fake blood, so everyone just hopes for the best.

Get out here for next year maybe and experince it for yourself, but if you do decide to come to Cusco at Inti Raymi make your arrangements with us a while in advance, it will be packed.