On Sunday I made the trek out to the Qoyllur Riti (Snow Star) festival. This is the largest festival in Peru and one of the largest pilgrimages in the Americas. It takes place on Ausangate, the tallest mountain in southern Peru. The festival is a blend of Catholic and Andean rituals. Tradition has it that a baby Christ appeared to a young Andean boy named Marianito Mayta. When the boy's parents noticed the boys dressed in fine clothing they notified the local priest Pedro de Landa. When the priest tried to capture the baby Christ, the baby Christ disappeared leaving behind a stone. Marianito Mayta died instantly, and the image of the Lord of Qoyllur Rit'i appeared on the stone. This festival is a celebration of the Lord of Qoyllur Rit'i and also a celebration of the Apu's (Mountain Spirits).
Our trek began with a 6 hour bus ride into the mountains. The road was very bumpy and by the end we were all covered in dust. Many of the roads that wound through the mountains were only wide enough for 1 car and had drop offs of several hundred feet with no guard rail. It was a bit frightening a times. We arrived at a little town which would serve as base camp. Here we unloaded the van, loaded up the horses with gear and began a 6 mile hike up into the mountains to the main festival site. Our camp was located about 15,000 feet about sea level on the side of a glacier. Being up this high, the sun will cook you in about 20 minutes if you don't use sunscreen. The temperature during the day was a balmy 70 degrees, but as soon as the sun went down the temperature plummeted. By 7pm it was about 20 degrees and a few hours later it went down to about 10 degrees. In a few hours I went from a tee shirt and cargo pants to 5 pairs of socks, wool thermal long johns, fleece pajama pants two pairs of cargo pants, a long sleeve spandex undershirt, long sleeve wool thermal, 3 tee shirts, a sweat shirt, ski jacket, scarf, gloves, and a hat (I was still cold!!). The dancers and musicians usually don't sleep at all during the festival. I managed to sleep both nights, but it was the most miserable sleep I have ever experienced.
The first night, out group went to bed around 9:30pm. We had been up since about 5 and were all exhausted. I fell asleep and woke up after what felt like a long restful sleep. It had to be about 5am I thought. Wrong, it was 1:30. Damn... how the hell am I going to fall back asleep? I managed to fall back asleep, but was awakened every half hour by dynamite blasts a few hundred yards from the tent, or from various bands marching past my tent (I think we must have been parked on a major parade route). Despite the shitty sleep, the worst part was my cheap ass sleeping bag. I borrowed it from a friend. It was so small that I couldn't move inside it (I'm glad I'm not claustrophobic), and it was so thin that both mornings around 4 am I awoke to find the inside of my sleeping bag was covered in condensation. That sucked.
The festival itself was awesome. There were about 30,000 people there (I only saw a handful of tourists, a nice contrast from Cusco!) There were all sorts of beautiful costumes and music and dancing around the clock. There is a church up on the hill. This is where most of the music and dancing takes place. Usually, there would be 3 different groups performing at the same time all next to one another. You could literally turn around and and be immersed in a different performance. The competing music all blended together surprisingly well. During the dances the men begin to whip each other on the legs. This can get pretty fierce, and many dancers end up with calf muscles split open as a result. This brings us to the Ukuku's.
The Ukuku's are the guardians of the festival. When the dancers are getting too carried away, they will jump in and break them up. They are also in charge of keeping the peace. This is the only festival in Peru where alcohol is strictly prohibited. If you are caught drinking or intoxicated, they have the authority to take you aside and whip you. The Ukuku's caught one man stealing. They took him up to the top of the glacier, stripped him naked, whipped the shit out of him, and then made him carry a huge block of ice down the mountain on his naked back. he was almost dead by the time he got back down (this all happened at night!!). So the moral of the story is never mess with an Ukuku!
The dancers must also climb to the top of the glacier and bring down a big chunk of ice. Once they are down the men must douse themselves with the melted ice water while the women must keep the block of ice between their thighs for 15 minutes. This is a required initiation if a person desires to dance.
On Tuesday (the last day of the festival) a group of local men, or queros, begin to ascend to the summit of Ausangate (about 21,000 feet above sea level) in order to bring back huge blocks of ice. This ice is symbolic of the irrigation of their land with holy water from Ausangate. The mountain of Ausangate is considered extremely sacred and the queros are the only people allowed up above the snow line.
On Tuesday we made our way back to Cusco, extremely tired but glad to have experienced this gem of Peruvian culture. I awoke Wednesday with a fever and an inability to eat anything but fruit, so I just loafed around all day took care of myself. I made fresh juice out of papaya, orange, lime and yogurt last night and that seemed to have some magical curative effect. As soon as I finished drinking it my fever went away and I felt 1000% better. Strange.
If you would like to see more pictures from the festival click this link:
Qoyllur Riti Pictures
Click on slideshow for the best view!
