Inti Raymi (y todavia en Cusco....)

La buena noticia es que esta funcionando la camioneta. Nos parece que mas que nada sufre de la altura, como su duenio (lastima que no hacen gasolina con hojas de coca…). La mala noticia es que las carreteras siguen bloqueadas por tiempo indefinido. Mas de cinco mil campesinos estaban reunidos en Sicuani, y le tiraron rocas al primer ministro cuando fue hablar ayer. No van a aflojar hasta que el gobierno cancele los planes para construir un hidroelectrica y como tambien privatizar el agua. Muy bien por ellos, pero ahora tendremos que dar toda la vuelta…Lo mejor de estar en Cusco por tanto tiempo ha sido la gente que hemos encontrado y pasamos muy bien en su compania; comiendo y charlando. Tambien fuimos a ver las celebraciones de Inti Raymi, el festival del sol. Al principio pensamos que iba a ser una onda de “indios” vistiendose con colores y baliando para los turistas, y aunque fue un poco asi, la mayorica de la gente que viene son cusquenios y otros peruanos, y lo toman este dia muy en serio. Es una mescla fascinante entre teatro de la calle como tambien un ritual tradicional. Despues de abrir en el Templo del Sol en Cusco, la procesion siguio a la Plaza de Armas, donde estabamos tomando un café con un monton de otros turistas y peruanos en el balcon de un restaurant. Por suerte, habia una mujer que hablaba Quechua sentada al lado nuestro, y ella nos tradujo toda la ceremonia. Aparentemente, esta parte en la plaza se trata de predicciones de asuntos politicos y sociales para todo el anio. A parte de regalar una quipo, unas "escrituras" con nudos con el reporte economica del anio pasado, al alcade de Cusco (y pedirle que proteja a la ciudad y su gente) el gran Inca dio a conocer muchas predicciones para el anio entrante, y (no hay que ser muy adivino que digamos) no fueron para nada positivas. Despues, se fueron todos en procesion hacia Saqsaywaman, caminando arriba del cerro, para hacer la parte de predicciones agricolas. Esta parte incluye el sacrificio de una llama para leer de sus entranias. Mateo estaba muy ansioso para ver esta parte, pero por suerte estabamos medios lejos y no lo pudimos ver con lujo de detalle. Ahora estamos preparandonos para salir de nuevo, de la misma forma que llegamos aquí, via Nazca y al sur – esperamos poder ir por Moquegua a la frontera con Bolivia, en vez de tener que bajar hasta Chile. Vamos a ver que pasa. Ojala que la proxima vez que podamos realizar el blog sea en Bolivia, o si no en el norte de Argentina (nos han dicho que alli hay Wi-fi en todas las estaciones de servicio! Que nivel!).
Okay, okay, so…The good news is that the westy is running fine (like its owner, it suffers from altitude sickness: too bad they don’t make coca gasoline!). The bad news is that the roads are still closed indefinitely from here to Puno. The Prime Minister was in Sicuani, where the heaviest blocks are, to talk with delegates yesterday, and about five thousand campesinos drove him out with stones – he had to be evacuated by helicopter! They were very adamant about the government canceling plans to build a hydroelectric plant there and privatizing the water, and will not stop until they succeed. Good on them! We, however, will have to drive around somehow. The best part about being stranded in Cusco has been the good friends we have met in the meantime (plus I also managed to get a bit of work done, and the kids have gotten into making movies again!) We have shared many communal meals and conversation with our fellow travelers, and watched the Inti Raymi celebrations together. At first we were a bit skeptical, thinking that it was just a matter of the “natives” dressing up in colourful costumes to entertain the tourists with their quaint and archaic rituals. While there is a certain element of truth in this, the vast majority of people at the celebration were Cusquenos and other Peruvians (although probably mostly the more well-off ones), and they take this day very seriously. It is a strange and compelling mixture of street theatre and traditional ritual. After the opening ceremony at the Inca Temple of the Sun, the first part of the celebrations took place in the Plaza de Armas, where we were sitting on the balcony of a restaurant having breakfast with other gawking tourists. We were lucky enough to have a Quechua speaking woman sitting close to us, so she translated the whole thing into Spanish at it was occurring. Apparently this part in the Plaza is the part that deals with social and political events in the coming year, and the Inca seer/wiseman gave all kinds of predictions. They were pretty grim, unfortunately. Interestingly, the mayor of Cusco was involved in the ritual, charged with protecting the city and given a quipo, last year's economic report in strings and knots. After the colourful dancing and music, the procession moved up to the ruins of Saqsaywaman, and everyone followed along en mass. Luckily, our camping spot is right there, so all we had to do was climb a small fence and a hill, and we had a great view from above. This is the part where they deal with the agricultural predictions for the year, which includes sacrificing a llama and reading the entrails. Mateo was pretty excited about this part, although we were too far away to actually see much (luckily). Now we are getting geared up for our long detour, back to Nazca and down past Arequipa to Moqeugua, where hopefully we can get up to the border with Bolivia without having to go to Chile first. Hopefully, the next post will be from Bolivia (or maybe even Argentina – we hear there is free WIf-fi in all of the service stations there!)