Real Sun Worshipping

All the parades, and all the parties of the last week had been leading up to today, Inti Raymi. Inti Raymi is the ancient Incan celebration of the sun. It starts in the morning, with a ceremony at Q'orikancha, once the Incan capital before the Spaniards built a cathedral over it, then heads to the Plaza, before going up the hill to Saqsayhuaman. I met up with a few of my amigos, but we skipped the procession in order to get to Saqsayhuaman early. We needed to claim a spot on the hill opposite the ruins, since a ticket to get into the park and sit in the bleachers cost ninety dollars. Not ninety soles, ninety dollars. Things I would pay ninety dollars to see: (plane tickets to exotic locations not included) 1. Atlanta in a World Series clinching game. 2. An MLB All-Star game- good seats. 3. Possibly Madonna, depending on which tour we're talking about. That's it. So I was fine with pushing my way through the hordes of people to find a place to drop our blankets.

We managed to find a pretty good spot, with a decent view of what was happening. It was a gorgeous, sunny day, one that required lots of sunscreen. Appropriate, since we were there to worship the sun. Half the fun was sitting out in the sun, munching on our picnic lunches, and buying ice cream from the vendors. (I had an excellent lucuma popsicle. Mmmm.) By the time the Inca warriors filed in, the place was packed. The ceremony was in Quechua, the Incan language. I tried to follow along in the English guide I bought, that included the entire script in English. It was pretty difficult, though, since an entire paragraph in English is apparently only a few words in Quechua. Due to a small tree blocking my view, I occasionally stood up to take a picture or two (as did my companeros). This caused a few people behind me to throw rocks at me. Don't worry, the Peruvians seriously throw like girls, (and I don't, so if I wanted to, I could have taught them a lesson, but I didn't, of course.) I was unharmed.

The highlight of the whole event was when a group of Peruvians decided the empty hill across from us was too empty and broke through the yellow PELIGRO tape and stormed the hill. Then everyone between hills who couldn't see a darn thing decided to do the same. It was far too many people for the police to do anything about, so they didn't. The highlight of the whole event was supposed to be the llama sacrifice, made to the sun. Up until very recently, they actually sacrificed a real live llama, right there in front of everyone. Then PETA, everyone's favorite animal rights group (insert sarcastic face emoticon) showed up and changed all that, so we got a fake sacrifice. I'm sorry if you are a card-toting member of PETA, but they are my least favorite charitable group. Yes, animals have rights, but mankind has survived all this time by eating them. Besides, it's not everyday you get to see a ritual sacrifice, and now I've missed my chance. Le sigh.