Festival of Carmen

The 15th of July was one of the main days of a festival I really wanted to attend called the Fiesta de la Virgen del Carmen. This festival takes place every year in a town a few hours away from Cusco called Paucartambo. I had arranged the day before with a tour agency to go to the celebrations, which included transport, a guide, and a boxed lunch. It was soon after finishing the Inca Trail… but I wanted to go!

On the afternoon of the 15th I caught a taxi to the Plaza where I met up with my agent. Since I had been running a little late, we caught a taxi to where the bus was waiting. I got comfy with my blanket and huge boxed lunch (it had fried chicken, sandwiches, and loads of candies and fruit) and we were off. There was a bathroom stop, and another stop to see the ruins of Ninamarka or the “fire village.” This Pre-Incan site contained nearly 30 chullpas, or burial huts. The numerous circular huts are now empty, but used to contain corpses placed in the fetal position, along with the corpses’ possessions. Each chullpa has a large opening, typically facing the rising sun. We had a few minutes to explore the site before getting back in the bus and continuing on to Paucartambo.

We arrived at Paucartambo, a beautiful colonial city with adobe buildings and old ruins, in the evening – it was already dark but I managed to get some photos of the infamous bridge Carlos III over the river Mapacho. Our guide explained that this bridge was named for the King of Spain and we were led into the center of the city. I explored the city looking at the market, some shops, the church, and the main square. I managed to negotiate (and strong-arm) my way up onto the balcony of the city hall building for an excellent vantage point for photos over the festivities. There was a television crew up there as well and at one point the crew tried to interview me for Peruvian TV but this did not go very well because of my minimal knowledge of Spanish. 

A band was playing music and dancers in strange costumes representing the the Qhapac Qollas, the Chujchu, and the Maqtas running over bonfires and dancing in the streets. Some of the dancers had costumes representing the devil and devilish animals. My favorite part of the evening were the numerous and unique firework displays. There were giant bamboo firework ‘stands’ which had multiple sections of fireworks, lit one after another. There were also huge sparklers the dancers would run around the square. Some of the sparklers would have ‘tips’ that would fly off of the end of the sparklers into the sky.

While the fireworks were fantastic, it was quite nerve-wracking to have them set off so close to us. Sparks from the fireworks were reaching up to the balcony and people on the ground were being covered in sparks. Even huge fireworks (the kind you see far up in the sky) were being let off right in the middle of the square where everyone was gathered. No one seemed to be hurt though so I guess that is pretty lucky!

Our group was supposed to meet back at the bus at 12:30 AM to leave for a viewpoint called Tres Cruces on the south borders of the National Park of Manu. Before heading to see the sunrise I ventured down from the balcony to look at the dancing taking place outside of the church or the Temple of Paucartambo. Some of the attendants of the festival were dancing (in plain clothes) outside of the church, and more fireworks were let off. After watching for a bit I headed back to the bus, climbed inside, and fell asleep for the 2 hours it took us to drive to Tres Cruces.

The sunrise here was a great thing to witness, but extremely cold. I managed to buy myself a hot chocolate to warm up (and only to warm up as it was powdery and disgusting) before wrapping myself in my blanket and heading out for some photos of the sun and the mountains. We stayed at Tres Cruces until 6:30 AM in the morning, then headed back to Paucartambo for 8:00 AM. Once we were back in Paucartambo I returned up to the balcony (by now I was friends with the security guard and could weasel my way inside for the great view before the gate was locked) and started watching the second round of festivities.          

To explain the Fiesta de la Virgen del Carmen, I’ll quote a passage from Rough Guide’s website on the subject:

“It’s an essentially female festival: tradition has it that a wealthy young woman, who had been on her way to Paucartambo to trade a silver dish, found a beautiful (if body-less) head that spoke to her once she’d placed it on the dish. Arriving in the town, people gathered around her and witnessed rays of light shining from the head, and henceforth it was honored with prayer, incense and a wooden body for it to sit on.” (Roughguides.com)

Dancing in the Fiesta de la Virgen del Carmen are a collection of colorful, fascinating characters. I’ve included pictures of a variety of them below. The most common was the Qhapac Qolla, and some of the most interesting were the Qhapac Negro (African slave mine workers) and the Waca Waca (representing bullfighters.)   

After some dancing by these characters the Qhapac Qollas climbed up high on one of the bamboo stands with a load of simple, light goods. This next event was called the “fruit toss.” Plastic cups, plastic containers, little plastic seats, and some fruit were thrown down to the crowd by the Qhapac Qollas to music as the Qollas danced in a hilarious display. After this came the rest of the different dancers and the music continued. 

At one point I heard a bunch of noise to my left and looked over to see a llama being brought up to the center of the balcony. This llama was supposed to be sacrificed later in the day and (for a laugh I assume) the dancers decided to give the animal a chug of beer prior to the slaughter.

A couple hours later at 3:00 PM the main procession of the Virgen Carmen (the doll I saw the evening before in the church) started. The music and dancers came again, but this time they had Carmen (who represents Christianity as well as Pachamama) with them.

Since my tour (for some strange reason) decided to leave at 1:00 PM before the main procession, I ended up returning to Cusco on my own via a minibus I found off the plaza. It was faster (though I had to pay a few dollars) so I got to stay at the celebration nearly 3 hours longer and still arrive back to the apartment around 7:00 PM, when I originally thought I would be back. Yay! Then it was time to show Colin the photos of the dancers!

Francesca