Paucar III

with the Virgen Camuchita safe and sound now at home, the goodbye party begins: collas, negros, wacas, panaderos, maqtas (aaa the maqtas) all running and joking around, showing their love and devotion on a 4 hr display

but in the midst of the celebration, a drunken colla makes a pass at a Chuncho lady and the fight begins: chuncho against colla, colla against chuncho, demons picking up the dead, doctorcitos trying to alliviate the problem and maqtas making things worse...

a guerrilla war that will end up with the death of the Colla Caporal, the return of the Chuncho Lady and Collas and Demons now in the avern together enjoying some chicha :)

a very special way to end a special celebration....


till next one Paucartambo...

Paucar II

y la programación lee:
romería al cementerio general y visita a los que se nos adelantaron en el camino...
bello..
y a las 9 asi es, una ceremoniosa muestra de respeto de cada una de las danzas a los ya idos de la cuadrilla

mas al mediodía esto es una fiesta general: bombos, platillos y trompetas son incapaces todos unidos de opacar las risas y el conversar de los invitados, de aquella multitud ahí presente: el cementerio se vuelve el punto de reunión para generaciones de Paucartambinos, danzantes, amigos y visitantes todos, todos ahi alrededor de un par de chelitas, un chichita, una bandita, o dos, una llamita borracha...

respeto no sé, pero amor, definitivamente.....

3 cruces revisited

Paucar I

 3 years later and little has changed.
 El fervor y la piedad siempre presentes, aun con los ciento y pico de turistas merodeando la ciudad con sus US1500 cámaras....


Collas still coming down from the Altiplano (Puno) to pay homage to the virgen...
Maqtas still raising havoc everywhere they go...

Chunchos walking kms after kms and traversing  the jungle just to see the "woman" they fell in love with...

 The wacas and their bull, happy as always...

the Danzaqs trying to enchant more young ladies, older ladies, widowers, teenagers etc etc ;)

and the always present demonios, here to revere Camuchita, to give her their love, just to see her even if from the distance....

Tres Cruces

I have heard many stories about Tres Cruces, some of them almost unreal, so I´ll tell you what I saw...
Remember when the people in the dark ages thought about the world being flat and ending in an abism? well, thats what I saw in Tres Cruces, the end of the land and in front of me just clouds, some as big as highways, some as shaped as godesses bodies, all of them forming a white tablecloth over the rainforest laying below, and at 0600 all different colors start coming up in the air laying ahead, first a striped baby blue and black heaven, then a yellowish square and then finally the Sun, majestic as ever, doing little jumps up and down to let us know He´s happy we´re there. Shapes of red dance dress the clouds and as the wind separates them the deep green of the rainforest starts to be seen...

The Sun is high now, but the awe is still here, rendering us speechless and stuck to our places, it´ll be a few minutes till the first person decides to make a single movement, a single sound. Nobody wants to be brought back to reality, not yet, just not yet...

Festival de Paucartambo a la Mamacha Carmen

And you know how much I love festivals!!!
There is no Paucartambinos left in Paucartambo, everybody pretty much emigrated in the 50's looking for a better life but every year they return home to see their land, their people and most importantly Mamacha Carmen.
Legend tells of the mix up of face masks: the one coming to Paucartambo from Rome went to Puno and the one going to Puno came to Paucartambo and was received by the Chunchos and later taken away from them by the priests. The Chunchos love that shiny mask without knowing why and to this day they dont care if she's the Virgin or not, they just know she's a good lady and that's why they protect her with their lifes when people from Puno (los Collas)come to take her to her rightfull place.



Parades, food, fireworks, even a war to defend the Mamacha took place here for 4 days, 4 days to remember and to hope to come back, just like the Paucartambinos do every year. Maybe they've noticed they had the "better life" right here...