I had big plans when I left the house Thursday morning.  My Spanish class had been moved to 11:30 thus I had an extra hour and a half in the morning to do some touring or just wander around a bit.  I decided to use that time to visit the Museum of Pre-Columbian Art.  My travel book highly recommended it and I had also heard good things from others.  The advice I had gotten, however, was that it would take a couple of hours to see the whole museum so I figured if I got there early, when they opened, I could get through the whole museum at a leisurely pace and still make it to Spanish.  Crossing the Plaza des Armes on my way to the museum I heard music but could not identify the source.  Thinking it was most likely a loud radio coming from one of the many vendors around the plaza I stayed focussed on my destination.

The plaza with the festival for the Day of the Comadre. There were bands stationed at each end.

As I climbed the small hill, along the narrow street leading away from the plaza towards the museum I ran across another, smaller plaza which had an awning erected in it and there I found the source of the music.  I stopped to investigate and discovered that not only did the plaza contain one band, but two, one at each end of the small square.  Being curious I stopped to watch.  It seemed that either one band or the other were constantly playing and occasionally both played simultaneously.  Near each band were rows of white plastic chairs upon which sat many different people, some with pictures of religious icons around their necks.  The other thing of note was that they were drinking beer, even though it was still early in the day, about 9:00am.  Once the band would start playing the people would get up to dance.  When one band quit the action would switch to the other end of the plaza and the group at that end would become active.

I took a seat and watched for about an hour.  (The museum was going to have to wait for another day.)  It seemed to be some kind of religious event.  At one point two couples approached each other and seemed to do a symbolic hand off of some kind which involved a traditional alpaca blanket for the women and large, shaped pieces of bread for the men.  Once the handover was complete everyone was putting confetti in each others hair and many pictures were taken with the recipients of the objects.  I had no idea what was going on but it was clearly a joyous occasion for all involved.  Music, food, beer, dancing…it is amazing how much we humans have in common the world over.

Festival crowd at 9:00am

One of the bands.

I learned later in Spanish class, after questioning my teacher about what I saw, that Thursday was the festival of the “comadre” and he told us the history of the day.  You can click on the following link to get a bit of a description of the story.

http://www.cuzcoeats.com/2011/03/cabbage-leaf-dolls-rain-carnival-cuzco/

Cusco has an amazingly rich history and if I ever conquer Spanish enough I will read it in its native language.  There is a story for every street and a legend behind every festival- absolutely amazing!

Part of the ceremony involved putting confetti in everyone's hair.

As it turns out the Day of the Comadre is at the very beginning of the celebration of Carnival which ends on Fat Tuesday (as we know it in the US).  This weekend, on the Plaza des Armes, will be the major festivities and we are planning on going and experiencing this amazing event.  The tradition here in Cusco is that the children have water fights and we have already seen many boys walking around with water balloons (I have even had one thrown at me, but thankfully, it did not break).  The girls have water pistols and the boys and girls are, throughout the week, constantly shooting water at each other (and anyone else who happens to get in the way).  Apparently some kind of foam, such as silly string, and some kind of powder are also in the mix of things that get thrown on you when you attend Carnival.  We were warned to wear old clothes if we go to the Plaza because no one is safe.

Thursday was also Mikhail’s last day so as the custom dictates he picked out a place for dinner and our whole house, which at the moment  is only about seven people, went to the Indian restaurant he chose.  The restaurant, which is near the Plaza des Armes, has a buffet for only S/15 (15 Soles, which is about $5US).  The food was good, but not quite the same as the Indian food that I have had in the US (or in India, for that matter).  While there were vegetarian, and even vegan, dishes, it was a bit more heavy on meat than I would have expected and not quite as spicy as the Indian I have had in other places.  But it was good and we had a nice time.

Friday passed quickly and in keeping with the tradition we had established last week we had “pisco sour” Friday and just sat and relaxed at the end of a busy week.  Cusco is a lively place at night with both tourists and locals out enjoying the evening (when it is not raining heavily).  We were lucky in that the heavier rain for the day had passed by earlier.  As we were walking home after our drinks and passing through the Plaza we passed a large group of young people participating in what looked like a dress rehearsal from some of the Carnival festivities.  It will be exciting to see the final product on Sunday when the main celebration will take place.

Saturday turned out to be a rest day as I sprained my foot enough in the morning that I decided to stay off of it for the rest of the day.  The original plans for the day called for a hike in the surrounding  hills so I was very disappointed. I had also hoped to walk down to the Plaza and see how the preparations for the Carnival were coming along but I guess it was not meant to be.  Since so much of our life here is based on walking I felt it prudent to take it easy. I also have the Inca trail in a month and need to be full up for that!!!!!

PS:  For those of you following the pastry of the day I picked up an apple pastry on Friday on my way to Spanish class.  It was not too sweet, actually a little tart and very juicy.  Interestingly enough it had what looked like shredded apple in it.  I liked it but it was hard to eat!

Pastry of the day: Apple