Archive for September, 2006
From September 22nd to 28th, New York’s Central Subway Station will be decorated with large full-colour billboards depicting Peru’s stunning Natural Parks and Reserves. It will be part of a project named Parks and Conservation Experience, an initiative by National Geographic.
In the image to the left, obviously one of the billboards, a Spectacled Bear (Tremarctos ornatus) climbs a tree in the Chaparrí Ecological Reserve, in Peru’s northern Lambayeque department (Foto: Heinz Plenge/ Promperu). The Spectacled Bear, also known as Andean Bear (and locally as ukuko, jukumari or ucumari), is the only species of bear native to South America.
It has black fur with a distinctive beige-coloured marking across its face and upper chest. They are found in several areas of northern and western South America, including western Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, western Bolivia, north-western Argentina, and southern Panama.
Spectacled bears are the only surviving species of bear native to South America, and the only surviving member of the subfamily Tremarctinae. Next to the Giant Panda, of which the spectacled bear is the closest relative, they are the most endangered species of bear in the world. Their survival has depended mostly on their ability to climb even the highest trees of the Andes and the Amazonian rainforests (Source:Wikipedia).
September 22nd, 2006
In 1998, La Noche had the bright idea to devote one night every week to jazz music. More than seven years have past by, and La Noche’s Jazz Mondays are an absolute Lima classic. The numerous audience includes not only long-time jazz aficionados, but also fresh youngsters at their first jazz discoveries.
Since 2000, La Noche has staged a yearly Jazz Festival, generally scheduled for every Monday night of September. This year, though, the Fifth Jazz Festival will run also in October. This edition of the festival is named “Jazz Festival with a Peruvian Flavour”: obviously, expect a fusion of jazz with Peruvian rhythms: Afro Peruvian, Tropical, and Andean.
Centro Cultural La Noche de Barranco (Bolognesi with Blvd. Sánchez Carrión, Barranco). For the festival’s schedule and ticket info, check La Noche ’s website.
September 19th, 2006
The first ever dog mummies have been exposed in El Algarrobal museum, in Peru’s southern department of Moquegua. The mummies, that date back to the 12th and 13th Centuries, belong to the pre-Columbian Chiribaya culture, whose people occupied an area that extended from the Ilo valley, in Peru’s south, to the northern Chilean valleys of Azapa and Lluta. The museum also features textiles and ceramics.
Some amazing photographs of the dog mummies are shown in the Italian newspaper La Repubblica.
The El Algarrobal district, eastwards from the department’s capital city Ilo, is a lush region, abundant with carob (algarrobo, in Spanish) forests, olive groves, and vineyards. The region is particularly renowned for its superb Pisco.
September 13th, 2006
The Warachicuy, an initiation ceremony that dates back to the Empire of the Incas, expresses the attitude and aptitude of Inca youth for holding leading positions in the Tawantinsuyo (the Empire). The traditional ceremony was held in a time when it was imperative for any empire to be supported by men well trained both physically and mentally.
Military success and social discipline where at the base of an empire that stretched from actual Ecuador to the north of Argentina, including most of Peru and large areas of Bolivia and Chile. Back then, Warachikuy was a sacred ritual, a compromise that men had to honour.
The modern ceremony, held every year the 3rd Sunday of September, is a representation of the traditional Warachikuy. Nevertheless, it’s and impressive display of folklore, music and organization that involves 1,500 artists, among dancers and musicians. This year, it’s scheduled for Sunday 17th September at 10am, in Cusco’s Sacsayhuamán explanade.
At the shout of “haylliy!”, victory in Quechua, more than one thousand warriors/performers, aligned just as the Inca army did, will charge towards the Sacsayhuamán fortress in a brave attempt to take it over. This is the beginning of the Warachicuy, the initiation ceremony that celebrated the passage towards adulthood of the Inca aristocracy. As in the old Inca times, the actual representation goes through the three phases of the ceremony: the Ritual stage, the competitive or warrior stage, and the festive or war dance stage.
During the Warachicuy ceremony, noble youngsters got their first Wara (breechcloth), which assured them the Inca citizenship and the eligibility for marriage and war. It wasn’t though an easy task: in order to succeed, they had to pass through severe athletic tests and sham battles. Indeed, not everybody participated: there was a tough previous selection on the base of health tests and physical capabilities. The ultimate goal of the ceremony was for the young to convince the great Inca that they qualified as public men and could become great warriors.
The rite is accompanied with Andean music and dances. On the stalls, many street vendors offer traditional food and drinks.
For more information regarding tickets and useful tips, check the website of Cusco’s Festivities Authority (currently only in Spanish)
September 9th, 2006
Since the 19th century, the Sanctuary of Huanca, located in the Pachatusán mountain, province of Calca, district of San Salvador (50km from Cusco city), is one of the most important destinations for pilgrims in South America. Every year on September 14, thousands of devotees, not only Peruvian but also Bolivian, Argentinean and Chilean, go to the Sanctuary of Huanca to receive the blessing of the Lord.
History tells that in 1675 God appeared to a humble miner named Diego Quispe, who was hiding in a cave after escaping from the Yasos mine, where he suffered slavery-like work conditions. The priests of Our Lady of Mercy in Cusco heard the occurrence, and sent an artist from the famous Cusco School to paint an image of the Lord at the site where he had appeared. The lord of Huanca was painted on a rock, around which the main altar was built.
Along the way to the sanctuary, nestled half way up the mountain, numerous vendors sell religious items and desires in miniature -toy houses, cars, trucks, legal papers-, for the devotees to place at the base of the Lord’s image. Alcoholic beverages are absent from the festivity, quite remarkable if we consider that alcohol plays an important role in most other Andean festivities, both pagan and religious. It is said that Lord of Huanca disapproves of all alcohol and has overturned trucks and buses carrying those who drink.
Like most pilgrimage sites in the central Andes, the Lord of Huanca is fused with the sacred, living power of the mountain, upon which he focuses his miraculous healing powers.
September 6th, 2006
