Ollantaytambo, Festival of the Cross (Choquekillka) and the Sun TempleMay 24, 2010
|
|
Festival dancers in the morning at Sun Temple, Ollantaytambo
Sun Temple steps - what a climb
Choquekillka paraders back in the main square of Ollantaytambo
What a place - we arrived in Ollantaytambo around 4pm on the 23rd - coinciding with an annual Peruvian festival which started early Sunday morning and continued non-stop until 6am this morning 25 May. It´s been amazing and sleeping through explosions and 24 hour Andean musicians has been an (enjoyable) challenge. This afternoon Bob and I climbed the valley wall opposite the Sun Temple to another Inca Temple ruin and near their storehouses which look like a turretted castle wall. Then we revisited the Sun Temple and enjoyed some more training up to the top of the temple and above to head behind the fortress walls and see the Inca "farming calendar" laid out before us on the valley floor behind Ollantaytambo. The patchwork crops are planted in a pyramid shape catching the maximum reaches of the sun in both the summer and winter equinox.
PS - if you google Festival of the Cross or Choquekillka Ollantaytambo there may be some images and info to give you an idea of the insane and wonderful festivities that have been happening here.
