Another adventure....

From our vantage spot in La Plaza (well from the balcony of Norton´s bar), we noticed a number of tents and a huge crowd up on the hill above the plaza near San Christobel church. Just had to investigate..... I managed to talk Zac into taking Jill and I up the hill in a taxi to see what happening while Lex and Jeff remained in Nortons.

What an adventure.

We got up the hill to find a massive crowd of people gathered around a statue- looked like an Inca ruler, with other banners, statues and crowds up ahead. Close by the statue were numerous men clad in traditional costumes ... many of them drinking from 1.25L bottles of cervesa, carried in crates on ther backs by young women.

After we pushed our way past the group, we realised that the procession was getting ready to move on after their rest break. Forty or so men heaved the massive statue up into the air, and a similar group of boys heaved the wooden stand out from underneath it. What a sight ..... and quite a worrying one actually, because each group strained under the weight, staggered around the narrow road.... moved metres backwards, and sideways before being pushed back into the centre of the road by other groups.... and eventually moving forwards up the steep incline.

The crowd pushed forward to keep out of danger .... but we thought we might be better off to keep to the edge until it passed.... Then we took the stairs up to the next level.... trying to avoid the stream of liquid flowing down the steps (not water).

Up on the next level, the crowd was even greater - we could only manage to get a short way into the gathering. All the tents were food or drink tents and crowds of people were sitting around eating and drinking - often passing around and sharing the one bottle of beer and the one plastic cup. Trays of food included roast chickens and cuy (guinea pig).

We waited around until the statues, bands, and procession continued into the church before attempting to fight our way back through the crowd, down the hill again, leaving the locals to their merry-making. It was a privilege to be there to see just a small part of the event.