A moving experience!!!!

Senor de los Temblores (or Lord of the Earthquakes) is celebrated in Cusco on Monday before Easter.  We weren't going to miss this event, so we headed into the centre early, armed with sunscreen, hats, scarves and jackets - you can never be sure of the weather here.

Earthquakes are common in these areas, and people worship Senor de los Temblores because they believe he protects them from earthquakes.  During an earthquake in 1650, the statue of Christ was taken out of the church and the earthquake stopped immediately.  The statue of Christ has been blackened by smoke from candles over centuries.


The only thing we knew about the day's events was that the statue would be taken out of the Cathedral and paraded around nearby streets.  No idea of times so we made a full day of it - starting with breakfast at Jack's.  Delicious.  Then down to the plaza...

It was obviously a BIG event - TV crews were everywhere.  People were streaming in and out of the Cathedral.  We joined and went in - normally tourists are not permitted in during mass.

Outside the church, women were selling small red flowers.  Apparently these are often made into elaborate adornments for the cross and symbolise the blood of Christ.

No better place to view events in the plaza than from Norton's balcony, so we opted to secure prime position early - it was 11am after all.  From this position we watched as balconies around the plaza were decorated, mostly in red.  We were impressed by the skill of one such decorator working from a high ladder on a nearby balcony.  To move from one end of the balcony, he simply walked the ladder .... rather like a long pair of stilts.  Impressive - he simply moved down a couple of rungs - one leg either side, held on to the balcony and the legs of the ladder in and out, one after the other ... right, left, right, left....

People from all walks of life arrived, entered the church.  The army and police units set up a barrier near the cathedral.

I ventured down from the balcony to purchase some flowers .... and look around leaving Lex to secure our spot on the balcony

Lex is on the far right of balcony on the left.

Sometime shortly after 2pm, we heard music and a procession emerged from the church.  A smallish crowd had gathered, but by far the largest groups seemed to be involved in the procession - including several school groups.  I was a little disappointed to see the procession move along the street away from our position - figured we would just have to wait until it came around to us.

Interesting to me at this point was that the procession and the crowd seemed to move along the street together ... Clermont style.  Once along one side of the plaza, the procession turned a corner, disappearing still further from us.  Nothing to do but enjoy the warm sunshine (HOT), our balcony position and watch the gathering clouds and movement around the Cathedral.

The skies opened and it bucketed down, sending police and spectators scurrying for cover.  Poncho sellers made a fortune today.  BTW - the Spanish for umbrella is 'par agua'.  Seems such a strange word to me ... until it was pointed out that para-sol  is 'for sun' so par-agua - for water.  Makes sense now.

 

We had no idea where the procession was going - only that it would come back to the plaza and hopefully right past our vantage spot - afterall a special ramp had been erected further along, and we presumed that would be to get the statue back up onto the cathedral area.  Balcony was quite dry, although the temperature had dropped significantly - time for jumpers and jackets.  We'd be fine - we planned to stay till the end.  

The rain continued, although somewhat lighter than earlier. Thunder and lightning echoed around the hills. Undeterred by crowds gathered, purchased par-aguas or ponchos and took up vantage spots.  As darkness fell, a massive crowd could be seen further up the street from us - near La Merced - but no movement.

Between 6 and 7pm  (4-5 hours after the procession started) a massive crowd filled the plaza.  It was unbelievable to see people streaming into the plaza - filling every available space, except the lawns.  Disappointingly, our camera is not functioning well so pictures are not so good.

Then we could see the procession entering our side of the plaza...  Various groups first - all covered in ponchos, as were the strong police contingent by this stage.

We could see that the statue of Christ had also been covered in large plastic sheet - it resembled the pope mobile.

It's carried along by a team of about 40-50 men, but being so heavy, they swap teams every 50-100m.  It happens seamlessly!!!  A large brass band accompanied the procession - even in the teaming rain.  As the statue passed us (and we threw our flowers), we could see that it was flanked by an enormous guard of soldiers.  Still people streamed into the plaza in the rain!!  I'm sure that many people that filled the centre of the plaza, the far sides of the plaza and surrounding streets would hardly have seen the procession.  But they were there in droves, and they stayed!!!

My red flowers didn't quite reach the target .... landing on umbrellas below.

Once up on flat area outside the Cathedral - large ladders were used to remove the plastic cover from statue.  It was taken to the front of the Cathedral, moved backwards and forwards facing to the front and to each side.  At the end of this, horns and sirens blasted .... and still the rain bucketed down, but no-one left.  Finally the procession flowed into the massive doors of the church and it was all over.

We were just gob-smacked at the massive crowd who came and stayed in such appalling conditions.  Belief and Faith I guess.  It was a sensational, moving experience.