The festival was the annual renewing of the year in which the winter sun starts its return to spring. In times past, the Chicha king and queen were brought before the masses to show there good will. They tasted the ritual Chicha (corn beer) and if it proved good enough they allowed the sun to return to summer through their divine powers. Meanwhile the lower classes that built the stone city were allowed to frolic and get trashed to keep their minds off novel Incan institutions like slavery, warfare, taxes, and religious oppression.(the Spanish were still busy learning the geometry and navigation that would get them to the new world from the "Barbarian" hoards during the crusades...they would not arrive for 300 more years!)
What I saw was- a paper mache alter set up in the location most visible to the tourists. it looked trite next to the real stone work of Sakiwaman. The King And Queen showed up in a hullabaloo of ply wood and bed sheets (bad costumes!) and proceeded to wave to the yuppy hoards with video cameras-a-goin'. The Chicha was brought out to be tasted, and low and behold the King thought it sucked. (I never cared for it myself, but then again my ancestors were Irish). This was EL Bad. Now the sun wouldn't come back.
BUT WAIT! a hidden stash of the good stuff! Yes it proved tasty enough, and the King was happy... so naturally we were too. űLET THERE BE CAVORTING!" and off they went....
In there wake were the tourists and all behind them was trash upon the ancient Stone work that so impressed me. It brought a lot of cash to Cuzco, but I do not believe that it did anything but help degrade a beautiful spot and cheapen a part of Quechua history and culture.
I wore a Wip Ala. It was a lapel pin that was a checkerboard with rainbow colors. It was the Symbol of indigenous autonomy for the Bolivian natives. I had spent a year living in the mountains planting trees and empowering these same natives. So I thought a little support would be a nice gesture. All the Bolivians got into it. My girlfriend at the time asked me if it was not "hypocritical" since I was "Mighty Whitey in the flesh"? My response was that my ancestors had come from a small island off England and they were persecuted for well over 2000 years...so back off! White Guilt is misplaced, and I did not bring my crystal with me.
The day proved full of rhetoric about preserving culture and "the White Devils" Blah Blah Blah! Yeah! Right! It's that Christian God! Right! LETS GO INTO THE CATHEDRAL AND HAUL OUT THE SAINTS AND BURN THEM! YEAH! they were all set to when BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRROOOOOOOOOM!! Thunder. then Rain. "He heard us!?" needless to say everyone was bummed. they all crossed themselves then went to stay dry in the taverns and bars and Chicharias. Since it rained all day...they drank all day. and chewed Coca leaves.
Coca leaves are the big "traditional" pass time that the natives were trying to protect. No one bothers to remember that it was the Spaniards that initiated coca chewing to get the peasants to work longer for less money on little or no food. It's the same story with "traditional" dress. Spain's King Philip decreed that the bowler hat and "pollera" skirt were to be worn instead of the wool tunics of the original people.
The Spaniards were no saints, but neither were the Incan Nobel who ruled an empire of oppression. Ecotourism and political rallies can help a long disadvantaged culture, but that culture has got to make an effort too. Yuppy tourists need to learn a little more sensitivity and more importantly to clean up after themselves. The best experience a tourist could have is to realize HOW there behavior affects the world and the economically depressed.The Third World can not support another resource intensive industry. If that is the future of ecotourism, then it must be re evaluated.
Eco Travels in Peru/A> Eco Travels in Bolivia
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