Semana Santa

So this is long over due but this is the story of semana santa…. In Peru the holy week leading up to Easter is quite a festival, equip with countless parades and what I believe to be the worlds largest tower with a Jesus on top to celebrate his resurrection. This year I decided to actually go to a place where they celebrate semana santa instead of the alternate party world of Peru’s beaches which I did last year. So I went up to Ayacucho, a sierra city about 6 hours away from my site to. Ayacucho is the biggest Semana Santa celebration in all of Peru. Literally there are walls of people around every turn making it suffocating to breathe sometimes and can get extremely claustrophobic when you are used to a mere 150 people in your site.

Getting to Ayacucho was no easy feet. Although it is only 6 hours from my site, the same amount of time it takes me to get to my regional capital, the trip was far more perilous. For starters the road going down to the coast is windy for about 2 hours but then it becomes a straight highway. The road to Ayacucho on the other hand is a wildly curvy road that goes up to almost 5,000 meters. On the way up we went in a car that went slowly around the crazy curves, but also exposed us to another part of the travel. When you are driving to Ayacucho you drive through some of the most impoverished countryside in Peru. Normally isn’t a lot of tourist traffic throughout the year, the people of this area aprovechar any moment that there is heavy tourist traffic. It’s hard to not see an easy buck when there are Range Rovers and Beamers ripping through a largely commercial highway.

In order to trap cars and get some money people would stand on either side of the road holding a make shift rope up in the hopes that the car would stop rather than going through the rope. Luckily the rope would break if you drove through it or I think we would have been in some serious trouble. It was a really startling image to see kids trying to rope a car in or running alongside a car in order to make a sol. As interesting the trip up in a car was the bus trip down really tested your ability to not throw up all over everyone and have a panic attack. The bus would whip around the sharp curves with excessive speed and make you pray for your life. In short the trip to Ayacucho is not the world’s easiest trip.

I am happy to report that I made it too and from all in one piece and was able to enjoy my vacation. Normally there are very few tourists that go to Ayacucho so the sudden massive increase of people makes it glaringly obvious how little the city is prepared for crowd control. There are lines of people walking too and from, participating in what seems to be perpetual parades. Packing into 7 churches at 7pm on Good Friday. Milling in the artisan markets that have some of the most beautiful handcrafts in all of Peru. Overwhelming the Pampa de Quiona, a beautiful hilltop with an obelisk statue that was one of the main battlegrounds in the Peruvian fight for freedom. Cramming the plaza during the running of the bulls, creating what Americans would consider a public health hazard.

There were several moments where death seemed like a likely option. The main one being de running of the bulls when angry bulls were running through a crowded plaza. Naturally. Apparently the bulls were much more controlled than in previous years but that still didn’t mean that they didn’t try to kill a bitch. Once I got knocked over when I tripped on a curb while masses of people were pushing back to get out of the way. Another we made a game time decision to switch to the other side of the street. Turns out that this was a good game time decision because right after we moved a bull went barreling into the crowd nearly spearing a guy we were standing next to. And finally one time we were far away from where the bulls were let out to run and thought we were relatively safe. Unfortunately it was just at this point that the bull got loose and started bucking around like a Wildman uncomfortably close to us.

But in light of all the masses of people and the occasional brush with death it is a beautiful celebration. The city even goes so far as to print up banners that say Ayacucho Es Semana Santa. This means Ayacucho is the holy week. An aggressive claim if you ask me. But they do a good job of living up to their own hype. There is a reason that this is one of the biggest tourist events in Peru.

During the week there are different events in the city throughout the week. Random processions or reenactments of parts of Christ’s life are a just a typical day. At first I thought it was weird, but after a while it just became standard. Every day the processions reenact a new moment of Christ’s life, culminating in his resurrection. The processions start from the crucifixion, with the entire roman squad filing through the street whipping Jesus with a cross. The following day there is a procession mourning his death. There is an ever-classy plastic body in a casket and a giant mourning Virgin Mary. I have to admit it was a bit strange seeing a replica Christ be carried through the plaza in a light glass casket. Even though I knew he was fake there was just something eerie about it.

The last day of Semana Santa, or really dawn, 6am, there is a procession representing the resurrection of Jesus. This is no ordinary procession. Every parade up until this point seems to be growing is size and ostentatiousness. On Easter Eve leading into Easter morning there is a party in the plaza. This is an all night party with fireworks going off every few hours and castillas lining the streets. The castillas are basically bamboo structures that have fireworks and sparklers attached. Normally when something comes fling off a castilla it goes up into the air, but for some reason this year there was an abnormal number of defects in the castillas. So instead of red sparkler shooting hearts flying up into the air they were shooting unto buildings while the occasional sparking circle came crashing into the crowd. Safety-first children. Safety first.

When I managed to not get burned alive by flying sparks, or the bon fires they were forming in the streets. Oh, I forgot to mention there were bonfires being constructed in the streets with drunk men getting far far too close to the flames. I stayed up dancing and chatting in the street. My friend John and I were drinking with some Peruvian friends and as a side not Peruvians really know how to drink. I was trying to pace myself and not become a drunken hot mess before the resurrection of Jesus. In my effort to maintain sobriety I was constantly ridiculed for my inability to drink. But what ya gonna do. Of course the only moment of the night that I felt inebriated was the moment that Jesus came out of the church resurrected. I have to admit I felt very sacrilegious. Jesus appeared in full glory with the rising of the sun. Around 6 am a giant ass Jesus came out of the main church on the plaza. This structure must have been 10 feet tall and at least 6 feet wide. The base of it was a pyramid covered in what looked like white crystal candles, with a Jesus regally standing on top. It took about 15 men to carry the structure and every 20 feet or so they had to take a rest and change shoulders.

As the giant Jesus made his way through the plaza people sang hymns and celebrated his resurrection. I have to say it was one of the most interesting ways I have ever seen in to celebrate the holy week. You know running of the bulls followed by building human pyramids in the plaza and getting hosed down by drunken firemen. Obviously.