Yesterday was Ollanta Raymi, the Ollantaytambo version of Cusco´s famous Inti Raymi festival. Besides the Festival of Chockakillka, it´s the biggest festival of the year, and in my opinion, one of the coolest. Unlike the other festivals which were basically lots of chicha and dancing, Ollanta Raymi is unique for its full-scale production of a Quechua drama, the last of its kind in Peru.
The drama has been performed every year since 1780 on the Fortaleza, or the ruins for which Ollanta is famous. This year´s production included more than 450 actors from the town playing parts in the drama of Ollantaytambo. The entire play was in Quechua and lasted about 90 minutes, with sporadic Spanish and English translation.
The Fortaleza sits at the edge of town and consists of a series of large steps built by the Incas that lead up to some questionably religious stones at the top of the mountain. Forgive me if I sound skeptical, but I´ve heard one too many tour guides wax poetic on the magic of the Incas. The truth is, no one knows for sure what they massive stone ruins were actually intended for. But no one can deny they are impressive.
The drama was supposed to start at 10 a.m., but the first act did not begin until noon. Classic example of Peruvian time. Although we were sitting in plastic lawn chairs at the base of the ruins in the direct heat from about 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., I´m really glad we sat as close to the action as we did. Even if I do feel a little sunburned.
The majority of the 450 actors served as dancers on the ruins or soldiers in the fight scene. Only about ten people actually had speaking parts. The basic plotline is that the great warrior Ollantaytambo wants to marry the Inca princess with a crazy name, but her father the Inca king forbids it and sends his daughter to jail for ten years. Nice, right? But he dies of ¨rage,¨ so I guess he got what he deserved.
The princess sits in jail for ten years but somehow has a baby with Ollanta, who grows up to be a kind of moody teenager who yells at her dad and makes him let her mother, the princess out of jail. He does, as during these ten years of bachelorhood he´s defeated the Inca king and become head honcho of all the land.
It wasn´t easy figuring all this out. An announcer with a very annoying voice would tell you before each scene what was going to happen, but it wasn´t always reliable or helpful. So our friend Modesto, who speaks only Spanish and Quechua, translated the drama into Spanish to our friend Catherine, who relayed the story in English to myself and Jarrard. Whew. A lot of languages going on there.
The production itself was arrestingly beautiful. The actors were dressed in bright colors of red, yellow, blue, purple and gold, and spread out along every terrace reaching up toward the sky. They would periodically dance to the traditional flute music, and then disapear to the back of the terraces so we couldn´t see them from down below. Watching 450 colorful dancers appear from seemingly nowhere on the drab stone terraces beneath the bright blue of the sky was just incredible.
After the drama ended we watched traditional dance troupes perform, and also did some exploring up in the ruins. Usually entry to the park runs about 70 soles, and we´d gotten in for 10 that morning. Gotta take advantage when you can.
Then my host mother made me go eat lunch at the food stands, since god forbid I go hungry. After eating what seemed like an entire chicken with my fingers, she brought me a trucha, or trout, still looking at me with it´s googly eyes. Can´t say that was too appetizing, but the fact that I didn´t realize it still had a head until I was halfway done is kind of impressive. Plus there´s no better way to feel like a local than to eat greasy meat with your fingers. And toss the bones and skin to stray dogs when you´re done.
Below are three links to videos of the festival:
Introducing the Drama from Eliza Kern on Vimeo.
Ollanta Raymi Dancers from Eliza Kern on Vimeo.
Quechua Dancing from Eliza Kern on Vimeo.
Eliza,
These photos make me miss this place so much. I must have missed this festival which is a shame.
I actually met you guys on the last day of the other festival (the one down near Jarods house in front of the church) with the massive camera (photos were well worth it!) I was the Australian girls travelling by herself…
I’m actually envious as I did not have a camera on the day. Do you have other photos of the festivities that day that I could look at and show my parents? Or…fingers crossed….any photos that I’m in??
I have to say im so impressed that you guys kept this record of your trip…its fantastic!
Tori