Puno & La Virgen de la Candelaria

I spent this past weekend in Puno for the festival de la Virgen de la Candelaria. Puno is a town of about 200,000 located in the southern highlands of Peru. It is most famous for Lake Titicaca, the highest navigable lake in the world. It's at about 12,000 feet - that's higher than Cusco. It is also known as the folkloric capital of Peru. I've been to Puno before, but this time we went because their festival is supposed to be amazing and it did not disappoint.

The Virgen de la Candelaria is the patron saint of Puno and her festival combines both catholic and Andean traditions. She is associated with the purity, fertility, Pachamama (mother earth) and mining. The festival lasts for 2 full weeks, but we just went for the first weekend. The first weekend there are two main events: the competition of folk dances and the procession of the Virgin.

We went to see the competition and it was great. There were 81 teams competing from towns all over the province of Peru. They wear these bright costumes and play their instruments and dance all in sync. Apparently towns, save all year to be able to come to the festival and compete. After they are done dancing, they dance their way to the Plaza de Armas until they get to the church where the Virgen is hanging out. I think I liked the street dancing even better than the formal competition. The only negative part of the day was when we went to sit down at the competition they didn't want to let us into the tourist section b/c we didn't look like tourists. Basically we didn't have blonde hair. I had to show my drivers license to get in...but what annoyed me more was that everyone in the section paid the same price, so even if I got in, it didn't make any sense that other Peruvians couldn't get in when they had paid the same price as I did. Alas, racism is alive & well in Peru.

The next day we had an excellent city tour. But the main attraction was the procession of the Virgen. Before the procession different groups decorate the streets surrounding the cathedral with designs that are filled in with flowers. I'm not describing it well, but it's super cool. I went in to the church to get a close up look at the Virgen and she's beautiful. They take really good care of her. The procession was preceded by a small ceremony in front of the church that involved blessing the virgin, offering her gifts, and a dance by men dressed in devil costumes. Then they processed. I've never been to a procession like this before and I thought it was really neat to be part of a towns tradition. That was the extent of our festival experience. This weekend is the end of the festival and it's supposed to be huge party....I'll have to make it down for that next time.

The rest of our time was spent seeing beautiful Lake Titicaca, the floating Uros Islands, the island of Taquile and the Sillustani ruins. It's all just so beautiful.