My semana santa started out with the idea that I would start volunteering and start Spanish classes. I had no idea what I was in for. The day before I had met my new Peruvian Family and
spent the night there watching movies with the 3 brothers Carlos, Fernando, and Fabrecio along with the 4 other foreigners staying in the house. It's a big house full of people. So Monday I was excited to start doing something productive. I went to the office of my organization totally clueless on what I was going to be doing, where I was going to be working, and when I was going to have spanish classes. Turns out they were totally clueless too. This was my first lesson in the latin american timeline. Things that should take a couple hours to work out in the US take a week to happen here. I feel like I should have been ready for it since I have been traveling in Chile and Argentina, but it seems that Peruvian time is a week behind everyone else.I didn't get to start volunteering Monday, or on Wednesday when they told me to come back, or even for the rest of the week since Thursday and Friday were national holidays. Anyway, I had an entire idle week of waiting for my program to start to explore the Semana Santa festivities.
Monday of the Holy Week in Cusco is a important day. It is the day that 
Cusenos celebrate the procession of the man of earthquakes. Sounds weird huh? It is. But it has reason. I guess every 300 years Cusco is destroyed by a massive earthquake. The last time there was a massive earthquake in the 1930s the people ran into the streets praying for it to stop, and it did! So now they celebrate it by carrying a statue of Jesus through the streets. He processes through the streets all day, but when he gets close to the main cathedral at night over 50,00 thousand people come to watch and shower him in red flowers. All morning I saw women selling small red flowers and I could not figure out why until then.For the rest of the week there were all sorts of processions and masses. But Thursday and Friday were the most interesting for me. My Peruvian parents are very Catholic and observe all the rules of holy week. There is a special dinner/lunch where you are supposed to eat twelve plates "doce platos." Most of the plates are breads and cookies, but it's still a filling meal. Traditionally, after a family eats the 12 plates the father is supposed to take each child into a separate room and beat his child 3 times with his belt! Then the kid is supposed to beg the mother for forgiveness for their sins. Luckily, my family does not observe this this particular ritual!
Since I had some extra time on my hands I decided to get out of the city and head to a town north of Cusco with hot springs called Lares. I went with some housemates. We stopped for the night in Calca where we observed another amazing ritual. It reminded me of the Mandalas of Tibetan monks. The city spent the entire day making beautiful and intricate sand pictures or "rugs" in the street, then once night fell, there was another precession of a statue of Christ in a coffin and Mother Mary over the sand rugs destroying them. It was amazing to watch, and I guess it represents the fleeting beauty of life. But wow, all that work....
Lares is a town almost untouched by tourism. The people all dress in the colorful traditional quechua dress, and very few of them speak much Spanish. Most people just stared at us Gringos, probably wondering what planet we came from. The hot springs were nice and nestled in the mountains. A great way to pass some time!
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