An American in Lima

Back in December, msnbc.com published a photo story on Qoyllur Rit’i and global warming, with photos by El Fotógrafo and captions by yours truly.
I neglected to provide the link to that slide show, which includes some of EF’s strongest images of the dangerous (and endangered) glacier pilgrimage, so here it is, belatedly: “Peru’s Disappearing Holy Glacier.”
This photo, [...]

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photo c. Jorge Vera 2009

Alejandro is from Santiago de Cusco, a province near the former Inca capital. He led a comparsa of 22 members on the pilgrimage last week.
He was intelligent and well spoken, and he patiently explained the signficance of each part of his Capac Qolla outfit to me.
I was intrigued as well by [...]

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We camped out for three nights (June 6-9) in the valley below receding Qolqepunku Glacier. That dark mountain on the right used to be covered with snow and ice. Once upon a twentieth century…
I look at this photo, and what strikes me is how pleasant and cozy the scene appears. Warm sunlight, plenty of space between campsites.
That’s [...]

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Doing the Yawar Mayu dance with a dancer from Cusco

El Fotografo and I were making friend with our camping neighbors — a comparsa from Cusco — at the Qoyllur Rit’i pilgrimage last weekend, when suddenly one of the young dancers snatched me by the arm.
“Come on, dance,” she said.
No, I said, several times — No to [...]

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Back in Lima today after four days and three nights at Qoyllur Rit’i. We got great material (interviews, photos, video), and all of us survived, but it was an ordeal.

photo c. Jorge Vera 2006

Bitterly cold temperatures (-10 degrees Celcius), sleepless nights accompanied by constant drumming, dynamite being set off helter-skelter. Having to re-set up camp ourselves in the dark [...]

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It is quarter of nine in the morning, and we’re waiting for the van to pick us up at Hostal Buena Vista, in Cusco, to take us to Mawayni. That’s where pilgrims begin the eight-kilometer climb to the shrine of Qoyllur Rit’i.
The hostal is owned by El Fotografo’s cousin Jorge, who’s got a nice thing [...]

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El Fotografo and I are turning the house upside-down this weekend, as we air out camping gear to go to the glacier pilgrimage of Qoyllur Rit’i (”Snow Star” in Quechua) next week.

Pilgrims camping at Qoyllur Rit’i, 2008

The annual Andean pilgrimage takes place in a remote valley in southern Peru, at the foot of 16,000-foot-high Qolqepunku Glacier. [...]

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Masked dancer at Qoyllur Rit’i festival, Peru, 2006

 El Fotografo spied this guy at the 2006 pilgrimage. He embodies the fertility cult that underpins the festival’s Catholic traditions, which have been sycretized with older, Andean rituals.
I find this image rather terrifying, for some reason.
We looked again for the Sheep’s Head Dancer this past May but didn’t [...]

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Media outlets such as National Geographic speak of Qoyllur Rit’i as “the largest indigenous religious pilgrimage in the Western Hemisphere.” But how big is it, really?
The number of pilgrims most frequently cited by writers is 40,000. I’ve also seen estimates at 60,000 and 80,000. Wikipedia lowballs attendance at an incredible 10,000 pilgrims.
But these figures seem [...]

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El Fotógrafo and I are back from the pilgrimage of Qoyllur Rit’i in the Sinakara Mountain range, 80 miles southeast of Cusco, where for three brutally cold nights (May 16 – 18) we camped out below Qolqepunku glacier, along with tens of thousands of pilgrims from parts of Peru and Bolivia. Our goal? To document, [...]

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We’re in a frenzy here in our house packing to go on an expedition to a glacier near Mount Ausangate, in the southern Andes. Qolquepunku Glacier is the site of the ancient pilgrimage of Qoyllur Rit’i, whose name in Quechua translates “Shining Snow Star.” More than 100,000 pilgrims come from all over Peru and Bolivia to [...]

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