A festival in Chivay

After driving through miles of nothingness, we arrived in the village of Chivay at about 8pm.  The streets were very narrow, so Ritchie had to park the truck a couple of blocks away from our hotel.  As we walked down, we could hear music, and we saw people in fancy costumes.  It turned out that they were celebrating a new bank holiday (introduced in 2021) to commemorate the Battle of Ayacucho, which took place on December 9th, 1824, and consolidated Peru's independence. 

We checked in, and despite the late hour and the early start tomorrow, we ventured out briefly to see the festival and pick up some basic supplies.
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Surprisingly, there were thousands of people in the village square dancing and parading to the music being played by a brass band.  It was all very colourful.  There were street food stands everywhere.  We bought a skewer of chocolate-covered strawberries for 2 soles, which was delicious.  We also tried a skewer of toffee grapes, like toffee apples but much smaller, which was more of an acquired taste!  We took some photos and video and then headed back to the hotel.Read more