We are currently in Yauri in the district Espinar/Cusco. The last two weeks have been quite adventurous for us with heavy walking but also beautiful landscapes and fascinating contact with the locals.
In the area we`ve been walking tourists are not seen at all and people want to take pictures of us instead of the other way around. The nights are chillier here, temperature drops easlily to minus 5 or 6. Cold!! I`m not sure if it is the low temperature at night, sleeping outside, the exercise or the high altitude or maybe everything together but we sleep at least 10 hours every night. 8 o`clock pm and our eyes start to close.
Yesterday afternoon we were offered a ride on a pick-up and rather than declining as usually we accepted. It turned out to be the car of the districts major. So we´ve been getting a very special treatment in Yauri. It`s really crazy! He showed us the stadium where a concert was to take place in the evening and invited us to join for a fiesta. The main elements of the fiesta were football (women playing enthusiastically in their multi-layered skirts and slipper shoes, the hair in long braids! a sight we will never forget), live music, beer (they nearly got us drunk) and food. There were many, many children, dogs and two lambs. Have you ever seen a small lamb on a football field? Again we experienced a very warm hospitality.
After organizing a hostel we went to the concert in the evening (although we felt it was bed time for us). People are very fond of their traditional-pop-mix music here. We had some difficulties hearing the difference between the songs but it was pretty to look at. And everybody is there: from the smallest baby to elderly people.