Festival Week in Cusco=closterphobia

Let me please start out by saying that Cusco parties TOO hard for me.

I am so completely exhausted after this week, and honestly looking forward to just taking off for the Amazon this weekend and leaving Cusco for a bit because I have a feel this weekend is going to be a giant hang over for the whoooole city.

I managed to avoid the "Ooooooh god, I'll never drink again" mantra that a lot of my classmates are sharing, especially after Tuesday. But still, I am ready for a break. Tuesday was the winter solstice here, as well as Cusco Festival, where everyone dons their ponchos and rainbow attire and parades around the streets in an organized 400 GROUPS from 7 am to.... well, I don't know. I went to bed at 3:30, and we were only group 244! And of course 3:30 still feels like 4:40 to me, even though I've been here for over a month. I enjoyed the parade once we started moving, but needless to say I didn't drink enough to a) enjoy the 8 hour wait or b) have any of the guys in the area look as appealing to me as they probably thought they did. Guys are such pricks here sometimes.

Wednesday was a day off for me, sort of. The saints came out for Corpus Christi and were carried from their respective churches to the Cathedral, so I went to see that with my professor Carlos. Then I did a bit of gift shopping, went out to lunch, went home for a bit, went out and had wine and cake for dinner, and then completely crashed.

Thursday was Corpus Christi, and while it was beautiful, I could only find motivation to watch the saints for an hour or two before wandering because there were TOO MANY PEOPLE. There is constantly too many people this week, no me gusta. At night we went to a really excellent pizza place, and then I went home to now internet and pouted for 3 hours watching West Side Story and only dreaming about working on my research paper.

Today is Inti Raymi, and I honestly have no grasp of what this festival is going to be like, so I'm looking forward to going out and seeing for myself in a few. Then I have to come home, get my stuff together, eat something, and get ready to head out by 8 pm tonight! It's all very exciting :)