Day 7 Watching the passing parade

The great travellers teach that you learn the most when you become part of a country’s passing parade. Today we experienced this twice. This morning in the town square, originally built by the Incas, we witnessed a huge show of civic and national pride as the locals celebrated with a colourful parade. Opened by dignitaries with flag raising ceremonies, soldiers and bands then led a parade which seemed to celebrate the ongoing transformation of Peru in general and Cuzco in particular. 11 years ago Peru, in the grip of a Marxist terrorist campaign, was shocked when the rebels seized 400 people during a diplomatic cocktail party at the Japanese embassy. The siege lasted for nearly 5 months and ended when the president of Peru, ordered the army to raid the building and end the siege. Fortunately the result was that only one hostage was killed but all the terrorists died and the terrorist problem that had plagued Peru seemed finally to have ended that day. The parade today celebrated this as builders, nurses, university students and children marched behind the soldiers while the crowd seem to be proud of a nation and city moving forward. It was an honour to witness an impressive and positive community. Late in the day we witnessed another dramatic parade which was led by a bull and a matador, followed by a bunch of masked drunken revellers with their wild women. The parade finished with a more sombre group of women carrying a statue of the Virgin Mary. We have no idea what this was about but again it was a joy to be part of
Cuzco’s passing parade

PS We begin the Inca Trail, a 4 day treck tomorrow, so we don't expect to be back with internet access until at least Friday the 25th