Peru - The Rough Guide to South America on a Budget - page 720

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June 24 Inti Raymi is Cusco's main Inca festival.
June 29 St Peter's Day. Fiestas in all the fishing villages
along the coast.
July 16 Virgen del Carmen. Celebrated in style in the
town of Paucartambo, on the road between Cusco and
Manu Biosphere Reserve. Dancers come from surrounding
villages in traditional dress for the celebration, which lasts
several days. There's a smaller celebration in the Sacred
Valley town of Pisac.
August 13-19 Arequipa Week. Processions, firework
displays, plenty of folklore dancing and craft markets in
Arequipa.
August 30 Santa Rosa de Lima. The city of Lima stops for
the day to worship their patron saint, Santa Rosa.
Late September Spring Festival. Trujillo festival involving
dancing, especially the local Marinera dance and popular
Peruvian waltzes.
October 18-28 Lord of Miracles. Festival featuring large
and solemn processions (the main ones take place on
October 18, 19 & 28); many women wear purple.
November 1-7 Puno Festival. Celebrates the founding
of Puno by the Spanish and of the Inca Empire by Manco
Capac. Particularly colourful dancing on the fifth day.
November 1-30 International Bullfighting Competitions.
Spectacular in the Plaza da Ancho in Lima.

PUBLIC HOLIDAYS
January 1 New Year's Day.
March/April Easter Semana Santa
(Holy Week). Maundy Thursday and
Good Friday are national holidays, Easter
Monday is not.
May 1 Labour Day.
July 28-29 National Independence Day.
Public holiday with military and school
processions.
October 8 Anniversary of Battle of
Angamos.
November 1-2 Day of the Dead, and
All Souls' Day.
December 8 Immaculate Conception.
December 25 Christmas Day.

FESTIVALS AND CELEBRATIONS
Peru is a country rich with culture
and traditions, and on any given day
there is a town or village celebrating
their anniversary or similar occasion.
Festivals can be spectacular events
with processions, usually with live music
and dancing, and a proud usage of
traditional dress. Carnival time (generally
late February) is especially lively almost
everywhere in the country. During
fiesta times small towns become
completely booked up, hotel prices go
up significantly, transport services stop
running or prices double, and often
most people will stop work and celebrate
for a few days either side of the festival.
Below are some of the major events:
February Carnaval. Wildly celebrated immediately prior
to Lent, throughout the whole country.
February 2 Virgen de la Candelaria. Celebrated in the
most spectacular way in Puno (known as the folklore
capital of the country) with a week of colourful processions
and dancing.
March/April Semana Santa (Holy Week). Superb
processions all over Peru (the best are in Cusco and
Ayacucho), the biggest being on Good Friday and Easter
Saturday night.
Late May/early June Q'oyllor Riti. One of the most
breathtaking festivals in Peru; thousands of people make
the overnight pilgrimage up to Apu Ausangate, a shrine
located on a glacier just outside of Cusco.
Early June Corpus Christi. Takes place nine weeks after
Maundy Thursday and involves colourful processions
with saints carried around on floats and much feasting.
Particularly lively in Cusco.

Lima
LIMA , “City of Kings”, was founded in
1535 by Francisco Pizarro and rapidly
became the capital of a Spanish
viceroyalty that included Ecuador, Bolivia
and Chile. By 1610 its population had
reached 26,000 and it had become an
international trading port, the city's
centre was crowded with stalls selling
produce from all over the world and it
was one of the most beautiful and
wealthy cities in Spanish America. It then
grew steadily until the twentieth century,
when the population exploded. Today,
many of its eight and a half million
inhabitants are campesinos (rural folk)
who fled their homes in the countryside
to escape the civil war that destroyed
many Andean communities in the 1980s
and 1990s.
Some say that Lima is Peru. And given
its wealth of museums, nightlife,
architecture and world-class food, plus
its position as the nation's transport hub,
the city makes the perfect base from