When the church doors swung open, a marching band, with drums, blaring trumpets and tubas, costumed dancers, and humble worshippers crowded into the tiny church. Thus began the evening's festivities honoring El Señor de Choquequilca. Legend has it that, after attending mass in Ollantaytambo, Don Domingo Huillca saw a blinding light as he crossed the river at Choquequilca. He followed the light and, miraculously, found a large wooden cross trapped in a whirlpool. He retrieved the cross, it was installed in the local Catholic church, and has been the focus of Catholic worship in Ollantaytambo ever since. Once a year, the cross is removed from its special chapel and for four consecutive days and nights, bands play, dancers perform, and the whole town parties.
As the sun set, the priest, dancers, band and worshippers emerged from the church, street vendors set up hot drink stalls, a blazing bonfire was lit, and the plaza filled with families. We watched in amazement as pairs of dancers with black face masks whipped each others' legs with long látigos(never figured out why...), egged on by a man dressed like a colonial peasant girl, while the band played a bouncy, upbeat, off tune melody. Later, pairs of dancers with white face masks, a stuffed llama swinging from each of their belts, twirled and whipped each other, occasionally tossing the llama about, or ran into each other, bashing their chests, and all the while the crowd laughed at their antics.
We watched for several hours as the stars came out and the temperature dropped, on a cold Andean autumn evening. Early the next morning, we heard the band playing and there they were again, both groups dancing in the plaza. In what seemed to be the festival's finale, the two groups of dancers took turns transporting the silk robed cross, carefully placed on a flower bedecked platform, to another Catholic church just down the road. As we watched, we imagined a similar festival happening over 500 years ago, with no crosses and different instruments, but the same costumes, stuffed llamas, and excited crowd, presided over by Incan royalty and high priests.