The Inti Raymi is a reenactment of the Incan celebration of the sun god, their most venerated deity. It was an multi-hour long play in the indigenous Quechua language so we couldn't exactly follow along beyond what was in the program. Curiously, this winter solstice (June 21) festival was moved to June 24th by the Spanish to align with one of their holidays. Go figure.
This is one of the largest festivals in all of South America and it was performed at Sacsayhuamán, an Incan citadel (at about 12,000 ft) so we walked up there with a few of our friends from Cusco down below. (There were many thousands in attendance.)
WARNING
Traditionally this ceremony involved the sacrifice of a live llama with predictions of the future as foretold by its heart and lungs. This has been replaced with a SIMULATION of this practice but you may choose to skip these 4 images if you like.
Those images begin after the next one.
Ok, here are the simulated gore images.
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