Cuzco Says Goodbye to Carnival with a Lively Kacharpari
Today, Sunday, is called Kacharpari, or the last burst of Carnival. It is an intense celebration. Joy invades Cuzco’s streets and plazas with parading dance troupes and allegorical cars (floats) filling the city with the pulse of Carnival music.
This morning, in the Plaza de Armas, groups from different institutions will do a parade, a pasacalle, for the eighth day of Carnival, its close. The will salute with a diversity of dances in order to spread cheer among local people and visitors, all of whom enjoy the typical play of Carnival.
The fiesta is vibrant. It fills the Plaza de Armas with a mixture of cultures from different parts of the world. Visitors and local people share the Carnival celebration to the rhythm of music particular to the time as well as in the intense water play and play with paint throughout the day.
It is a lively day with lots of water balloons, brightly colored streamers, and many smiles and much laughter.
In the neighborhoods of the City of cuzco people gather one more time to celebrate the kacharpari and bring together the different places and traditions of Peru. Dancers come out with their typical costumes filled with lively color and with designs from nature such as birds, butterflies, trees, etc.
On this octave of the feast we revive as well the stamping feet of all the dances of Cuzco. Dancers show every step to the compass of folkloric music.
On the other hand, in the streets is a small, multicolor war, in which troups of youths attack others with water balloons, the same filled with paint, and with cans of foam in many colors.
Besides the games, the scent of the traditional dish of the season, timpu or puchero, invades the streets and parks. People eat one last dish in order to say goodbye to this year’s carnivals.
At night the city fills with music and drink. Different artists and orchestras are presented in the different yunzadas throughout the city and in this way people give their good byes to this great celebration of Carnival.
Just as in Cuzco, in different parts of Peru these feasts are celebrated with intense noise and joy, color, tradition, and omnipresent music.
