Getting Filled with Nature’s Energy and Joy (Hebert Edgardo Huamani Jara)
It is wonderful to turn your face to the wind during this rainy season in Peru. In the City of Cusco, the sky is an explosion of colors in the late afternoons and dawns. The clouds in our blue sky are tinted with golds, yellows, oranges, and grays. Some days begin cloudy and rainy, while other days the sun shines and bird song fills the air filling us with joy whether we are from Cusco or are just visiting.
After the rain, the city’s air is fresh. The city appears dressed with the scent of flowers, forests, and damp earth. The city’s stone streets are clean and fresh. To go for a stroll after the rain is to grasp why they say our city is magic. Our ancestor’s walls breathe the city’s air and transmit its greatness in different colors and scents.
I remember a friend from France who I met on the Plaza de Armas. It was in the afternoon, around 3 pm. Everyone was standing in the different portals of the plaza seeking shelter form the rain. I was under the Portal Belen. Scarlet was also there, taking picture through the arches. She seemed happy since there was a moment of strong rain and little by little it was diminishing. As it passed the sun began to shine, peeking out from the clouds. On seeing her smile I asked if she liked the rain. She answered me with good Spanish saying: “It is beautiful here. The clouds look like in cartoons.” Returning to her camera’s view she said, “The weather here is crazy but beautiful.”
I asked her if she had visited Machu Picchu and she said that she was going soon but that because of the rains the entrance to the Inca City on a mountain was restricted. I suggested that she could go visit other sites in our city, such as the Temple of the Moon and the X Zone, since there they do not charge entrance fees and because there she would feel a natural connection with nature and with the vegetation, the streams, and the Andean temples. With surprise she told me she still did not know those areas but that she had time since she was going to stay in Cusco for some four months. “In that time, I want to see and enjoy the beautiful climate this city has.”
Cuzco’s rainy season begins in October and lasts approximately through April. During this whole time, the mountains and the Apus, the mountain Lords, which watch over the Imperial City are green and filled with life. The rivers and vegetation rise with freshness.
During the 24 hours of day and night one can appreciate and experience the moments of rain and sun, cold and hot.
In the open parts of the city, the squares, the recreational parks, and our rural areas everything becomes more alive: the plants with their colors and scents, the song of the birds, the sounds of the crickets, the croaking of frogs, and the flow of the rivers. You can say it is magic. But it is real and is part of our Imperial City. It is a blessing for the body and the soul.
By simply giving oxygen to our lungs with fresh and natural perfumes from our region your whole being is comforted.
Our local breezes that are generated in our valleys have the function of distributing heat and humidity throughout the day. Our weather is changeable. Sometimes there is sun, other times rain, and sometimes both together.
In our location among mountains and valleys we are under the influence of the macroclimate of great masses of air from the jungle and from the high, cold lands. Both shifting and together make our beauty.
