Inti Raymi

Inti Raymi is the Quechua name for Festival of the Sun. It is supposed to be held every year on the 21st of June which is the Winter Solstice. However, for reasons which have escaped the memory of my aging brain, it was moved to the 24th of June and has been held on this date for a long time.

Personally, Inti Raymi was the reason I chose to come to Cusco at this time.... apart of course from my medical elective... ahem. Unfortunately, as is often the case, when you have high expectations of something, it usually disappoints. The festival of Corpus Christi was much more exciting, entertaining and colourful than Inti Raymi. Nevertheless, Inti Raymi is an important event to the Quechua people and is equivalent to the passing of a new year for them.

The festival is held with much pomp and drama and aims to re-enact the annual process of sun worship which the Incas so faithfully carried out.

Inti Raymi was held on the day after we got back from Macchu Picchu and despite my best efforts at trying to get to the city centre in time for the festival, I missed a good chunk of the start of it. Nevertheless, there were throngs of people in the plaza and through some stroke of luck, I managed to squeeze my way in and get a good view of the proceedings.

The festival is held in 3 parts of Cusco. The entire cast of performers/actors proceeds from one location to the next and at each site, performs a series of rituals. Plaza Santo Domingo, Plaza de Armas and Sacsayhuaman are the 3 locations for the festival.


Worshipping the Sun in La Plaza de Armas.


The King (Inka Pachacutec) and his loyal subjects.


The King on his throne which he got carried around in.

There is a lot of chanting and turning to the Sun and bowing and then turning to the King and bowing but really, the most interesting part of the whole event is when they sacrifice a live llama to the Sun. They then remove the heart, lungs and trachea and pretend to read the signs in the entrails. Cool!


The Inka Imperial Army.


Bowing before the llama sacrifice at Sacsayhuaman.

I was way high up in the hills as they were charging US$90 for a seat near the action. Absolutely ridiculous! After a while, a couple of Cusqueños in the front stood up to get a better view and got promptly booed at by the crowd which hurled rubbish and full bottles of ?water at them!