Puno Festival.

The Fiesta de la Candelaria is a festival in honor of the Virgin of Candelaria, patron saint of the city of Puno. We were lucky enough to catch it as it only happens once a year and is one of the biggest in the whole of South America. We were expecting a few people fox trotting in masks in the town centre however the reality of it was out of this world.
Over 40,000 dancers paraded through the streets alongside thousands of musicians in incredibly ellaborate outfits non stop 24/7 for 3 days. The work gone into the outfits is unbelievable, all mannor of imaginative creatures and characters from Andean folklore.
On the third day we payed for a cheap seat on the main street so we could sit back and watch it all in the shade with a crate of Puno's answer to stella, making mates with lovely locals. By the night time we were all fezzied out and after dark we were attracting unwanted attention from drunken peruvian men interested in Lyndons lustrious locks and so after unsuccesfully scraping his hair back into a slick tudor ponytail to make it look like a short back n sides, we retreated to hiding in our hostal as our pathetic grasp of spanish was getting us into further heat. Even now on the fourth day (despite the festival being over) the people are still going for gold, brass bands and ladys in ridiculously over the top dresses marching relentlessly through the streets. I admire their stamina but for us its time to move onto more peaceful pastures.