Copacabana is a holy site for both the Catholic church and traditional Aymará religion. There is a very famous virgin (image of Mary) here -- one of the most famous in all of Peru and Bolivia. There is also the equally famous virgin negra, or black virigin, which was carved in ancient days by a decendent of one of the Inca kings. Here is Matt L after lighting a candle in her sanctuary:
We climbed up a small mountain next to the town and found another set of holy sites, along with a series of soft drink/ritual materials stands. This woman is selling soft drinks at 12,500 feet:
There were other retail outlets as well, including one at which you could by a huge assortment of miniature cars, truck, busses, houses and animals. Having the miniatures blessed at this holy spot is supposed to cuase you to acquire them in the upcoming year. The family in the photo below is performing an Aymará blessing of some sort. We watched as they arranged flowers, jewelry, holy water and images of the virgin mary on the ground. They then sprinkled water, wine and corn beer on the assembled ritual stuff. The view from their ritual site pointed directly toward the Isla del Sol (island of the sun) which the Incas belived to be the birthplace of the sun and moon, which are symbolic of male and female energy respectively, and so the island is the source of all life. This is why sacrifices have always been made at this point. It was cool to watch this family because they were having an incredible amount of fun preforming their ritual duty -- laughing, smiling and embracing eachother the whole time. They also drank all of the leftover corn beer.
We are doing well! We had thought of going over to the Isla del Sol ourselves today, but it has clouded over and looks stormy so we are jumping on a bus to La Paz, Bolivia´s capital. More from there.
-MP
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