we're on the corner with the church...um..

If you like Catholics, go to Peru, they are everywhere.

If you REALLY like Catholics, go to Ayacucho, Peru, where 99% of the population is Catholic.
No, really. There are 33 main churches in this town, one for each year of Jesus's life.

For Semana Santa, the celebration of the week before Easter, the girls and I went to Ayacucho, which was rumored to have the 2nd biggest celebration in the world. Yeah.

I won't go into great detail of the weekend, or else this blog would be a novel.

Highlights:
- We stayed in a elementary school with 3 peruvian guys. Awesome.
- We ran with bulls. Not big scale like in Spain, but plenty terrifying.
- We went to numerous fairs where we rode on a ferris wheel that would never pass safety codes in the States.
- We attended a party in the plaza that was a combination of Mifflin Street Block Party, UW Madison football game days, Spring Break, and 4th of July. People were dancing, singing, chanting, building human pyramids and drinking excessive amounts of beer. (As one local told me, "Jesus liked to drink, so do we."

-We stayed in the plaza all day Saturday and at night there are huge bonfires, dances, fireworks, and a procession at 5am, which everyone stays in the Plaza for until all the festivities are over.

Lowlights:

- RAIN. Wait, let me reiterate: MONSOONS. I guess that's what you get when you're in the mountains during the tail end of the rainy season. Damn.

Enough talk, enjoy the pictures:

Olive picture for Daddy- Fair in Ayacucho.
Storm coming-- View from el Mirador.

Not like the sunsets are gorgeous here....

The people of the town cover the streets with these mural- COMPLETELY made of flower petals. Seriously. Look at that. Amazing.

Procession night 1: Church figures carrying Jesus replica

Plaza pyramids Saturday morning...
Part of the firework show Saturday night

Enough for now, more pictures later!

Besos y Abrazos!