Description
Unlike the better-known markets in and around Cusco, the Sunday market in Urcos (Quispicanchi Province, Cusco Region) remains almost untouched by mass tourism. Locals from the surrounding villages arrive dressed in their finest traditional costumes to sell fresh produce and share a large glass of freshly fermented ‘chicha de jora’. This is a traditional, alcoholic maize beer from the Andes, with a history stretching back thousands of years in what is now Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador. It is regarded as the ‘sacred drink of the Incas’ and was traditionally drunk during religious ceremonies in honour of the sun deities and the Earth Mother, Pachamama. – Peru – 1976
