I thought I might start this post with some observations on national dress. I had made the comment while in Guatemala that the women, and sometimes men, had maintained a strong national dress tradition based on the 33 Mayan City customs. But as we moved from south Colombia into Ecuador, and then Ecuador into Peru, the presence of a national dress becomes more obvious, although once again, primarily in the female population.
The key elements are a wide, softly pleated skirt below the knee. The skirt can be in solid plain colours blue, red, yellow, orange etc or patterned. On the top, usually a woollen Alpaca cardigan or sweater, often a short waist length jacket, and a hat. The hat, depending on the region, may be a white or beige top hat, a homberg style hat or something resembling a bowler hat. On the legs, usually some form or woollen leggings especially in the high altiplano where the temperature is lower.
A key part of the traditional dress is the brightly coloured shawl worn diagonally from left shoulder to right hip on the back. This is a general purpose garment which sometimes holds an infant child, but equally may hold firewood, harvested maize crop or just about anything. To counter-balance the load the women lean forward at the appropriate angle for both the weight and the steepness of the surface they are walking on.
The gait is not so much one of walking as a short-stepped trot, at which they move quite quickly. Although some women are obviously dressed in traditional attire when attending a tourist location, as with this woman spinning alpaca yarn in the square in Chivay, it appears that traditional is very strong especially away from the main towns and cities.
Another observation I have made is that there is a strong tradition for dancing also. In the train arriving back from Machu Picchu there was a dance recital of a local native dance, and then at dinner last night we were also treated to an exhibition of indigene dancing.
