San Marcos Castles

This weekend with a group of friends Hugo and I went to the town of San Marcos (1.5 hrs. from Cajamarca) to celebrate their towns' festival with 10 burning castles (castillos) of shooting fireworks in the central plaza. What is a burning castle like? A long and lanky castle structure made out of dry cane that has anywhere between 6-10 stories of different layers of moving, shooting or rotating fireworks. Craziness, in other words.

We were practically underneath one of the castles; looking up as the fireworks rained down on us. Not the safest way to celebrate your town's Saint, but very fun! As the town band was playing tunes all night, we danced in the street with our case of beer as fireworks showered the sky.