Last weekend Lunahuana was full of tourists as the annual Grape Festival was celebrated. It is grape harvesting time for the farmers who live along the Canete River in this area of Peru and I was able to observe and participate in many of the events that took place over the weekend. A unique thing about Lunahuana is that many of the farmers here still use the traditional method of grape-stomping to get the juice from grapes that is used to make wine and other drinks. On both Saturday and Sunday these men and women were busy at work stomping grapes and bottling up the juice from their harvest this year.
The Grape Festival was also a time to celebrate the different adventure sports that take place in Lunahuana. Tourists came to the area to enjoy rafting down the river and four-wheeling through the valley. Throughout the day on Saturday there was wine-tasting at the many wineries along the river as well as different activities going on in the town square. Saturday marked the annual coronation of the grape queen followed by fire works and a concert.
All-in-all it was an enjoyable weekend filled with a lot of cultural learning. I especially liked walking the streets and seeing many of my students and friends participating in the events of the festival. The only down side is that now it's going to be difficult not to think about whose feet have touched the next glass of wine I drink.
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