"If you want to get ahead in life, get yourself a hat".

Cuzco was underwhelming, and its outskirts are dispiriting. And yet, the women walk proud in their dayglo colours and hats! 


I did some digging about the origins of this Peruvian tradition in headgear, and what I found was mostly vague. It seems every married woman has one. Trilbys and Bowler hats and Panamas, as well as the occasional Peruvian fantasia. 


A surplus of imported colonists' hats that first started an accidental fashion? An appropriation and subversion of the gringos' sign of authority? I'm not sure that anyone knows for sure. 


But I love the self-reliance and strength that these hats and braids braids project in the women that wear them. For it's only the women. And they're not just tourist-trap attire, or the carnival gaiety we saw in Lima, which was just for show. This is the look, day to day. 

In the streets and in the marketplaces, it's still mud and dirt among the green peaks of the Andes, but still what a distinctive splash of colour in the gloom.

As we depart Cuzco (the road is downhill to Machu Picchu), I'm glad to be in the countryside. The vistas here cannot have not changed much since the photographs below were taken in the 40's and 50s, a random find on the web. Another find was the splendid photos of Martin Chambi from the 20's and 30's. A world away from Lima, in time and tradition.