The Peruvian national flag and the rainbow emblem of the empire of the Incas flutter in the wind 4,800 metres (15,750 feet) above sea level, as the faithful come from every corner of the Cusco region.

Every year in May or June, tens of thousands of pilgrims gather in the high Andean Sinakara Valley, under the imposing presence of Mount Ausangate (6,372 metres / 20,900 feet), the sacred mountain that dominates the horizon southeast of Cusco, almost a hundred kilometres from the city.

The Festival of Qoylluriti (“Snow Star Festival”, in Quechua) is a growing cult, and each year more and more believers flock to this remote place to celebrate what is essentially a meeting of the Catholic faith with the indigenous practices of the region’s first inhabitants. Qoylluriti began as a pre-Hispanic cult for the worship of the water supplied by the glaciers of the sacred mountains, or Apus, that dominate both the skyline and the religion of Cusco’s highland farmers and herders. These beliefs became enmeshed with the new religion from Europe in the 17th century, when a Sinakara shepherd boy is said to have been visited by a vision of Christ as he tended his flocks. Today, the litany of the Church exists side-by-side with the music of the Andes when this valley fills each year with a colourful mass of humanity as more than 30,000 pilgrims who carry two faiths in their hearts gather in devout celebration.

(Note: This trip also includes a chance to experience the fiesta of Corpus Christi in Cusco, a Catholic rite based on an Inca celebration.)