Peru party: closing ceremony caps Lima Pan American Games
Dancers in colourful costumes took the capacity crowd of 50,000 at Lima’s National Stadium – and millions following across the world – on a trip along Peru’s coast, over its mountains and deep into the dense forests and jungles of the Amazon.
The Pan American Games closed Sunday with a ceremony that gathered nearly 1,000 performers from more than a dozen nationalities.
The ceremony that capped the 17day multi-sport event paid homage to Andean civilisations with the set design inspired by stonework from walls used by the Incas to build their colossal cities. It also highlighted the natural wealth of a country whose name itself, from the Quechua Indigenous word, means land of abundance. But it also showed a modern side of Peru with a DJ mixing cumbia beats on a stage-turneddancefloor, and colourful “Chicha” posters and graffiti that are often on display on the streets of Lima.
Fireworks burst at the end of a ceremony that also included performers dressed as hunters, fishermen and warriors, a parade of athletes from the 41 competing countries, and a woman who played a tiny Andean guitar known as the charango.
It was a huge way to close the Games that showcased world-class venues, world-class cuisine and enthusiastic fans who braved Lima’s chilly, damp weather to cheer on athletes from across the Americas.
The tournament also featured the debut of surfing in a country that is known as the Hawaii of South America and that rode a wave of