Location:
Caylloma Province
Altitude:
3810 – 4300 m.a.s.l.
Highlights:
nature, hiking, handicrafts and gastronomy.
Southern Andes
USEFUL INFORMATION
INFORMATION AND RESERVATIONS Tourist Services Association “Rumillacta” (ASETUR) sibayo_rumillacta@hotmail.com P: (054) 959 539 510
S
ibayo is a district of the Caylloma province in Arequipa. It was founded by the Spaniards under the model of Indian reductions, corregimientos (territorial subdivisions), and encomiendas (groups of Indians entrusted to a Spaniard). This Collahua village received the Spanish name of San Juan Bautista de Sibayo. In 1776, the Viceroyalty grants lands in Matarani, on the coast of Islay, to the Sibayo Indians, so that they may extract the cochayuyo (seaweed) and generate taxes. At that time, and according to the chroniclers, the Collahua Indians were considered “outcasts” by the Spanish colonial authorities. The town continued to be inhabited until the 1950s, because it was a meat and wool marketing center, both by the importance of its patronage festivals, linked to the presence of a temple built in 1692, which is a true jewel of mestizo architecture and art. In the 1970s, the town begins to move towards the bridge and highway, which were the necessary routes to the Caylloma, Arcata and Ares mines. The Handicrafts Cooperative was established in 1975, by 80 women, who began producing alpaca fiber clothes for the European market. Nowadays, the inhabitants of Sibayo are livestock farmers and grow barley, potatoes and oca (sweet tubers). Sibayo originally comprised the ayllus (pre-Inca and Inca social units) of Collana Paque, Paraylas, Sibayo, Pachama Collana, Patacca, Pachama Cayao Pataca, Sibayo Pachama and Collawa Patasca. The term “Sibayo” comes from the Aymara word “shiva”, which means “canchón” or “barnyard”. The word “haya” stands for stone in the same language, while “jayu” is used to denote a traitor. Therefore, Sibayo would mean “the traitor’s barnyard”. Currently, the old Sibayo town shines again because of its embroideries, looms, handicraft workshops, colcas (cliff holes for storing food), under ever blue skies. 71