¡Viva Carnival!

I'm back from the Cajamarca Carnival festivities. On the way home I stopped off at the Inca Baths in Cajamarca to get the paint out of my ears in the mineral hot springs. Everyone ran around like crazy all weekend throwing water balloons and paint at one another. We hit the market and got our own supplies of water balloons and paint. I learned that for Cajamarquinos there's apparently nothing funnier than gringos dressed in polleras (traditional skirts) throwing paint. I was covered head to toe in some lovely pastels, but also something that smelled like sewer water, not ideal.

I got back to Piura on Monday morning, did some Peace Corps meetings, and then headed back to Rinconada where I have been partying ever since. There has been a Yunsa (where they cut down a tree with gifts like plastic buckets adorning the branches) and a town dance every day. Each Yunsa is crazier than the last. Last night's featured a playwood boat on wheels, about the size of a station wagon, made into a frame for the fireworks display and festooned with the same kinds of gifts as the Yunsa. First, the band played marinera and there was much dancing and chicha drinking. Then, they chopped down the tree and everyone went running to win loot. And finally, the big finish was a parade with the boat, crazy costumes and marinera down to the soccer field where they set off the fireworks on the boat and the band played faster and faster and faster until the dancing was really just everyone jumping up and down and yelling. It was a blast.

The town dances are all cumbia all the time, of course. Cumbia groups are called orchestras and they're bands of around 15 men in matching outfits. There are horn, drum and guitar players who perform synchronized dancing to their synthesizer beats while they sing and play. Last night The Caribeños played, the night before it was Agua Marina, and the night before that it was The Caribeños again. The next dance is Saturday. Ash Wednesday doesn't slow Carnival party much.

Photos to come when I'm at a computer that will load them in this lifetime.