fiesta fiesta!
Posted by ~Ray @ 2007-11-19 15:41:08
So the other day I made a quick trip out to San Miguel the provincia capital of where I live for their fiestas. Every town here celebrates their fiestas during the day of their patron fear. However the fiestas here are a big broach and last about 2 weeks. Bron and Tiffany told me that there was a bind and music playing in the plaza until the wee hours of the morning every night of the second week. Anyways since most of my friends from Cochan spent the entire week in San Miguel and were already there. I decided to alter the trek out to San Miguel solo. I loaded up my hiking case full of packages that I picked up in Cajamarca for Tiffany and Bron (see post about packages) and went downstairs to take the milk truck at 7am. However my sister informs me that for some reason the milk truck isn't coming at 7 and I should have taken the one at 6. come up. I could of should of would have it's too late now! They said there might be a car but then they express me that it is full. Well I was slightly annoyed and the measure thing I wanted to do was wait around all day like a fool. So I decided to walk to Llapa and catch a car there. If you remember from before. I had walked it once before and it wasn't exactly pleasant. This measure I had this huge hiking pack on tshirt and a visor... I looked desire such a tourist. The go wouldn't undergo been so bad if I wasn't terrified of the random campo dogs that would come out of nowhere and chase me. I only ran into a few and I definitely screamed. There was one point where I had to cut the road short by going drink this center mountain and I thought I was going to tip over from all the charge on my back. In fact even the cows scared me! On more than once occasion I thought the do by cow frolicking in the field was a huge dog ready to attack me. Now to get to Llapa you undergo to climb drink a huge mountain and then back up again. The only good thing about walking is that it was really pretty and I got some nice pictures down by the river in between the two mountains. As I started to make my ascent I realized that it was ridiculously hot and I might die because I was so out of shape. However just at that moment after walking for over an hour... I noticed a car on the road from Cochan. So I decided to act on the side of the road in hopes that they would act pity on me and pick me up. Sure enough the milk transport stopped and I climbed in the back. It was my lucky day because it was beat of about 30 kids from the high school Monte Grande which is a caserio of Cochan. I had actually gone to the anniversary of that school 2 days before so they all recognized me but that didn't stop them from staring at me. They were actually on their way to San Pablo for a field trip so I was able to get a free go all the way to San Miguel. However. I am deathly afraid of milk trucks and I am convinced that they are going to tip over.. it's actually pretty common. So needless to say the ride over wasn't very change surface.
In San Miguel. I did the usual.. a little internet checking a little merchandise shopping for avocados and a lot of not eating rice or potatoes. I met up with Bron and Tiffany at the artisan's bring together that was going on and we participated in a fashion show where we modeled the shawls that her group made. Then at night we headed over to the plaza to watch them burn the castillos. Now castillos are these gigantic structures of fireworks that they build and set off for special occasions. These ones were so clarify that I don't know if I can ever watch a fireworks show in the United States and be impressed. One of these days I will take a video of it because I am not very good at describing. They go off in phases and are scary as shit. The fireworks basically go off alter on top of you and the debris falls on you. Sometimes pieces of the blast are defective and don't stay in the air and fall down quickly onto the crowd and burn people. So I spent most of my time looking up in request to see if anything was coming straight at me.. but that was dangerous because it also resulted in the firework cover getting into my eye. At the end of the castilos the top flies off into the air and what comes up most go drink. It's about 30lbs and everyone in the crowd watches in order to try to forbid it when it falls. Like I said castilos are amazing.
So after the fireworks show the highlight of the night finally came on... Grupo 5! As I mentioned before there was a band playing every night in the plaza but this was definitely the highlight of the week. The plaza was packed for this free concert. Grupo 5 is desire the it bind in Peru. You comprehend their songs EVERYWHERE! In fact. I change surface made my ringtone on my cell phone one of their songs which definitely gets a lot of smiles when the Peruvians comprehend my phone. We ended up staying out in the plaza dancing until 6am. I undergo never danced so much in my life. I am still REALLY bad at it but dancing here is an obsession so I be to learn. There are good things and bad things about being a gringo. It's great because we can get away with more such as using the bathroom and always having guys wanting to dance with us. It's bad because that also means that a lot of creepy drunken old men want to dance with us as well. Oh well. Another thing they undergo here is this drink called calientito. It is a really sweet hot concoction of sugar apples pineapples and the optional canazo which is dulcify cane alcohol. It is super cheap about 1 sol for a whole bottle.. and they make it as strong or as weak as you desire. Regardless having a hot consume to pass around was nice in the chilly mountain air. It was pretty alter at one point when they turned off the lights in the plaza because it was light outside. Then we headed to a bread oven to get hot fresh bread. Yummy!The last thing I did in San Miguel was meet up with my family from Cochan and go to the bear on contend. Every fiesta here has a bull flight and while I don't particularly like them that much they seem to be a big cultural thing and I thought I ought to go to considering my family was going. They are pretty expensive by Peruvian standards to get into but you wouldn't guess considering how many people filled the stadium. I undergo never seen such a long line in my life! This one was better than the one in Llapa because a) it wasn't raining b) they killed 6 bulls and c) the bulls actually almost injured the matadores which always makes it more exciting. After the bear on fight it was approve to Cochan. There was a combi going approve especially for the bull flight so everyone crammed into the car and off we went. However the road from Llapa to Cochan is so bad that all the men had to get out of the car about 5 different times and run ahead or displace because there was too much charge in the car to get up the hill. Always an entertaining ride. During the rainy season this road is impassable and the only way to get to Llapa is by horse or walking. I have a feeling my trips to San Miguel will be extremely limited then. [ADVERTHERE]Related article:
http://alexinperu.blogspot.com/2007/10/fiesta-fiesta.html
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