UNSHA is Awesome!!

This weekend was the last of the Carnivales Celebrations....  I am sure there is some administrative something but the fun activities are over for this year.  Our Unsha, the Davy Unsha, was a blast!  We ended up walking up the river to get to the Unsha which was at a really nice hotel and restaurant in the back area about 2 kilometers from our house.  When we arrived the Unsha tree was standing in all of it's glory, filled with kitchen items, clothing and other various items.  We started out with some welcome shots of a home-made fig alcohol.  It was very tasty and plentiful.  We moved into a distilled sugar liquor made from sugar cane juice, fermented of course.

It wasn't long until the water play started and the kids and adults were throwing water balloons at unsuspecting revelers.  After a few beers and conversation we were moved into a beautiful room set up for lunch.  We had a full diner lunch of chicken, beef, cow hearts (anticuchos), potatoes, corn, etc...  Then the dancing began...  We must have danced for an hour or so before we headed back outside for the official tree chopping party; talcum powder, water and eggs completed the fun!

First of all we had some field games to play, including tub of war girls, tug of war boys, and sack races.  The new Unsha virgins had to baptized, so we stood in a circle around the tree and held hands while talcum powder, and water were sprayed on our heads.  We then had to close our eyes, kneel, and wait for the true prize of a couple of eggs smashed on our heads....  It was great fun...

We then danced around the tree with the whole party and took turns chopping at the tree with an axe.  By this time I was pretty tired and but I persevered until it was my turn to chop.  I took some pretty pathetic chops at it and left the dancing to catch my breath.

As we neared the end of the chopping, I guess they decided that it was going to be my year to chop it down. So after Kerry's chops, they handed me the axe to finish off the job.  I got much better at chopping after I got my chop grove on and and took that baby down.

I think these are the home-made bottle rockets that make a huge noise all night long

As soon as it fell or possibly before it hit the ground people swarmed the tree for all the goodies...  In about five minutes the Unsha was over and Kerry and I walked home along the river in the rain with egg on my face and talcum powder on both of our faces.  It was a grand mess.....  When we got home we warmed up by taking hot showers and the spent the rest of the day hanging out in the house.  We should have attended the Neighborhood Unsha but it would have been too much fun for one day.