UNTETHERED: Cajamarca Carnivales

March 09, 2014

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.

March 02, 2014

Carnivales 2014!!!! Cajamarca Style!!!!

Day one of Carnivales could not have been more fun! I have tons of pictures but have narrowed them down to the 10 best pictures and the 10 best videos. (videos are still uploading)

We started the day out with one of my teachers Maribel and her family. She graciously invited us over for a delicious breakfast and the throwing of water balloons on people prior to the start of the parade. So we hung out on the third story roof of her house filling water balloons and making sure we had plenty of buckets of water available for when we ran out of our 300 balloons... We hung out up there filling and throwing water balloons at people that were making their way up to the start of the parade.

We were then called down for breakfast and had cajamarquino bread, cheese, corn, rice, eggs and sausage.... A breakfast made to provide us the water balloon throwing energy we were going to need for the day. After breakfast we went upstairs to throw more water balloons and buckets water at unsuspecting people heading up for the parade. In the distance we could see other tops of buildings performing the same water acts as us. I doubt anyone was unsuspecting as we would see them serpentine up and down the street. Many stopped and encouraged the water balloons. It was all in great fun.

As we were watching people we noticed them buying and carrying Paint! Yes regular house paint. As they were heading up in groups, they were painting themselves, the walls of the streets, the cars that drove by, and others that walked by.... What a mess that we were about to experience after the parade passed by. After the parade passed by, we had a balloon fight with the neighbors which I have to say my aim is really bad, I mean really bad..... We then proceeded to the kitchen and had a delicious fried trout lunch with potatoes, and rice and some really hot sauce. It was delicious.... We also primed up a bit for entering the parade with some beer.

We headed out to join in the parade some blocks away, enough blocks that we needed to get a taxi, yes, all nine of us in a taxi including two kids. Yup, seven adults and two kids plus the taxi driver so that is a total of ten. He drove us through the painted streets of Cajamarca to where the parade was. I left my good camera and had my wallet, Iphone, and change purse in a plastic bag. We got into the parade and were immediately painted in a kind, gentle manner on our clothes, head and face arms and everywhere. While getting painted and singing songs, we were also drinking rum, using the cap of the bottle as the shot glass. The bottle of course was painted and I don´t know how much paint was in the rum....

We marched, danced, drank, got painted all through the barrios of cajamarca until we got to people's houses that someone knew where we would stop, play music, and drink chicha (a beer that is made from something, it doesn´t resemble beer but more like a fermented apple cider) The owners of the house would also bring out plates of food, the chicha, and real beer all the while other groups of paraders would come by with paint, other booze, drums, trumpets and singing. They would join our group for a while and move on..... This continued for what seemed like hours. I still have no idea where I was in Cajamarca....... I think I was in barrio San Sebastian...... As evidenced by the double "S"s painted on peoples cheeks.... It started raining which was our cue to hop in a taxi and head home.

Total time out was 8:30 to 4:00ish..... What a totally enjoyable day!!!!! This is the first day of Carnivales. Today we are expecting more water but no paint. The paint was only for yesterday.

More to Come..........