This weekend my teacher friends and I had big plans to go camping in Pisac, a little town about 30 minutes outside the city. We've been itching to get out of Cusco for a while, plus there's a sweet market there that's open on Sundays. Unfortunately, our plans fell through. When we went to rent the camping equipment, it turned out that it was going to be too expensive, AND the man who owned the camping place pretty much said that it was the worst idea ever. We're in the rainy season, February is the rainiest month, and Pisac is in a valley. He actually said we would drown haha. So, we bagged that idea. A bunch of teachers still went and stayed in a hostel, but a few of us hung out in town all weekend (i was productive! yay!) and decided to go for the day on Sunday for two reasons: to hit up the market, AND to witness the Carnaval celebrations. Unfortunately, I didn't have the money or time to go to Carnaval capitals like Brazil or Oruro, Bolivia, so Pisac had to do. In other places, this is a week (or month) long celebration. We've seen some evidence of this in Cusco...the kids have been running around with water balloons and super-soakers for about a week now in celebration of "summer". However, the big celebration apparently took place today, and the "places to be" were in the smaller towns outside the city.
So, my roommates, Maggie and Carolina (so happy to call Carolina an official roommate!), and I filled up a water bottle with rum, and set out on our way to meet up with the rest of our friends. After a gorgeous drive through the mountains and down into the valley, we finally made it to Pisac a little after noon. What a sight to see! The streets were all lined with balloons and streamers and pine tree branches and people were just everywhere. I was anticipating having to dodge water balloons here and there, but I had NO idea what I was in for. We had to run through a little waterfall to get to the street that would take us to the main square. This street was CHAOS. Kids running everywhere spraying foam on you and hurling water balloons from every direction. After approximately 2 minutes I decided that I wasn't going to survive without something to defend myself, so I bought a bottle of spray foam for myself. BIG.MISTAKE. As soon as the little buggers saw that bottle in my hand, I became the number one target for what felt like the entire population of children in Pisac. I somehow made it to the main square just a little damp...but then it was go time. Five steps into the plaza I was surrounded by 8 little boys taking on balloon after balloon, spray after spray of nasty white foam that looked and tasted like shaving cream (yes, it got in my mouth). I was spraying blindly in all of their directions to get them off me but they were relentless. I was taking handfuls of foam to the FACE from 5 year olds. Naturally, this is the exact moment that our other friends walked up to find us so they snapped some great pictures (to be posted later). I finally got a break from the massacre, but I only had about 2 minutes to wipe the foam from my eyes before another group of tiny Peruvians were attacking me again. I got WORKED. I mean soaked head to toe with water and blue foam. I was cold and wet, but it made for some great pictures and definitely a great memory.
 |
| The massacre & my friends laughing at me |
 |
| Still smiling after round 1 |
 |
| Not so much after round 2... |
Luckily, our friends still had their hostel so I went to clean off and dry off a little. We ventured back out and grabbed some lunch and wandered around the market for a few hours, but it was raining and we were all cold and wet so we headed back to Cusco around 4.
I had high hopes of buying some sweet gifts at the market, but all I can say for my trip to Pisac is that I got foamy and wet and ate a sandwich. Nonetheless, I think I experienced Carnaval the Peruvian way for sure, and I definitely made the day for a bunch of little kids.
No comments:
Post a Comment