Our Lord of the Earthquakes, and Kindergarten

Matthew and I took a trip to Cusco yesterday to participate in some pre-Easter festivities, to run some errands, and drink coffee. Although we had heard about the Temblores procession, we had no idea what we were getting into. Since 1650, the people of Cusco have had a procession of Nuestro Señor de los Temblores (Our Lord of the Earthquakes), the Monday before Easter. The tradition began by inhabitants of Cusco parading around the plaza with a gigantic crucifix praying for an earthquake to stop. It miraculously did, and the tradition continued yesterday with the same crucifix.

We arrived near the main square around 3 and although we could tell people were getting ready for something big, nothing was happening yet. Balloons and red cloth decorating the balconies in the plaza, police for keeping the peace (I assume...), people walking around, but nothing major. When it finally seemed like people were flocking and ready for something, we found a place to stand and began guarding our space...people were serious about this procession, and making some money too. There were people everywhere selling flower petals (for throwing), palms in the shapes of crosses, ice cream, cotton candy, and lots of other snacks. It was like a parade in the US...except completely religious. People who were in the procession lined up in the street with banners and waited. And we waited and waited and waited. I think we stood for over an hour without anything really happening. Finally, we could see the giant crucifix wobbling down the street, moving inch by inch, poco a poco. After forever, it was finally in front of us and we could see why it took so long-it must weigh a million pounds and was carried by special red-cloaked men who kept passing off their responsibility to other special red-cloaked men.

Flower petals flew, people cried, there was a marching band, I thought I was going to be crushed to death...all for this slow, crazy procession. I´m really glad we went, although we realized when we got back to Oropesa last night that something similar happened here in the streets, too. But we made it back to the beautiful city of Cusco and were part of a very old tradition. I´m glad we went, but I´m glad we can breathe again! (The photo of us is meant to demonstrate how tightly packed we were in the crowd, but I don´t think it accurately shows how bad it was.)

And finally, here´s what I made in school today. (Did YOU know that boys and girls are different? Actually, I don´t think we learned this stuff until 5th grade, and I KNOW there wern´t any clever little coloring sheets...) I got my own sheet to color and many of the children were distressed when I began coloring the boy´s hair brown, not black. I explained that we´re all different, right? They were also worried that I didn´t have a notebook to glue my picture in and made sure to hand it to the teacher so I could also get a "bien" stamp. One girl was kind enough to show me where to write my name. Que lindo.

Oropesa

Guess what everyone!? I am sick again. Argh! The flu this time I think. But I got some medicine, not sure what it does since medicine comes in only the pill case without the information. The good news is I am really excited right now because I just agreed to do a 4 day hike to Machu Picchu, on the jungle path!! (If only I had my camera)

Ok Oropesa!

We are here! Oropesa is going to be a huge growing experience for me. It is a small town of just 4000 people and only 2 white people (Gringos (guess who?)) Never have I been the minority, I mean there have been times when I have been a minority, but only temporarily. Gringos so rarely come here that when Sara and I walk around the town, we gather a parade that follows us around. And if we sit down to have some juice at the local bakery, at least 10 kids will be sitting outside watching us, their favorite prase being "Como se dice (word) en ingles?" (how do you say, (--) in English) For example, "Como se dice mono en ingles?" I respond "monkey," then everyone laughs, and we start the cycle over again.  I might start offering to have my picture taken and charge a sol.

A positive thing is everywhere we go in town we see students from school who instantly hollar "hello teacher" and "bye-bye teacher!" Teaching at the school here is a bit intimidating. 1.) Its all in Spanish, and right now my spanish still sucks when 20 kids are talking to me. 2.) I am a white giant.

So far this is how a school day goes... We arrive at 10am and walk to the director´s office to say we are here and to see which class is in the most need today (sometimes classes do not have teachers and we fill in) while we are waiting, every child who glimpsed our being will run to us, grab our arms to see if we are real, then ask if we will play. This will cause a noise and the few kids who are still in their classrooms will peek outside, see us as a still target and come running for us. Then the new-comers will grab our arms and ask us to play, teach them English or teach an art class. Somehow Roxana, the director and our housemate, says some magic words and the kids go back to their classrooms and Sara and I go to our assigned classes. The kids here are extreamly energetic and, at times violent. Anywhere from kicking and punching one another to using a slingshot to fire fruit peels at each other. This is all fine with me because the kids here are also very tough, but my problem is I do not know the words to discipline them. Little by little (poco a poco). I have also been asked to help design some murals for the school. Now some photos!


A chicken on the roof of our house in Oropesa.

Sara reading to her new friends

Itinerary? ha. But we´re here!

This is what the bread looks like when we go to buy it. Designs done by hand. So sweet and delicious, great with butter or just plain like it is. Snuck a photo last night when the guy went to find a bag!

Hello from Oropesa!

One thing I (Sara) have learned throughout the past two months is that very few things we have tried to plan go as planned. My parents wanted a detailed itinerary before we left, with dates and addresses and phone numbers of all our stops. I did my best to detail our 4+ month journey; however we followed the itinerary for about 3 days. I am pretty sure that for the first two weeks, we didn´t pass a day without something “bad” happening- from only receiving 60 days to be in the country, to a bus strike that set us back on our trip to Cusco, to horrible weather that prevented us from actually getting to Cusco once the busses were finally running, to getting our feet run over by a taxi… it was a tough beginning. But here we are, finally in Oropesa, one of our first planned stops.

Although things have turned out so much differently than I thought they´d be, I´m really glad that I´ve had to learn to be flexible. I like that we could arrive in Puno, knowing that we were heading to Cusco next, but not necessarily having a specific date of departure or anything. Just generalizations. Don´t get me wrong, I´m still the same control-freak, just toned down a bit. And things usually work out in a way that makes me happy. We didn´t make any calls or reservations for hostels in Cusco before arrival and I was really disappointed that many of the places were much more expensive or full when I called after grabbing our stuff from the bus. Once we finally found one that was alright, we ended up checking out after only one night because it was too expensive and just felt uncomfortable. We ended up going to a youth hostel and over 6 days met lots of great people from all over the world, and celebrated our last night in Cusco with some of them.

I would not describe Matthew and me as “club people.” Bars are not my favorite place, I don´t really like to dance in front of strangers, drinks are expensive…etc, etc, etc. Matthew and I were heading out to get some juice around 9 and and got talked into going to a salsa bar (good job, Paria). We took some free salsa lessons and headed next door to another bar for dancing. I was so surprised by how much fun I had. We danced until about 1, I think. It´s so much easier for me to chicken out and stay inside watching a movie, where I´m comfortable, where I feel safe. I´m really glad we went out, even though my legs were killing me yesterday.

So, finally, back to OROPESA (sorry no info in English, just a map). We´re living here in a lovely town known for it´s bread. We visited Monday and Tuesday, going to the school to figure out what we´re doing and have started volunteering. Lugged all our stuff here from Cusco (about ½ hour by taxi, 1 hour by bus) and moved in yesterday. I said I´d like to be with the younger children, so Tuesday I was learning my shapes (“figures geometricas”) with them.  Matthew is with the 5^th and 6^th graders. Right now, we´re just assisting in the classrooms as we are able and I´m not sure how our roles here will evolve. Maybe we´ll eventually be teaching English lessons, but I´m not sure. Beginnings are always hard for me, but once we get used to the schedule and the kids stop treating us like zoo animals, I think it will be great. And in case you´re wondering, the "plan" is to be here until the end of May/beginning of June.

(photo added April 3)

Sexy Woman

Ahh Sacsayhuaman, a splended sight in the night time.

Yesterday Sara and I went for a walk and ended at the Inca ruin, Sacsayhuaman, and lucky for us it´s free after 6pm! Our presence on the ruin attracted a guide in just seconds, and before a snap of a finger we were learning the history or the Incans. The Incans are some clever people, within their stone work they incorporated the images of a llama, a snake, a hummingbird, a fish and a guinea pig. They built the temple using limestone, which had to be transported from another mountain side. 20,000 people worked the earth for 77 years using a metorites (space rocks) to cut and smooth the stone. There is no longer any spacerock to be found in the area supposedly because all the spiritual people (shamans) took them. The stones were cut, then ramps were built out of earth and bamboo to slide the stones into place. Clay slip, along with cactus juice, was used to assist in sliding the stones into place.

During our hike we met a woman from Queensland, Australia. I mentioned that the U.S. now has some sort of healthcare, and she was shocked. She informed us that she has a job working in a grocery store and makes $18 an hour (about $16 US) and gets paid vacation. She said if someone is ever sick in Australia, all they need to do is visit the hospital and everything is taken care of. This is one of many similar stories we have heard about Australia. Several people speak of the US in shock that it is so called the "wealthiest" nation, yet basic human needs are not being met. In my eyes it seems the US rose to power, though they were the best nation ever, then failed to evolve.

Another great bus ride story:

We were packed onto this bus on our way to Oropesa with not even a centimeter of wiggle room. I felt what I thought might be a hand in my pocket. The bus stopped and this old man gets off and my wallet is gone, I jumped off the bus and chased ofter the old man (he was not very fast) and he gave me my wallet back and I wiggled my way back onto the clown wagon.

Little Catholic Surprises

Inca King near the fountain, truck transporting glass casket,

"event coordinators" in green directing people , costumed kids

Our favorites! These kids waited patiently in the alley near us

until it was their turn to dance in front of the entire group. They were good!

It´s been exactly two months since landing in Lima. Since we´ve arrived, it´s been easy to spot the distinct¨"Catholic-ness" of the country, although in some ways (Matthew mentioned somethign about this in his coca post) it´s a form of Catholicism that seems specific to Peru, with a unique combination of Catholicism and the ancient cultures of the country.

Yesterday, as Matthew and I were exiting a museum about Inca history, there was all sorts of commotion in the Plaza de Armas (the main square). I asked a security guard from the museum what was going on and his response was simply "Los Incas" ... like duh, we should have known! But that explanation didn´t mean much. We approached the crowds of people throwing flower petals, men dressed up as Incas marching around, and a truck driving around the square. We figured it was for the arrival of famous Don Bosco, which had been advertised on large banners.

It wasn´t until we returned to our hostel yesterday afternoon and talked to other travelers that we understood better what was going on. From my own observations, I thought it was some grand celebration to welcome Don Bosco to Cusco, with people dressed as Incas to represent some sort of reconciliation between the Incas and the Catholic Church/Spaniards. There were people dressed up in various cultural costumes, and they danced around. It was all very impressive. We watched the truck drive around and realized it was carrying a glass casket, with what I thought was a statue. The truck drove up to the church and people unloaded the casket and presented it to the Plaza and everyone who was watching, and encouraged everyone to clap. I just thought the church was getting a new statue, as many of the churches have glass caskets containing statues of Jesus. And I thought it was a man in a poncho who spoke briefly standing next to the man dressed as an Incan King who was Don Bosco. I was wrong.

In reality, it was a celebration to welcome the relics of Don Bosco to Cusco. It was really the body of Don Bosco, who died in 1888, who was paraded through the streets. Apparently, he´s making the rounds in Peru, and is eventually even heading to the States. We saw signs advertising his upcoming arrival in Puno when we were there, although I was still trying to find out why this priest was so important. I don´t understand all the details of the presentation from yesterday, what all the costumes represented, or why there was a combination of Inca and Catholic things. Lots of people were interested though. Not least of all me.

As a bonus, Matthew and I were trying to find the Convent of Santa Clara today, where there is a church full of mirrors. The mirrors were apparently used to entice indigenous folks into the church. As soon as we arrived, we saw this amazing sight coming out of the church.

Not sure what it was or why...but there was even a band. Eventually, the men succeeded in lighting the big strip of firecrackers that went off for a solid five minutes. Then, they proceeded down the street, struggling with the giant statue, which looked as if it was marching itself down the street. Lovely!

a thing or two about coca

The coca leaf is no more white cocain than grapes are wine.

All you need to know about Coca

There are several types of coca rees but only 4 contain the alkalai cocain. The trees usually grow to 6 meters but are trimmed t only grow to 2 meters for producing the best leaves. An average tree has a producing age of 26 years and matures after 4 years. Signs of chewing coca has been around since 20,000BC, but only in its current form since 3000BC. Scientific conrolled studies have proven that coca (not cocain) can cure over 50 ailments, respitory, muscular, digestive, sexual, and cadiovascular systems are all affected by coca. Coca is used in religous practices much like bread and wine is used in the catholicism.

There is an argument that the Catholic Kings are the first drug trafficers because they forced the incans to build the cathedrals (as slaves) and encouraged them to chew coca (even though the Spanish King made chewing coca illegal) because it allowed the incan slaves to work harder and longer. These Incan slaves were building Catholic fortresses on the foundations of their own sacred temples. They hated the Spanish, and in a silent non-violent retaliation the Incan slaves carved numerous images of the coca leaf, serpents, pumas and condors in the stonework of the cathedrals. It seems in nearly every city in Peru there is a cathedral that was built by incan slaves on the foundations of formal temples. Nearly everytime there is a large earthquake here the churches crumble while the incan stones and foundations remain in place.

Everywhere Catholic oppression is visible. Only people who are free of sin are allowed to take communion in the churchs, for example, a man and women live together and have children, but are not married because a marriage here is expensive (and the marriage must be lavish to show your place in society, so the punishment for being poor is no body of christ for you. It really irks me seeing this beautiful landscape with a peaple that have a firm connection with the earth, being forced into catholic culture. (they were forced, from scalping to smoke and mirrors) What I don´t understand is why do people need to look to the sky for the heavens above, when there is a a heaven so big there is no need to look up? (from Josh Ritter)

A fun fact about Coca-Cola
In the late 1800´s a chemist from Georgia invented a drink called "French Wine" using the coca leaf(not cocain but containing the alkali). Then prohibition hit the US and he changed his formula from an alcholic beverage to include Coca(after the cocain was extracted) African cola nuts and caffeine. He then renamed the drink Coca-Cola.

Some images of Mother Earth, between Puno and Cusco.

A mountain pass 4319M high (from where I took the picture) I do not know how high the mountain top is (yes thats a glacier!)

Marriage and Altitude Sickness

With my first gasping breath in Puno, Peru my Grandfather took his last breath in Decatur, Illinois. Rest in Peace.



Altitude sickness really sucks. If was so bad that I would wake up in the middle of the night, walk to the bathroom and have to take a minute to catch my breath. Sara and I choose to take a bus straight from the coast to Puno (a climb of 3,820m). The symptoms of altitude sickness include, headaches, nausea, vomiting, dizziness, insomia, loss of appitite, fluid in the lungs, and swelling of the brain. I had 5 of the aformentioned symptoms, you can guess which ones. Of couse at the time I had no idea these were symptoms because we had not yet read that part of our Lonely Planet tour book. We left for the islands of Lake Titikaka at 7am and I was feeling like hell but did not want to miss the chance of exploring the islands with our newly made friends. (read about the Uros Islands below).

The Taquile island is a 7sq km chunk of land 35km from the shore of Puno. About 4,000 people live on the island. It also seems that every sub-Peruvian culture wears a different hat with a different meaning. On Taquile the men wear red or red and white hats, which they each knit themselves. The hats are half-white and half-red striped (meaning single) or all red striped (meaning married). The tricky part about these hats is that if the men descide to marry, they must present their knited hats to the father of their hopeful bride. The father will then pour water into the hat and if the hat leaks, the man is deemed not good enough, but he can make another hat and return in 6 months and hope his kniting has improved. So...Andy...I have been learning to knit and I am pretty good...I have a hat to show you...Also, Sara has been growing her hair out, which is good because before marriage on Taquile the women grow their hair out and then chop it off and make a wig for their husband to wear under their approved hats.

Taquile island truely is a fairytale paradise (except for the hours of 10-2 when they are stompped on by wandering tourist) unaffected by the Conquering Catholics. I am thankful I was allowed to tread on their paradise, if only for a glimpse of life unaffected by the mainland chaos. Also, because of the altitude, I was no stomping, but treading very lightly (and slowly).

Actually the hat I have to show was made by a man from the island and is not a marriage hat, but a typical cold weather hat called a Chullo, and Sara is growing out her hair, but just to have long hair. So no worries.

Living the High Life

We arrived in Puno from Ilo Saturday night without any major incidents. I did wake up on the bus in a panic- feeling very warm, dizzy, and a bit nauseated. All I had to do was take an altitude pill and all was well.

Puno is 3,820 meters (more than 12,000 feet) above sea level and is home to the famous Lake Titicaca, the highest navigable lake in the world which belongs to both Peru and Bolivia. Before arriving, we read all about the incredible floating islands and the people who inhabit them. We also read about the corruption that exists in many of the tour companies and although we really wanted to tour the islands, we were nervous about participating in the exploitation. In the end, we booked with our hostel and went on a tour with some new friends we met from England and Canada.

After a long night of not sleeping well myself (waking up gasping for breath), and Matthew not sleeping at all (saying the altitude is intense is putting it mildly), we committed to a day full of long boat rides and island hopping.

Our first stop was one of the more than 40 floating Uros Islands. We passed many islands with women brightly dressed and waving at us before arriving at our destination. The women helped us off the boat, and we greeted them in their language. We were invited to have a seat in a semi-circle on bundles of reeds and watched an incredible show, which is the only word I can think to describe what we witnessed.

Our tour guide talked about the buoyant totora reeds, which the islanders use for practically everything. The bottoms are edible and contain lots of calcium, the tops are cut and dried before being used to cover blocks of the reed roots that float and make the island. The people also use the reeds for their houses (see photo), lookout tower, benches…everything it seems. The women put on a skit about bartering in the local market, showing how they trade reeds and fish for quinoa and potatoes. Our guide also explained the islanders´ clothing (the woman in the photo has on 15 layers of skirts!), and asked all of the islanders to introduce themselves. Then we tourists introduced ourselves and our nationalities, to which the islanders responded with three hand claps and repeated our country’s name.

After all the introductions, we were individually invited to visit the houses. A little girl came over and led us by the hand to her house. We climbed in, and she told us 3 people sleep there. After shaking each of our hands and asking our names again, she followed her seemingly well-rehearsed script and invited us to try on some typical clothing. We politely declined and she led us out to where a woman (her mother?) was selling some handcrafts. The girl went through the items individually explaining what each was and the symbolism. The only thing we did buy was a drawing of “mama dancing” supposedly done by a little girl that she sold for 2 soles.

Later, we were led to the edge of the island to guess how deep the lake was (winner gets a free necklace). Then the women sang us three songs, one of which was “row, row, row your boat.” We were invited to take a ride to the next island on an authentic and amazing reed boat. Although many of our fellow tourists went, we declined because Matthew wasn´t feeling too premium.

The tour guide wanted to give the reed boat travellers a head start to the next island, we waited a bit before boarding the motorboat. I thought the islanders would continue engaging us and trying to get us to buy more of their crafts, but once the reed boat left (with a lovely “Hasta la vista, baby!” from the islanders), the people started tidying things up.

They took apart the model island they had used to demonstrate how the islands are constructed, and straightened the blankets on the reed bench where we had sat. As soon as the next boat full of tourists approached, though, the women went to the edge to wave the boat in, helped the people off the boat, and directed them to the same semi-circle. The tourists arrived with giant cameras in hand, and I felt as though we were leaving the zoo, or some strange show that was stuck on “replay” as long as there were tourists willing to participate.

We´ve heard various stories about the validity of what we witnessed- that not all of the people actually live on the floating islands, that they sleep on land at night; that they only continue living on and maintaining the islands to benefit from the tourist industry (that they´d “modernize” and move to land if it wasn´t for tourists); and other things. It´s amazing that the islands still exist, but the way we tourists can see them seems so insensitive and exploitative.

We spent the rest of the day either on a bumpy boat or climbing around on a second island, Isla Taquile. It´s a natural (non-floating) island, and despite the spectacular views, not worth the 2.5 hour boat ride and 2.5 hour ride back to land just to hike up and down and spend a lot of money on lunch. We did pose for the famous arch, but were pretty happy to board the boat again to head back to Puno. Matthew has been suffering pretty intensely from the altitude and went to bed when we got back to the hostel.

We decided to take it easy today and are checking out some things around Puno that we couldn´t see before because everything is always closed Sundays. Tomorrow, if things go as “planned,” we are heading to Cusco via Inka Express, a bus company that boasts of panoramic windows and a guide that can give us some history on our way. We´re hoping that the decline in elevation between Puno and Cusco (which sits at a comfortable 3,326 meters) will be a good thing.

Arica!

$300 coke in Chile

Cathedral designed by Eiffel
Tacna Arch

Sealions off Ilo coast

Ilo

I now have an additional 180 more days to spend in Peru, exciting huh! The journey to Chile was actually pretty simple. We hopped on a collective taxi and away we went. The taxi only cost a total of 6000 pesos. Sara was really strugglling with all the zeros. For example a soda was $300 (the symbol for the peso is $) and our bills came out of the ATM in the 10000's. The highlights of Arica include a cathedral designed by Eiffel (of tower fame), the most amazing beer I have ever had named Kunstmann. I had a honey beer and highly recommend it.

Arriving in Chile was a bit of a shock because that invisible line called the border is like a barrier that separates 2 worlds. While in Peru I have not really noticed all the culture surrounding me. I definitely see the differences of Peru and the US, but I am not really aware of cultures that differ in South America. While in Chile I realized it lacked that cultural richness of Peru. Chile has been a country totally influenced by the West. They have McDonalds and Blockbuster, they do not have an identity solely their own. They have had wars supported by European nations to help them defeat their neighbors, but these wars also defeated their identity because they became forever influenced by a far off land.

After our trip to Chile we visited the JV's in Tacna. They were easy to find, we just asked the bus driver to take us to their neighborhood then asked where the gringos lived. Tacna is also home to a large arch. I once shared my photos of STL in Ilo and someone commented that Peru has an arch just like STL. They were unaware how large the STL arch is.

We are about to travel to Puno, a town that sits on lake Titicaca, the route we are taking is described as a rough route only fit for hardy shoestring travelers. We are going from sea level to 3830 meters. Should be fun! I just hope Sara doesn't get sick again...We will update again with more bus ride tales.

We´re Cooking

From what I understand, it´s sort of a tradition for visitors to cook a meal for the Valenzuela family, so Matthew and I agreed with gusto. Yes, with gusto.

This task proved to be more difficult than anticipated. Deciding what to make with a different selection of ingredients for 6 people was a challenge. The only thing I can make with confidence is the Sweet Potato dish I make every Thanksgiving. Matthew decided on a stir-fry with peanut sauce and chocolate chip cookies. Pisco Sours for dessert.

Then we had to find all of the ingredients. It helped having Enrique accompany us to a supermarket where we could scope things out and return later to buy many of the items at once. It also helped to know the Spanish words for things like "baking soda," "cinnamon," and "peanut butter." The most difficult ingredient to accquire was pecans, for the sweet potato topping. For future reference, they´re called "pecanas" and apparently aren´t all that common, so are 50 soles per kilo. Luckily, I needed only 5 soles worth.

When we were ready to cook, we came to the kitchen equipped with the recipes, ingredients, and my Peru travel book, which has a conversion chart in the front. Fortunately, the meausring cup we used actually had "taza" (cup) measurements! Unfortunately, the temperature conversion chart didn´t go higher than 70ºF, but we were happy when Gladys returned home from some errands and lit the gas oven for us. She laughed and told us she didn´t need temperatures because she had been cooking for a long time.

Though we had a few minor issues (i.e. realizing we bought unsweetened chocolate bars to chop for the chips in the cookies...tasted like wax, forgetting we wanted to make rice and buy bread), the dinner turned out fantastically, even though everyone was surprised we were cooking with peanut butter and without salt. Gladys was a huge help, offering to chop veggies for the stir-fry, anything we needed for the dinner we were trying to serve as a treat. The Pisco Sours were delicious. And guess what I had for breakfast? Yes, leftover sweet potatoes.

Yunza

You will never guess what we did over the weekend. It was so bizarre that writing out a multiple choice question to be answered would be similar to playing the game Balderdash...you would think I was making it up. So I will flat out tell you what we did. We attended a Yunza festival.

Yunza...whats a yunza? This was my exact question when I was told that I would be attending one. I can not fathom a way to explain it so I will give everyone the luxury of reading our hourish by hourish headlines of the day.

People log: Gladys-Host Mom, Lucho-Host dad, Enrique-Host son

Saturday 27 Feburary
4.30 (a.m.) Sara wakes up from the noise of neighbors fleeing Ilo.
6.00 Matthew wakes up from horn honking bread man.
8.00 Everyone eats breakfast wearing their ugliest clothes.
8.02 Sara yells at Matthew for eating too much bread.
9ish Running a bit late, we catch a taxi to travel to Lucho's work to meet the rest of the Yunza fiesta gang (all of Lucho's co-workers).
10ish A bus arrives, it looks like a 70's party bus with flowers on the side. We load it up with people, food and beer. Sara's head rest is broken.
10.30 While riding the bus the back of our seat falls apart, we nearly fall through.



Paprika!
11ish..or something We arrive in Ica to batches of bright orarnge squares which we later learn are sun drying preprika. Greeting us at the house of Yunza are several goats (one that tries to bite us arriving passenters), some sheep, and a pair of friendly turkeys.
Times from here on are estimated due to activities that follow
11.30 Some men depart to find a tree while Sara and I blow up balloons and make some water balloons. Two women dig a big hole.

11.50ish The men return with a freshly-chopped tree and I launch a water Balloon at Enrique. Balloons, streamers and gifts are tied to the tree.
12.10 The dragged in, cut down tree is re-planted in the hole.

Lucho re-planting the tree
12.12 A water war breaks out, their are no survivors.
12.13 Beer is opened, with one cup that is passed around. These are 675ml bottles. War continues, kids fling water balloons in every direction while adults walk stealthily with buckets of water.
12.24 Sara is attacked from behind by one of these stealthy adult, she runs towards me but slips in the mud, I douce her with ice cold water. We are both dripping wet.
1.15 War intermission for corn and cheese (chichlo con queso) and more beer opening.
2.00 War continues, bottle passing continues.
2.11 A soccer match is organized in a nearby basketball/soccer field. I scored 2 goals.
3.30 We all return to eat a massive lunch of rice, potatos, salad, beer, soda and chicken. Sara was determined to eat the whole thing.
4.00 Sara ate the whole thing.
4.08 People start dancing around the re-planted tree and a dizzy ring of dancers is formed. Several bottles are bassed around the spinning ring of dancers. The ring is centered around the tree and an ax.
4.09 Streamers tied around the neck and arms are added to the spinning dancers.
Gladys and Sara drinking and dancing and spinning around the tree

4.11 Spinning, dancing, drinking and chopping at the tree continue.
4.15 Purple skin paint is added to the spinning, dancing, drinking, and chopping.
4.20 The axe is passed form person to person, spinning drinking and chopping continue.
4.27 The tree is whittled down chop by chop, person by person.
Timber!!!

4.43 A man whacks the tree and it slowly crashes to the ground(he must host the party next year because he is the one who fell the tree). Kids flock to the tree to snach the prizes tied to its branches.
4.45 War starts again. Sara and I get soaked after our clothes finally dried from the morning.
4.52 Somewhere in the mix Sara is drenched with mud, her white shirt is now a fashionable color of brown.
She looks so pretty!

5.12 Clean up begins.
5.48 We climb back on our 70's bus, with more people. Bottles are passed around, even to the bus driver (he refused).
6.01 We find a fellow dancer whose car broke down on the way home. We are now a 70's bus towing a car.
7.55ish We arrive home.

So a Yunza is a festival where you gather a lot of people, cut down a tree, pass around drinks, re-plant the tree, eat a lot of food, and take turns re-cutting down the tree. Now you know.

Some facts and odd occurences unrelated to Yunza that I would like to share with the world:
1. I saw a hat for sale that said "St. Louis Zoo" on it.
2. We purchased some peanut butter from the market and it was made in Skokie Illinois, where my grandfather lives.
3. I can now complete the rubics cube in just 2min 26 seconds!
4. Sara saw a shirt for sale that said "Ohio State" on it.

Camera Update (Yes, there is more): It broke again and I think for good unless we order the part...I am very frustrated.