Ademir and his new bride Shirley have also been repainting the house and doing a great job of it. It looks so much better now, if only I can get them to do our room too.
The family got together with two other families in the area to put on a Santiago event. They hired an orchestra (Uncle Adam's Principes de Huancayo of course) and a place for the stage and the beer tent and had little booklets printed to advertise the event.
Here is Rocio with Michael dress up ready for the event
Kerly too
It was and all day and then some affair starting with a breakfast cooked next door and eaten in our garden. We had arranged a videographer for the whole event but despite giving him our three mobile numbers and two weeks notice, and phoning him two days before and the day before and the morning of the event, he never showed up. We did speak to him on the morning after the breakfast has started and apparently his wife was in a taxi on the way as we spoke and she would be with us soon. I hope she has lots of money because the taxi hasn't arrived yet. Scenic route I guess.
All the guests were given soup for breakfast and the orchestra played in our garden and a few warm up beers were drunk before everyone set of dancing to the next location.
This was great fun and not a little frightening as the roads were in no way closed and the passing cars lorries taxis and buses came very close and fast. There seemed to be a game led by the people at the front of the parade to make it as difficult and confusing as possible to get past us, by weaving the parade from side to side in the road. Our destination turned out to be a few blocks away where we stopped in the street outside someone's house while a tower of crates of beer was given away and drunk.
Some speeches were made and a little dancing before dancing on the the next location for more of the same.
Seeing the costumes I am sometimes surprised that all this seems quite normal to me now where at first in Huancayo I felt like I was in an edition of National Geographic. Two of these ladies are cousins of mine.
Although mostly drinking fruit juice Michael got into the spirit of the event.
This is how we spent the morning, dancing from on house the the next for beer and speeches. Somewhere amidst the chaos we managed to find another videographer and get them to come at no notice to find us and the video recording started. Around midday we made it back to our cousin's house on the edge of the city where a huge lunch had been made and where Rocio and I temporarily left he party to go find a veggie restaurant.
We found the party again after lunch they had all eaten and drunk some more and danced their way across Cajas Chico the small field with the stage in.
Here the Principes performed all afternoon and night and into the early hours. They really give value for money. More and more people came and a huge amount of beer was drunk and for an event with no amplification at all it was plenty loud enough.
Here are M
Michael (Aunty Gloria's boy) Christopher and another local boy giving a demonstration of Zapateado (Stamping dance) on stage with the band.
Rocio Michael and I danced and danced until quite late when it was time to lead Rocio's Mum and Dad safely home.
The video has come out very well really, despite a shaky start and I'll try to transfer some highlights from the DVD to post here.
But of course one day is not enough for Peruvians to party and early the next morning was the Cura Cabeza or Head-Curing, another breakfast and drinking event that went on in our garden all day. Much more beer was drunk and a wonderful local singer came to sing songs in Quechua with violin accompaniment from the violinist of the orchestra. I have recordings of this too and if you're reading an early version of this post you should check back for the audio enhanced updates soon.
It was decided somehow that the event should be taken out again on the the street and to a local park to play and sing and so we set out again. In fact the party got as far as the nearest beer shop and partied there and Rocio and I in fact had serious jobs to do (Michael health check up) so we left the party at that point.
The drinking went on in the street and in our garden all day and night and Rocio and I led our normal lives around it occasionally getting pulled back in to share a drink and a dance and mostly walking past with the washing up or going to the shop for cheese or whatever.
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