Juleah comes to visit!

So recently I was lucky enough to have another visitor from the States. Juleah, a friend from college, made the journey out here and first stop was my site. We actually spent a good amount of time at my site, and didn't even spend the night in Cajamarca. This was because she too came during fiesta season, this time the fiesta in the neighboring town of Llapa. The ride to my site was horrific, and it didn't help that I graciously gave her the best seat in the colectivo, front middle and straddling the stick shit. There was hail, downpour, and a flat tire which led to the trip being an hour longer than usual. Once we arrived in my site I set off on a mission to find transport that night to Llapa for the fiestas. They were having castilos in the plaza of Llapa and I really wanted Juleah to experience these elaborate fireworks. However, most of the transport that goes there doesn't come back until the party is over...which would be 3, 4, or 5 in the morning. Luckily the mayor's son found out that I really wanted to go just for the castillos so he promised to take us in his nice truck, and said that he would leave after the fireworks ended. The trip there took less than 30 minutes in his truck and we got to Llapa around 8pm. However, the firework show didn't start until closer to midnight so we ended up spending several hours trying to warm up with this delicious sweet sugar cane alcohol drink called calientito. We also met up with Matt, the new volunteer in Llapa, who at this point had only been in his site for 3 days. After the firework show ended we were all tired and wanted to go home but we had to find our ride. Contrary to what he said earlier, he had definitely been drinking but assured us that "he drives better after he has been drinking because he is more careful." We debated for a while but ultimately decided it was safe to go back with him because who knew when the next ride would be available, and chances are those drivers would have been drinking too. An early ride back to Cochán was rare, and soon 15 or so people scrambled onto the bed of the pick up truck to catch a ride back.

We made it back to Cochán safely, and the next day it was back to Llapa to go to the bullfights. Once again we managed to find a free ride to Llapa, but this time it was slightly more uncomfortable. Instead of being inside a pick up truck, we climbed in the back of one that was filled with engineers inside. After a few moments on this bumpy road, the driver came out and told us that one of us (there were 5 of us) could come inside. They told me to go because of my broken foot but once the driver looked at me, he asked if someone skinnier could go instead. I told Juleah to go inside because she didn't look that secure hanging on the back of that truck, plus she's smaller than most Peruvians in my site. Once she got inside we realized how interesting the conversation would be because she doesn't speak any spanish, and they didn't speak English. To make things worse, the 30 minute ride turned into an an almost 2 hour ride because right before reaching Llapa, they decided to take a detour and take pictures of the road in the neighboring caserios. It's a very beautiful view riding on the back of a pick up truck in the mountains, but my body was very sore the next day from holding on so tightly. Once we finally got to Llapa it was time to eat some chicken. Real food! Yum! It seemed that all of Cochán was in Llapa, and this makes sense since there is generally nothing to do in Cochán. The bullfight (my 4th) was similar to all the others, with the exception of the 12 year-old matador. They brought this little kid out and had him fight with a baby bull. It was hilarious. The bull was so young and wild that it kept falling everywhere when it tried to run. The kid also fell a few times but there was no real danger so it was very entertaining. He didn't kill the calf, just used his hands to mark where he would have put the sword. (I found out later that the next day he did indeed kill the baby bull....I am extremely glad I wasn't there to see that.)

The 12-year-old matador falling and trying to avoid the bull.

Day 3 in Cochán consisted of a typical day. It was one of the girl's 15th birthday the next day so my friends wanted to make her a cake. This process took 3 days of talking about it, and then took up the entire day to make it. They made the cake in the morning, baked it in the afternoon (what a process that was, trying to find an oven), and then we decorated it in the evening. In between we also made some empanadas. I really wanted to make churros with the girls, but sometime during all my traveling the manjar factory left my town. I still can't get over that and I continue to mourn the loss. When we weren't standing around watching them make cake, I tried to show Juleah "around." This was difficult because I had discovered that my walking boot was not campo-proof and all the rocks on the roads had entered the foam sole and started to tear away at it, essentially leaving the hard plastic exposed. So the hiking in my site was limited to 5 minute walks on either side of my town, but because everything is on a hill, they resulted in nice scenic views of my town.

The finished product!

The last day was the quinciñera. However, before that started, my family killed a cuy for Juleah. They knew she wanted to try it so they went in their backyard looking for a nice plump one that was suitable for lunch. Unfortunately most of the bigger cuyes were either killed for the fiesta the previous month, were pregnant or had babies, or were hiding. After at least half an hour of searching, they finally chose 2 cuyes to kill. These cuyes were young ones so their skin wasn't so tough and leathery. It was actually rather hard and crispy, very good...like cancha (corn nuts), was what my host mom said. I've finally mastered eating meat and I've learned that it doesn't come around much so I devoured that cuy. I was even gnawing around the bone trying to get every piece of meat off. I didn't go as far as sucking the claws, but I was close to it.

Juleah and I at site.

So the quinceñera. Juleah told me that this was the highlight of my site. I had never been to one before so I was curious as to what it entailed. Things in my site tend to be less elaborate than in bigger sites, just because I am a little more campo. The party consisted of everyone gathering in one room with a dirt floor and sitting on benches lining the walls. Then they blasted cumbia and huayno music but most of the guests, 14-16 year-olds...just sat around the room looking awkward. Finally a few people would get up to dance, but unfortunately the girls outnumbered the boys by far. You can only dance with a partner so the whole thing was rather awkward. So what do you do to combat awkwardness? Bring in the beer of course. It was a rather weird experience to be sitting around a room passing the beer to my students. However there were adults and little kids there as well, and the beer didn't discriminate. I wasn't surprised to see my students drinking beer (although most of the girls just poured a tiny amount in the cup) but then when I saw a 9 year old pour half a glass and gulp it down, I was shocked. However, that is not appropriate behavior because later on when his parents found out he was drinking he was punished. Luckily I was excused (on account of my foot) from the awkward cumbia line dancing, where you don't look at your partner, but Juleah wasn't so lucky. She was a good sport about it and endured several hours of sitting and dancing with 13 year old boys. We finally excused ourself before 8 and said that we needed to go pack our stuff because we were leaving the next day. The party continued until 11pm...and it was a school night. The next day we made it to Cajamarca, explored the city for a bit and then headed to Lima on a nice cama-cama bus to begin the rest of our trip.

9 year old pouring himself a glass of beer. He filled it about halfway.