Last weekend was absolutely wonderful. We drove to Weymouth after work, leaving Bath at 4.30 pm because I had to wait for my friend Ann to arrive. She lives and works quite far from Bath but always comes to Bath at weekends to stay with her mother. The concert would start at 7.30 and I knew there was no chance to get to the Friday venue by then but was going to have a good try to get there as fast as possible.
The journey which normally takes 2 hours we managed to do in 1.75, then found the campsite okay, checked in (here was the only delay as we had to wait for someone else's problem to be sorted and this went on for 20 minutes, with us getting more and more impatient by the minute!) - then we had difficulty finding our place on the tourer tents part of the site - we had a map with numbers to go on but most of the places had the numbers missing! Finally we found it and time was marching on by this time and we managed to get the tent up in 20 minutes. By 7.20 we were on our way with a 20 mile drive ahead of us. Luckily we found our way okay and finally arrived at 8.15 at the actual venue, where we discovered we had only missed the first half hour of the performance. When our friends in the band spotted us they smiled and waved and even played my favourite song 'Pobre Corazon' which got me up on the dance floor in double quick time. The other people there were obviously really enjoying the band, many of them dancing, and there was food being cooked on a barbeque and wine and soft drinks and coffee/tea available. The band played until about 10 pm for the first half and were fantastic. When the interval arrived all five of them came straight over - Johnny the leader and his dad Julio were so surprised to see us after quite a long time - and I was thrilled too that the bass guitarist was Carlos Aguilera, an Argentinian from Salta who is also a friend, and we don't get to see him very often because he plays in several bands including rock bands, so is not always available for Kausary gigs. Marco from Chile is another old friend who was delighted to see us - he plays charango, cuatro etc, and I've seen him play with Quimantu and Amaru III sometimes as well as Kausary. The 5th member was a new guy, Marcelo, on the drums and it was really fun to meet him too - he came from Argentina 7 months ago and is really loving it here in England. Johnny said this line up is the real Kausary line-up who he always hopes are available for gigs and they certainly did sound really good. Carlos is recently married and his wife gave birth to twins who are now 5 months old and it was lovely to see pictures of them on his mobile phone and we hope to meet the babies and his new wife on one of our trips to London. His parents were over for a couple of months recently and I was really sorry to have missed seeing them - Javier and I stayed a couple of nights with them in Salta on our Argentinian adventure last summer and they are such lovely people. But they now have an email address which they check once or twice a month, so I am going to surprise them with an email and send the photos I took of Carlos during the performances. I will also send them printed copies by post.
The band played a second long set and this didn't end until midnight. Ann and I then went to Mary and Chris's house - these are the owners of a Peruvian shop in Weymouth who I have known for several years - who organise this charity event with Kausary each year, the proceeds of which go for educational purposes for children in remote highland villages in Peru. The band joined us after they had packed up their instruments and we enjoyed a few drinks and snacks with them before having to make our way back to the campsite. We got back about 2 in the morning and had a surprisingly comfortable night until morning.
We woke up to a fine day and had breakfast in the campsite cafe - this site was excellent with amenities - and we felt very safe there with our tent surrounded by many families on holiday. We decided to leave the car and get a bus into Weymouth as this would be a lot less expensive than parking the car all day. We spent a very enjoyable day - first around the town, and then the afternoon on the beach, before returning to the campsite in time to get ready for the second concert taking place actually in Weymouth that evening.
This proved another great event. The concert took place in a church and there were quite a few old people in the audience from a nearby home, being looked after by care people from the home, and these dear people enjoyed themselves with so much gusto that it was a pleasure to watch them. As soon as the band started they were up in the dance area in front of the stage and obviously enjoying themselves so much, so that many people were up dancing for the whole concert. Again, the proceeds from this event would benefit children in Peru and food and drinks were laid on in the interval as part of the ticket price. I had a nice surprise at this concert when Rosita arrived - do you remember my homeless friend from a couple of years ago - with whom I went to Edinburgh in 2003? I had not seen her for quite a long time except for occasional email contact, and she was really pleased to see me and came and spent the whole evening with us. My friend Ann does not dance but Rosita does so we danced a lot that evening. When the concert ended the guys told us not to go but to wait for us and that we could all go for a drink together afterwards. They just had to pack up their instruments. This took time so that by the time the van had been brought, everything stowed inside, and then the van reparked, it was too late to get a drink in pubs on that side of the river and neither of us wanted to head into the main part of the town. So we persuaded a nearby restaurant to sell us a few bottles of wine and disposable glasses and we sat at the tables in the main square and shared the drinks. Unfortunately it was a very windy evening and gradually we got colder and colder, but every time I got up to go they protested vehemently and we were persuaded to stay a bit longer, so that it was gone 2 in the morning again before we were on our way. When we eventually said our goodbyes we left the guys with Rosita who now lives in a caravan on a farm about 15 miles outside Weymouth and they were going to catch a few hours sleep there before continuing back to London early the next morning. Rosita is well known to all Peruvian musicians throughout the UK and they are all a good friend to her and help her out when they can, either by letting her stay in their homes for a spell, buying her a meal, or whatever they can do to help out. Rosita is a big fan of Peruvian music the same as we are, and has even learned to play panpipes herself and sometimes busks on her own, but also forms a band called 'Ninos de Los Andes' from time to time.
Yesterday morning I woke up too early at 6.45 so was still feeling tired after only 4 hours sleep even after a long shower. It was still very windy and even though the sun was shining I knew it would be warmer at home in Colin's sun trap garden than by the sea on the beach so we decided to head straight back. Dismantling the tent, when I removed the last tent peg it took off and we would have lost it if Ann hadn't done a rugby tackle dive onto it because the wind took it. By 9.15 we were on our way homeward and it was quite a pleasant drive. I had to stop halfway for a break because of feeling sleepy but we made it to Bath by 11.15, where Colin was quite surprised to see me back so soon. We went to lunch as usual and then I had a little sleep in the sun in his garden while he went to a local cricket match in the afternoon. All in all it was a great weekend and I am now looking forward to the next one.
