Today is the first quiet moment since last Friday, the weekend in between having been rather hectic. I travelled to Cusco on Saturday and had fun in one of the markets looking for CDs and managed to find about 10 that aren´t in my collection, a couple of them DVDs of live concerts. Later after a bite to eat, we arrived at the Municipal Theatre and joined the queue waiting to go in. Although the show was supposed to start at 8pm people were still arriving half an hour later. Only when the seats were fully occupied did the concert begin.
It was well worth the wait though as from their first song - El Condor Pasa, followed by my favourite ´Porque estas triste´ they played for over an hour in the first half many of their better known hits, everyone was entranced and really enjoying themselves. At the half way mark the mayor of Cusco arrived on stage and presented a plaque to the band commemorating their 34 years of playing as a band. There was a 20 minute interval and then the band returned and continued the show. To hear Geraldo Arias Paz´s voice live was incredible, he has the sweetest and most beautiful voice imaginable - his brother Raphael Arias Paz was a virtuoso on guitar but the star of the show was the charango player, a real maestro of charango, especially since two of his fingers are missing on his playing hand - Donato Espinoza, who has also produced productions of his own, some of which are in my collection. Their final song was Él Minero´ their most famous hit and it was truly awesome to hear it live.
The show ended about 20 to eleven and we walked hurriedly to Kamikase club to see another live band - Pueblo Rebelde - a rock and andean fusion band who were also brilliant. Finally after being 7 weeks here I got to Kamikase club which is my favourite in all Cusco, and the drinks on offer were excellent - I chose pisco with maracuya (passionfruit juice) cocktail called Maracucha and proceed to down four of these large drinks throughout the hours that followed. Where else in the world could one buy 8 pisco cocktails for the low price of ten quid!
We danced to the band playing and then when the disco music started afterwards we continued dancing. I was with several other musicians, including those in the band who played, and we had a great time. I danced so much that if I didn´t lose weight that night I want to know why!!! I love kamikase club because they don´t play ordinary disco music but all my progressive rock favourites of the 70s and 80s, including Simple Minds and U2, as well as rock music from other countries, eg Rata Blanca, my favourite rock band of the moment who are from Spain but more famous in Spain. Before I knew it, it was 7 am, and not worth going back to the house to sleep. Several of us were going to continue to Pablo´s house outside Cusco but we waited and waited for a bus or carro and none came so I decided to return to Urubamba and sent a text message to Nohemy explaining this.
Back in Urubamba, I went to sleep for a few hours, setting my alarm for 3 pm, as I was meeting up with loads of musicians at 4 pm to celebrate Rosalio´s birthday. We went to La Chinita cafe where we meet up every Sunday and there followed another lot of dancing, all afternoon and evening until I was ready to drop with exhaustion about 10 pm. There were campesino families in the cafe and they joined in our festivities and one old guy kept wanting to dance with me, and one old lady took a fancy to Rosalio and had him up dancing time and time again. Everyone had a good laugh and when the cafe owner arrived with a big birthday cake a bit later one of the others shoved it into Rosalio´s face after he blew out the candle, which is the normal custom here!!! Then it was cut up and shared out amongst everyone there.
I was unable to drink any beer, still having a headache from all the maracucha cocktails the night before, and by 10 pm I couldn´t face another glass of coca cola, nor had the energy to dance another moment, so Daniel (Rosalio´s brother) accompanied me back to the house, saying the celebration would continue at his house in the countryside the next day and he wrote down instructions to give to a moto driver to bring me there.
I slept like a log after such a hectic weekend, and set out by moto to Daniel´s house about 1 pm next day. There I was warmly welcomed in and for a while we were sitting out in the cobbled courtyard drinking beers, with Enigma and other meditation music playing loud in the background, chickens wandering round us, one of which was so tame that I had it on my lap for a cuddle for a while. Children were playing on swings or in paddling pools and the wives were catching up on the latest gossip. Once the sun went down later we all retired to the lounge upstairs, from the window of which was an incredible view of countryside and mountains. We danced and danced, shared more beers, and had a chicken soup (Caldo de Gallina) prepared by Nohemy, Daniel´s wife, and I stayed until it started to get dark when Daniel put me into a moto to go back. They wanted me to stay longer but I knew it would have meant staying all night if I had, and I preferred to get back in daylight and get a good night´s sleep instead.
Today is a nice quiet relaxing day - sunbathing on the patio this morning, a bit of a siesta in the sunshine this afternoon after a delicious trout lunch, and more than likely an early night tonight! The rest of the week will be pretty quiet too, apart from watching a band play in the restaurant tomorrow, followed by a few hours in Cusco, and I will probably spend the weekend in Cusco with Nohemy and Alfredo, returning on Sunday and showing my face for a while at Carlos´s birthday party, especially if Daniel and Rosalio are there as they are my favourites of all the musicians. Earlier in the week I met their elder brother Valerio, who lives in Pisac but paid a visit home to see his family. It was fun to meet him and hopefully one of these days we will visit him at his home near Pisac which is on the banks of the river outside the town.
