About a week ago Rosalio and his wife and children called for me and we got a couple of motos to the taxi stand and then negotiated the cost of a taxi to take us high into the hills to a trout farm called Pumawanka. This involved a delightful drive through lush countryside, the road winding ever higher and higher with splendid views down to the cultivated plains below, against the backdrop of mountains, through pretty hamlets until we reached the trout farm. At first we were the only ones there and it was a beautiful setting with ducks and chickens roaming, two friendly dogs, and the trout ponds. We then had fun catching our trout with nets and the two kids aged six and one loved playing in the water of the troughs with running water that led into the ponds.
We shared beers at rustic tables under a thatched roof and took delightful pictures, all of us enjoying the peaceful ambience. When we had caught enough trout the farm personnel went off to cook it and when it arrived it was absolutely delicious, lovely white fish instead of the pink ones you get in Urubamba, deliciously served with potatoes, rice, and a varied salad sprinkled with lime juice and relishes. A bit later two policemen arrived, parked their car below and had loud music blaring and asked if we minded and we said, turn up the volume! And they did and they were on the next table and we had a lot of fun with them, sharing beers, and they took pix of us too. We were there about 5 hours altogether and such a fun day out together did us all good and we all felt better for it.
There were no taxis back so we walked for about 45 minutes, enjoying the scent from the eucalyptus trees, picking wild flowers, taking the odd extra pic in trees etc until we reached the first village where we had to move aside as two bulls were led past us by an old andean man and woman, and then we were able to catch a couple of motos the rest of the way back, which would have taken a further half hour or more had we continued walking.
A couple of hours later Rosalio called for me again and we then met up with Socrates and Jose Luis and we walked down to the local football pitch, that night transformed into an enormous ballroom with stage and beer tents, where three live bands would be playing. The football pitch was packed with thousands - all ages, young and old, and beer and soft drinks were on sale. My favourite of the bands was the second one - a group from Ayacucho fronted by a singer called Milder Ore - I did not know his music until arriving here but I have bought two CDs since my arrival and that night I bought their latest one too. The first band was fronted by a singer called Rosita Bocangel who I wasn’t too impressed with, who was singing mostly huayno music, and the main band were Los Puntos del Amor, a cumbia band from Juliaca which is another form of music very popular here – not my favourite although it is very lively and good to dance to and I did a lot of dancing that night, with the guys accompanying me as well as others who joined up with us throughout the evening. We were there six hours altogether from arriving around 9 pm until the show finished at 3 am, by which time we were pretty tired. I was dreading leaving in case someone laid in wait to ambush us, me being the only foreigner among thousands. We left while the band were still doing their encores to get a headstart on the crowd, and much to my relief there was a row of motos outside awaiting passengers and we were able to make a swift getaway.
The only downside that day was being bitten to death around my ankles by mosquitos at the trout farm! All this time no sign of any mosquitos so I stopped taking my tablets and I was therefore unprotected and the next day I managed to find the tablets and get started on them again as it takes a week to be fully protected and any time there is rain there is more of a risk of mosquitos. Not only that, sometime in November the rainy season will start.
Also recently we went to the baby shower organized by Jose Luis and his wife whose baby is due in about 3 weeks time. Jose, the proud Dad is a lovely man and his wife is gorgeous too. Of all the women she is definitely my favourite. I bought a lovely pale green knitted outfit (cardigan, leggings, bonnet, bootees and toy duck for a baby bath) plus a soft fleecy pale green wrap with a hood for the head with a teddy bear design on it,and two lovely pairs of baby socks. The baby shower was held in a small community centre in Yucay - we arrived at 4.30 in the afternoon and were given dinner - it actually started at 6 o clock but we got the time wrong, but it didn´t matter. I had no idea then that we would be there over 12 hours!!!!
The other guests arrived and it was a truly fun evening - in addition to snacks being brought round all evening, there was a clown who got everyone involved in funny things to break the ice and then later on the gift exchanging etc and the proud parents had bought crate after crate of Cusquena beer and there was lots of dancing, live music including various musicians getting up and either playing flutes or panpipes or singing, guitarists, favourite music on CD etc. Until 3.30 am it was fantastic but then the beer ran out and the guys decided to club together to buy another crate! They bought a crate of Cristal litre bottles which I never thought they would finish. I was falling asleep on my chair and all the women were calmly waiting for their men to finish the crate of beer. It was a long walk home with no transport so no choice but to wait. Loads of kids were asleep on chairs and there were no taxis so we faced the prospect of a long walk, the men carrying the sleeping children.
As it happened the crate was finally finished off at 5 am and we were then able to get a minibus and we all piled in and got dropped off at the garage on the main road in Urubamba, from where we could all get motos home. I slept well for 4 hours and felt no ill effects from such a short night´s sleep.
