It is now Boxing Day in Peru and things are pretty well back to normal already. Even yesterday was a normal working day for many, especially the moto drivers, carro and combi drivers, bus companies etc. In the past weeks the market has been incredibly busy every day with extra stalls selling panetone cakes and wine, toys and christmas trees and decorations.
I went to Muna restaurant again on Tuesday having been informed by Daniel that they had postponed their tour of the northern beaches until sometime in the new year. Unlike the hot sunny day last time it started to rain just as I got there and the musicians carried on playing until the first lot of tourists departed. They then packed up their instruments to transfer everything to the indoor restaurant and whilst they were doing this I wandered around outside and took a few more photos including of the beautiful indoor restaurant. They played for a short while longer to a few diners inside and then packed up and the three of us squeezed into a moto and returned to Urubamba (Muna restaurant being on the Rumi Chaca main road between Urubamba and Ollantaytambo) and went to Dinnos restaurant where the three of us tucked into the set menu of the day - two courses for a pound a head - of a chinese style chicken soup followed by chicken Spanish style. Several other musicians joined us and we shared a few beers which was fun. Then with just a few of them we went to El Encuentro bar for more beer, but I only stayed long enough to share one litre bottle with them before heading back home to play monopoly as usual with Nohemy and Alfredo but before leaving them they said they would be playing in Cusco again on Xmas eve and I said I would see them all again then.
On Wednesday I risked having my hair permed here, the old perm having grown out after nearly 6 months. It took 4 hours with the perm lotion left on for over 2 hours and I was worried about the affect it would have on my hair, but the end result was pretty good - a much looser perm than I normally have done, and is actually quite nice and my hair left in pretty good condition too despite the perm lotion being on it so long.
I really enjoyed Christmas eve in Cusco - arriving there quite early in the morning where I found the biggest Christmas market I have ever seen taking up every single part of Plaza de Armas. It took hours to walk around and see everything and I was soon regretting not taking more money with me, having even left my debit card behind, as there was so many beautiful handicrafts on offer and at reasonable prices. I bought a silver inlaid llama on a chain, real turquoise earrings, pretty christmas ornaments, a beautifully painted cup and saucer, a lovely handbag of embossed leather and textile, a pen covered in textile with a llama on top.
At 12 noon I met up with Juan and accompanied him to the Marques Hotel where he was contracted to play for the children - a party held there for the street children of Cusco - complete with father christmas and a clown and I got some great photos of that. It was fun watching the children and when drinks were brought round to them by waiters one of them offered one for me too!
Afterwards I said my goodbyes to Juan, and then headed off to have some lunch and partook of this at one of the temporary outdoor food outlets set up in Plaza San Francisco - delicious food at very reasonable prices - for less than three quid I enjoyed a huge bowl of kingprawn soup followed by roast chicken with my favourite pastel del papa (sliced potato layered with cheese and condiments and baked in the oven) and rocoto relleno. Then set off to find Churay and soon found them playing beneath La Iglesia de la Merced, within eyesight of Plaza de Armas and I stayed watching for quite a few hours. Later in the afternoon the skies got greyer and then there was a sudden thunderclap and the heavens opened and everyone scattered in all directions to find shelter. One of the things I love about Peru is the opportunistic sellers - within moments of the rain there were two vendors selling umbrellas and another selling rain ponchos!!! The band also sheltered under the same arcade as me and we chatted for a while, until the rain petered out around half an hour later. I then said I would watch until 5 pm and then make my way home and see them soon in the new year.
I left at 5 as I was worried in case of difficulty getting back to Urubamba and as it was I had to wait for a combi - there was quite a few people waiting - then a woman appeared saying there was a combi parked round the corner if anyone wanted to get to Urubamba and there was a mad rush to get a seat in it. Traffic was pretty snarled up in Cusco too, so that it was almost 7 pm by the time I got home, where I enjoyed a large mug of hot chocolate and hunks of panetone cake with Alfredo and Nohemy whilst playing our nightly game of monopoly. Everyone buys panetone cake here instead of the type of Christmas cake we have back home.
On Christmas day we had the traditional roast turkey and enjoyed this along with a huge jug of pina coladas made from pisco and fresh pineapple. Afterwards we packed up more of the turkey and other items, including a bottle wine and glasses, and got a combi to Yucay, the next village along from Urubamba, where every Christmas is an annual fiesta complete with live music performers. Their friends Hugo and Eva came with us too. We arrived in time for the huge parade which was brilliant, and stopped all the traffic whilst it took place, including several saints being carried by groups of men, dancers from all over Peru in beautiful costumes. Nohemy´s favourite was the Majeno dance where the men dress up with masks with long noses and dance holding bottles of beer. There was no way of stopping the traffic while this event went on as Yucay is on the main road that goes through the Sacred Valley with no other way to detour the village. As you can imagine the place was crowded with people and the sides of the roads were lined with old ladies frying trout or pork and others selling chicha de quinua etc - but seeing the bucket of dirty fly speckled water in which they were washing the glasses, we decided to give that a miss! None of the others wanted to pay the entrance fee to see the live music on stage and had I paid for all five of us I wouldn´t have had much left to spend, so we found a little cafe and went through to the patio, taking a table and chairs from the cafe to sit at and relaxed there next to a beautiful garden full of fruit trees and flowers - Yucay being a very fertile place. We lingered until well after dark enjoying litre bottles of beer and what was great was the fact that we could hear all the live music from there - I heard the music of the two I was most interested in seeing - Pueblo Andino and Max Castro - so didn´t mind missing the actual music festival - the main star was Rossy War who is not a favourite of mine. At 8 pm we were lucky enough to find a combi to get back to Urubamba - had we left it later it would have meant either a long walk or a taxi. Back at the house we had more turkey along with the bottle of wine before Hugo and Eva went home. By this time I was quite tired and glad to get to bed.
It rained all night and didn´t stop until 8.30 this morning and today has been a quite quiet and relaxing day really with games of scrabble before and after lunch. Tomorrow a friend is cooking a special Pachamanca meal for us whereby the food is cooked over hot stones underground and we are looking forward to that. On New Year´s eve I am going to a birthday party and on 6th January to another fiesta in Ollantaytambo.
The entry before this one has a link to my Urubamba 2009 photo album at truprint where you can see my photos from 1st October up until 21st December. I will add the next lot around mid January with all the Christmas and New Year photos.
