It has been a fairly quiet week or so since I last wrote. I still visit the restaurant to see Beatriz and the others once a week and have started giving the occasional English lesson there. Wilber, the resident musician has moved to another restaurant and the one who replaced him doesnt play nearly such nice music.
Last week I went with Beatriz to see Wilber and Patricia´s new baby, 2 weeks old, a dear little girl called Yarina. You will see the photos in January when I next download. They live up the hill which climbs out of the valley in the direction of Cusco so for the first time I was able to take a picture other than from a moving vehicle. Unfortunately at 5 pm half the valley was in shadow, but I will visit Patricia again earlier in the day sometime and get some good shots then. They were both delighted with the dress, cardigan and booties I gave them. We were able to get a moto up the hill fortunately as it would have been a stiff climb otherwise but we walked back down just as it was getting dark. When we said our goodbyes Wilber said to come and see him play at Muna restaurant, that he was playing a fusion type of andean music along with Daniel, one of the Peruviandina brothers.
So I went there for around 1 pm next day, taking a moto out into the countryside in the direction of Ollantaytambo (from where one can get the train to Machu Picchu and Aguas Calientes). It was a beautiful place as you will see from the photos later - hacienda style and with the two musicians playing in the open air. I took photos of them playing and when they saw them afterwards Daniel said one of them would make a brilliant CD cover. There were two bulls grazing just outside the hacienda walls and I took photos of those too. I decided to splash out and enjoy the buffet and it really was delicious - I had alpaca stroganoff with fresh pasta and it was so yummy I went back for seconds. There were excellent puddings and coffee too. It was pretty expensive though, 70 soles which would normally last me a couple of days instead of just one lunch, but for the first visit I though it best to have the buffet. I have already ascertained that I can go there and just have a beer or coke and listen to the music and intend to do that once a week alter Christmas.
After they finished and packed up their instruments we walked up the road to a little shop and shared a large bottle of inka cola outside, with me cudding a baby duck and a puppy. Then we had to wait for a passing bus or moto for me to get back and when one arrived, Daniel hopped on the back of Wilbers motorbike as they were taking their instruments home and then meeting me in La Tranca Fija bar for a few beers. I had arranged to go there on Sunday to see Victor and Nora and the beauty of that bar is that in the afternoon it is in full sunshine with seats outside and a little alcove with 3 tables - I sat in the sunshine and they sat in the shade in the alcove and we chatted and shared a litre of beer. Daniel and Wilber arrived about half an hour later and I ended up staying with them a couple of hours and before I went we agreed to meet up on Friday and go to the live open air music concert here in Urubamba that evening, starting at 6 pm in the recreation field opposite the bus Terminal. William Luna being the main star, and five other groups playing beforehand, including Pueblo Rebelde, Sabor Latino and others.
The past two Saturdays I have gone to Plaza Tupac Amaru street fair – the first time with Nohemy and whilst there I bought Christmas presents for her and Alfredo – for her a lovely knitted bag she fell in love with and for Alfredo a pair of budgies in shades of pale green, pale yellow and pale blue, the male with black speckles on his wings. Unfortunately the male died two days later which meant I would have to go again before Christmas to buy another one. Unfortunately my lovebird escaped when children messed around with the cage doors, so with a large cage going spare it seemed an ideal gift for Alfredo as he is particularly taken with caged birds. That day the theme in Plaza Tupac Amaru was Arts and Crafts and there were over 50 extra stalls of beautiful handicrafts, the knitted bag being one of them.
On Friday I met Daniel and Wilber in La Tranca Fija bar at 5 pm, with the intention of going to the open air concert with them at 6 pm, but nothing in Peru ever starts at the time stated. We were still having a drink at 10.30 with no sign of any music – this bar being only a couple of hundred yards as the crow flies from the recreation ground. When it did finally start at almost 11 pm, it started to rain as well and I went off the idea of going there as I didnt fancy sitting on wet grass nor standing for hours on end and I know it would go on really late. Such events would be so much more fun if they were held in the daytime, especially now we are into the rainy season. In Urubamba it nearly always rains at night and is mostly still warm and sunny in the daytime. Knowing I was getting up quite early to go to Cusco next day I said my goodbyes and went home.
I went to Tupac Amaru Plaza this Saturday on my own as Nohemy and Alfredo had workmen for their extensión so were too busy to go with me. I dont mind going to Cusco alone as it only takes around an hour in a shared taxi, and is a short taxi ride to either the centre or Tupac Amaru once I get there. The theme this week was an enormous Christmas feria with over 100 stalls in addition to all the usual ones. My main reason for going was to see Churay playing music there. Daniel, Wilber, and Pedro are three of the eight members of that band and I was all set to stay there all day watching them perform. Unfortunately whereas the rain usually dries up by morning it didnt on Saturday and was still raining off and on. I watched them play most of the morning though until around 1 pm – they were playing Ecuadorian music which went down very well with the Christmas shoppers and they sold several CDs – one of which I bought to add to my collection as well. I had a nice lunch in the gastronomic feria and went back and watched a while longer but the skies were getting blacker and blacker and I eventually said my goodbyes and made my way back to Urubamba. Having made the decisión to return I bought another budgie in similar colours to replace the one which died last week, then whilst waiting for a taxi the heavens opened and it poured down, so I detoured into a nearby supermarket and stocked up on a few more Xmas goodies. I was back in Urubamba by 4.15 where it was warm and sunny, but the rains came back that night as usual.
Tourism is pretty low in Urubamba at the moment and many of the musicians are struggling. Because of this quite a few of them, including Wilber, Daniel and Rosalio are thinking of going on a tour of the beaches in Northern Peru for a couple of weeks. If they go they will probably leave on Monday and return for New Years Eve or maybe even sometime in early January, depending on how they get on. Because of that I will delay going back to Muna restaurant until I am sure they have returned as it is only for the music that I visit these restaurants at all, not for the food! Beatriz and I are going to visit Wilber´s daughter again on Monday though and if her husband has found time to learn what I gave him 10 days ago, I will test him on the English he has learned so far.
Things have been full of the Christmas spirit both here and in Urubamba in the past couple of weeks. They celebrate it in exactly the same way as us with Christmas trees and decorations, wreaths or bells on doors, trimmings, father christmases etc. Unfortunately I missed an excellent festival in Yucay on Friday in the daytime with troups of dancers from all over and lots of children singing Christmas carols, but there is a music festival there actually on Christmas day in the afternoon and I am planning to go to that. On Christmas Eve I will go into Cusco as there is a huge street fair around Plaza de Armas which will be interesting and worth a visit. If Juan and other musicians are playing that day I will probably watch them for a while as well. Tourism will peak for a while around Christmas and New Year before dying off again due to the rains. Although we still have warm sunny weather in the daytime in Urubamba they get a lot more rain in Cusco during the rainy season and tourism drops drastically, making life very difficult for all the musicians, restaurant owners, sellers of artesania etc.
I will write another entry early in January, by which time the photos taken over the past month will be available in the truprint album as well.
