May
5th, 2018
Sunny
day, Cloud builds once more, thunderstorm in the mid-afternoon then
dry
Well
my host, Moises doesn't leave my side for the whole day. After
breakfast, a beautiful breakfast of eggs, bread, some sort of wrapped
in leaves food, coffee and herbal tea, we both go for a walk to the
top of a nearby hill that has ruins that were built before the Incans
came to Peru. Fabulous views of the valley and Moises wonderfully
knows the names of the plants and what they are used for medicinally.
Moises delights in telling me that the trail is an Incan trails,
hundreds of years old.
There
aren't many birds, well other than Rufous-collared Sparrows, which
are everywhere. The occasional Sparkling Violetear and Giant
Hummingbird on the hill slopes, the occasional Variable Hawk and
American Kestrel circling overhead. Four passing White-collared
Swifts
are new for the Green Year list.
On
returning to the village we go for a meal in a cafe in the village
plaza, which is delicious; a big bowl of some sort of soup with pasta
in it and then a plate of chicken and rice. All this is followed by
some sort of tea that is supposed to aid digestion. Great.
Whilst
in the cafe the brass band comes in. The village is celebrating
something to do with the crucifixion at the moment and the brass band
men, all in very smart suits and some with ties, come in for the same
food with their instruments placed beside them. One musician, named
Elvis, sees my camera and wanted a photo. No problem. Photo taken. I
ask a trumpet player whether he could play any Louis Armstrong tune.
He has never heard of Louis!
Anyway
meal finished, off we go to the 'party' where there are three superb
young people, Jonathan, Diego and Griselda (Gladys!), who are trying
to sell their photographs of birds and scenes from the area. They
give me one of a Peruvain Sierra Finch as a gift. Anyway we have some
fun but with the band in the cafe there is no music. People are just
standing around, waiting for band to arrive. I ask Jonathan, one of
the young people, if he has any English Rock Music on his car stereo.
Brilliant! U2 songs played loud with me showing the Peruvians how to
dance to the music and trying to get them to sing the songs!
Elevation!!!
I
even go and get the lady selling ice creams to dance with me. She
does! It was such a laugh! I am worried that some of the Peruvians
filmed my dancing and singing. Viral material it isn't.
Anyway
just as we could hear the band coming along the village streets
playing their loud music, a thunderstorm arrived. Shelter!
After
the storm, in the late afternoon and into the evening, the band are
playing as people dance the local dance, well more like a shuffle
really. With the ladies beautifully dressed with lacy tops, large
flowing black skirts and very colourful shawls and the men in a suit
and white shirt they kind of shuffle around each other in a charming,
loving way. One of the men is very drunk and insists I dance with his
tiny, laughing wife. So I shuffle around and we laugh together. On
trying to just be one of the onlooking crowd, Jonathan sees me. He is
standing their with his aunt. Next thing I know I am dancing with her
and she is not one to dance quietly. Oh no, she is whooping and
shouting for all to hear!
As
if this wasn't enough for a shy, retiring birder to cope with, Elvis
sees me and gives me his Euphonium to play. Now this was the
instrument that I played for a short while when at school so I blow a
few notes, trying to go along with the music. I am awful but people
laugh and some rather drunk men come to give me beer for my
performance. One man keeps saying that his name is Johnny and he
keeps filling the glass with more beer for me to drink. It must go
down in one of course. Then the tuba player insists I played his
instrument. Gosh it is heavy but I have a go.
Now
as if this isn't enough and boy was it fun, the real reason for
everything is to cut down two tall fir trees decorated with balloons
and decorative blankets, as part of the crucifixion celebration that
they have here in the village every year. One of the dancing couples
holds a twig from a fir tree and decides upon which other couple are
to participate in the tree felling next. The chosen dancing couple
are given the twig and they then have to drink a glass of beer each.
Once the beer is drunk they are then given an axe and have so long to
try to chop down the tree. After a few moments they have to stop and
return the twig to the holders of the twig who pass it on to the next
couple to have a go and so on. Well eventually the first tree comes
down amongst the dancers and luckily missed them all. This was a big
tree! In fact one dancer was killed last year by the tree falling on
him but what the heck, this is Peru! Carry on regardless.
People
immediately run to grab the balloons and blankets amongst the
branches as souvenirs and very young children climb onto the branches
to bounce on them.
First
tree down, I help to drag it off the dancing area for the dancing to
continue and the next tree to be chopped down. Twigs, couples, beer
and chopping, it takes about half an hour before the next one comes
down too and luckily no one is killed this year!
By
now it has started to rain again during all this but the dancing
couples just have large umbrellas and carry on. The original wife and
very drunk husband just cuddle underneath theirs and you could see
how much they loved each other as they danced. He doesn't stop
kissing her hands.
So
with second tree down and rain falling heavily Moises and I go back
to his hostel where he makes me coffee.
Now
the villagers, dancing with the same band playing music, will carry a
large, beautifully decorated crucifix on Wednesday next to the top of
the hill Moises and I went up this morning. There the crucifix will
stay until next year.
What
a wonderful day with such happy, loving people. I love Peru!
Green
Year list : 185 birds average new birds to list per day : 5.29
birds
Distance
walked : 2.98 miles
elevation
: up 713 feet, down 713 feet
altitude
: 11,004 feet
No comments:
Post a Comment