Proof is in the Pudding

We decided last week that we needed some pictures of the bands that come march around town. It was a bit difficult to catch them in action as it is so often at 7 in the morning that they do their marching. But when we'd hear the bands come marching by our hotel, it'd wake us up and we'd hurry to find the camera (which was definitely more difficult than normal since we were half asleep). We finally got a couple pictures. One was obviously when we were in a bus.

Also, there was another festival a few days ago with a very informal parade and some more dancing on the beach, followed by a 'battle of the bands' type situation last night. There was some sort of rock band with Peruvian flutes that was my favorite. We had to stand in the back though as always so that Brian didn't block the whole crowd's view. Then Brian and I went and sat on a bench for a bit on the pier and two little girls came up to the bench and said "Regalame" and pointed to my water bottle. At first I didn't really listen to what they said and I thought they just wanted to sit and flirt with Brian, so I told them they could take a seat, but they just repeated "regalame" (which means "Give it to me" or "Gift it to me"). And then Brian and I realized what they said. I don't really even know what to say in that situation. Um no, thanks I like having water.

Moving Day

We're in our new apartment now. The apartment is farther away from where the bands are always marching, but I think that might be over anyway - it was possibly part of a month long fiesta in town. But really impossible to tell. The canons have really hushed as well. I won't miss that. The landlords seem nice. It's got an extra room. TV with English speaking channels. So happy to have a kitchen. Can't wait to get peanut butter. The bed is horrible.

All in all, I am just super bored because Brian has been sick for 3 whole days, like he barely wants to walk to a Bodega sick. We were hoping to go to Chan Chan this week, maybe Saturday. We'll definitely try to get pics of Chan Chan.

We found an apartment

We saw some signs going up for an apartment for rent, and they said that the landlord is European, so we decided to try calling the number. It took a while for us to figure out how to use the phones here, but once we got connected I got to have my first Spanish phone call. I got the address of the place, so we wandered over. The negotiation went down in a multilingual mess. Spanish was our only common language , the tenant and I could communicate privately in Dutch, and we could say phrases from TV in English and everyone would laugh. Here's a handy chart of who spoke what:

Language Skills Rated 0-4

	Dutch	English	Spanish	Italian
Landlord	0	0	3	4
Me	3	4	1	0
Tenant	4	3	3	0

In summary, this place is loads cheaper than staying in a hotel, which means more cremoladas and porn popcorn for me.

A healthy dose of culture

So, along with the Surfing Mundial this week, there is Huanchaco Culture Week. There are lots of events going on that have cultural significance, such as: Danzos de Huanchaco, Orchestra de nuestra senora de Socorro, Caballittos de Totoro races, and a Chinese Dragon.

Unfortunately we missed the orchestra last night because the lights went out and it was at night and we figured it was cancelled (but we did hear music coming from somewhere). We did make it to the Danzos de Huanchaco. Those were great; Well, some were weird and some were beautiful. "Los Negritos de Catambla (last picture)" and "Los Diablos de Huanchaco" were definitely the weird ones. I wish I could perform them for everyone. The other dances looked like traditional spanish dancing and it was beautiful. The chinese dragon thing we ran into on the beach last night and we got a truly horrible picture (because like I said the power was out, so no street lights) that I am posting anyway (first picture). The pictures of Brian and me are out on the muelle, but those are horrible too. Tonight is the "Escenificacion de la Llegada de los Dioses Moche" (or staging of the arrival of the moche gods). Follwed by fireworks and a performance by the band of the navy of Peru (rough translation). Super excited for fireworks!

Porn Popcorn and Zombie Dogs

 

 

The Burger

I decided to take a chance and order a hamburger at this gringo place called "My Friend" because I heard that they had big burgers that were decent. Now, I usually am left hungry after a meal here because Peruvians are half my size and eat proportionally less. I was very pleasantly surprised when this arrived at my table:

Weekend Activities

We went hiking out to this hill behind the city over the weekend. It's part of the town's celebration right now. It's the Cerro de la Virgen. I took a bunch of mostly scenery pictures. This is a great hill to check out the sunset over the ocean. I so wish we could watch the surfer championship from up here, but it's on the other side of the pier. The last picture has a mountain in the back that really reminds me of a mountain down by Elk Ridge. Every time I see it, it kind of trips me out. Today another celebration starts! Cultur A Viva Huanchaco. It's tied together with the Surf Championship. We actually have a pamphlet of stuff to go to for this celebration, so we can go to the events. Hoping to make it tomorrow to the Presentation of Dances. "The Devils of Huanchaco" and the "Negritos de Catambla" dances will be displayed.