Huancayo fiesta all the way every day-Gringos in the Mist

It turns out that I live in the region with the most fiestas. The last weeks only we have bumped into three. There was the San Fransisco celebration with parades,dances and kermis, the mega parade in the main street of the city on sunday and the yesterday we celebrated the 48 existence
of Chupuro a small town a half an hour away. Every celebration is marked by its own tradition, from very bright colored customs to more ritual outfits with mud and hay everywhere -voor een goede oogst pakt-. They also love dancing and most of the parades and festivals have big bands accompany them. -saxes, trumpets, family of the harp and the strangest blowing instruments- We landed up in Chupuro yesterday as Liz works their in a medical center and was asked to judge in a beauty contest. Yeppa Miss Chupuro 2008 was crowned yesterday. It was really funny, most of them were only 15 and were copy catting moves they had seen on tv.-spontaniteit troef- It was a bit strange seeing this kind of event as I am used on daily base to see kids who have become one with sand. Although, the water taps are fixed now so it is easier to motivate them to wash their hands for the moment. We also have a toothbrush lesson today to stimulate the use of this.
After we got the chance to eat cebiche this weekend -raw fish marinated in spicy lemon sauce=delicious- we discovered another local speciality yesterday, hot pisco -which the lady thought we absolutely needed to buy by the bottle. Pretty yummy but Pisco Sour is still my number one.
Sunday we had a pretty big adventure with destination 5000 meters, a glacier. It started of with a bag of coca leaves -for hight and strenght mar eigenlijk nt te fretten-, a guide with a rope and a bottle of sugar cane spirit, an offer for the gods, fog everywhere and a storm above our head. It was a thrilling experience with a lot of beautiful sights. In the end we were surrounded by a white carpet and icy "kraters". We suggested it was better to go back as the Peruvian security standards -the rope- didn't seem washed up against the elements of nature.
(The picture you see us jumping is the moment before we turned back. As you see you can't see anything execpt white. When asking our guide if it wasn't a good idea to walk back he sad yes-yes it is very dangerous here :-). I think he was just no longer able to think as he wasn't wearing a proper jacket nor gloves. He was most frozen of us all in the end) I was glad I had chosen the fish as lunch as you could see the carcas of the sheep hanging outside. -it should be really, really fresh-
Although I have seen a lot of carcasses the last weeks as Lizet is selling cow hart, a local speciality. The peruvian's tend to use everything of the animal;hart, intestins, heads, feet,... You name a part they name a dish.
The girl you can see on the picture is Liz, she is from Australia and is staying for 2 months.
Also new are Saab and her son , English indiërs, who are joining us for two weeks. So wednesday no chicken but a vegetarian indische dinner, wat een luxe!