paint, water, and windows.

Carnaval in Catache:

let me tell you a bit about Carnaval…

this crazy peruvian holiday is held before the beginning of lent. the festival is nine days of dancing, eating, parades, costumes, drum circles, and water fights. everywhere in Perú celebrates this tradition of mayhem. but, the biggest and most popular Carnaval celebration in peru takes place in Cajamarca City… which is where all of us volunteers ventured off to last weekend to join the festivities - and it was loco!

one day is completely devoted to paint. mobs of people roam the streets throwing paint (in addition to the water balloons and water gun ammunition) at each other, and all of us were drowned in paint from head to toe (to hair, to ears, to mouths, to armpits…). is was a blast! it rained throughout the entire weekend, but none of us minded the weather because everyone was so wet and dirty anyways.

one of the nights, we all went out an extremely large dance party - and the next day was an elaborate parade, where people marched in costumes representing their caserío.

the parade:

on the last day, casandra and i decided to do some site-seeing in Cajamarca, which i had yet to do. we went to el Cuarto Del Rescate, which is the only Incan building still standing in Cajamarca. This is the room where Atahualpa was imprisoned.

Cuarto Del Rescate:

in the entrance to the site, there are some modern paintings of Atahualpa’s capture and imprisonment.

paintings:

after this, omar joined us, and we ventured off on a combi to see the pre-Incan Ventanillas de Otuzco. these are funerary niches built into a hillside (hence the name “ventanillas” or windows). when we arrived, we paid a little boy to give us a quick history of the structure, and then we went off exploring.

with our little tour guide:

Ventanillas de Otuzco: