reunion party later that night. Beaches tend not to be the best place to reserve strength for a booze fest that will last until the next morning after a red-eye flight down the previous night and an emotionally draining event, but what the heck. Maybe I'm too used to my short trips down here and trying to squeeze everything possible into a day....Anyway, we headed out to the beach, stopping at a cevicheria near the beach for a little lunch first. Ceviche is a collection of wonderful seafood dishes that is essentially raw fish, clams, etc. that are doused with lime juice, spices, and red onions. The acid in the lime juice actually "cooks" the fish so that it isn't raw like sushi, but isn't really cooked. It's absolutely a must-try and I love to eat the stuff.
After chilling late in the afternoon on a beach that had a club nearby that was blasting club music over the sand, we headed home to rest up for the night. I believe that I took a nap, but I know that at around 9:00pm, we headed down Erika's street to try to find a taxi that would take us way across town to this place where the party was. I had absolutely know idea what it would be like, but I actually mentally drew a pretty accurate picture for once. Being in Peru, it was naturally partially outdoor, which is critical considering how hot and cigarette-filled clubs can be. I found out later that it wasn't actually a purely-Salazar family reunion, in fact anyone could attend that wanted to (if they bought a ticket). It was more of a carnival celebration of Cajamarcan culture. Cajamarca is a city in northern Peru where Erika's family is from and, incidentally, was where the Spanish conquistadors first met and decimated the Incas. But I won't go off on that tangent right now :o).
The reunion was composed of live-music playing traditional "huayno" music (I was briefly taught how the dance worked earlier in the day), hordes of Salazars (there are 14 brothers and sister's in Erika's dad's family, plus their spouses, kids, girlfriends and boyfriends, nieces, etc. ) who had
taken the 18 hour bus rides down from Cajamarca or other parts of northern Peru and basically none of them spoke much English - at least until later in the night after the beer had been flowing and a about two of them spoke a few words. There was a selected/elected King and Queen of the party, amazing demonstrations of traditional dancing (marinera and huayno) by nine-year-olds, and beer, lots of beer.In the midst of all of this, I think I violated almost all sanitary policies that could possibly be violated. I hadn't brought my bottle of Purell, I wasn't about to use the sinks in the bathrooms, and, best of all, was the way that the beer was drunk. People would buy cases of beer at a time that came with a single small plastic cup. People would kind of stand around and, after first opening the bottle of beer with their teeth (maybe that's why there are so many teeth missing here :oS ), they would take the bottle, pour a little bit of beer into the cup and pass the bottle along as a "toast". Then drink the beer in the cup, emptying the little bit of beer, backwash, and spittle left at the bottom after you down it, and pass the cup to the guy with the bottle, who would do the same. This happened ALL-NIGHT-LONG. We're talking about 8 hours! I was definitely impressed by how these people hold their liquor as it was the most beer I've seen drunk since my days at German beer festivals back in the day.
The beer also loosened everyone up so that it didn't matter if we didn't speak the same language, it was the perfect way to meet their family :o) . When Eri and I were "invited" to join a particular group of younger people, we finished our food, bought a case of beer (it was about $20 for the case), and brought it over, only to find that there were already two full cases there waiting to be drunk. And, indeed, it was drunken in short time! Interestingly enough, sometime around the time that the third case was being finished, I found my dancing shoes and sense of rhythm and did my twirling and stepping on feet with old ladies and girls alike.
One of the last events of the night was something I haven't seen before. There was a giant tree branch stuck into the ground and at the top there were "branches" and netting with a bunch of random clothes and plastic buckets and a bunch of other random things stuck the net. I guess it's sort of their version of a pinata, because when the branch was finally uprooted out of the ground, people went nuts for the stuff in the nets. I was definitely confused by this tradition but it was interesting to see. I think that people genuinely value the items for their utility, not just for the carnival value. How different me as probably the only gringo to ever attend this party sees the value of these items compared to the locals!
By six o'clock in the morning, I was basically destroyed so it wasn't a problem convincing me to head home. Apparently I had made some "amigos" at the party (some that Erika didn't even know) and apparently the family really enjoyed dancing and drinking with me, as I did as well.
It was quite a great, local event!
J. Riley, I had a splitting headache the next day :o)
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