Carnavales!

Following the conclusion of our training in Lima, several of us piled on an overnight bus to enjoy a vacation in Cajamarca. Each year before lent, Cajamarca explodes with energy as the city celebrates Carnaval, a unique festival unlike anything else I have ever experienced. Cajamarca is a beautiful city in Northern Peru, surrounded by rolling mountains, blue skies, and traditional buildings. After arriving in Cajamarca we decided to take advantage of some site-seeing before the full-on Carnaval festivities began. We climbed up hundreds of stone steps to the church of Santa Apolonia, which provides an incredible vantage point of the city. After enjoying some of the sites of Cajamarca we decided to stock up on our ammunition for the weekend. We loaded up on water guns, water balloons, and paint as we geared up for the following day’s festivities.

During Carnaval thousands of people flood the city to engage in an epic paint and water fight. There are no rules governing this ridiculous event, and anyone in the streets is fair game. At 10:30 on Saturday morning the official war began. We purchased incredible paint-suits for the big day, which we proudly wore to breakfast and through the entire day. As soon as we stepped out of the hostel we were bombarded by small children with water balloons, and the excitement didn’t let up. As we made the trek to the other hostel we were surrounded by parades of paint-throwing teenagers who were more than happy to splash our white paint-suits with a rainbow of colors.

We began the day on the hostel balcony, armed with a stash of water balloons to hurl at unsuspecting passersby. We later joined the swarms of people crowding the streets, and paraded around Cajamarca for hours, dancing to drum beats, singing along to Peruvian chants, and embracing the ever-flowing streams of paint and water. Strangers happily smeared paint on other strangers, and no one was safe from the combat; small children, old men, pregnant ladies: all were fair game.

Although Saturday was the most intense day of celebration, parades and events continued throughout the weekend. After Saturday’s events we toned down our festivities some and enjoyed some of Cajamarca’s good restaurants and cafes, and the thermal baths at Banos del Inca, but we were all targets of water balloons when we least expected it. It was quite a memorable weekend.