Baila para mí

Just by happenstance we were in Lamay during their Festival de la Virgen Santa Rosa. Its a small town, but everyone got together for this weekend long celebration. Here is the Santa Rosa:

All around the central plaza food stands were set up selling mostly cuy (guinea pig) and other foods. In the center itself there were dances. Lots and lots of dances. Actually there were about 16 planned for Saturday afternoon. Each dance lasted about 20 to 40 minutes it seemed. We watched about 5 and began to notice some similarities. For the most part each dance followed a similar cadence and flow. If they weren't stepping forward to rattle their ankle bells they were spinning or whipping each other with cords. Even the music was relatively the same, but the outfits...the outfits were different.

During the dances we heard the announcer say "And now a grand applause for our special visitors that have come all the way from the United States!" He was looking right at us and gave us the appreciative head nod. We felt pretty special with everyone looking at us. Then about 20 minutes later it happened again. Then 20 minutes later again. And again and again (sometimes he would include the visiting Spanish, Germans, and French). Eventually no one looked any more...and we blended right in again. They did have the pride of Cuzco there (this is actually Cuzco's flag and they had it first).

Accompanying each dance group was usually a small group of children that were learning the ropes (even the art of hitting each others shins with cords), but mostly they just stood and looked cuter than North American kids.

There were also plenty of kiddos in the crowd.

Inlcuding this one little friend who parked herself right there at our shoulders for the majority of the dances. We gave her some candy though maybe we shouldn't have.

Without a doubt we were treated to a very special appearance of who I will refer to as Doble S. There was something special about him. He stood out, not only for his righteous moves, but for his superhero-esque uniform complete with dragons and his namesake on his belt. Normally he wanders the Peruvian country side solving mysteries, fighting crime, and charming women. Now he was only doing that last one.

We left after 4 or 5 dances, but came back later that night to eat some guinea pig and catch the last of the dances. Things were substantially more inebriated at night and so we followed the last dance group back to their pad for the after party. Which consisted of more drum beating and rhythmic stepping so we carried on back to our place drank some inca cola and watched Rio Bravo before going to bed.

Pretty nice timing on our part. I mean not everyone gets to see so much Peruvian folkloric dancing. Its pretty engrained into our memories. Ask me some time and I'll show you how it goes.