Pisac and protests

There is never a dull moment in Cusco. One of the interesting things about living next to one of the 7 wonders of the world is that people are always coming and going, from all over.

With the band, we are continuing to work hard, putting together new songs and improving the songs that we already know. Sometimes we get hung up watching videos on youtube, for inspiration, other times hung up in our differences in how to interpret the songs, other times, the neighbor brings us chicha and we all put down our instruments and talk and make plans for the future. Last Sunday, we played a show in a bar called Illapa. There were only five people in the bar when we were supposed to start playing, so the owner told us that he was cancelling the show. We decided to play a couple songs for fun anyways, and soon realized that two of the five people there were also musicians and so we just had a big jam session that went on for several hours. One of the people was a jazz bassist from Argentina, and the other was a guitarist and beat-boxer from Germany. The combination of those two, plus my band, plus two guys from across the street who heard us and decided to join in as well... it was pretty unbelievable. That´s the funny thing about Cusco, the norm is very unusual and unpredictable, but always something worthy of writing home about.

Just two nights ago, I was walking to the main square from my house (two blocks downhill of steep cobblestone stairs, a pedestrian ¨street¨), and I saw a very strange sight. Someone who owns a truck must have been inspired by Rambo and decided to drive down the stairs. They only made it a third of the way down before the stairs got very steep and they must have decided that they weren´t going to make it any farther, so they parked it. This was, of course, in the same block as the police station, so there was quite the commotion between the police and the truck owner. The police trying to find out why the man drove down the stairs, and the man trying to convince the police that he would just drive in reverse up the stairs. Unfortunately, I couldn´t stay to find out how the truck got out of it´s predicament, but I did get a picture of the comical event.

On Saturday, I went with my friend Fernando to a small town called Cusco in the Sacred Valley. It´s only 40 minutes away, but the climate is significantly warmer. There´s even a palm tree in the middle of the town square! This past week, they were celebrating the Saint Carmen (my ¨saint,¨ according to how everyone mispronounces my name). A saint day in Peru, or saint week, involves all sorts of parties that are a strange mixture of Catholic, traditional folkloric, and very non-religious traditions. For this party, there are parades that go on all day every day. There are several groups that represent different mythological stories, and each of these groups has specific costumes (very elaborate and colorful), dances and music. My favorite group is composed of Ukukus, which were a mythological bear figure. As the story goes, from way back, the bear was rejected from the world of the gods and spirits and was sent to live in the mountains. He wasn´t thrilled about having to stay in the mountains all alone, so he waited until the festivities began in the villages and all the people would get drunk, and then the bear would descend on the village to steal things from houses and capture a damsel to take back to the mountain for company. Today, the ukukus are dressed in an outfit made of a lot of shaggy black yarn and they run around the town stealing things from people who aren´t paying attention. The store owners and unsuspecting people just laugh when they lose something, as they get caught off-guard and they know the ukukus are around looting. At the end of the night, the ukukus rally everyone in the street and sell off all the things that they stole... of course, to buy beer. Amongst the things in the auction were: a watermelon, lots of baseball caps, signs from stores, and a bench. Everyone laughs a lot and has a good time. They even trying to capture a couple girls, who usually played along with the joke for a while. Here´s a picture of one of the more modern costumes that I don´t really understand:

There have been transportation strikes in Cusco this week, due to the fact that the government is increasing the fines that the motorists must pay for violations. Anywhere else in the world, people would just accept this, and try not to break the law, but here, people protest. The transportation unions declare a strike and everything must shut down... no cars on the road, closed stores and restaurants, etc. In the vegetarian restaurant where I eat lunch, they opened, but the left the shutters closed, the lights off and you had to knock on the door for them to let you in. There are large gangs of ¨cobradores¨ which consist of about 50 men at a time that roam the street and punish anyone who doesn´t observe the strike. This involves breaking windows of places that remain open and slashing tires and breaking windows of any car on the road. It´s pretty intense. The police try to stop these gangs, but are usually pretty unsucessful. Life in Peru.

It´s been great playing in the orchestra. We are preparing a concert of just Peruvian music for the Peruvian Independance Day. There are several pieces composed by Armando Guevara Ochoa, a composer from Cusco. His music is phenomenal, and has been forcing me to get used to all sorts of different rhythms and harmonies that aren´t in any Western music. I´m also teaching cello lessons to two of the cellists in the orchestra, which has been cool. It´s nice to have students taking lessons twice a week, they progress so much faster than students who only study once a week. A South American tradition that should be adopted in North America as well.