VIP in Arequipa

---

all week long the people of Arequipa (Peru´s second largest city) have been celebrating the 468 anniversary of their city. There were many parades and fireworks. One night Diana and I were able to watch the parade from a restaurant balcony, where after some beers were joined by two nice ladies, one local and one from Arizona!

At the end of the week, it was time for Diana to start her journey back to Miami via Lima. It was sad to see her go, and because the flights were packed, she was not able to go to the music festival with me.

My friend Pepe Alva is a musician who was performing at the festival with many bands. After finally getting a hold of him, we met at his hotel where I met his band and we were whisked by minivan to the festival.

As we entered the backstage area, the security were checking the badges (Pepe and I didn´t have one) and the guy looks at Pepe and asks ´where is your badge?´and he says ´soy pepe´after about 20 seconds of back and forth we were let in, after all, there is no show without the star! as we passed more security the band were pointing and yelling, PEPE in different tones and volumes, hilarious!!

Pepe´s band has five members and 4 roadies. So imagine me backstage with 9 guys!! I could feel the nervous tension in the air as Pepe was showing me how to work the videocamera to tape some footage for him. After some fooling around and getting pumped up for the performance, they went onstage. I have never been in the wings during a rock concert, so amazing!!

After they were finished, the free beers and food started pouring in and Pepe was being interviewed by the Peruvian TV. There was a large flat-screen in the room and we could see all the televised action. There were three bands after Pepe and we all went out to see the last band, called Molotov (from Mexico). Totallyawesome!!! we were all down in the front dancing and singing like no tomorrow!!

One of Pepe´s roadies could be mistaken for Pepe if you never met him before. Many people were making this mistake and posing for photos while Pepe was standing right there. We were pissing ourselves making up names like ´pepe dos´and ´pepe double´. how people could get the two confused, I do not know, but no one seemed to care or take it seriously!!

on the cab ride home, Pepe explained that he was busy but was jealous that I was able to see more of his country than he. I invited him to take some time so we will see!!

---