San Blas Festival, Cusco

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Feb 3rd 2010, The San Blas Festival, Cusco

Its Carnival season, Time of joy merriment, dance, music and lets face it lots and lots of loopy juice, Back in Cusco and the San Blas festival is in full swing, Latinos take this time of the year very seriously, its the last blast before lent and nothing is spared in terms of gaudy costumes, great street food, deafening music and copious amounts of alcohol most of which would be illegal in most countries, San Blas is in one of the oldest areas of the city, its main centre is its church a pretty square and a modern water feature which surprisingly compliments its crumbling surroundings, on a normal day the square is full of artisans selling a wide variety of often beautiful wares but tonight, not the case.

The church is decorated with red lights, a banner of silk fabric and gaudy silk flowers, a stage had been erected and close to the water fall an elaborate yet to be lit display of highly flammable fireworks, children run in and out among them as the so called pyrotechnitions finish adding fuses and such, again safety issues are not top of the list here in Peru.

Colourful revellers danced with scary masks and outlandish costumes, Women in beautiful full multicolored skirts and blouses wearing life like masks, the men danced with bells on their long dick Turpin like boots as they danced wildly to the beat of drums and a brass band who were not getting it together I suspect due to the consumption of large amounts of the wonderful chicha (a type of moonshine made from fermented corn), no one seemed to notice as they pulled us along to dance, passing us around the group with cheerful abandon.

Above on the steps of the church, the Mayor and his entourage watched bemused and to me a wee bit sparkly eyed as he watched over his constituents, He too was wearing a beautifully embroidered sash as did his wife and his associates.

The crowd was mostly made up of indigenous people speckled with a few tourists brave enough to brave the barrage, As the fireworks ignited to roars from the crowd I found myself just several feet away from them, John took photos, I covered my ears the sound was deafening and when a piece of debris hit me in the face I thought it best to retreat, After it was over I couldn't hear a thing for a few minutes, Is that shell shock?

Other smells emerged from the smell of tnt, that being skewers sizzling on half barrel BBqs, Cholo (fried andian corn thats not sweet) Jackets potatoes, tripe, a feast of aromas for the senses, the dancing continued at a fenzied pace around the square and another smell filled the air, Urine, Piss, Pee you get the picture, the side of the church was a urinal, men turned their backs and relieved themselves as women dropped their drawers which abandon and got on with business, When you need to go, you need to go.

I needed the smell of the pigfat, sizzling pork skewers called me mmmmmmmm crackling. I watched as the river of Pee ran under the feet of the excited dancers I decided I needed a beer, Women lined the pavements with barrels full of beer resting in buckets of Ice, It would be rude not to, these bottle are 1.1 litters, God almighty………….why, its a bucket of beer, Not wanting to let the side down I went for it, Shit Im gonna need the Church wall soon.

We decided to go before it got really messy, my last vision in the square was a little boy of about 2 clutching a beer bottle and dancing his wee heart out, Maybe they start them young here.

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