Festividades en Cajabamba

So this past Sunday I went to my first festival in Cajabamba. I had a great time! First, I got to see La Danza del Diablo (The Dance of the Devil) which were put on by teenage boys wearing silky looking garments (while carrying flowers) and with a plastic mask propped over their heads. (In the picture below, I am modeling such a mask in the black shirt to the left.)

But the best part was when the Cajamarcans started the tradition of stabbing a really, really looong wood pole into a cement hole in the plaza. (Why not, right?) This thing stretched for a block 1/2. And someone even had the idea to attach a huge flag and neon electric-lit cross on top of it. To make matters worst, the men in charge of planting this thing into the ground were all getting drunk while figuring out how to do this. The concoction of choice--a homeade liquor called "Chicha" that is famous in the sierra. (I think it's made with fermented spit--yum--and can actually be dangerous if you make it too strong.) The only tools they had for planting were rope, wood, and manpower. (Yes, the word "shitshow" was not lost on me.) So while the drunk men were heaving away, I was standing in front of the church trying to figure out how this thing wouldn't come tumbling down on us all.

Fortunately for me, I didn't need much time to wonder. A minute later, the men had gotten it almost to an upright position when the pole started to sway and began to fall towards the church...ie where I was standing. I can't remember another time when I almost poop-in-your-pants panicked. The next moment, I was pushing, running, and screaming with the rest of the masses to try to get away. There were so many people that had the men not used all their drunken energy to save us all and upright the thing, I don't know if I'd be posting this blog now...alive and well. Whew! Only in Peru, right?

Well, the next hours afterwards passed by pretty uneventfully. The men somehow secured the pole into the cement though a technology of ropes and then they danced around it while pouring Chicha into the hole. Aw...my first festival in Cajabamba! And I must admit, if the Peruvians were able to do this just with a few pieces of wood and rope, then anything is possible in Peru!