Peru Day 10: Carnivale in Cusco

Sunday was Carnivale, otherwise known in Peru as Soak-Everyone-You-See-With-As-Much-Water-As-Possible Day. The main square is a soakfest. Teenagers hanging out of the back of trucks, cars, vans, llamas (just kidding about the last one) drive around the plaza lobbing water balloons and buckets of water at passersby. Tourists are not as amused by this as the locals are. I have to agree with my compadres on this one, having suffered at the hand of supersoaker.


On the way to my favorite Internet cafe, I was halted by a rather messy water fight (they also like to use this foam stuff in a spray can). I stood at the end of the alley contemplating whether or not to risk additional soaking when a couple of musicians struck up a conversation with me. The drummer, Elmer, was going to another Internet cafe and invited me along. While there, I called my mom (Hi, Mom!) and surfed the net for a while. Elmer and I finished about the same time and he invited me for juice at the Mercado San Pedro. So I went.

Sadly (for the local kids), the rain hit the city HARD that afternoon. I was sheltered in the market and we decided to extend drinks to a meal at one of the stands. He ordered for both of us and what I got was an omelette on top of a bowl of white rice (surprise), tomatoes, avocadoes, papas fritas (French fries) and plantains. Add a little spicy sauce to that and you're golden. Gotta take Mike there.

Elmer walked me to a cab and asked me to come hear him play one night. We'll see...

For the limited activity, it was an exhausting day.