On my way ...

It's just about 6 am and I'm sitting by the boarding gate at SFO, waiting to board the first leg of my journey to Lima.  I've got the laptop going and I'm posting from the airport - I feel like such a high-tech traveller!

Hotel reservations in Iquitos have been made.

Meanwhile, here in California, I am getting ready and mere days away from flying south.

Video: Takanakuy

Another one. This time it's about the custom of takanakuy.

In the province of Chumbivilcas, in the Cuzco region, Christmas is celebrated with partying, drinking, fireworks -like in the rest of Peru.  What makes chumbivilcano Christmas different is the takanakuy, which is a festival of ritualized hand-to-hand combat. 

Fights are one-on-one bareknuckled fistfights accompanied by huaylia music, and all strata in the community take part -men, women, young, and old.  Even kids.  Through  the takanakuy grudges are settles, stress is released, community harmony is retained, and the Earth is repaid for her bounty through  the fighters' sacrifice.

In this video, the host, Thomas, travels to Chumbivilcas to witness and participate in the takanakuy.


PART ONE:





PART TWO:

Video: Scissor dance in Andamarca

Just browsing the web today I came across this cool little video on danza de tijeras, or scissor dancing, in Peru.  The danza de tijeras is an age-old custom, as one of the musicians in the video explains, and is intimately tied to Andean veneration of the earth and the apus and wamanis (mountain spirits).

The video shows two travellers -Krishna and Anthony- who drive  from Nazca to the community of Andamarca, in Apurimac, to witness a tijeras competition.      It reminded me of stories my mom told when I was little, of danzaqs she had seen in her travels, who -she said- seemed as if they had no bones in their bodies.

I've got to tell you that what the show's hosts witness the danzaqs do in Andamarca is a far cry from the tijeras dances you'd see on stage at folkloric shows in Lima.

Off work for the summer.  The countdown to Lima has started....

Well, it turns out Liz's cousin's fiancée, who's a biologist at Cal Berkeley, will be in Iquitos conducting field study.  She's been there before and by the time we get there, she'll have been in the city a month, so if I can get in touch with her there, we should have someone who knows the lay of the land to give us recommendations.