I arrived in Cusco safely two days ago. It's a truly beautiful town, surrounded by green hills with small houses built into them. It's like looking at a painting. I'll give a more full account of Cusco so far later though, as I'm preparing for Machu Pichu tomorrow!
Anyway, my last two nights in Lima I went to two different peñas, venues in which they have live performances of all kinds of Peruvian music. After a nice dinner, my friend Eliza and I went to this place called Oita Noma. This place was more like a restaurant/peña, on a smaller scale I think than some of the other more famous ones. The sign was somewhat bothersome - it had these four black cartoon characters with big white lips and big teeth. Apparently, that type of thing is kind of common in Peru, or at least my friend explained that. It's interesting how politically incorrect things like that are in the US, but how here a lack of a political/cultural movement against such images makes it commonplace. The band was great - they played merengue, salsa, and some famous "musica negroide" or black music. The lead singer was pretty insane. I wasn't quite sure if he was a man or a woman at first, but we agreed it was a man, just with big curly hair and a tendency to walk as if he was on a catwalk at all times. He was a good singer though, and was funny. At one point he made my friend Eliza and I come up to the front and follow his dance moves, which included a lot of hip movements. We did well though. An older lady gave us a high five as we went back to our seats!
As the guy was walking around with his mic, he came to our table with lots of questions, including how tall I was, if we were married, etc. He even made the whole place start to chant for Eliza and I to make out. We just awkwardly smiled and waved at everyone - a bizarre moment. Then, this really drunk couple invited Eliza and me to sit at their table and drink with them. They ordered like 14 beers and insisted on all of us clanking glasses about 124 times. We were a bit afraid they might be swingers, or at least that's what I thought. They could've just been really really nice though. I was quite disturbed when the guy offered us a ride home, when he couldn't even look or walk straight. I hope they got home safe; most people drive here like they're drunk anyway so I'm sure they were fine. We met the cajon player, a cool, completely ethnically ambiguous guy. He told me he had learned how to play the cajon when he was like 5 years old. In his Afro-peruvian family, it was simply the norm...
The next night I went on my own to Peña de rompe y raja, where they were having a night of "musica negra." This was a really amazing show. The band was awesome, and this beautiful black woman, the MC, had a great voice and sang some songs the whole crowd knew. Then these dancers came out in these really colorful outfits and did a bunch of traditional afroperuano dances. The best dance was called "El Alcatraz," which involved the female dancer having a handkerchief attached to her belt, right above her butt, and the male dancer trying to light it on fire. The female dancer tried to light the male dancer on fire as well. This happens as they both dance to the beat, one chasing the other, but with everything in rhythm. Just awesome! After this, a three man band came out and sang some random popular songs from tons of different genres - they played the Beach Boys and the Beatles even. They were part comic act as well I guess, because the jokes wouldn't stop. They were good though. Then it hit a weird lull, as the MC took like 30 minutes to wish happy birthday and happy anniversary to everyone in the building individually. After this, the band took a break and everyone flooded the dance floor. Soon balloons were released from the ceiling. I just watched curiously and wrote down some thoughts, prompting a very nice woman to come sit across from me, stare me in the face, and ask me why I was depressed, haha. She was with this huge crew, a high school reunion of sorts, and introduced me to everyone. It's interesting discovering how friendly people are while traveling alone. Pretty much everytime I've gone out by myself to a venue like this, I meet some great people. Anyway, the last act I saw before leaving (because it was almost 4am and it was still going) was this singer called Bartela. This black lady had one of greatest, strongest voices I've heard. She's apparently pretty famous in Peru. I marveled at her as I watched from the balcony with my new friends. Seeing her and the dancers and the band made feel that Afro-Peruvian culture is very much something the whole country is proud of, identifies with, has incorported into a national identity (there's tons of national pride, so many songs had lyrics like "Yo soy Peru"). In such a short time in Lima, I saw such wonderful displays of afroperuano cultural pride, and the thing is, there's just so much more to see...
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