Peru (2019)
Inhalt/Content
Carnival in Abancay
From Ayacucho we went on to Abancay, an even smaller Andean city. The employees of the tourist information office were visibly surprised that we did not want to drive straight through from Ayacucho to Cusco. And so we were sitting in the back of a minibus, which took us to Andahuaylas, where we got into an even smaller minibus. Apart from the fact that one passenger had a small dog in a laundry basket, someone apparently had to transport a live sheep. Without further ado, the sheep’s legs were tied together and it was loaded onto the roof together with our luggage. In Abancay we stayed in a small hotel directly at the main street and were already surprised at the check in that there was a big open air stage directly in front of the hotel where under the thunderous applause of the locals a music show ran. Nevertheless, the strains of the long trip let us sleep deeply and firmly. There is not much in Abancay, but one attraction sounded very interesting. There is a small animal park on a mountain on which there is also a lookout point from which one could look over the whole city. After a hard negotiation with a taxi driver we drove to the mentioned zoo. It must be said that it would be utopian to assume that Peru would have the same standards of animal protection as Germany. Nevertheless, this zoo was a very sad place. A lonely llama ran apathetically back and forth in his enclosure and a much too young Andean dog tried to hide all the time. In one of the monkey enclosures a father pushed a stick into his son’s hand so that he could use it to annoy the monkeys through the bars. The viewpoint, however, was really recommendable. But the real highlight of the day was waiting for us when we returned to our hotel.
The whole main street was full of people, everything was decorated and barriers were erected while the voice of a man was heard through loudspeakers trying to stir up the crowd. It was carnival in Abancay! So we quickly put our things down in the room and threw ourselves into the turmoil. In Peru there is a carnival tradition that seems a bit strange to us in Europe. The people, especially the children of course, made fun of spraying each other with water or foam. Beside numerous water bombs that flew through the air, street vendors sold big spray cans with a kind of foam. Of course, as a foreigner you were a popular victim, especially with the children. So I also bought a spray bottle with which Kevin and I were able to fight back. The actual carnival procession lasted until late into the night and in the end we were both soaking wet. We surely never had so much fun at a carnival party before.
