Saturday 24 October 2009

4/72

At 6:30 we were woken up for breakfast. I wasn't sure if I had managed to snatch more than an hour or two of sleep at the most with the loud music from outside. The next day promised to be a little more interesting as there was going to be a parade in the town.

The parade lasted for about four and a half our and seemed to consist of anyone from within a fifty mile radius of the town marching slowly down the main street goose stepping where possible and clad in psudo-military uniforms. Goose stepping in 4 year olds = kinda cute, in adults....no so much.
Locked out of the room again, tired and bored, there was little I could do other than wait for the bus which Jose told me we would be taking at 3 (it later turned out to be 5:30) I wondered around the town a bit and after the parade finally wound down at about 3:30 the villagers all went to the large community hall which was normally used for various sporting events.

Three long tables had been placed for the invited guests in a horse shoe and we took seats here. Most of the villages sat on the spectator steps at either side of the hall. Opposite me sat a collection of people in suits, Jose and Davis where to my right, but to my left sat down a couple who seemed like they were local.

The food came and people started to eat. I noticed after finishing his meat the man next to me pulled out a plastic bag and started to scrape the vegetables and other things off his plate. The woman next him didn't touch her plate at all. When he was finished her husband passed her the bag and she put her whole meal in.

After the meal we went to catch the bus back to Arequipa. The bus left at 5:15 to start its journey back through the mountains and the view of the setting sun over the valley as we ascended on the winding track was stunning if a little scary. I tried as best as I could do get some sleep but the road was too bumpy and the seat to uncomfortable. Almost as soon as we hit the main tarmacked road at 1am however fell asleep.

We arrived back at 2am. Jose told me that I had to get up at 6am in order to be in La Mansion by 8 as we were starting the project that week. He had told me to get up early on Thursday too but hadn't turned up till 11ish so I wasn't prepared to leap up on his say so.

If I really was needed I would have gone but I suspected I wasn't. I asked what I needed to do and Jose replied "to do some things". This wasn't a good enough reason so I told him flatly no, I wasn't going to get up at six. I was tired. "Why aren’t are tired?" he asked. Well one reason might be because he seemed to have little trouble sleeping on the road and had certainly had more then the four hours sleep I had managed myself in the last three days. I told him again no, but as we left in the taxi I think he was still expecting me to turn up.

When we got back i told Davis not to wake me unless he wanted to learn some very rude words in English. Wisely he didn't know on my door the next morning.

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