Peruvian Wedding and Slow Walk to Reception and Corpus Procession..

Really nice wedding service for our friends Nilser Servan and Carolina Calampa.  Power went out for about 1/2 the wedding mass and no one was bothered because they just continued on by candle light.  They took advantage of the gathering and special mass to baptize their daughter Danita as well.

What was nice to see is they signed the wedding documents on the church altar within 30sec of finishing the final hymn.  Rather then having a best-man and best-woman as witnesses, the Peruvian wedding uses ‘padrinos’ or godparents like many important events.  A portable radio was used for the exit which was much more efficient..

The reception was eventually so full that there wasn’t enough seats for the couple hundred that came (and the town is only about 700 people large), but what we thought was interesting is yet again we were apart of the super-slow walk out of the church..  See below..

Then there’s the Corpus Christi Procession..  it too is a slow walk but one filled with music and traditional dance..

Also, stomping on the alfombras or rugs that were put together the morning before..

See my last post for some of the rugs put together this year..

Corpus Christi 2014, the excitement returns for another year..

Very similar to last years Corpus Christi festival, but this year more exciting because we knew what to look out for and how to celebrate.

ANDREA’s Blog entry does a good job summing up the week (click here)

And, she put together a 3min summary video of all the events if you are interested:

On the night before the ‘dia central’ there was the massive fireworks castillo, like last year; there were plenty of sparks and flying things landing in the crowd.

There was the ‘pasa calle’ or Street Passing or Raisin Road which had institutions putting on quick show and demonstrations for the authorities..  this year featured an automatic cow milking machine (Governor Ecco explains that you need to stimulate the utters before starting to milk).

The Corpus Mass was packed.

 

6 women packed on a pew that’s really supposed to hold 4.

But the rugs or ‘alfombras’ were always one of the nicer pieces of artwork for the week.  Often made with dyed sawdust, yeso (plaster), and local vegetation..

 

Hanging Stuff in Peru..

Cloths, fly strips, and raw meat; just some of the things we’ll be hanging around from day to day.

Fly strips get much more full around here.

No picture of cloths, most people know what that looks like.

Okay, get ready, get set, bamm..knife in the pig heart..

Most important times of the year call for killing and cutting up and cooking a fresh animal.  It’s the heart of Corpus Christi this week and our host family has been fatting up our last pig to invite cutlets, chicaron, chorizo, cecina, mortilla, etc to the entire community for this week.  Much like the new years pig (Here), killing and processing took most of the day.  But it was a nice relaxing experience and we could watch World Cup Soccar while cutting up chunks of meat.

YouTube is putting age restrictions on my animal instructional videos..  watch this before it is taken off their site.

Before

During the process of being put down.

Right after put to rest.

Hanging the body to start cutting chunks.

Separting the skin from the manteca or fatty layer underneath.

Everyone gets involved in slicing up the meat.

Peruvian Child Carseat..

Sometimes a cage seems to be a bit more adequate.

Weedwacker with circular saw blade..

Didn’t realize you could modify a nylon cable weedwacker and fit it with a Skil-saw blade, but it’s pretty common and very effective on waist high brush.  Something I’ll keep an eye out for when back in the states.. much rather use this then a lawn-mower.

Edwin Cruz is having a great time mowing through the thick..

 

 

Mariachi during Quinceañera..

The quinceanera format is pretty standard (see the previous event): grand entry, high-heels being put on, dances with father and members of the family, words or quick speeches from many, late dinner, cases of beer, and plenty of photos.  Though there is room to make the special birthday party unquie.
Last Saturday, Karen Stefany (daughter of Officer Marco and Regidor/Professora Maritza) threw in a surprise Mariachi band.  All the way from the capital (Chachapoyas), though they were claiming to be direct from Mexico at first.  Good times, late night like many.

Entry w roses.

Happy to say hi to our table.

Some kind of choreographed dance with her friends.

Chicha de Jora, the drink of our region..

Forget soft drinks or fruit juice, chicha is king in Peru and though there are various ways to make it around the country; Chicha de Jora, is the primary style here in Molinopampa and everybody loves it and no one every will turn down a glass when it’s being passed around.  Basically it’s just chancaca (solidified sugar cane juice boiled down to a solid), melted in boiling water, add a little bread/white flour and some fig leaves and let it sit for 1 to 4 days (depending on the strenght you want.

Here is the more picture-centric description:

Materials: Fire, Pot, Chocho (clay vessel)/or plastic barrel, Big wooden spoon

Ingredients: Water, Chancaca (half tongo, 4 tops), Fig Leaves (handful), White flour (2 cups), yeast (optional)

Perol and Chochos: Perol (on the left) is a handy flat cooking pot for sweets, and the 2 Chochos on the right are basically just big clay pots. We’ve seen rubbermaid type barrels used in place of the chocho.

Tongos of Chancaca.. Each tongo contains 8 tops of the sugar solid. Really pretty cheap, but is the main ingredient.

Andrea showing off one top of Chancaca.. Don’t bite into the top Andrea, we need it for the chica!

STEP 1: Get the fire going and start boiling water.

STEP 2: Add one top of chancaca per pot (when bringing to boil). Let it melt away.

STEP 3: Mix flour with water.. 2 cups flour if you have a big pot of chica going.

STEP 4: Pour into boiling pot and continue to cook for a few minutes.

STEP 5: Add fresh fig leaves (2 or 3 per big pot), continue to let cook over fire for about 1/2 hour.

STEP 6: After 1/2 hour of cooking, remove from fire and let cool down to room temperature. Remove fig leaves if you’d like.

STEP 7: Put in chocho vessel for overnight, Add another top of chancaca to sit in the bottom of the vessel and dissolve. Keep adding tops when you need to add more water to the ever emptying vessel.

When you add the tops, use a big wooden spoon to be careful adding to mixture. Add yeast after a day in the chocho and fermentation will be quicker and produce a richer chica.

That’s it..  All you need to do is fill a picture and go outside and start giving it away to friends.

Just missed out on getting married again..

To Andrea of course.. the mayor gave the okay a few days ago to participate in the massive communal wedding that will be taking place at the municipal auditorium during the week of our town’s fiestas, but when trying to inscribe today; the regional authorities told us ‘no dice’. Well, actually it came down to restrictions because we already had a marriage certificate in the states, otherwise there would have been a little bit of paperwork to have to submit in the embassy (which, I was told is a lot easier if we both would like to have separate marriages this year, each of us to natural born Peruvians…no gracias..). Oh well, would have been a nice souvenir from our time in site; nonetheless will have to wait until Vegas to have a second wedding to dear Andrea.

Advertising at the municipality.

Is the model couple gringos or peruanos? No one is really sure..

Raymi Llaqta second time around..

In Chachapoyas, the regional capital, Raymi Llaqta is the June weeklong festival that kicks off the season for tourism.  It was big last year, and was big again in 2014.  Several hour long parade through the tight streets highlighting select districts of Amazonas; a horse riding group that took off from Mendoza a few days earlier (featuring a couple peace corps volunteers); fireworks and spinning whirriling ‘castle’/tower at night (had pictures and video but camera got all screwy); and plenty of bands and food and drink.  Nice to come in for the day and night, Andrea is coming back from an english teaching camp this weekend and sorry could not spend the weekend with her.

 

On the way to the parade w other volunteers, Molly decide on a much more authentic look.

Too many people in town to properly get around.

Alex coming in on his horse.

The group from Mendoza.

First time I got to kick around on a mule, good solid animal.