Celendín is a small city in the Northern Andes of Peru, in the department of Cajamarca. The market was a noisy little place with people haggling on every corner and bargains being made every few steps. We found a lot of people here, called compesinos, wearing the traditional clothing topped with a handmade sombrero . . .
. . . locally made of course, an old tradition of Celendín. 
The main plaza called -wait, can you guess- Plaza de Armas and the surrounding streets is inhabited by most of the city´s 15,000 people and is uniquely colored baby-blue! 
Baby-blue church, baby-blue city hall, baby-blue windows and doors, baby-blue borders . . . everything! Baby-blue! (I heard it has something to do with purity, and clean air)And on every tree in the plaza (palm tree for example), there is a sign in Spanish that says "Hello, how are you? My name is palm tree. My scientific name is . . .yadayadayada. I was born in 1971. Take care of Nature." Hmmm, pretty interesting right?!
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We arrived in hopes of catching the festivities . . . mainly the bullfights! Matadors from Venezuela, Spain, Colombia, Mexico, Peru! How exciting! Our good friend Franco assured us that they didn´t kill the bull around here . . . and being totally uninformed, we believed him of course.
We were in for a show of course before the big event. Everywhere you looked, people in costumes, beautiful dresses, crazy dragon heads . . . kids and adults alike.
This performance was by far my favorite! Those boys might be stomping up a storm but those ladies! They´re working out there! It was a hot day, just so you know, and those girls worked it out there!
Matador: Andes Ruiz
and his colorful possie . . . 
of incompetent fools!
I mean really, how many people does it take to take down a bull . . . because yes, they KILL the bull! This poor bull didn´t have a chance! I mean first, they play around a bit -- fooling the bull to follow their pink capes. They start jabbing him with these colorful peppermint-candy looking daggers that hang off of his back, tearing at his flesh. Then, when they feel like he is losing his energy and enough blood . . . 
that is when they surround the bleeding bull, all 3 or 4 matadors flashing their pink, making the bull dizzy and distorted. Then some really brave ol´chap goes in for the kill with a sword . . . and FINITO! They carry the bull off by the horns after giving him a final blow to the skull with a knife. A valiant death . . . just marvelous don´t you think?!Yeah!! Wouldn´t that have been something! Now that´s what I call entertainment!
Like CEVICHE (uncooked fish in lemon juice with corn crackers)
But it turned out to be great! whew . . and of course there´sBefore leaving Celendín, we ventured out to the local hot and mud baths. A spectacular place in the middle of a mountain range where boiling hot sulfur water and the cold river flow side by side until they join into one, making for a really great time! And mud! What a great thing eh? So much fun!! And great for your skin . . . who could ask for more?! Let us introduce our tribe . . .
I was a little squeamish as this family started applying warm, gooey mud all over my body . . . but I got into it! Both of us did! Check us out . . . ROOOOAAAR!
Preccccccccccccccccccious . . . my precious . . . yesssssssssssssssss
and see you later " in Cajamarca, our next adventure.
3 comments:
Hi Guys
I am so happy to hear from you. Thanks. For a little moment I felt like that bull - very lonely, but then your updates - here we are. Thanks again.
Mom Paya
Sash-
Glad you guys are ok after that horrible earthquake...I was pretty worried, we had a worry of our own here w/my fiance's grandfather not being found. But we found him and he's ok. Glad you guys are ok too!
seriously, by the time you guys come back, you will have so many stories to tell, that i will personally interview you, write a screenplay, and shoot a film about you!
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