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.
We woke up in a dark room tied up and with bags over our heads. No, just kidding. Ha-ha!
Sasha was... uhmm, she was my princess.
Pedro and his princess were great as well.
And before we knew it, we were in the clouds, literally . . . 
The views were incredible. The weather changed from hot to cold in a matter of minutes. And we had an 11 hour ride ahead of us. But there was a price behind all this beauty and fun... pain. Pain in the groin, pain in the back, pain pretty much everywhere. 
But we persevered. And made it. It was dark, we were tired and hungry. The whole ride there, I was planning to take a car back because I didn't want to face another long trip like that. Unfortunately, that was the road and it turned out that Cocabamba is not accessible by car. OK. When we arrived, Janet and Pedro immediately offered us their room and we were greeted by the town. Yes! As a mater of fact, we had the mayor and all important government people come and visit us and drink beer in our little room that night.
It turned out that we were the first non-Peruvian tourists EVER to come and visit this little town! Wow! 
We spent our first day recovering from our groin pain. We walked around the town meeting practically EVERYONE! It was a small town, dirt roads, one plaza where locals came to play cards and schoolkids were gathered to practice marching for the upcoming celebration. The town was located on a hill so everything was basically uphill ALL THE TIME! There was a river next to the town and its a good thing because electricity was practically free for the town. But above all, the best thing was the people of Cocabamba-- so kind to us and so generous. On one such excursion, every person we saw offered something to take as a gift. . . 
By the time we came to our room, we were loaded with avocados, yellow bananas, red bananas, fresh beans, and eggs (of course Mishka managed to drop one)! How can you beat that!
While getting to know the town, we walked by "The Animal Jail" where animals were put if they were wondering around without their owner. Animals beware! Go to Jail!
Just kidding about the kitties, I couldn't help taking a picture.
Three hour ride by horse, and then a three hour climb up a mountain. Here are some great shots:
It was the first time for us to visit an untouched ruin . . . skulls, ribs, ropes, teeth . . . even the skull of an eagle! The ruin was obviously a burial ground and located in a very hard-to-reach place. Here are the highlights:
Next stop . . . Chachapoyas for my birthday and then Celendín. . . where we will see our first bullfight, a Spanish tradition, to honor Peru´s Independence from Spain . . . hmmm?!
