Halloween in Cusco

Happy All Saints Day,

This blog post is a few days late, and I prefer not to backtrack. But I also did want to mention our Halloween evening experience in Cusco...

Ozell and I went out into town to have our normal dinner at Antojito's which was a restaurant we patronized often because the food was good and cheap and the staff was friendly. We actually took a liking (non-sexual) to one of the waiters there named Juan. He was just a bubbly and amiable fellow who enjoyed seeing us come in daily for one of our meals. He is 17 and is working 60 hours a week for a year so he can save up enough money to start university next year.

Anyways, we had heard the Halloween was popular with the kids in town. The unusual thing was there was no sign of Halloween in the stores or with the people until the actual day arrived. I like how they handled their holiday. I'm sure there are probably some signs of Xmas already slithering into view at stores or in commercials back home. Here, Halloween was literally just a single day celebration. The stores and street merchants only brought Halloween paraphernalia out into view on October 31st. The kids got their costumes and faces painted during the afternoon. Then during the early evening, the chants of "HALLOWEEN! HALLOWEEN! HALLOWEEN!" started from the children. We were quickly able to ascertain that, "HALLOWEEN! HALLOWEEN! HALLOWEEN!" was the local equivalent of our "Trick or Treat". I thought it was also charming that the children actually pronounced "HALLOWEEN" phonetically the same as we do at home since the "LL" is typically sounded as a "Y" in Spanish. Well, I wanted to go and visit the main square of town since that seemed to be the main gathering place for the celebration. Sure enough there were plenty of children with their parents walking around collecting candy from whomever had some to spare. Unlike my memories of Halloween at home, all the kids just had small plastic pumpkins to use to collect candy, and none seem to have a full pumpkin. I don't know if this is a sign of the poverty of most of the participants on both the giving and the receiving sides or not. But I recall using pillow cases to collect candy when I went trick-or-treating. That would have been gluttoness in this situation.

After checking out the plaza, Ozell and I decided to head to Antojito's and get some food. I decided that if the small local market didn't have a long line at the cashier, then I was going to buy a bag of candy to hand out to the children. While I do not consider it a mistake by any means, I fully admit I was not ready for the onslaught of children who practically mauled me once I left the store. I could not get 5 feet from the entrance before I was surrounded by tens and tens of children screaming, "HALLOWEEN! HALLOWEEN! HALLOWEEN!" I thought I was having a bad hallucination with all of these small plastic pumpkins floating back and forth across my face, small hands grabbing at me and the bag of candy I held aloft (thank goodness I stand at 6'2"!), and the fact I have having a hard time keeping my balance in the sea of children all jockeying for position for the precious chocolate mint candy I was attempting to deliver in a fair manner. Lol

Unfortunately, my immediate reaction was the grab my front pocket for my wallet to make sure it was still there. Sad, but true, and probably wise. :( I held the candy and my wallet aloft and begged for Ozell, who was standing a neutral distance away, to come and take my wallet from me. Once I was free of my wallet and my concerns, I started to dish out the candy as best as I could. It was a feeding frenzy of piranhas. That is by far the closest metaphor I can use. I did have a big smile on my face as all of this was going on. The chants of, "HALLOWEEN! HALLOWEEN! HALLOWEEN!" blocking out all other sounds for what seemed like forever but truly was only a matter of 30 seconds or so. The bag of candy was gone. Most of the pirahnas were left hungry. But that did not deter them. They quickly found a new gringo who just bought a bag of candy. In fact, these were probably the smartest of the kids trick-or-treating. Stand outside the local market and then blockade any customer that you see pay for candy at the cashier. Lol

Ozell told me he wish we had the camera on hand so he could record for posterity how good and enthusiastic I am with children. I told him to fuck off. ;) Paraphrased of course. Lol

We then went off to dinner, and then met up with people from the hostel for a party there and then out to the bars. It was an enjoyable evening. hahahahaha

Cheers,

Sean