Well, it turns out Liz's cousin's fiancée, who's a biologist at Cal Berkeley, will be in Iquitos conducting field study.  She's been there before and by the time we get there, she'll have been in the city a month, so if I can get in touch with her there, we should have someone who knows the lay of the land to give us recommendations.

Tickets to Iquitos have been bought.  I'm so excited. I'll get to see the Amazon River!

It appears that, beside Lima, Trujillo -where I've not been since I was, probably, in 2nd grade- and Iquitos -where I've not been at all- are on the agenda for this summer.  Nice!

Video: "Lima and the Sea"

This video was prepared by El Comercio for showing during the 7 Mares ("Seven Seas") festival held in Lima on March 17.   The video honors the Peruvian sea as the source which allowed Lima's ancient cultures to develop, and is part of El Comercio's campaign to build awareness and pride in Lima's ancient past and for preserving it's historic monuments.

Neat video: "Lima, Higher Up"

I recently received the link to a really cool video, with amazing -and amazingly beautiful- images of Lima from the air. I immediately knew that I needed to share it as well.

In Spanish: "Madre Mar" documentary

Madre Mar is a documentary created by a quintet of Peruvian friends to warn the rest of us about the pressing need to conserve Peru's marine ecosystem and resources in the face of the growing pressure put on it by indiscriminate fishing practices and pollution. (Unfortunately it's not been subtitled in English.)

Chinese New Year in Lima

On the eve of Chinese New Year, I thought I'd share these photos taken by Liz in Lima's Chinatown during the Chinese New Year holidays in 2008.

Tickets

My tickets for this year's trip to Lima are purchased!

Happy Holidays!

Ornaments on this year's tree.

La Tarumba!

Near the very end of our stay in Lima Willy, Elba, Toya, and Orlando invited us to the La Tarumba circus show in the southern district of Chorrillos.

La Tarumba is a locally developed circus that seeks -and manages- to combine circus with music, song, and dance.  Among its directors and performers, for example, they count Amador "Chebo" Ballumbrosio, of the famous musical family from the city of El Carmen.  Ballumbrosio, son of his much-admired namesake, brings an Afro-Peruvian musical sensitivity and rythm to La Tarumba.   

La Tarumba started in the 1980s as street performers.  In the early 1990s they managed to establish an HQ in a house in Miraflores, and in 2003 they were able to purchase their tent.   According to their website they felt at  then that they were finally "a real circus", and committed themselves to putting on a show a year, every year.

So far, they've kept their word.

This year's installment was Quijote, based, of course, on  the story of Don Quixote de la Mancha written by Miguel de Cervantes.  It is a story that is well-known in Latin America, Cervantes holding a similar place in Spanish-language literature as Shakespeare does in English.   Moreover, Quijote's tenacity of struggle against all odds and his daring to dream of a better world resonate with Latin American's own history of struggle.

The windmill scene

La Tarumba did a wonderful job at creatively bringing the elements of the story to life in the circus ring

Don Quijote

By the end, the audience was visibly moved by the show and Quijote's longing for love and a better world.  It really was quite moving and sad, but La Tarumba was not about to let people leave on a down note:  Ballumbrosio led the musical ensemble in a rousing number drawn from traditional Afro-Peruvian music celebrating the harvest and celebrating life.

This was my second time attending a La Tarumba show, as I had also gone with Willy and Elba during last year's season.   I loved the show each time.   I do have a hard time, however, deciding whether first place in the audience's hearts is taken by Ballumbrosio and the musical ensemble, or by La Tarumba's troupe of trained horses.