Carnaval chaos, round two

Year two of carnavales in Cajamarca has come and gone, and it remains one of my favorite times from my entire Peace Corps service. Days filled with water balloons, parades, and incredibly fun city-wide paint fights, and nights of dancing huayno to snare drums, passing calientito (a hot alcoholic drink with maracuya flavor) around a circle of friends, and snacking on anticuchos (cow heart grilled on kebabs) in the midst of the celebratory crowds in the plaza - you can't get any better than carnaval weekend! If you missed last year's blog about carnavales, check it out for more details on what the holiday entails, or just check out the photos* from this year:

My fellow 19ers firing water guns off our balcony as we geared up for paint day

Only problem with shooting off the balcony is that sometimes people shoot back (this is where a water balloon hit the wall of our room)

Leland, Heidi and I leaving the hostel on paint day

In the thick of things - the city kindly sent out a water truck to provide refills to the many super soakers and buckets roaming the streets

Walking the streets (Leland, Betty, Nanda and I)

The aftermath… clockwise from top left: Lindsay, Kaeli, Leland, Jackie, Jackie's cousin, Heidi, me, Nanda, Betty

*credit for most of these photos goes to Jackie, who was brilliant enough to get a water-proof camera to bring out on paint day