Drag Queens and Chaos

Whew, well I thought I had kept more up to date than this but apparently not. I´ll spare all the details but we had a whirlwind week with Caroline here (she just left yesterday afternoon) and I don´t think I have ever gone out so much in Cusco. Aside from all the traditional celebrations there were a million parties (or so it seemed) in the past week and I must say I never thought I´d see so many drag queens in Cusco. And apparently a lot of them are friends of mine and I just never realized about their other professions! And, ok, so most of them were the same ones at each party but damn they looked fierce! We all managed to survive the fiestas and subsequent dragging of feet by day and I even survived yet another stomach bug (yay Cipro). C and I made it to Machu Picchu and I did some imprompteau waitressing at Rupa Wasi where my friends were a little swamped with tour groups. Even found time to run down from the top of Machu Picchu which felt amazing although my legs suffered a bit the following days. Nothing a little dancing couldn´t take care of!

So following the bar tour of Cusco (Fallen Angel, Bar 7, Los Perros (of course!), Mandela´s, Mama Africa, Uptown (ugh) and who knows where else I am taking an official break. At least until the end of the month! (haha) Work starts up again next week (although I did get some done in the valley while C was here) and I am planning my 2 week trip to Bolivia. I´m told there are going´s on tonight but I just can´t muster nor do I want to. My house is finally clean again, I just did 10 kilos of laundry (that has to be a record) and have caught up on interneting. Things are feeling more like normal. I am also hoping to start capoeria classes soon (there is a Brazillian instructor here) maybe even some Salsa too. All in a days work right?

I guess the funniest part of all this is (aside from drag queens, dancing until 6am etc) is that in the past week while having a friend here I have felt more at home here in Cusco and as though I belonged than I have yet. Maybe its because so many people go out at night or because I had other local Peruvian friends in town but it all just kinda came together and its a great feeling and even better to have had a friend witness all that and see how happy I am here and how many wonderful, funny, crazy friends I have here. Leaving all this seems truly impossible.

So, all pics have now been posted (scroll down to see the rest)! Corpus Cristi, Lake Titicaca, drag queens and last but not least a good look at what the Plaza de Armas has looked like for the past month of parades and festivities! I do have pics of me and Caroline but will have to add those when I am on my laptop not uploading from my digi as she was the official photog last week...as always stay tuned for more news, insanity and general rambling from the navel of the world!

PS. I found out why they paint the houses every year...everyone uses whitewash so as soon as it rains the ¨fresh¨ paint washes away- good thing its the dry season during Cusco month although we did see rain and even HAIL on Corpus Christi!