The last Sunday of the Carnaval.

I will have to stop blogging Carnaval Ayacucho very soon; it seems that it will just go on forever. Well we both now have realised that it is officially over and Ayacucho can begin to prepare itself for the next big event, Semana Santa – Holy Week.
Nevertheless, back to last Sunday’s parade, after the massive wash out the previous night we thought it was all over and that nothing could be washed and dried in time for any more. No way, this parade was bigger, brighter and better, and it even began earlier, or that is what we were told.
When we saw all the seats being arranged around the Plaza once again this time we were smart and purchased two that would be in the shade all afternoon. We arrived at midday to take up our places for the twelve o’clock start. Silly, silly people, we simply refuse to learn. The first ‘act’ arrived at 3.25 p.m.!

The only others to arrive early were the people behind us who had opted to bring their own chairs or stools and not have to pay the S/-2.00 for a white plastic chair. I have to mention that the very little and very old lady in black next to the pillar was going to sit on the concrete pavement all afternoon. Marion would not allow that and so she sent me off to by a small plastic stool for about $1.80 AUS. She was most grateful, and she even took it home with her after the event! Plastic stools were simply one of the numerous items that were on sale all afternoon. Another very popular purchase was the small plastic pipe that both blew strings of bubbles into the air with every blow and at the same time produced a most annoying sound. You can imagine that every second child just managed to convince their parents that they must have one!



Once again the colours, dancing and music were wonderful. Each time we see a parade the costumes just get better and better.




Not only were the young adults proudly displaying their talents but the children were also involved in many of the groups. In fact it was quite difficult to get a good shot of some of them because they were usually surrounded by many of the older family members making sure they would have a comprehensive video coverage of the entire parade!




This parade also contained a number of very well presented floats and as usual we had the Carnaval Queen and her ladies-in-waiting. We loved the pica flores or humming bird drinking from the giant water pitcher.

The miners of the area really joined in the festivities with their music and singing. They had even devised a few well orchestrated dance steps to go with the singing.

The usual late afternoon clouds gathered once again over Ayacucho, and the parade. And as usual they did bring the rain, this time the only difference was we had remembered to bring our ponchos so we arrived back at our hotel reasonably dry!