extreme callalli

Through a rock climbing gym in town we heard about a weekend trip to Callalli, a small village about 3 1/2 hours from Arequipa. The French guy who owns the gym organized the first annual adventure sport competition in this little pueblo. The poster advertised rock climbing, mountain biking, ice climbing, kayaking and trekking, with opportunities to watch the competitions and try the activities. After a few conversations with the French guy and his Peruvian wife (in mixed Spanish, English and French), we still had very little idea about what to expect on the trip. But we signed up anyway.

The town of Callalli.

In spite of the vast amount of mis-communication (or more accurately, non-communication) that occurred on the trip, we had a wonderful time.

We were told that we would leave on one of two buses -- either Thursday at 6 p.m. or Friday at 6 a.m. Then we were told we needed to be at the meeting point on Friday at 3 AM!!! Ultimately, we left at 4:45 p.m. on Thursday.

Standing/sitting in doorways: a common activity in Callalli.

Without any kind of explanation of events for the weekend, we found out about events in one of two ways:
1. We asked half a dozen people until we learned where/when something would be taking place. Then we'd make our way to that place and:
   1a. wait around until the event actually started anywhere from 30 min to 2 hours later
   1b. discover we were in the wrong spot and ask around until we found out the actual location
2. Some kind soul would approach us and tell us about something going on.

Another common activity around town: women knitting

There was supposed to be a big dinner for everyone with alpaca roasted on a spit. About a half hour after this event was scheduled to begin, the men from the town who were responsible for organizing it told the French guy it wasn't going to happen.

Supposedly at 8:30 p.m. on the last evening there was to be a music concert. Sometime during the evening this morphed into an awards ceremony for the competition winners. At 9:00 we showed up at the building where the event was to take place. After waiting outside the locked building for half an hour, I couldn't handle the cold anymore and we left. We learned the next day that the ceremony finally began around 10:30 p.m. and concluded sometime around 3 a.m.

Our little house for the weekend. We were spoiled compared
to the other people on the trip.

Anyway, enough of the negative. Overall, we had a great time. The house where we stayed was cute and clean. We're fairly certain that our accommodation was the only one in town with hot water, which was available after 11 a.m. Water was available after 11, that is, not just hot water. (This suspicion about a general lack of hot water was confirmed by the odor on the bus ride home.) We were so happy about the hot water that we scarcely minded the absence of electricity.

We did not participate in the competitions, but we enjoyed the following activities:

Gladly you can't see my exhausted face.

- a hike up in the hills with a very informative guide. He was probably in his 60s and often left the rest of us behind him sucking wind. The town's elevation is over 12,000 feet, so we were sucking wind a lot.
- a day of rock climbing. So fun!
- a dance in the town plaza, complete with a traditional falda (skirt) and sombrero (hat) for me and a poncho for David. *see photos below*

- getting to know some fun and interesting people, from Peru, France and England.

The candles gave us light but not warmth. We slept with 9 heavy blankets and sleeping bags.

Our sweet hostess and her 18-month-old daughter who
managed to sleep through the cold, noise and her little head
bobbing up and down as her mother danced with the rest of us.

Our hostess was so kind and frequently checked in with us to be sure everything was okay. On Friday afternoon she knocked on our door and presented me with one of her traditional skirts and a hat to wear to the dance that night. (Incidentally, that was the first we heard about a dance.) As she wrapped the skirt around my waist, I jokingly said something like, "What about David?" Without skipping a beat she grabbed what I had thought was one of nearly a dozen blankets on our bed and handed David a red poncho to wear!

Yet another surprise came on Saturday afternoon when we learned that we would not be leaving Saturday evening as anticipated, but Sunday morning. "What time?" I asked one of the organizers. (A silly question, really, but I'm still American enough that I had to ask.) "Depends on the people," was the answer I got.

The dancers who caught us while we waited for the bus.

We showed up for the bus at 9:00 a.m. hoping to score good seats on the bus (which we did) and only waited about an hour and a half until we actually pulled out. While we were waiting, a group of people left the church in the center of the plaza and began dancing down the street toward us. As they passed, they yanked David, me and two French girls into the group. The woman who grabbed me had a death grip on my hand, and as we danced down the dirt road through town I convinced myself that surely the bus wouldn't leave without us. We learned along the way that the dance was part of an ongoing wedding celebration (which was also related to the reason our dinner was canceled the night before).

(At the end of the video above, please note the woman's outreached hand. That was as much
footage as I could capture before being swept into the procession.)

Drinking chicha, a mildly fermented drink, in a courtyard --
which is where the dancing procession ended up.

Those blue barrels contain the chicha.

(In the video above, you surely noticed that David's dance partner was most definitely leading him. And you surely noticed his backpack swinging around. What you may not have noticed is his comment at the very beginning of the video: "We should go now." Oh no, David, not yet. Not yet.)

In spite of the challenges, discomforts and confusion, we loved the trip and made some great memories. We admire the French guy for his goal to bring some tourism and income to this little town, and we plan to join future trips organized through the rock climbing gym.

Enjoy a few more photos and videos below and check out my facebook page for more. Sorry about the terrible image quality. Our camera is broken, and we only had our cell phone camera to use. Plus it was dark (no electricity, remember).

After you've had a good laugh at David in a poncho, please take note of the women lined up against the wall behind him. That's the real deal. They are not doing that to pose for a postcard. They sat -- actually, squatted -- there for hours while others danced. I begged David to go grab one of them to dance. But he opted out, fearing that a jealous husband might be in the crowd.

Swept off my feet (and into the middle of a circle of dancers) by a persistent and energetic dancer.

With some French friends and our hostess. After snapping photos all day long, we were on the other end of the camera this night. Lots of photos of the goofy-looking gringos, lots of dancing, lots of laughter. The bottle of wine we drank didn't hurt.

The cliff face we got to climb.

Booths were set up in the plaza with goodies to sell -- including the alpaca wool hat you've seen on David's head in some of the photos.