Circus Life in Peru
The flight was entirely pleasant. I got one of a few lucky seats on the plane with no one next to me. Comfortable and able to enjoy the view out the window my trip was delightful. I particularly enjoyed gazing upon forbidden Cuba along the way.
The landing in Peru was a continuous cascade of serendipities. On arrival I didn´t know where I was going or exactly how to contact people to get there. At customs I saw on of my circus mates, Kfire, in line and joined her. It was really good to see a friend at that point. Swiftly through we found Chris waiting to pick us up and take us a free 45 minute cab ride to our rooftop Shangri La in the Comas barrio of Lima. Well dubbed by Savannah as "Ghetto Circus Summer Camp" we occopied the rooftop and three small rooftop rooms in a sprawling though not wealthy residence in the barrio. Rum manifested and conversation was joyful. It was a very soft landing.
The next day we got all dressed up and headed to the FITECA festival stage to linger about playing our circus skills waiting to figure out what was going on. Eventually everything coalesced into a parade of the Dreamtime Circus and groups from around Latin America marching down the street and through the rambling and dense mercado. If I remember correctly it was two nights later that we performed for FITECA. Many hundred people were in attendance and Dreamtime got a standing ovation. I and other later arrivals had limited participation in the show. I gave a one line introduction after Mumu´s lengthy explanation of our Circus and then served as a fire safety.
A lot has happened between now and then and in my present state of mind and with limited time before a number of us head out to see a local theatre group, I´ll cut short my blow by blow of the tour and share some more general thoughts instead.
There´s nothing like being in a foreign country to remind you about the most important things in life: clean food and water, good sanitation, and shelter. Then there are those overlooked favorite things, hot showers, personal space, healthy food, my yoga mat. Ah, the hot shower, perhaps the pinacle of bliss in the world of simple pleasures we enjoy in the "First World". Not so in Peru. I discovered that I have no great love for Lima. It´s a sprawling city of many millions of people most of whom live in crowding poverty and pollution. Certainly it has many examples of fine architecture and I have not a bad word to say about the people themselves. Almost without exception they have been kind and welcoming. Lima is just not my place. It is too big, too urban, too unnatural, and too polluted. Our place in Comas was pleasant becase of the truly fine hospitality we enjoyed from our host family and from FITECA but our time in La VIctoria not so. The boys home we worked for simply did not have the facilities and resources to provide for us and they were in a rather unpleasant part of town. (Surprise.) One of the downsides it seems of a Dreamtime tour is that the places where we are most needed often simply aren´t the nicest places to go.
The kids in La Victoria were very sweet and though we had to scrap our original show because so many members of the cast were sick, everyone enjoyed. We were even swarmed by school children asking for autographs after one show in a large school yard.
We bid a somewhat hurried and chaotic goodbye to La Victoria and embarked on a rather relaxing 15 hour bus ride to Cajamarca. In stark contrast to Lima, Cajamarca is small and beautiful, surrounded on all sides by small green mountains. It is mostly walkable and feels reasonably safe. People are friendly like in Lima except some traditional/rural looking people who tend to be rather curt and unsmiling, not that they usually look like they have much reason to smile unfortunately. Dreamtime has taken over an entire small hostel, a beautiful place run by the family that lives in the rest of the building. We have a stable place for about 5 days and a place right where we are living to rehearse. That alone is invaluable. Paying the equivalent of less than $3 a person per night definitely makes the once again very poor shower facilities more bearable. The Inca Baths, a local hot springs doesn´t hurt either. Inca Baths are cheap and correspondingly not luxurious, but they´re certainly good for some relaxation, a hot tub and a solid hot shower.
The tour has provided a lot of insight into myself so far. I am more a creature of comforts than I had previously imagined. The key here is being in a city. If I am in the wilds (so far in my life) I feel far less need for niceties than when I am in a place where I awake to the sound of cars and there are actually facilities, they´re just not so nice. From time to time I think about getting fancier accomodations, but so far enjoying the company of my circus and being a part of its community has been far more important than the hot showers I´ve been lamenting.
As usual there is so much to say and no more time to say it . I am extremely happy with my choice to be here and really love the life were living. I love the rehearsals and the play and the fact that everything I need to be concerned with is right here in my immediate environment. I may get cranky about some comforts but the focus and simplicity of life along with the simple fact that I really enjoy pretty much everything I am doing is just blissful. Very much what I wanted after the stress of work during the last couple months in the Bay Area. Being away, of course, also makes me appreciate the little piece of heaven we have in the SF Bay Area.
Love love love to All!!!
The landing in Peru was a continuous cascade of serendipities. On arrival I didn´t know where I was going or exactly how to contact people to get there. At customs I saw on of my circus mates, Kfire, in line and joined her. It was really good to see a friend at that point. Swiftly through we found Chris waiting to pick us up and take us a free 45 minute cab ride to our rooftop Shangri La in the Comas barrio of Lima. Well dubbed by Savannah as "Ghetto Circus Summer Camp" we occopied the rooftop and three small rooftop rooms in a sprawling though not wealthy residence in the barrio. Rum manifested and conversation was joyful. It was a very soft landing.
The next day we got all dressed up and headed to the FITECA festival stage to linger about playing our circus skills waiting to figure out what was going on. Eventually everything coalesced into a parade of the Dreamtime Circus and groups from around Latin America marching down the street and through the rambling and dense mercado. If I remember correctly it was two nights later that we performed for FITECA. Many hundred people were in attendance and Dreamtime got a standing ovation. I and other later arrivals had limited participation in the show. I gave a one line introduction after Mumu´s lengthy explanation of our Circus and then served as a fire safety.
A lot has happened between now and then and in my present state of mind and with limited time before a number of us head out to see a local theatre group, I´ll cut short my blow by blow of the tour and share some more general thoughts instead.
There´s nothing like being in a foreign country to remind you about the most important things in life: clean food and water, good sanitation, and shelter. Then there are those overlooked favorite things, hot showers, personal space, healthy food, my yoga mat. Ah, the hot shower, perhaps the pinacle of bliss in the world of simple pleasures we enjoy in the "First World". Not so in Peru. I discovered that I have no great love for Lima. It´s a sprawling city of many millions of people most of whom live in crowding poverty and pollution. Certainly it has many examples of fine architecture and I have not a bad word to say about the people themselves. Almost without exception they have been kind and welcoming. Lima is just not my place. It is too big, too urban, too unnatural, and too polluted. Our place in Comas was pleasant becase of the truly fine hospitality we enjoyed from our host family and from FITECA but our time in La VIctoria not so. The boys home we worked for simply did not have the facilities and resources to provide for us and they were in a rather unpleasant part of town. (Surprise.) One of the downsides it seems of a Dreamtime tour is that the places where we are most needed often simply aren´t the nicest places to go.
The kids in La Victoria were very sweet and though we had to scrap our original show because so many members of the cast were sick, everyone enjoyed. We were even swarmed by school children asking for autographs after one show in a large school yard.
We bid a somewhat hurried and chaotic goodbye to La Victoria and embarked on a rather relaxing 15 hour bus ride to Cajamarca. In stark contrast to Lima, Cajamarca is small and beautiful, surrounded on all sides by small green mountains. It is mostly walkable and feels reasonably safe. People are friendly like in Lima except some traditional/rural looking people who tend to be rather curt and unsmiling, not that they usually look like they have much reason to smile unfortunately. Dreamtime has taken over an entire small hostel, a beautiful place run by the family that lives in the rest of the building. We have a stable place for about 5 days and a place right where we are living to rehearse. That alone is invaluable. Paying the equivalent of less than $3 a person per night definitely makes the once again very poor shower facilities more bearable. The Inca Baths, a local hot springs doesn´t hurt either. Inca Baths are cheap and correspondingly not luxurious, but they´re certainly good for some relaxation, a hot tub and a solid hot shower.
The tour has provided a lot of insight into myself so far. I am more a creature of comforts than I had previously imagined. The key here is being in a city. If I am in the wilds (so far in my life) I feel far less need for niceties than when I am in a place where I awake to the sound of cars and there are actually facilities, they´re just not so nice. From time to time I think about getting fancier accomodations, but so far enjoying the company of my circus and being a part of its community has been far more important than the hot showers I´ve been lamenting.
As usual there is so much to say and no more time to say it . I am extremely happy with my choice to be here and really love the life were living. I love the rehearsals and the play and the fact that everything I need to be concerned with is right here in my immediate environment. I may get cranky about some comforts but the focus and simplicity of life along with the simple fact that I really enjoy pretty much everything I am doing is just blissful. Very much what I wanted after the stress of work during the last couple months in the Bay Area. Being away, of course, also makes me appreciate the little piece of heaven we have in the SF Bay Area.
Love love love to All!!!