Happy Birthday Andahuayillas

Friday December 19^th is the official anniversary of Andahuaylillas. This year the townspeople celebrated the 100^th anniversary of their town. As my father asked “How can a town with a 500 year old church be only 100 years old?” As far as I can tell, this year marks 100 years since Andahuaylillas was officially incorporated as a town. For the theater buffs out there, it's when this town went from Almost, Cusco to Andahuayillas, Cusco.

The celebration lasted two days. On Thursday night there was a fireworks display. There were fair style games all over the plaza. We JVs played a ton of fusball with some little kids. It cost 50 centimos to play a 5 point game. We spent over 10 soles as a group.

On Friday morning we lined up on the side of the plaza to march and represent the parish. We were dressed in green ponchos with silver trim that made us look like resevre members Slytherin quidditch team. When we first put the ponchos on, we were told it would be a quick wait before we got going. A quick wait turned out to be 2 hours standing out in the hot sun. Finally we did make the 35 second journey across the plaza and our duty was completed. We had fried trout for lunch and I learned how to eat the cheek of a fish. There was live music almost constantly from the mid-afternoon until six in the morning (we were all home by 11).

It was a lively two days filled with a lot of fun. It was another opportunity to see just how many people from the town the current JVs know and are friends with. I'm sure the anniversary will be even more fun next year when I know so many people. 

Happy Birthday Andahuayillas, ad multos annos!

Image Credit

PS-I have pictures that I have taken mself on my camera, including a cool shot from the side of one of the mountains, but I'm still having trouble uploading them. If I find a way to smooth uploading out, I'll post my picutres.