Fri 19th - a colorful traditional Peruvian experience: a Peña - a full day Meet Up - part III :)

We were just 11 people, our 5 friends have already left. We were sad about missing them, but life goes on... now it was time for the Peña. Well, I chose having the big party here, because you can only find this kind of places in Peru, so which would have been more appropiate? A peña is the name for this restaurants/theaters, a whole experience itself. There you can enjoy a Peruvian show with dances, music, plus you can try Peruvian dishes and drinks. But this peña has something special. You'd become part of the show at some point. Going to a peña is really fun, specially if you are in a large group and what could have been better than being a Cosmopolitan Gang?!?! :)

We were supposed to arrive at 9pm, but due to the long Good Bye we arrived at 9:45pm. There were already some local TB's waiting for us at the large table I could reserve.

They were: Jenny & 2 friends who are not on TB, Romain & his girlfriend Elena (she's not a TB but Romain is enough TB for the both of them, hehe), Cinthia with a dutch friend who's not on TB, Julio and Richard. So, now we were: 21 people. And there were more to come hehe. Sorry I couldn't introduce all of you one by one, but I was going crazy trying to adjust all the details. I did the reservation under my name, so the waiters were looking for me, haha.  I was jumping like a crazy from one place to another and Elena just told me: relax! haha. Yes, a pisco would help me, hehe.

Wow, that pisco really helped, but wasn't enough, haha. The waiter came and told me a young lady was asking for me at the door. It was Nelly!!!! She arrived just on time. A couple of minutes later the presenter came in and let us know the show was about beginning. This guy was full of energy during the the 5 hours the show lasted. OMG I was so excited, not only because of the show, but also because of the reaction of the gang. Would they like it? Well, they loved it!!! but let's go step by step.
The show started with a Sicuris dance, which actually is a group of people playing some Peruvian instruments and inviting people to join them to dance. Nobody of our table went to dance at that time. It was time for the Marinera and its 4 different versions, depending on the area of the country they are from. Time for a break to the dancers, but in the meanwhile they played a vals and an old couple went to the stage to dance. So sweet!!!

The presenter announced the next dance of the night. One from the rainforest. Another break and we could dance too. At that time the waiter came again and let me know there were a couple asking for me outside. Michael & Iveth arrived, yeah!!!! Just on time to enjoy a colorful dance from Titicaca Lake. Plus the piscos kept on coming and coming haha.

It was past midnight, when the presenter announced the people who had birthday would be invited to go to the front. And Suddenly, he pronounced Shawn's name! haha, sorry Shawn, I couldn't help giving him your name... Shawn just gave me a look... and wondered himself what would happen next... ok, the presenter gave the bday people little zampoña (sort of flute). Shawn was interviewed. "Where are you from?" He was a bit shy and said soft: "USA" And the presenter started to talk in English, haha.

So, what would they do now? Well, they had to play the zampoñas and dance as good as possible in order to get a Drink, haha. Shawn didn't win, but he had a blast, didn't you? At the end the presenter gave me his zampoña, so I got a souvenir too, hehe.

Then we just started to dance. Now the dance floor belonged to the audience, hehe. At some point I took a look at our table and nobody was there, haha, everyone was dancing and having fun. Sometimes following the crazy directions from the presenter and other times just by our own. Oh well and from time to time I saw a crazy boy running with the Peruvian flag over his shoulders... who was he? Well, he was JIM!!!! haha, impossible not to see him :)

Ok, this was just the beginning of the show...

Attendants:

USA:Shawn (geerbox), Stacey (Xstacey) & Jim (JimLNA)
Philippines: Rene (RENESO)
Netherlands: Jos (jos-nijenhuis)
Puerto Lico: Francisco (frankrn)
Singapore: Malvin (malvin_soh)
Lima: Lili (liliana77), Yadi (yadilitta), Nelly(nellysweet), Elena (Romain's girlfriend), Jenny (peruana28), Cinthia (Cinthita), Iveth (iveth18), Julio (latino28), Richard (richardrpr)
Chiclayo: Yuli (Yuliana151)
Scottland: James aka Paca: (jmaxiv)
France: Romain (romancito)
sorry I forgot the names of Jenny's friends who are not on TB :S