Peru 2009: Go Go dancing on the graveyard

Sumaq llana! Qosqo llaqtamanta pacha. That it best wishes from the navel of the earth in quechua. One of the original languages of Peru. I'm now high up in the Andes in Cusco which the Incas thought to be the navel of the earth before their empire got smashed by the Spanish conquestadors who really took them by surprise with their horses and shotguns.

I'm now over 2 months in Peru so it's about time I let something hear from myself. Normally I write more often but this time I haven't been travelling that much around, more staying in one place and I also had a kind of writing block so that's why. One of the reasons I didn't do much travelling around is because I'm doing some photo project on graveyards. So I visit a lot of graveyards. I'm becoming quite an expert on Peruvian graveyards and find it very fascinating how the people here deal with the dead. It's much different then in Holland where things on the graveyard are a bit more formal.
Here it's normal to go to the graveyard with some beers, sit on the grave of the neighbour of the dead relative and drink to the deceased.

Typical way to spent the time on the graveyard: with some friends and family chatting and drinking

Or when there is a funeral talk to the gringo who is subtle making some pictures and make jokes with him. In Holland I would have been beaten up so many times I think. I guess it says something about the differences in mentality. Traditions do vary per region though. In some coastal towns (Chincha, Ica) it's common to hold a kind of party on the birthday of the deceased complete with balloons and live music. While the live music in Chincha is often a bit tacky with electric keyboard, I witnessed some surprisingly good and passionate performances in Ica, one of a Elvis look a like (graveyard rock), bones were shaking there. The graveyard in Chincha is however more exciting in the way that it is a bit dangerous. Often I got warned that I can get robbed and the ground keeper is walking around with a homemade gun (2 metal tubes in which he puts a shot of hail).

Birthday party for deceased child

The selfmade gun of the ground keeper

The most amazing thing I witnessed on a graveyard was in Cusco where I met this Afro Peruvian family. One woman was quite charmed by the author of this article and started to twist with her tongue in front of the camera and even held her enormous breasts while doing some erotic dance. This to the embarrassment and amusement of her family. The graveyard in Cusco is until now the most beautiful. Most graves are not underground, instead they are in a concrete structure with up to 6 layers, a kind of high rise apartment buildings for the dead. The coffin gets shoved into a hole, this hole gets closed up by cement and in front of the cement are placed items that corresponds with the live of the deceased. Like mini bottles of beer, toys or very tacky things like little figurines or Santa Claus postcards (I guess the deceased had a obsession with Santa Claus postcards), or like in some cases I've seen the place is made into a mini library complete with mini bookshelf's and mini books (the deceased was a teacher) or mini turntables (the person obviously was a DJ). Some are really well done. One I saw was from the owner of a bar and it was decorated like a bar complete with a mini TV with DVD, a menu, a table and some dolls sitting on a chair.

I was to shocked to take a sharp picture

Bar Restaurant La Gordita (the fat woman)

The graveyard in Ica is as I mentioned before almost bursting with life: creolian music, wines, piscos (a strong liquer made from grapes), dancing ect. It must be ond of the most lively graveyards on the planet. I hang out a bit with the musicians, one of them, Ceasar who was the most passionate performer I witnessed there, gave me a full bag with grapes and mangos on the day I left. Unfortunatly I washed the grapes in tabwater and was sick again for a few days. Well that's it for now. I made a selection of the pictures I took from the cemeteries, you can see a slideshow of them here

Ceasar giving away a show