cajamarca

A few weeks ago, I traveled to Cajamarca, a department in the highlands of Peru to visit with other Peace Corps Volunteers. Lindsey (my site mate) and I first traveled to Celendin to visit our good friend Mark. His site is absolutely beautiful! We did several hikes in the mountains to waterfalls, ate some delicious cheese (for which Cajamarca is famous…lots of cows!!), and walked around Celendin. We then took a very long and windy road back down to the capital city of Cajamarca. Cajamarca is Peru capital for celebrating Carnavales. There were about 30 other volunteers in Cajamarca to celebrate with us. The weekend was filled with a lot of water balloons, paint (being thrown, in water balloons, and in water guns), huayno dancing, drum beating, singing, and, oh yeah, a lot of rain. It was a lot of fun (despite the fact that this year I was not the Carnaval queen) to experience all of the traditions of Peruvian Carnavales with my fellow Peace Corps volunteers.