Friday, December 15, 2006
Dance party Peruvian local style
I bumped into one of the guides from the Lodge in Iquitos today and we practised our new languages together for a couple of hours. I think he learned more English, than I did Spanish. But I think that´s my memory. Just not as quick to remember...
Anyway, Ramiro offered to take me to a local dance party, so I accepted. He insisted we had to meet at 7pm, although I kept saying no, 9pm at the earliest. And of course, we're in Peru, the party didn't start til 10pm...actually quite funny cause he is a jungle guy and not very city-savvy. He was less confident crossing streets full of traffic than me...Anyway, the band was Kaliente, a slang spelling of spanish for 'hot'. And they were very good.
It was held in a huge concrete floored lot behind a wall and gate. A bit like we would go to a pavillion at the showgrounds. But instead of being all under cover, one section where the band set up and the bar and toilets were, was covered. The rest was concrete floor but open to the sky. Good idea as much cooler but thankfully it didn't rain...There were tables and stools set up in the uncovered areas, and standing room only under cover. The covered space ended up the dance floor. Interestingly they only sold beer. No water, no spirits, no soft drinks. Luckily Ramiro knew this and we took water in with us. And there was one market-type stall selling kebab squewers. The rest of the food and drink was on sale out in the street.
The band was huge. At least 10 members with instruments and vocals. And three dancing girls. In Oz these women would be considered soft porn. They were dressed like adult club pole dancers and gyrated all night on a side stage. Lots of g-string butt, cleavage and long untied hair thrown around. The latino music was excellent. Their version of rock and roll was terrible (to my ear). But dancing latino all night uses muscles I'm not used to using, so after 3 hours my calf muscles were aching.
Interesting watching 1500 people gyrate. The men were dressed in jeans and t-shirts or buttoned shirts. Mostly sneakers. They all had short hair. The women were in skin tight jeans and tight revealing tops. Plenty of midrift and cleavage. They all had long hair. Generally out - but started being tied back as they got hotter. But what caught my eye was how many were in jeans - 98%. And this is mid December in the tropics... They wore high heels - thong wedges in the main. We think our gyrating is pretty 'samie' and try and put in some latino, twist, etc for variety. Well Latino is no different - they dance the same 10 steps all night, and don't put in any western moves. You get the same number of 'good' dancers, and couples who actually touch while dancing.
There were a huge proportion who stood on the dance floor watching the band. And instead of standing at the back with their beers in hand watching, they stood at the front, in the crowd, or whereever they felt like. It was very safe. No drink spiking, no pick pocketing, no drink stealing. A very fair crowd. Obviously you took care but after all the 'take care' messages - the Peruvians act much better than their reputation.
Got to go now and catch a plane. Will catch up the Lima and Trujillo backlog when possible. See ya!
I bumped into one of the guides from the Lodge in Iquitos today and we practised our new languages together for a couple of hours. I think he learned more English, than I did Spanish. But I think that´s my memory. Just not as quick to remember...
Anyway, Ramiro offered to take me to a local dance party, so I accepted. He insisted we had to meet at 7pm, although I kept saying no, 9pm at the earliest. And of course, we're in Peru, the party didn't start til 10pm...actually quite funny cause he is a jungle guy and not very city-savvy. He was less confident crossing streets full of traffic than me...Anyway, the band was Kaliente, a slang spelling of spanish for 'hot'. And they were very good.
It was held in a huge concrete floored lot behind a wall and gate. A bit like we would go to a pavillion at the showgrounds. But instead of being all under cover, one section where the band set up and the bar and toilets were, was covered. The rest was concrete floor but open to the sky. Good idea as much cooler but thankfully it didn't rain...There were tables and stools set up in the uncovered areas, and standing room only under cover. The covered space ended up the dance floor. Interestingly they only sold beer. No water, no spirits, no soft drinks. Luckily Ramiro knew this and we took water in with us. And there was one market-type stall selling kebab squewers. The rest of the food and drink was on sale out in the street.
The band was huge. At least 10 members with instruments and vocals. And three dancing girls. In Oz these women would be considered soft porn. They were dressed like adult club pole dancers and gyrated all night on a side stage. Lots of g-string butt, cleavage and long untied hair thrown around. The latino music was excellent. Their version of rock and roll was terrible (to my ear). But dancing latino all night uses muscles I'm not used to using, so after 3 hours my calf muscles were aching.
Interesting watching 1500 people gyrate. The men were dressed in jeans and t-shirts or buttoned shirts. Mostly sneakers. They all had short hair. The women were in skin tight jeans and tight revealing tops. Plenty of midrift and cleavage. They all had long hair. Generally out - but started being tied back as they got hotter. But what caught my eye was how many were in jeans - 98%. And this is mid December in the tropics... They wore high heels - thong wedges in the main. We think our gyrating is pretty 'samie' and try and put in some latino, twist, etc for variety. Well Latino is no different - they dance the same 10 steps all night, and don't put in any western moves. You get the same number of 'good' dancers, and couples who actually touch while dancing.
There were a huge proportion who stood on the dance floor watching the band. And instead of standing at the back with their beers in hand watching, they stood at the front, in the crowd, or whereever they felt like. It was very safe. No drink spiking, no pick pocketing, no drink stealing. A very fair crowd. Obviously you took care but after all the 'take care' messages - the Peruvians act much better than their reputation.
Got to go now and catch a plane. Will catch up the Lima and Trujillo backlog when possible. See ya!
# posted by The Essence of Good Taste @ 12:39 PM 
