Seriously, where do you begin? There were so many photo opportunities as we stood by and watched, and yet we seemed to be standing around for hours waiting for something to happen!Firstly, you must remember that next Monday, 28th July, is Peru’s National Day and right now everyone seems to be conducting a parade of some sort. The Peruvian red and white flag is appearing everywhere, all the varying sizes may be purchased at any street corner or at traffic lights while you are waiting for them to go green, that’s if you wait for them to change.
We never learn, once again we arrived at the designated point right on the advertised starting time – next time we will arrive an hour and a half later so that we will not have to wait so long! Because even then you will still be early and not miss a thing.
As you can see the dais was not even ready, the band were relaxing and some of the school children who had arrived on time were either practising their goose step march or just milling around and swapping stories. All the schools seem to insist on the high kick and arm swing when marching and I can assure that some find this technique very hard to master.
The teachers were out in force, dressed in their uniform but not marching together, women in one group and men in the other – I was too scared to ask why!
The school bands continue to impress, however, when you realise just how much time they spend with their instruments then you expect something good. I just wish they would use more than one sheet of music. After a very short time you have learnt the tune off by heart!
Once again the traditional costumes came to the fore, they are so colourful and worn so proudly, even by the little children.
We loved the array of pre-school uniforms on display.
The food vendors never fail to appear and take every opportunity for a sale, you name it and you could buy it. The hot food on sale looked terrific and smelt even better, however, neither of us was game enough to purchase a plateful.
The line markers had almost completed their task of marking the guide lines for the marchers.
Eventually the usual array of speeches got under way, but only after the official party paraded the Peruvian flag, flew it from the flag pole and then sang the National Anthem. The dog seems far from interested in the whole proceedings although you would have thought that the sound system may have moved him on. The speakers did seem a bit of an over kill for the size of the crowd, nevertheless, you have to realise that the public address system is the most vital part of the event and the louder the better.
As the crowd began to build we were reliably informed that all the local people from the areas represented by the schools had to attend, if not they were fined S/-50.00. That is big money for these people and it seems quite unjust. I am not quite sure who gets the money if a fine is imposed; I suppose the equivalent of our local councils.
Most of the uniforms worn by the school leaders and the band members are owned by the school and are spotless. The parents would really struggle to come up with that sort of money.It was getting so cold that we had to make a move so we missed the main parade. It was a pity because we really wanted to see some of our English students who were marching with their school.
We had to head to Acho, the flower market to purchase a few more squares of lawn and some soil. Yours truly managed to accidentally leave the hose running all night and the ground became so soaked that a hole appeared in the middle of our back lawn and for safety reasons it had to be filled.
