Carnival Warfare

Who needs Carnival Bolivia when you have Carnival Cuzco? For is not one day of getting assaulted with shaving cream and water balloons enough?

While Carnival has gained massive popularity here in South America it is believed to have been derived from the Italian Carnivale, most fabulously associated with those sparkly porcelain masks of awesome one cannot leave Venice without purchasing. The name Carnival itself, comes from the term “Carrus Navalis” the Roman festival of Isis where the image of the goddess was carried to the coast to bless the start of sailing season.

Today the festival is more closely associated with the beginning of the Lent season, a type of last Hoorah before the religious folk enter the meatless days of Christ. In Cuzco, I learned firsthand that this farewell to meat, booze and all things happy is also marked above all else by citywide water balloon-shaving cream warfare.

Children and adults alike are armed and dangerous. The adults commence primarily in drive bys, pelting rock hard water balloons as they navigate their buggies around the cobblestone streets, while the children double fist cans of shaving cream and without mercy cover innocent passersby from head to toe in frothy multicolored shaving cream. But far and away, the worst militants are the teens, who cowardly crouch from hidden apartment balcony’s armed with massive buckets of water. You can imagine the type of damage caused by such guerilla warfare, for buckets of water poured from lofty terrace barracks comprise a type of ammunition for which silly string and water balloons are simply no match.

 Four hours later, I can accurately report that while I fought about 27 children with a single can of lime green silly string, I was intern hit square on the ass with 12 water balloons, covered head to toe with 32 separate shaving cream attacks, and just when I thought it was over, was fully annihilated by a rooftop bucket ambush.  2 points: Manda, 2000 points: Carnival, Peru…. Next time I will come armed with super soakers…. Game on.