Carnaval in Cajamarca

Our friend group is walking through the streets of Cajamarca. Our faces and clothes are painted in about all the colors of the rainbow. We've had a little skirmisch between us, to warm up for the war which is about to take place.
The city of Cajamarca breathes a lot more culture than Piura. It is located at 3000 meters height (the bus trip was horrible), and filled with churches, brick buildings, artesanal objects, and a lot of energetic tranquility. It is the Peruvian place to be with carnaval. The tradition here, is that groups of adolescents walk towards the main road with buckets filled with water based paint. When a group meets an other one, the objective is to paint each other more than they paint you. In the meantime, people from the surrounding buildings throw water balloons at the groups. From time to time we throw some back. I hit a balcony guy right in the crutch. It made me think of Pim.
The party of yesterday night was great. We started by going from bar to bar with a local band of drums, guitars and pan-flutes. After that, we all went to the Plaza de Armas, where the whole city had gathered with drums and liquor. I think there were about 5 thousand people from all over Peru on one square. We danced the night away with friends, people from a tour we took earlier, and a mysticist lawyer with his odd daughter, whom I met earlier that day.
Every time we reach a street corner, one of us checks out if there are enemy groups comming. If so, we take up positions and take them by surprise. All groups are headed for the main street, where nothing will matter anymore.
When we reach it, we are all frozen to the bone. The temperature here is about 20 degrees (which is cold for us), and the water from the tap is almost freezing.
The street is large, comparable with the Champs Elysees in Paris, but shorter. Full though. I feel like we're in the Anti Gulf war Demonstration in Barcelona. There must be at least 30 thousand people walking here. Luckily, the sun is comming out, and some people are walking around with pisco: a strong local drink. We are re-heated inside and out. But paint is still flying everywhere. Some people shoot it out of super soakers, or even water canons. The empty buckets now serve as drums. All people are danceing and singing with a constant incomming of water balloons out of the surrounding houses. It is amazing.
When the rain starts gathering itself above us, we try to go back to the hotel. It is fairly hard, but doable in the end. I take a hot shower, and make myself ready for tonight. There's a lot more partying comming up.