me voy a ir.. i'm gonna leave....

The last day of carnival had arrived... the devil would be buried until next year and the party would end.. we tried to upload the two videos where you can follow all the story of this day, but we are now at Belen, a city at Catamarca where internet is soooooooooooo slow... come back for the videos in one day, we go now to villa Union to see the dinosaurs parks and maybe we 'll be luckier...

meanwhile, some images and words..

we went again to Uquía where we had seen the unbury of it..

people and devils were there, meeting to go to a house where they had been invited...

they walked along the streets, singing all the time.. if you see the clips, you will notice how they kept silence while passing the church.. crazy syncretism culture all along northwest... the religion of the oppressor and the deep believing of their ancestors...

One of the phrases, me voy a ir... i'm gonna leave, made us feel nostalgic even carnival was not yet ending...
the comparsa and followers, crossed the route...
when arriving at the house, clouds of talc and confetti fall on us... there was a band invited there who received all us with music...
we danced many hours... song after song....


but at certain moment, devils began to cry.. the countdown was finishing...
we left the house and we walked again till the "headquarters"of the comparsa, where the music went on but the cries increased..

the devils began leaving the place,, complaining about the next bury...all went to el mojon where they stayed, singing and celebrating, with beer and other beverages...
the songs were saying good bye to carnival..and so were doing our souls...
They climbed the hill, where they had appeared 8 days ago... the last notes were heard, the last voices were missing in the starry night...
When they disappeared, we all went to el mojon, to throw there the confetti, to clean of talc our faces and of "evil actions =)"our souls and just return to the daily life...
but each one of us waiting, wishing for the next carnival to come...

deep soul of carnival..

follow this post through this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDsiY_0Vkok

We went to Juella to see the small village and to try to find the so nice musicians we had hear the previous day..

we were lucky, as we found much more than that...
the comparsa was there, invited to a house and we arrived just in time to see them.
it was very special time..the village is small, and there were only the inhabitants, no tourist, just us..

the copleros prepared to sing,,,
some had just nice time and fun...
but a hard rain began..people went inside the house and we were kindly invited to enter with them!
inside, the coplas went on... the friendly feeling pervaded us...and the deep certainty we were sharing something special...
we finally left behind these children , with our soul not only full of carnival spirit, but with the warmness of this incredible land in it...

mountains, colours..and music

follow the clip of this day here
We went to purmamarca, to make a visit to its market...


We then climbed a hill to may appreciate the beautiful colours of earth here...

a long road, 40 minutes walking, called de los Colorados, with some shadowy stops at its beginning..

and a breathtaking, wonderful view while doing it..


we went back to Tilcara and heard some so typical music, same to previous comparsas but with more flutes... we follow the sound and an elegant devil welcomed us..

it was a comparsa from Juella, a near village from tilcara...(the following day would bring us a surprise when going to visit that village.. ) We follow them, we danced and register...
and we weren't the only ones to enjoy it!

flamingos and rest..

after some festive days we decided to go to Pozuelos lagoon, a national reserve distant about 150 km from Tilcara.. in the road we found some festive guys, too.. =)
the lagoon was impressive, the sky benevolous with clouds to may shoot it
Pozuelos is a nature reserve with thousands of Andean flamingos (Phoenicoparrus andinus). Its habitats are the salt-water lagoons of the Andean altiplano where they build mud nests and eat minuscule crustaceans.

it was rest day with beautiful views, and we prepared for the following day, to make a tiring, nice walk to a special place at Purmamarca...

It was Wednesday ashes so most comparsas were having a rest. We went to visit a small village near Tilcara , named Maimará, “falling star” in aborigin language.
One of the highlights is the cemetery and the impressive background it has... but we couldn't resist to capture this signal...we walked along its streets, with inviting benches... a shadow appeared, but it vanished before we could talk to it ..We later went back to Tilcara and to one of its attractions.. in the road we found these boys, playing beside one Mojon..Pucará is an Inca language Quechua word and its literal translation is "Fortified Place".It is built on top of a hill, which rises about 70 metres above the bed of the Río Grande River, occupying close to 15 hectares.

It was an ideal defensive position, on one-side cliffs overlooking the river, on the other side steep hillsides and on the accessible parts, they built a defensive wall. From this old strategic place there is a wonderful encompassing view over the access to the Gorge.

carnival's nights..

Follow our night carnivals feast in this clip HERE..
It's time now to see the carnival by night.. you walk the streets and just have to follow the sound of the music.. they will be playing and dancingall comparsas are invited by night, too, to different houses..
some depart from the square, and others just finish there... tired devils, or just enthusiastic musicians …
Some houses prepare big recipients full of beverage, wine with orange juice and we were gently invited by these devils to take one and drink it till the end! (previously we had to allow them cover our face and hair with talc, artificial snow and no, we will not publish those images! =)

Purmamarca, talc and some festive parrots..

Take a look at the clip related to this post HERE

We went to see how were the comparsas doing at Purmamarca, a beautiful small village at la Quebrada de Humahuaca, near Tilcara.. its name means "village in virgin land" and it is famous because of the mountain of the seven colours..
We entered the village but we saw nothing carnival's special except some festive parrots..
but when leaving we found a house were one of the comparsas was invited.. during all these days these groups will go to homes that invite and homage them...
copleros... dances.. talc and artificial snow.. some old ladies drinking "saratoga", what seems orange juice but it is has veeery much alcoholic degrees...the feast was there too, and we summed to them!