Feliz Cumpleaños, Fortunata

             Sunday was Fortunata’s birthday.  Mariska and I asked on Friday about her birthday and if there would be a fiesta but she kind of shrugged it off, only assuring us that there would be cake and hot chocolate.  Sunday morning, not knowing what to expect after seeing the house cleaned and lots of flowers Saturday evening, we decided not to make pancakes.  Instead, we got up early Sunday morning and went to the Pisac market to buy flowers.  On Sundays, the market opens earlier than other days and, in addition to the regular crafts, there are people selling fruits, vegetable, and flowers.  We bought the flowers and came back to the house and got the card we had made the night before.  We gave the card and flowers to Fortunata before breakfast and she loved it!  She was very happy and insisted on taking pictures with us and the flowers, which was nice.  After the pictures, Fortunata and Ricardo’s daughter, Judith, arrived from Calca and Judith’s daughter, Chaska, was already there.  Soon, the six of us sat down to breakfast, which consisted of cake and a heavy hot chocolate drink made with a tub of butter.  With our stomachs hurting from this not-so-delicious breakfast, which our hosts thought was a delicacy, we headed to the cemetery (a birthday tradition?) to see Fortunata’s mother’s grave and place new flowers and take a group picture around the grave.  The cemetery was beautiful and it was nice to be part of this family event.  We then headed back to the house and Fortunata, Norma and Ronald (the two helpers in the house) started to furiously cook.  We realized lots more people would be joining us for Fortunata’s birthday.  Mariska started to help in the kitchen, but by then the kitchen was too full for me to help too, so I sat down with Judith who took out three large photo albums and showed me lots of old family pictures.  It was so much fun to see this pictures, I was able to learn more about the family’s lives.  I got to see Judith’s old school pictures, where her class went on field trips to places like Machu Picchu.  I also saw lots of pictures of Fortunata marching in various parades around Pisac and making speeches.  Apparently, she was a very important teacher and town’s person.  Even though she is retired, if I see people around town who ask me where I am living (i.e. restaurant owners, taxi drivers, etc) all I have to say is with Fortunata and everyone says “Oh! The profesora!” and know exactly who she is.

            After looking at pictures and talking to Judith about what ruins I have visited, it was time to clean the house a little more and wash the dog - everything was going to be spotless for Fortunata’s 60^th birthday!  Around 11:00, more people started to show up - Fortunata’s son and his wife and various friends.  We all sat down to another slice of cake.  At 12:30, we had a big lunch of cabiche (chicken and vegetables marinated in a vinegar and lemon broth).  Lunch was accompanied by the Peruvian drink chicha morado - the nonalcoholic version of the fermented corn drink.  I thought it was disgusting, which was too bad because every time someone said salud you had to take a big sip, and someone was always there to refill my glass.  When people could see I didn’t like it, they would start talking to me about how delicious the drink is and don’t I think it’s a delicious too, to get them to stop talking about the purple drink I would have to say that, yes, it was delicious and take a big sip.  However, this was not the worst of the food or drink to come.  Around 3:00 (yes, we had just eaten two hours earlier) we were served a giant dinner of the special birthday treat cuy (guinea pig)!  This time, I had no choice but to eat the whole piece.  Thankfully they served Mariska and me just a quarter of a cuy, whereas everyone else get a half or whole cuy.  I ate faster than I ever have before so that I didn’t have to think about what I was eating, taking small pieces of meat with big pieces of potato or a forkful of pasta.  Also on the plate, was a breaded and deep fried pepper stuffed with vegetables and chewy pieces of meat.  When I was done drinking my chicha and eating my cuy, I thought I was safe from more things that would make my stomach turn.  Wrong!  Next came a quinoa cocktail - cooked quinoa blended together with milk and pisco (a very strong alcohol).  It was disgusting!  I could not take more than a small sip.  Soon after the quinoa cocktail was served, one of Fortunata’s friend, Ruth, said that she had to go to drive another friend home to Urubamba and would then be back.  Fortunata asked if she would take Mariska and me with her (I don’t know if she wanted to get rid of us or if she wanted us to see Urubamba).  Before we left, three people ganged up on me to get me to drink my cocktail but I said no thank you, feeling guilty because of the sad looks on their faces, and quickly followed Ruth to her Car (this is the first Peruvian I have met that owns a car, which makes sense because there are no places to park in these small towns and gas is more than $5 per gallon).  The ride to Urubamba was back took two hours and was boring, but I was glad that I wasn’t being forced to eat or drink anything more.

            When we got back to the house around 7:30, music was blasting and there were about ten people still at the party dancing in a circle.  Mariska, Ruth, and I joined in and had a good time dancing for the next two hours.  At 9:30, we were served more cake and by 10:00 everyone was finally leaving.  It was a late night - usually we’re all off to bed by 8:00 - and we were all exhausted after the 14 hour long party.  However, it was a great day.  I got to eat and drink a lot of traditional Peruvian foods (even if I didn’t like them) and got to experience a real Peruvian birthday party, complete with speaking lots of Spanish to various family and friends.  It was a great day.