Yunza

Yunza tree.

On Saturday afternoon, everybody in camp piled into a boat and headed down to Lucerna, the community 15 minutes downriver from us by boat. We dressed up as we could, in the full knowledge that we would end up much dirtier than we left. It was Yunza night, which is a traditional Andean celebration. The people in the community are originally from the Andes, but have settled here to escape the cocaine trade and the violence that comes with it. There are several aspects to a Yunza celebration. A big part of it is the tree: a small tree is cut down from the forest, decorated with useful items and colorful ribbons and streamers, and erected in the plaza. During the celebration, we danced around the tree in a circle and people took turns chopping at it with a machete. Whoever cuts it down has to organize next year's Yunza, so it is not left to chance. When the tree falls, everyone rushes to the tree to grab the gifts. This can be everything from blankets to plastic baskets, children's toys, and clothes. Another part of the celebration is the colored chalk or flour that people spread on each other. It begins with the children running around and marking you with a handprint with a shy confidence. Later, certain adults join in, and soon, everyone's face is covered in pink, purple, and blue. If you are deemed "lacking in color", others will make sure that you soon fit in with the rest. After the color distribution and the chopping down of the tree, it devolves more into a "normal party", with music on loudspeakers, people dancing, and plenty of beer to go around. I very much enjoyed people watching during this party: seeing people who live in separate isolated communities mingle produces interesting results. There was quite a bit of flirting, and as people got progressively more drunk, this became more obvious. All in all, it was a good night, with lots of fuel for discussion in the next days. The next morning, we were all tired and went back to bed after breakfast, which was still at 7:00 am, like it is every morning without fail. Since then, I have not been able to shake the tiredness, even though I went to bed early and am taking frequent naps. I also had a headache all morning, which was very unpleasant. I can only hope that it is nothing serious and will go away soon.