Welcome to the Month of Water

Part of the fun in travelling abroad is that you get the opportunity to experience a culture other than your own.  Sometimes things are more-or-less the same between the two cultures.  Other times, things are dramatically different.  From my experience living in Peru, I really hadn’t come across anything that would seem off-the-wall to a person from the U.S. until this past weekend.

During the month of February in Peru (remember, it is currently summer here), people play something called “carnavales”.  Simply put, carnavales just means that you are outside having fun and playing with water.  Seems harmless, right?  Well, there’s more.  On Saturdays and Sundays during this month, it is completely socially acceptable to stand on your roof and throw water balloons at or dump buckets of water on random strangers walking by your house.  It’s pretty much an all-out water fight.  For example, I left the house with my host family on Sunday to go to the beach (again!!!), and as we were walking down the road, people were throwing water balloons at us.  It was one of the craziest things I’ve seen.  There are a few rules to this game.  It is unacceptable to throw water at an elderly person, a woman who is pregnant, or anyone walking with a young child.  Anyone else, however, is fair game.

I have no idea how carnavales came about, but I do know that this month I will be walking down the streets with my eyes scanning the rooftops just in case!