Laguna de Huacarpay

Growing up, camping was always a summer feature. Once each of us (there are 3 children in my family, of which I am the youngest) reached a certain age, my father would take us camping. Tent camping of course. I wouldn't know the first thing about pop-ups or RVs. Luckily, REI has come up with easier fashioned tents so it's quicker to put up a tent than to have to fiddle with the splintered wooden sticks and the metal fasteners. Camping here in Peru was a different experience, but one I would do again and again. I'm sure people in the States have experienced car camping, but this car camping was unlike any other I've seen or heard of. The only planning done was what food to bring, who was going and the general vicinity of where we were to camp: Laguna de Huacarpay. (I would try to spell it phonetically, but that would cause more confusion than help).

We arrived at the Laguna (it's not like Peter Pan's Laguna, it just means a smaller lake...pretty much anything smaller than Lake Titicaca is a Laguna) and drove around looking for spots to settle down. A hay/grass area under a tree was chosen and we parked.
A fire was started mostly just of grass...no need for technicalities because we had an endless supply of grass to pull from and it gave the kids something to do. All in all, I believe there were close to 20 people crammed into 3 cars. One grandpa, his 7 children and some of their spouses, 4 grandchildren, a couple cousins and 2 gringas. What a party!

A makeshift pan that was made earlier in the afternoon was used to cook beef kabobs with peppers and onions, served on a real plate with a mountain of fried rice and potatoes. Most definitely, it was the best, most gourmet looking meal I've had for dinner while camping. It comes a close second to my father's breakfast of sausages cooked in peach juice. Mmmmm. I was lucky to help the other women in preparing the potatoes and getting things ready for dinner.

Frequent trips were made to the road, away from the fire to look at the stars, so close it seemed like I could just put up my hand and touch them. Jupiter was out, the Southern Cross, and somewhere was the star we named after my grandfather. It was very tranquil to stand there and look up, especially when shooting stars flew by and we got to make wishes.

It wasn't until about 1 or 2 in the morning that the craziness started. Rum and coke is a common drink around here. Pitchers are filled with the two and a sippy cup(half a Dixie cup) rotated around while everyone warmed up around the fire. The first game was Hot Potato but every time you were caught with the ball, you had to act out an animal.
I'm not a very outgoing person in this area, so I blushed and giggled just about every time I had to go. My first animal was a horse (a joke for Christina and me because we kept using the word for gentleman- caballero- instead of horse-caballo- for a few days until we got it straight) and then I did a fish. Christina did a bird and a frog. Then the game was the same except that you had to SING! That made me even more nervous! Christina got it right with the Beatles and then I had to come up with UB40--at least some of them knew what I was singing.

All the while music was playing and we were all laughing. After Hot Potato, we played a game of mimicking dances. Each person would have to do a dance move and everyone would follow. Hehe. Christina and I just did funny dances from the States like the Running Man and Roger Rabbit. It was hilarious.

We didn't go to bed until after 4 in the morning and Christina and I slept in the backseat of one of the cars. There was even a couple in the trunk! (Yes, the trunk was open).

Once we got up a couple hours later, we went to a nearby field, right next to the lake, and played soccer for about an hour. It was fun, but I had a few respiratory problems since I'm not used to running at 10,000ft. Then, we packed up and headed out.

Just like the Quinceañera (it was the same family who invited us to that), this family took us in again for their camping excursion. They want us to stick around to go up into the mountains
(I thought we were in the mountains) to go to their cabin. The hospitality is overwhelming and more than we could have asked for. Language barrier or not, they took us in and treated us like we were part of the family, as if we have always been part of their family.