Halloween

So Halloween has long been one of my favorite holidays. Over the past few years my costumes have been consistently made out of cardboard or things laying around the house, but I always put as much and heart and soul as I possibly can into my costumes. I love Halloween. Well, Halloween is not such a big deal here in Iquitos. I hear that it is more celebrated in Lima, but Iquitos doesn’t really blink an eye. So I had no costume. But…I did bring a bit of the spirit of Halloween here by carving some pumpkins. Knowing about my love for Halloween and its traditions Jorge promised to find a pumpkin for me to carve. Here pumpkins are very rare, but we decided to embark on the journey anyways.




We went with our friends Fio and Cali to the open air market of Belen. Cali is an engineer here in the Air Force and Fio is his lovely wife. They have been extremely hospitable to us and we are blessed to know them. I had been to the market once before but it was on a week day in the late afternoon, so there was not too much to take in. But this time we went early on a Saturday morning…and oh my goodness. I have never seen such things. I would have taken my camera but its not exactly a great place for valuables, plus I already stick out like a sore thumb, plus I need to remember that sometimes it’s better to take things in through my senses instead of through my camera lens. So I will try to describe it as best as I can.

Well, I felt like Alice in Wonderland when she fell down the rabbit hole and chased that little rabbit with his clock all through a magical land…only I was chasing pumpkins. The market is filled with most random of items, nothing quite makes sense to me and you are lucky if you find what you need right away. It’s not like asking the clerk at the grocery store what aisle the cookies are on. So imagine this…mototaxis and motos everywhere, people yelling prices in your ear, a smell of rancid old vegetables mixed with fish, a woman selling turtle eggs, a whole table full of alligator meat with its toenails and scales still intact, a pile of flopping fish, a small boy sitting playing with a large sharp knife like it’s a tiny toy, a cow’s stomach, a cow’s tongue, cow testicles (I mean bull testicles) people lined up at a counter drinking fresh made fruit juices, flies everywhere, an old lady with a rack of mysterious spices and mysterious bottles of perhaps magical potions (used for cooking of course), a huge pig cut in half with all of its contents completely gone, legs of animals hanging from the ceiling, people carrying baskets of food on their head, a guy following you around wanting to sell you some earings, and puddles of stale water everywhere. I promise to take you here if you come to visit me…haha. Really it was all very interesting. We were redirected about 5 different times until we were finally told about a girl we could get pumpkins from. When we found her she had a few small ones. We inquired about some bigger ones and she said we would have to follow her. She took us on a little walk and led us to an old wood building where we had to climb the stairs into an attic…and there hiding in the dark was a pile of about 5 pumpkins. We carefully selected the best two and then made our quickly back to the entrance and out of the rabbit hole.

So we had a little barbeque on the day of Halloween, and while everybody was cooking and barbequing delicious things (including alligator) I was busy in a corner planning my pumpkin masterpieces.

I went for the classic Jack-o-Lantern so as not to confuse the Peruvians. And at first I felt like the weird girl from California going at a large squash with a fierce knife, resembling “Carrie.”

But when I finished, everybody loved them and they all wanted to take pictures with them.

We had a few kids show up for trick or treating here in their costumes and they were excited to see the pumpkins as it was the first time for some of them to see carved pumpkins. Fio and Cali gladly kept one on their porch and we gave the other one to a friend of ours who is from Canada. She had the only house in the whole area with Halloween decorations and was thrilled to have the pumpkin complete the whole look.

Earlier in the day we went to a famous restaurant here called Texas Rose. This place looks like a man from Texas came to Iquitos and shot every animal he could or wrestled it with his bare hands and strapped ‘em all to the walls and called it a restaurant. And we met that man, his name is Gerald. He was extremely kind to us and told us all about how he plans to expand his larger than life restaurant. Right now he serves regional food, but is also the only place in all of Iquitos where can find good old fashion American cuisine.

Sorry if I seem like less of an authentic traveler, but I find this place and its food sooooo comforting. Soon he will be serving Cajun food and Mexican Food. Ok I can officially stay in Iquitos for a while. So I had to have some coffee (my first cup in over a month) and a big pancake. I thought of my dad during that breakfast because I was surrounded by cowboy and old west memorabilia and I was eating pancakes like him and I always used to do on Sundays together. I could just picture my dad at our dining room table in Oakhurst taking his chocolate chip pancake and piling on butter, peanut butter, maple syrup, yogurt, whip cream, and then cinnamon. Those of you who have experienced the man’s pancakes know what I am talking about, and if you haven’t then you need to. I miss you daddy, you’re awesome.

The next day we went on our friend’s boat to the beach again. This time the journey was a little less treacherous and when a thunderstorm came we just waited it out right there in the water. It was a great day. And that sums up Halloween here. I love you all!