Today is a public holiday in the middle of feria season so the soundstage came into its own last night. Not only that, there were street parties everywhere, including at least two directly outside our window. Over the course of the evening the sound swelled, the salsa from the stage and all the different types of music and the sound of the crowd merging into a roar and I only really relised how loud it was when a car alarm went off but was barely audible. And when we spoke to each other, we had to shout if we were more than a metre apart.
The volume of the ambient sound was enough to make me really uncomfortable, and eventually we went out to stroll around the streets and see what was going on. There were, literally, thousands of people dancing, drinking, eating unsavoury looking street food and crowding around the main street. The police horses suddenly seemed a very sensible precaution. We had taken our own precaution, leaving behind all phones and money, with only our keys, and that too was wise as there were so very many people milling around. Little impromptu dances popped up as people seemed to coalesce, instruments appeared, a beer can was balanced on the head and dancing began.
After a while we came back and closed all the windows, not that that did much to muffle the sound, but it did smooth the edges into the roar so it approached white noise, and it was possible to sleep.
In the morning I woke up to the sound of high pressure hoses sluicing the street and a group of revellers or perhaps addicts walking past, shouting in a particularly hostile manner, enough that I was relieved that I did not have leave for my class for another half hour or so. When I did leave the streets were very quiet. The sound stage had been dismantled and everything around it – the barriers, the lighting platforms, were also coming down. There was almost no one out, but there was a distinct aroma of stale drink and urine everywhere, especially around the health food shop where the large concrete planters filled with flowering shrubs had clearly been considered excellent urinals (one can understand why).
Today’s lesson went well, much better than the last couple. Something started to fall into place with indirect and direct pronouns and I described the Wagah ceremony to my teacher, much to her amusement.
I learned, at least, that the holiday comemmorates a 19th century battle which lifted the Spanish yoke and started the neverending civil wars. I would like to read more about Bolivar and, generally, about the fraught history of this region.
For lunch we went to an Amazonian cafe, which was interesting. My meal came wrapped in an immense glutinous pancake which proved massive though had a very interesting texture once soaked in juices. We also ordered some of their Amazonian fruit juices; the fruits were unknown as I suspect they were frozen pulp, but were certainly tasty. One a melon-like juice and the other like the most flavourful starfuit one can imagine.