Palo Cilulo - Paint Party

  Huanchaco, Peru Saturday, March 5, 2016

This was mental! Well what else can we say.... Messy. Crazy. and probably 100 other adjectives we could use but those two sum it up nicely! We were warned not to wear any clothing that we didn't want ruined and we were provided with a tee shirt from the sponsors. At 12:30pm we all walked down to Club Huanchaco and our wristbands and teeshirts gave us entry. Firstly, we were all provided with a meal. Quite a big meal really whilst a band played and a singer sang. Usually we love the bands and live music but his was actually quite a racket and we were glad when she stopped. It was Marketas birthday today too. She had tried to keep it quiet but we found out and of course we had to sing happy birthday to her. There was a bit of a lull, then.....Uproar! Out came the paint and we saw a few people running off squealing with excitement. When we say paint, we are talking about full blown emulsion paint - not the powder that they use at the colour festival in India, nor poster paint that kids use in schools. No this was thick gloopy neon paint and it got handed out in bags. The only way to get it out of the bag was to stick your hands in and grab a lump. Then either throw it at someone or quite literally go and rub it in their face or on their body. It was great! Until you opened your mouth at the wrong moment and got a gobful of it that is. This was so messy and to just to illustrate just how messy, I am going to tell a funny little story told to us by Amy a few days later.Amy was having a cuddle and a dance with her boyfriend, when a friend of hers came marching up to her and almost pulled her off her own boyfriend. Her friend did not recognise Amy as she was so covered in paint and thought her boyfriend was canoodling with another girl! She was about to give Amy a piece of her mind when she finally recognised her. We really had a job to recognise everyone afterwards to tag them in the photos too, especially as we are all wearing the same tee shirts! You see one person one minute and they were orange, the next time you see them you don't recognise them because they are green! It was hilarious. And then the paint started to dry. And it all cracked on the skin and in our hair. Big thick globs of it in our hair. Yuk! This is when the firemen came in and opened their hoses on us but it was freezing. Still most people returned to their normal colour again. Then out came more paint. Then we started to dry. Then the firemen attacked again. Brilliant fun.Most people had imbibed a few beers by now too so a perfect time to crack open the dangerous games. Dangerous Game Number 1. Make a tower of people about 25 feet high, and try and reach the prize stapled to the top of a 30ft greasy pole. Otra Cosa managed this one no problems as the prize was beer! Dangerous Game Number 2. Take an axe - yes a big, full size axe, swing it at a tree until the tree falls down into the middle of the drunk crowd. Yes no joking, this was a real game and the bonus was that all the drunk people got to take it in turns to swing the axe and try and fell the tree. Brilliant! Yes really - it was brilliant! The downside of Dangerous game number 2. was that if the tree fell after you swung the axe, you get to pay for next year's party! What a prize eh? Of course the other downside could be that you were stood under the tree when it fell but that didn't happen, no one got hurt and the Elf & Safety Police stayed locked up out the way where they couldn't spoil the fun! In-between turns at swinging the axe, you could go to the man with the big barrel & give him your empty cup ask him for a dip. Rum and coke dispensed 'just like that'. When the tree came down, everybody ran.Not away from the tree as you would have expected, but towards it. The party planners had another game up their sleeve. Onto the tree were tied dozens of prizes, mainly cheap plastic kitchen tubs, baskets & fly swatters but when the tree landed it was as if there was gold up for grabs. Everyone dived on the tree (many not even waiting for it to hit the ground) and started grabbing as much free stuff as they could. It was like the Black Friday Sales out there! During the whole afternoon, there was a band that continuously played the same tune, Over and over and over they played it. it is the same tune we have heard everywhere and we have heard it so much, we can now hum it in our sleep! Melissa & Chloé kept the band entertained with their dancing (and everyone else for that matter). They were like the two duracell bunnies today. Where do they get their energy from? Well this was just a brilliant day from start to finish. After the tree had been pulled apart most people wandered off. Many off to the beach for a fully clothed dip in the sea to clean up a bit before going home to a hot shower and get changed.We did the same but unfortunately we are lightweights and didn't make it back to the party. Turns out we were not the only lightweights though, it seems as if all that fun, beer, chopping, climbing, dancing and grabbing was just too much for us all and most other people just crashed out afterwards too. And what about the paint? Well despite washing our hair twice that night, Jody's hair was still green the next morning and it took a couple more washes after that to fully get it out. But we didn't care. This was one party we can honestly say we were absolutely plastered yet still remembered every minute of it! Would we do it again? .... Oh yes. we loved it See the video here (courtesy of Bryan's GoPro camera in a waterproof case!)     [gallery columns="4" ids="13339,13348,13352,13362,13369,13373,13382,13399,13408,13417,13425,13435,13441,13450,13453,13461,13467,13472,13482,13491,13501,13507,13514,13524,13532,13538,13544,13552,13560,13571,13581,13588,13595,13601,13610,13616,13626,13635,13641,13650,13660,13667,13672,13681,13691,13696,13700"]