Clearly, I wasn’t going to be able to escape Christmas totally this year. Since Peru is a predominantly Catholic country, at least nominally, the Peruvians were enthusiastically celebrating. On just about every street corner in the cities there was a nativity scene, ranging in size from a foot or so cubed to fully life-sized figures.
Typical nativity scene - with wise men, shepherds and indians
Above is a snap of a fairly typical crib scene, which was just opposite my hotel in Lima. I was rather tickled by the combination of Western traditions (the wise men, a shepherd carrying a lamb) and more local traditions – a cast of indigenous Andean indians playing musical instruments.
And the local instruments formed an inescapable soundtrack to my Christmas. Over breakfast I was “treated” to a compilation of Christmas classics – Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer, Frosty the Snowman, Jingle Bells, and the local favourite Feliz Navidad (to the tune of We Wish You a Merry Christmas) – all played on the Andean pan-pipes. Truly ghastly! I saw the CD for sale in the airport, and was briefly tempted to buy it on the grounds that no one would otherwise believe me about how dreadful it was – but I couldn’t bring myself to waste my money in such a way!
