Walking to the terminal on the way to Cusco on Saturday (the day before Carnaval), Agnes and I got caught in the middle of a nasty little water war.  After I got nailed by one bucket full of water from who-knows-where, I was ready to hail tail, but Agnes was not about to let the little punks get the best of us.  But alas, the rocks, threats, Spanish swear words, and even a little kick to the leg of one of the attackers only got us more soaked.  We paid for the feisty reaction with a soggy hour-long combi ride to Cusco.But the next day—the official day of Carnaval—I was not about to be the helpless victim.  

Going on two hours of sleep after an Urubamba Saturday night, I woke up at 6 in the morning I grabbed my water bottle and stealthily snuck into Henry’s room.  Before I could even say ¨Happy Carnaval!¨ I dumped the whole thing on his snoring face and ran back to my room.  I set my chair in front of my door, put on my poncho, crawled into bed, and waited… Sure enough, within five minutes, I was dragged out of bed and an epic battle ensued in the courtyard.  I have to admit, I was at a slight advantage because Henry is recovering from a shoulder injury, but trivialities aside, after multiple failed attempts to douse me with a bucket of water, I had him in a choke hold over the sink and explained that as soon as he promised to surrender, we could resume our game in the afternoon after I got some sleep.  He complied :) 

Later in the day, Pablo and I assumed our post by the front door with an artillery of water balloons, pistols, water bottles, buckets, and spray foam to ambush certain passerbys on the streets (don´t worry, we chose worthy targets).  After I had my ten-pound plate of Puchero from lunch (the traditional dish of Carnaval), I went to the plaza to join the army of gringos that was gathering there.  The Plaza was a spectacle-- everyone was packing foam sprayers, baloons with colored flour, and water throwing devices of all shapes and sizes.  It didn´t matter if you were alone or in a group or wearing nice clothes or talking on a phone...  if you were dry and clean, you wouldn´t be for long.  We stayed for hours, playing offense and defense and all of us were soaked to the bone.  As the sun was setting things calmed down a little, but just as I was starting to feel amost warm, BAM--I got owned by a run-by bucket tosser.