The first friday of the year is a special day in Andean culture...it's the day of celebrating Pachamama, the Mother Earth - in fact Pachamama is subject of various celebrations throughout the year, but the first friday of the year is one of the most important ones.
We started the evening at La Troje, a bar and cultural center a bit outside the city of Cochabamba. One of the rituals of these celebrations involves chicha, a traditional drink going back to the ancient Incas, made of fermented maize. With its beige-yellowish color it did not really look very moth-watering and the first sip absolutely confirmed this impression, but due to the traditional way of drinking chicha you can't avoid having more of it. Chicha is normally served in a huge mug, together with one or two smaller cups. One person fills the small cup dipping it into the mug, says 'saludo' to somebody else in the group, spills a few drops on the ground, as donation to Pachamama, and drinks up. Afterwards he refills the cup, offering it to the person he was saluting before and the whole procedure starts from the beginning...
Once you're offered chicha, refusing is not an option, so you can't avoid having more and more of it, and with each cup it actually gets better and better...
The drinking ritual was interrupted occasionally, when a band of around 10 drummers and panflutists entered the place and everybody started dancing. In the beginning I had some difficulties moving my stiff German hips to the traditional rhythms, but the chicha helped me solving these problems very quickly.
The evening ended downtown Cochabamba in "La pimienta", one of the hippest clubs in town, with somewhat more modern rhythms and melodies...
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