Lions in Pacasmayo

Well before I start school tomorrow, which I sure will top the excitement of the Lions.. I thought I would tell you about the Brazilian/ Mexican/ African Circus that is rolling through Pacasmayo. I can still hear the music and the loud speaker even from my apartment up in the compound. Cherry, Jan, Kevin, Jorge and I went to Cafe Cafe, the local Chinese place in town for dinner before heading to the circus at around 7 30.

(SN/Side note) Everything is pushed back here. Most Peruvians don't get off of work until 7 or so pushing all of the restaurants to open later in the evening. We have already had to knock on the gate of a restaurant asking them to open early for us.

The Circus tent is directly down the hill from the orphanage so it was hard not to grab our interest. 10 soles( Peruvian dollars) was a great price to pay for this once in a life time chance to go to an authentic Peruvian circus... little did we know we definitely got our money's worth... o the exchange rate makes that about 3 dollars.


Everything was just how a small tent circus should be. Silly clowns, a grumpy ring master, scantily clad women and even a midget just for effect. One of the clowns was even wearing a KC Chiefs shirt, a unexpected treat for Kevin who is from KC. Kevin is the only other person my age that is living at the orphanage and is pretty much amazing for at least three reasons so far. He booked my much needed first class ticket on the bus ride up to Lima, he translates everything for me, and he has guitar hero... just kidding he’s pretty cool even without all of that extra stuff.

o... circus stuff.. so we were all sitting there watching the clowns do their thing, a ridiculously strong couple and their athleticism, and the Michael Jackson look alike lion tamer introduce the 5 HUGMONGOUS lions from the right hand side of the circus tent. After watching the lions jump across platforms in the middle of their cage i notice this man walking over to our group and saying something to us in Spanish.. the next thing I know I am being escorted onto the stage and I am handing my little camera over to one of the clowns. MJ takes me into the cage and asked me what my name is. "Soy Abby" I hesitantly say as he takes a death grip onto my wrist and brings me to each of the lions. The first three didn't even flinch when I came over to pet them but the 4th(Africa) ended up wrapping her paw around my forearm. I think it was more of a playful touch than a "I want to eat you " grab. The fifth lion. Mya had been extremely defiant throughout MJ's entire act so when we came up to her MJ just messed with her a little bit and then dragged me to the middle of the cage. I was to stand under the open platform to have the lions jump over me... My irrational fear at this point was that I am ridiculously tall for Peru and that the lions wouldn’t be able to make it over me. I think that by the second time the lion jumped over me this thought had set in because I completely flinched and ducked down.

MJ made me do the catholic cross thing on my chest.. ,which I’m pretty sure I screwed up. I took a bow, said gracias to MJ, bent down to give him a hug, and ran as fast as I could off the stage.

The show was not even halfway over by this point... MJ, doubling as one of the trapeze artists, and a very scantily clad woman flipped around a swing in the air as I was catching my breath from all of the excitement. One of the chubby clowns even got up there losing his pants in midair. The show finale commences with 3 burlesque looking dancers come out choosing 3 men from the audience and performing what someone called the hoochie coochie dance. Jorge and another man from our church were actually picked to go up there to be props during this part of the act. Seriously.. we definitely got our money's worth with this circus. CRAZY TIMES in Peru already!!!