Groupie

Fun Fact No. 22: River dolphins can eat you. Not really. But local legend has it that they eat men and rape women. They come in two different colors: pink and grey. They are called bufeos, and they're smaller than regular dolphins and have kind of hump noses. On my little trip yesterday, there were about three of them jumping in front of the boat for about 30 minutes.

So my research has officially begun. (Hooray!) Last Sunday (Nov. 5), I ate pizza with Mario Jr. and Cindy and then we went to dance a bit at COA, Club Oriente Amazonico. Grupo Explosion is the big band that plays at the Gran Complejo on Fridays and Saturdays and then they get the COA on Sundays. Because it's Sunday, however, they only play until 11pm instead of the usual 4am or so. After they played, I decided that that was my moment. I went up to the lead singer, a big (BIG) black guy (note: I mention his blackness because there are about 4 black people in Iquitos, and everyone knows each one of them, and it just so happens that they are all famous) and introduced myself, asking if I could come to rehearsals some time. His name is Eduardo and he gave me his number and told me to call him on Monday. I called him and he told me to call him on Tuesday. I thought I was getting the run-around until on Tuesday he came over to my house, picked me up and took me to the rehearsal space.

Let me talk about Grupo Explosion for a minute. They're the hottest band in Iquitos, and they play primarily tecno-cumbia and salsa. They do a lot of cover tunes (which include reggaeton, rock, and merengue numbers) but their specialty (as with any Amazonian and even Peruvian pop band) is tecno-cumbia and musica-chicha. They have four singers, four percussionists, two keyboardists (one plays "piano" sounds, and the other horns), one guitarist, one bassist, and 8 dancers. Now the dancers are often the main attraction because they're hot, they wear g-strings, and they can really move. As I discovered yesterday, they are actually good musicians if you can get over the annoying tecno-cumbia.

Anyway, I went to the rehearsal space and watched the dancers rehearse and then Eduardo took me back home and told me to call on Wednesday. I called and he said that they were super busy making a video and then they were going to travel to Tamsiyacu to perform there for one of the political candidates on Thursday night. I asked if I could go, and he said to ask the candidate, Shaluco. I went to Shaluco's headquarters and asked around, but he wasn't there. They sent me to his office downtown. I went there and he wasn't there either. He is running for mayor of the province, which is the highest post in the Loreto department, so I shouldn't complain because he's probably important. I spoke with one of his minions, and he said sure. Often being the tall, skinny white girl is a curse but in this case, it was a total blessing.

Eduardo picked me up at 7:30am on Thursday morning and we went down to the port where there was Shaluco's huge boat waiting for us. They loaded the instruments, amps, console, monitors, and extra generator in case the electricity went out in Tamsiyacu and by 9 we were on our way. I hung out with the dancers on the top level that didn't have cover. I accidentally fell asleep and I now have my first sunburn in Peru. I am a little lobster. Ick. Anyway, I tried to talk to the girls, but they are intense with SERIOUS attitude. They're all between the ages of 16 and 23 (far too young, in my opinion, to be baring all in front of loads of sexually charged males, but whatever) and it's like they're going on 30. I don't have the attitude, make-up, or boobs to be able to communicate with these girls. There's one who's nice to me when the others aren't around, but even "nice" is pushing it. And just think, I'll be spending the next 8 months with these people...

So we're about 3 hours into a 4 hour boat ride when the engine breaks. We're stuck on the Amazon, roasticating in the heat (shaded, of course) and I got to talk to one of the lead female singers, Ofelia. She's very different from the dancers and even the other singer. She's 37, has a daughter in college and is married. She's a pretty devout Catholic and she likes to read (relatively rare here). It was very easy to talk to her, and I learned a lot. I also got to spend time with Cesar the congero, who is from Lima and is a great percussionist. He's actually taken lessons with Giovanni Hidalgo. Whoa.

We get to Tamsiyacu, which is basically a mini-version of Iquitos. Which makes my whiteness stick out that much more. There wasn't any room for me at the inn (sound familiar?) but a very sweet woman let me stay at her house. We ate lunch, I bebopped around with the woman's kids, and then the girls got ready. At 6, the power was turned on and Shaluco showed up at 8:30. A million campaign speeches later, GE (Grupo Explosion, not General Electric) took the stage, which was set up in the middle of the street. The entire town was there (about 5,000 people)
and they didn't dance at all. They just stared. The thing is, GE's music dominates the airwaves but few people in this little town have ever seen them and they sure as heck haven't seen dancers like these. Because I'm "with the band" I got to be on stage to take pictures and small videos. I am seriously hooked up; Eduardo and I get along great and now I have a big IN. He even invited me to Lima in December for a show they have there. The other thing is, Shaluco is pretty much guaranteed the votes of this district only because he brought a famous band to town. He paid about $4,000 (S/. 12,000) to get GE out there, and it's interesting (to say the least) that people are going to vote for him because they got to see T & A.

I hit the sack at about 1am and Eduardo woke me up at 3:50am to grab a rapid boat, which only takes 1.5 hours to get back instead of 4. I got home at 6am and everyone was still sleeping. I hit the sack until about 10. Exhaustion, pure exhaustion.

Anyway, this is going to be one heck of an interesting project. But I had fun, and now I get to say that I'm an official groupie. I will NOT be sleeping with the stars, though. I'm not THAT into it.