The Sights and Sounds of Chiclayo, Peru

I remarked in a previous post that during my recent visit to Chiclayo, I felt as if I had never left. There were some changes...a new restaurant here, a remodeled home there, but it was essentially the same Chiclayo I had first encountered in 2005, and last seen in 2017.

This is the view from a second floor window of our house from the room we call 'the bistro.' The photo was taken last month but could just as well have been snapped in 2005. 

With some minor differences, the activities of Chiclayanos haven't changed much either. The street vendors are still out there in full force, offering fruits, vegetables, tamales, fish, soy milk, etc. What is different is that they now use loudspeakers mounted on top of their carts to announce their wares, which is easier on their vocal cords, and some of them even play recorded massages so they don't have to do anything other than push the cart. It's rare to go more that 30 minutes without the cry of a vendor being heard. When I first moved to Chiclayo the vendors were a huge annoyance to me, but like most I soon learned to tune them out. 

Processions on the streets are not uncommon, sometimes taking the form of a funeral procession, a political protest, an election rally, a religious ceremony, the inauguration of a new park or business, and any of a dozen other reasons. This one is a group of energetic  soccer fans getting fired up to support their team at a game that evening.

I was happy to see that street bands are still out their doing their thing. The deal is that three or four musicians roam the streets, playing their instruments and hoping that someone will toss some money their way, or hire them to play for whatever occasion they may have going on. Tradition is that if they see you watching them play, you have to pay them something. I learned through experience that if you do that, it is a guarantee that they'll be back. 

It was comforting to learn that the Chiclayo I had left five years ago still exists. With one noticeable exception. In the past, it was not possible to walk almost any street without hearing the sound of turkeys gobbling, ducks quacking or roosters crowing. During my recent trip, in three weeks of roaming the streets I heard only one rooster crow one time. I so identified those noises with Chiclayo that the absence of those sounds seemed eerie. 

I was not able to get information about why people had apparently stopped raising poultry on their roofs. I know that there was an ordinance prohibiting the raising of poultry in the city in the past, but it was ignored and to my knowledge never enforced. Anyway, it reminded me of a post I had written about a personal experience with the subject years ago on my old blog. I searched for, located it and reproduced it below, my only reason being that it brings back some good memories.

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 2011

How to teach a rooster not to crow at 4:00am

Chiclayo is a modern city by Peruvian standards. Burro and horse carts are no longer encountered on city streets, nor are sheep, cows or goats seen in yards or on roof tops (actually cows were never seen on roof tops for obvious reasons. Goats, being much lighter in weight were in the past observed on concrete roofs, but never on thatch roofs, as you can well understand). However the transition from farm to city is not yet complete. With the exception of the very center of the city, the sound of Peruvian songbirds – also known as chickens, ducks and turkeys fills the air.

This is a rooster. He has a harem of about twenty hens all to himself on his roof-top kingdom. He is apparently a very happy rooster. The rooster expresses his happiness by crowing, starting with his greeting each new day at about 4:00am. The rooster does not care one iota that my bedroom is on the other side of the window lower-left. The rooster’s owner is also not concerned about the rooster/bedroom proximity. Two separate discussions with the man had resulted in his essentially saying, “This is Peru. If I want chickens on my roof I’ll have chickens on my roof.”

It is not an exaggeration to state that each and every morning at 4:00am when I opened my eyes in response to Mr. Barnyard Bigmouth’s serenade I fully expected to see him perched on the foot of my bed. His crowing is that loud. This was not a satisfactory situation, so to remedy the problem I did what any reasonable adult would do.

Rummaging through my odds-and-ends tool box I found what I was looking for… a piece of PVC tubing with a ½ inch inside diameter. This would serve well as a ‘blow gun barrel.’ Next I needed to find the ammunition. I considered purchasing ball-bearings at Sodimac but decided against it both because of the expense and the possibility of actually harming the rooster. After all, my intent was not to kill him; simply to modify his behavior via negative reinforcement. A solution for the ammunition was inadvertently stumbled upon during a walk in the neighborhood when Maribel spotted seed pods littering the ground at the base of a tree. The pods are oval, moderately hard, and best of all average about 7/16 inch in diameter. Brian and Maribel soon stopped scoffing when I demonstrated that at about 20 feet I could consistently hit a 4 inch target, accompanied by a satisfying ‘whap!’ sound.

This is Mr. Barnyard Bigmouth a split-second after being hit in the chest with a hard seed pod shot from our dining room window. I hit him on the second attempt…the first just missing his head, causing him to do that stupid head-bobbing up and down dance that chickens always do when they sense something is not quite right. He didn’t stop crowing immediately after that first hit, but he no longer brazenly jumped up on the wall. I would first see his head nervously appear, looking to see if the coast was clear.

I am happy to report that after taking several direct hits Mr. Barnyard Bigmouth no longer crows from the wall. He continues to crow, but from behind the wall, which reduces the sound to an acceptable level. He still perches on the wall but he doesn’t crow while there. Sometimes when I see him sitting on the wall I open the dining room window and point the tube at him just to let him know that I’m on the alert because after all, chickens are so immature.

Tom