Au Revoir San Marcos, until the next time…

Final week in San Marcos, the PWB team navigates the complexities of the beautiful Quincho community. We had such a short amount of time with the Quinchos, this is a community truly filled to the brim with love. They have left a lasting impression among all the team members. We made the decision to take the excitement of presenting our personal show and devise a show with the children. Our workshops became more show oriented; how do you enter the stage, what is your stage presence and persona, and how do you exit. We queried the children on what they found an interest in presenting, and made an effort to facilitate partner acts. The Quinchos have a literal sister group, the Yaoskas, we also wanted to make a conscious effort to integrate them as much as possible. So off we went…. This is a piece of my personal photo journal:

We fell in love with this motito, down to the amazing custom paint. I’m still considering driving one of these beauties back to the states, one kilometer at a time.

We had the pleasure of building up a lot of skills with this group, truly a benefit of having such a prolonged presence with his group (6 years running!). Some of them just started learning circus skills the week before and they were already showing proficient skills. Some of them took up acrobatics, others heard the call of the unicycle, while prop manipulation was not one to be left behind either. Many surprised us by forming group acts without our guidance, or blindsiding us by hooping on stilts. It was amazing to see individual people whom refused to participate at first climbing on top of each other!

Then came the time to clown out with everyone! It was amazing to see the camaraderie amongst this group, many even requesting to have ‘Quinchos’ written across their arms.

Many wouldn’t leave the costume closet until they had found just the perfect outfit to wear, but you could see the change in their demeanor immediately. It was very impressive actually, as soon as the perfect wig or hat hit their head they were immediately in character.

We opted to have the show at the central park to an unsuspecting audience. Even the short ride was a blast with the group, lively and ready to party.

The partner acts were a hit, the music was perfect, we had the audience loving every minute of it. This specfic part of the show was very personal to me. Before I arrived to the Quinchos I was ready to gift out my fans as I was not using them very much on the tour and I had not really planned to give any workshops with them. They had essentially become dead weight for me. However on our first day one Quincho approached me and asked me for specific instruction on learning some fan techniques. After working with him he requested I join him on stage, how could I refuse! We formed an act together and performed it in front of the town. Unbeknownst to him he has given me a reason to continue transporting my fans with me.

We actually ended up overshadowing a neighboring celebration for the anniversary of the city. Who knew our little ‘Circo los Quinchos’ would be such a hit!!! Our acro group performed their newly polished routines, and got an opportunity to show off all their new skills for our finale. They had a child walk across multiple two-high’s, then completed the act with a partner diabolo and two-high combo that was completely out of this world. Simply, WOW!

Shortly after staging this great show the team had to bid goodbye to the lovely Quinchos. The night of out farewell we enjoyed a lovely night over dinner conversing with Zelinda, the program coordinator for ‘Los Quinchos’. Zelinda chatted with us for hours about how the Quinchos were established, as well as the political difficulties faced by such a program in Nicaragua. Truly an eye-opening and awe-inspiring night, Thank you Zelinda!

And with that we rode off into the high noon sun, looking for our next assignment in the city of Managua.
I will cherish these memories for a lifetime!
—Until the next time,
Leo ‘Kit’ Astorga

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“Let the beauty of what you love be what you do.” – Rumi