Day 45

Easter Sunday -- Despite going to bed at 3 a.m., I woke up at 8:30. Somehow I distracted myself enough to be late to church, which was at 10:30. The service was good - pretty Easter focused - and then I hung out for about an hour after church. I went to lunch with Meredith and the Bruggers family at a place in San Miguel called Mi Propiedad Privada, a cevicheria and seafood restaurant overlooking the ocean. It was pretty fancy and modern, with beautifully plated food. The plate closest to me is "Festival de Causa" with four different types of causa (one of my favorite foods here). The one farthest from me is ceviche with chiclo (Peruvian corn - kind of giant) and sweet potatoes. Everything was incredibly delicious, and then I was thoroughly given the birthday treatment when the waiter came with some flan with a candle in it and "Happy Birthday" and "Feliz Cumpleaños" came on the sound system at the restaurant. We got home, and I had a chance to call my family, Steve and Sarah for Easter before Meredith, Racquel and I went to dessert. We went to 4D, a fancier ice cream place. I had some incredibly delicious ice cream and my first pisco sour -- the national alcoholic drink of Peru (although Chile claims pisco was their idea). It's made out of pisco (grape brandy, I think), a lot of limes, some sugar and then some whipped egg whites on top to make a foam. Sounds kind of gross, but you don't really taste the egg whites.

Day 44

We packed a lot in to our last day in Barranca. We planned to wake up early and get to the beach, but we didn't get to breakfast till about 10:30 (had some fresh piña juice) and then headed down to the beach. The sun was much stronger, so we only lasted about an hour and a half before we were too hot to lie there anymore. We went to a restaurant called La Sombrilla, literally across the street from the ocean, and had awesome lenguado ceviche (flounder) and tacu-tacu (kind of looks like a giant hot pocket) stuffed with rice, beans, and mixed seafood. Extremely tasty. We caught a taxi back to our hotel, showered, and packed up. We waited along the road to catch taxi to take us south -- one guy was on his way to Huacho, about 30 minutes south, so four of us hopped into the back seat of his little car (a tight fit). We were dropped off at the bus station and caught a bus to Lima, and had some beautiful views of the coast on the way back. I got home at about 7:15 and headed straight to Buen Pastor for the universitarios group, and after the lesson (and after waiting a really long time for someone's sister to pick her up) we piled in two taxis to Miraflores to go to a Cuban salsa club on Pizza Street. It was kind of as a celebration of my birthday and Josue's birthday, which was Friday. The picture is of the live band who were on the second floor overlooking the dance floor. There were 9 of us there -- 3 girls, 6 boys, so in the three hours we were there, I ended up dancing with 5 of the guys. My favorite part was that on the stage all night with the band was this little abuelita who was all dressed up in white and looked about 85. She just bopped along to the music (not necessarily very salsa-like). I didn't look like a total idiot at least -- I'd kind of learned to dance when I was in Chile during high school. Some of the guys in our group were really good, but there were people at the club that were amaaaazing... they could seriously be on "So You Think You Can Dance." We were there till about 2 a.m., and as I was walking into my apartment, I discovered the source behind horrible screeching that we hear every night on the roof of our building. There was a theory of bats, but I discovered that it's actually barn owls. Two of them were staring at me from a bar sticking out of the building -- they're very creepy with that screeching noise and those giant eyes.

Day 43

This is pretty much what the beach looked like on Friday, although you can't see that there was sand to lay out on. This kid is fishing with only a piece of string wound around a piece of cardboard. We got up pretty early, got some coffee, and then went to the beach. We got one good hour of sun and about 3 hours of fog/cloudiness. We took a nice walk along the beach, though, and saw some crabs and a cave. We ended up giving up on the beach, but as soon as we packed up our umbrella the sun came back out. Of course. We left anyway, showered at the hotel and then went into town. We went to a chicken place on the Plaza de Armas in Barranca. It's a little controversial to eat chicken or beef during Semana Santa, though, because Catholics believe that it signifies Christ's body. So fish prices skyrocket during Semana Santa, and we got some weird looks through the window as we ate our meat. Then we took a mototaxi around the beach -- Conce had to sit in Meredith's lap because a mototaxi really only fits two, it's tight with three, but there were four of us. Then we went to a dessert place called El Postre. Incredibly good. Meredith had tres leches, Elsa had lemon pie, Conce had something similar to rice pudding, except made with this rich syrup, and I had something similar to carrot cake without the carrots. It was all sooooooo good. Then we went back to the hotel and enjoyed the fact that there was cable. We watched the end of "Slumdog Millionaire" (Peru is shameless in its pirated films) and then "Talladega Nights," which was in English with subtitles. The two Peruvians didn't really understand the humor, but Meredith and I were laughing really hard.

Day 42

This is my attempt at cutting a duck neck. The duck here is hard enough to cut, but then they have to give me a neck to try to cut -- we had to ask for a cuchillo de carne (and I still couldn't cut it). And that yellow stuff in the cup is flan... an interesting serving style, but quite tasty. I got up at like 6 a.m., but I went without coffee because I was told there was no bathroom on the three-hour bus ride. We had to wait at the bus station about an hour before getting on our bus, which left about 20 minutes behind schedule. As soon as I got on the bus, I fell asleep, and I would just wake up when the not-so-pleasant smells of Peru would drift through the window. They showed some cheesy French action film that was dubbed in Spanish, so I wasn't very interested. We got to our Hostal, Las Palmeras, which is actually in Puerto Supe (the town next to Barranca). We checked in, put our stuff in our rooms ($10 a night!) and went to lunch at Restaurant Viajero a 1/2 mile down the road (owned by the same family). The family actually lost their daughter, their niece and the niece's friend two Christmases ago when they were hit by a drunk taxi driver. Only their son, who was sitting in the front seat, survived. Meredith was friends with the niece and her friend because they went to Buen Pastor, so that was how we knew where to stay -- the owner recognized Meredith. Anyway, I tried the duck and had some flan, and then we all went to the beach for about two hours. But it was so cold that we put all our clothes back on over our bathing suits after the first hour. We went back to the hotel, showered, and then played some Spanish Pictionary. I only got one word -- mariposa. Oh well. Then we went to bed early (like 9:30), and we all slept really deeply.

Day 41

This is the bag (which doubled as a beach bag this weekend) that I purchased for 10 bucks at a market in La Victoria. I couldn't take my camera there because it's pretty sketchy, but that's where the missionary kids here all go to find their banquet dresses -- there is quite the selection. Plus, you can get the dress for as cheap as $15. It was yet another fun cultural experience. After class (my last class of the week!) I walked to the Panaggios' house, where Meredith was, and we had lunch with them. So delicious. It's nice that all these people want to feed me healthy, tasty meals. I went to the market for a few hours with Kay and Maria Panaggio, Kay and Julia Block, and another friend of theirs, and there was a lot of trying on dresses as well as making fun (in English) of ridiculous dresses. I didn't get home till 6, and I was planning to go to the prayer night at Buen Pastor, but I was exhausted, needed to pack, and it was my one chance to talk to Steve after he got back from a two-week trip to Europe and before I left for Barranca. Then I tried to start packing, but (of course) I waited till the next morning to really pack.

Day 40

This is the street in San Martín de Porres where El Alfarero (the church where I help teach English) is located. San Martín was one of the first "land invasions" (squatter camps) in Lima -- it began in the 1940s. I like that the houses are so colorful. Today was fun -- class, lunch with Elsa and Meredith, and then Meredith and I went for a run. We ran/walked on Salaverry for about an hour out to the ocean. There's an awesome view of the ocean from the cliffs at the end of the road. The weather was so beautiful today, and not too hot. We remarked that the ocean looked quite clean and had no odor from that distance. I got home in time to change and go to English class in San Martín. We took the bus there and back, but on the way back the radiator overheated in our bus, so we got a full refund, even though it had already taken us a lot of the way. We took a combi from there, and we ended up saving about 15 cents between the two of us. Awesome.

Day 39

Meredith got back from her 12-day trip to Venezuela, and half of the things in her suitcase (which cover the table in this picture) were purchased or received as gifts in Venezuela. This includes such things as a flashlight, a pencil sharpener, coffee, keychains, chocolate and earrings. My morning started off well, with almost no traffic on the bus to class. I had lunch at home with Sonia and Elsa, and took a nap, chatted with visitors, read a book, etc. This day marks the second half of my trip to Peru -- I can't believe it went by so quickly. The rest of my time here is broken up by some traveling around Peru, such as to the beach at the end of this week and to the mountains in the beginning of May. The theme of today was patience, though, as I'm learning how the Peruvians place a major emphasis on relationship over punctuality. Elsa is the champion of chatting and chatting and chatting with people, and she also seems to have good intentions in being punctual, but never really follows through. I was frustrated with the Internet today (I had to reset it twice for no reason -- I was getting very impatient), and then we were supposed to leave for the airport at 8 p.m. At 8:07 I closed down my laptop and gathered my things and walked toward the door when I heard Elsa turn on the shower. We didn't leave till 8:30, and then we walked to the wrong bus stop, and she didn't think about it till after we got there -- we didn't get onto a bus until 8:50. But then we ended up only waiting at the airport 10 minutes before Meredith walked out, so it turned out Elsa's timing was actually right on. This culture blows my mind sometimes.