Tuesday, June 17, 2008

New People!

For those of you concerned, Yoni was not angry about the sandals. They had actually been left at her house by another tourist. I offered to buy her a new pair but she assured me that it wasn´t a big deal. Quite the relief.

Sunday:

Earlier in the week, I had asked Yoni if I could go to church with her. She agreed (of course!) and said that we would go to the Cathedral in the Plaza de Armas. We took a colectivo there, my first time on one. A colectivo serves the same purpose as a bus but it is usually just a van outfitted with extra seats. They´re very inexpensive and since it wasn´t a busy time I felt comfortable on one. During rush hour, they are jammed with people and are filled to standing room only. The church was very nice though I wasn´t really able to follow the service since it was all in Spanish. After the service, Yoni and I walked around the Cathedral. My favorite part was a painting of the Last Supper in which Jesus and the disciples are eating cuy (guinea pig), a Peruvian delicacy.

I may have posted this picture already but this is the Cathedral we attended

After church, we returned home and had breakfast with Natalie, a new volunteer. Natalie is from New Zealand and is in her 30s. Peru is just one stop on her trip through South America and she will be living with us for four weeks. She´s very nice and laid back and is a lot of fun to hang out with. After breakfast, we walked to Maximo and stopped at one of the markets nearby our house.

When we returned for lunch another new volunteer had moved in. His name is Dan and he is also in his 30s. He´s the first man that Yoni has had stay at her house in years so we were all a little suprised. Tomorrow, Dan is leaving to spend a few weeks working in the jungle with no heat, electricity, or hot water... perhaps he is just very desperate to get out of a house full of women!

In the afternoon, Dan, Natalie, and I walked around the city. We went all over, to my favorite spot in town, San Cristobal, and to a famous market, El Mollino. It was weird that I was suddenly the one who knew my way around and was given the job as ¨translator¨. I was pretty proud of myself. When we were wandering we found a stand that sold freshly made doughnuts. Definitely a highlight of the day. For supper, we went to a pizzaria and enjoyed a Hawaiian pizza and cerviche, a traditional dish. Cerviche is raw fish that is ¨cooked¨ in a marinade of really acidic juices. It´s excellent.
The famous 12 sided rock.


The doughnut stand!

The Plaza at night... absolutely gorgeous!

Monday:

My friend from Whitewater, Katie Kelley, arrived while we were eating breakfast. Definitely very very exciting to have another Wisconsinite here with me. I wasn´t feeling to well yesterday, so I took it easy and relaxed for most of the day. Yoni realized that I wasn´t feeling too good and that I was more than a little homesick and specially prepared me my favorite Peruvian supper (chicken soup that is very much like Ramen noodles). We filled up our living room after dinner and watched Juno. Everyone was laughing and it was a lot of fun.

Well, that is all for now. This afternoon we´re going to book a trip for this weekend. More details later...

1 comment:

Caitlin said...

it's always awesome when you're the one that knows your way around. i love juno!

and i love you! and miss you!