PERU: Llamas and Living Downtown

All praise the noble llama!

Finished up our second week living with Maria's family/school. We are both amazed how much she seems to really miss us. I guess I just assume that when you are used to having a ton of tourists come into your house, you develop a thick skin, but she treated us great the last few days of us living there. Saturday she took us to an old Alpaca and llama wool factory turned into a little museum. The two girls loved being tour guides telling us all about the whole thing. Then we were off to the local market for a tour.

The fam

Feeding the alpacas

Me listening intently to the tour

Alpacas

El Mercado

I wish I would have gotten a photo of all the little tvs stashed in the fruit stalls as they watched the world cup games

Sunday the 29th was Megan's 39th, and the family went out of their way to throw her a surprise party. They made a cake and a traditional Peruano dish Aji de Gallina.

Me with birthday ears

Me on the roof with birthday nipple dance

Last Sunday night we moved to our new place. We are living just a few blocks from the center, so I spent the week trying to learn which cafes I wanted to read in. Of course, all the world cup football sent me in search of a place to watch the footy with a beer in hand. This may have led to more day drinking than I had planned for, but I'm not complaining. In fact, we've found a bar to be regulars at. We spent Thursday night there late only to be talked into watching the footy in the morning at 11. We had been promised ceviche by the reckless drunken barman the night before, but he stayed out to 6am, so we missed the first 10 minutes of the France v Germany game and we were cevicheless, but spending the day and then part of the night in the bar had its own advantages because strangely after a week we are already worked into the social fabric and drama of the bar, a bar that might be above our pay grade. And Saturday night we ventured out to other bars to make up for the previous Saturday night's missing birthday dancing. There is one road blocked off to cars lined with bars, reminiscent of 6^th Street in Austin. Most people, especially the younger crowd, don't even bother with the bars, and instead form little groups passing a big bottle of rum or a two liter of cuba libre in a small group. (I must find you a photo). Seems like a good way to save money while drinking all night. Sunday day we needed some rest so we returned to Maria's and had a home cooked meal and watched a horror movie with the girls. Megan's friend Kris and her friend Evelina will be here starting Tuesday for 2 weeks, so it is off to Colca Canyon, Cusco, and Machu Pichu. Today we are going to the market (seen in the above photos) to buy some coca leaves to help stave off the altitude sickness.