Adios Days

Tomorrow I will have to say "adios" to my days Peru, so I tried to soak up all that I could today. For placement this morning, I went to the prison again to take the kids to the plaza. This has become a favorite thing here. This is the front of the prison.This is me and Milagros (they call her Chinita). The kids were as cute as ever. We were supposed to watch a parade to celebrate the university's anniversary, but they must have been running on Peruvian time because it never did happen the whole time we were waiting in the plaza.

Lunch was another good meal made by Paulina. Afterward, I walked into town with Brittney and Jenna and we took a few last minute pictures....the main streets we always walk on, the bakery that makes beautiful cakes, the pedestrian walkway we always go on, our favorite ice cream store, the favorite ice cream cones (zambitos-chocolate cover ice cream cones that are pre-made so it is always a surprise what flavor you will get--which is part of the excitement).

We continued on around to the plaza and I waved adios. As we walked passed one of the colonial mansions, we noticed a big celebration going on in its courtyard...so we stepped right in. Passed the nicely dress Peruvians, still carrying our ice cream cones, we emerged to the courtyard and saw several men and women dressed in bright traditional outfits performing a traditional dance. Lining the courtyard were rows, and rows of chairs filled with important and dignified looking people. The onlookers were wearing suits and the ones in the front row had some sort of medals tied with wide pretty ribbon. I wondered who they were??

We watched the dancers and noticed their "dance" looked more like the men assaulting the women than it did any type of dance I had ever seen. The dancers moved to the music. The men sauntered up to the women and pick them up to carry them away while others would be rolling around with each other on the ground. The women would playfully hit the men with their scarfs to "try" to keep them away. It was quite interesting. Kiley and I saw a "dance" like this when we were in Puno and thought the dancers were just goofing off. Turns out, I actually read about this traditional "dance" in a book about the region and confirmed that it was actually legitimate.

More Ayacucho to soak up, so on to my new favorite bakery, the one we visited on Tuesday with Pancho. I wanted to get another fresh chapla still warm from the oven. When we arrived at the bakery, there were two guys working quickly baking the chapla. However, they would not sell us any. They wouldn't even sell a cute old Peruvian woman any. I'm not sure what what going on, but we decided to head to another bakery. It was interesting though to watch them slide the raw dough into the big oven, then watch it bake quickly and rise, and then see the guy (above) slide them out of the oven into huge baskets.

Next bakery, I got some delicious sweet bread with cinnamon and sugar on top. I just discovered this bread this week, which is probably good because I really could have eaten a lot of it.

One last stop at the old prison market for a final look around at all of the handmade goods. This market was once a prison, but now each cell has been converted into a little stand for each merchant to have a place to sell their goods. We frequent this venue. I got some great custom made sandals and moccasins from a woman who works here. I also got some beautiful alabaster dishes. This stone seems to be abundant here because there are many stalls that sell all sorts of alabaster things. Various textiles also made their way into my possession.

For dinner tonight, I went out to eat at a nice (well, by Ayacucho standards for sure) restaurant named Nino to celebrate the last night here (this was really only the 3rd time I had been out to eat in Ayacucho). Logan, Amy, Sope, Danielle, Jenna, Frank and I dined on a balcony table and I enjoyed the last supper...I'll have in Peru. I had a big plate of papas fritas and an avocado salad. They have the best avocados here! I tried a bite of Jenna's llama steak. It was quite tasty. Like mild beef I guess and pretty lean. I tried a bite of Frank's cow heart kabobs and they were shockingly good (though I just didn't think about what it was I was eating). (Really sounding like the "vegetarian" that I am tonight, huh!) I made everyone go around the table saying there favorite and least favorite moments of the trip. We sat there talking for a long time.

After dinner we came back to the house and got excited to play Catch Phrase. Charades was such a hit earlier this week, we decided the games must go on. This is one of my favorite games, as it was a lot of peoples, but we didn't actually have the game at the house. Instead, being the smart people that we are, we made our own game of Catch Phrase. Everyone had been working throughout the day to write down little phrases or random words on little white pieces of paper. The object of the game is to get your teammates to guess what is on the paper by giving them any kind of clues you want (besides saying rhymes with or starts with, or the word in a different language..etc). We passed the little jar of papers around the circle, alternating teams, and the team left with the jar when the buzzer (Elizabeth's watch timer set to count down different lengths of time) went off, lost that round. The other team would receive a point. We had another fun night of screaming, laughing, panicking competition. By the end, all of us were exhausted and ready to go to bed.

Can't believe I leave tomorrow! How the time has flown!

Adios Days, Pat Green