Sunday night drive

 Okay, I have been lazy and haven't blogged. Starting with Sunday...

On Sunday night my host family took me around the Center of Lima to show me some of the famous buildings and monuments. It was pretty dark so my main impression was that I need to come back during the day. :) The architecture is so beautiful.

The cathedral with a fountain covered in  pigeons/mourning doves.

The Ministry of Justice. I'm not sure if my host family was joking or not but they said no one goes there or does anything there.

We stopped by a crowded marketplace near the train tracks. When the train came, everyone ran over to watch it, even the stray dogs. The train was full of minerals from the mines in different parts of Peru. Do a Google Map satellite search for "Cerro de Pasco" for a real shocker.

I bought some chocolate ice cream for a few cents and it was sooo good.

When the train passed, people went back to the circles they had formed around some street comics telling jokes. At the end they would collect some coins from everyone.

From this area we could see one of the hills surrounding Lima, and it had a huge lit-up cross on it. The fog is such during the day that for awhile I didn't even know Lima had hills and tall islands right next to it (even from the 16th floor of the building where I live).

In the plaza we saw some horses and carriages, which my host family loved. My host mom and sister went to go pet the horse. A few seconds after we left, this horse gave the most gigantic piss I have ever seen. It was like a never-ending hose flooding the street. I was awestruck.

We passed by an exhibition of photos from all the Andean countries (Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Colombia). It really made me want to spend more time here. There's a lot to learn from the indigenous people and I'm far from them in Lima... I need to go to Puno.

We made another stop to see an Peruvian artisan fair until a huge tent with tons of neat items from different parts of Peru. There were people selling herbs, instruments, lots of clothes made of alpaca and vicuna wool, and different types of food. Some of these items likely have parts from China or elsewhere, but definitely not all of them. There were stands with cheeses and meats that never had and never will see a refrigerator, and a few women dressed in indigenous style sewing or weaving. Pan flute music was playing from loud speakers and people were frying entire fishes.

People were selling herbs, including coca leaves. If you don't know about coca, you should read about it. Chewing the leaves will cure altitude sickness, hunger, and various other ailments. Coca leaves have been used traditionally as a medicine for hundreds to thousands of years by people in the Andes.  It can also be used to make cocaine, a recent development. But only 1% or so of the leaf contains cocaine, so you'd have to chew a whole lot to get a buzz and it wouldn't be like cocaine. Click on the picture to read the Spanish descriptions of what each herb does.

"Get your fortune read in coca leaves." :)

The fried platanos that are eaten in the jungle regions of Peru (where I can't go because I don't have the malaria pills nor the yellow fever vaccine... also I am a chicken and am afraid of dying while I imagine would not be hard to do in the jungle).

We passed by the Parque de las Aguas and I was able to take some pictures from outside the gate. So beautiful. I am definitely going back there.

After we finished our driving tour, we went to the grocery store and I bought a bunch of spaghetti for my late-night munchies. I thought it was hilarious that the brand of this chicken is "Baby Chicken", in style "round".

I went to bed so exhausted that I didn't update my blog. Same with Monday night. :) Now to write that blog update...