More ruins and a wedding anniversary
More ruins and a wedding anniversary
We took a bus ride to Pisoc and saw more Inca ruins and great scenery. We also visited a coöp that husbands alpaca and other Andean animals, They spin the wool into thread and dye it for fabrics that are woven there. We had a home hosted lunch where we got to sample roasted guinea pig (tastes like dry chicken). We had a soup, rice, yucca, very large kernel corn, and a purple colored sweet drink made from purple corn. Peru has many varieties of corn that look and taste very different from the white and yellow corn we eat in the states.
We had dinner with the group at a restaurant in the town square but this time we were able to go on a bus as opposed to walking uphill for quite a distance. Our trip leader knew that the 20th was our wedding anniversary and she had wanted us to go with the group to a traditional Peruvian restaurant with native dancers as entertainment. We declined the invitation explaining that we really wanted to be alone together for dinner on that day so she surprised us with a specially decorated cake for the dinner dessert and had the native musician group play the Anniversary Waltz for us. We did get up and dance. It was a nice surprise.
Friday, Oct 20, 2006
Up at 4:30, left hotel at 6:00 for our flight at 7:30AM. We arrived in Lima and checked back into the Hotel Colon at about 10:30. We got settled in once again and waited in line for internet access. Finally got it and spent about an hour checking emails and reading family blogs. We walked back up to the square beside the church and had lunch at an outdoor café – a burger and beer, but oddly the cheeseburger also had a fried egg on it. Then we went back to the artisan market we had visited last week and bought a medallion with a silver backing in the shape of the Inca cross. It is set with multiple colored stones with a mother of pearl circle in the center representing mother earth. We also got a silver necklace for the medallion and a matching pair of earrings. It was about $60 American and is very pretty. It is my anniversary present.
Then, back to the hotel for a short nap and some reading time. We went to dinner in the Larcomar mall at the place called Vivaldino where we had a great dinner last Friday. One of the waiters remembered us. We explained that is was our anniversary (44 anos). We had beef tenderloin with a spicy red wine pepper sauce and lyonnaise potatoes in a different version than I was expecting – fried with onions and peppers. We had a Chilean red wine with dinner. The waiter surprised us with a large slice of chocolate cake with “Hapy Day” written in chocolate around the edge of the plate. We ended with a cappuccino and then walked back to the hotel and went to bed.
Helen’s Journal
Thursday, Oct 19, 2006