Thanksgiving / Lady Gaga / Nicaragua

For Thanksgiving, Mariza and I drove across town for a 27lb turkey and only discovered this week that there is an open-air market right here in our neighborhood with very fine looking fresh turkey in addition to any other meat you want (including guinea pig, rabbit, hoof). The night prior, we had a little confusion about the turkey being frozen not fresh, and doubted it would thaw in time. Then Jen struggled to pull out the frozen, embedded neck...only to scream when the whole head popped out suddenly. Mariza went to bed and prayed for the turkey to thaw (her prayers were answered) while Jen and I stayed up late having a little prep party just the two of us. Jen even awoke on Thanksgiving with a wee bit of a hangover.

We had invited any Peace Corps volunteers that were in Lima to join us. On Tuesday, we had 15 RSVPs, but by Thanksgiving morning we were up to 30. We rented extra table and chairs at the last minute, easy enough since of course for Peruvians this was just another random Thursday. Many volunteers brought contributions to the meal, clearly managing to find the use of kitchens in Lima. One girl even brought greenbean casserole for which she had even been forced to make the mushroom soup from scratch.

 Jen gets more contact with the volunteers, so for me it was a particular pleasure to meet them. It's fun to be around so much positive, 20-something energy. For our part, it pleased us to be able to share some of the privileges we enjoy here, sometimes something as simple as IBC Diet Root Beer. By the end of the evening, we had volunteers watching football streaming on my computer, several used my free phone to call their families, there was a huge Michael Jackson Dance Party game (note how sweaty the guy in the green shirt is in the photo), and Carter and Julito were thrilled to have several of the guys join them in a huge running nerf gun battle.

The next evening, Jen went with a couple women from the office to see Lady Gaga in concert. Her summation: "It was weird." It took forever for them to get out to the stadium in a sketchy neighborhood, with the taxi not even getting them to within sight of the venue. A female moto-taxi driver came to their aid and they arrived safely only to find that the stadium was only half full. Their seats were too far away to see well, and it was maddening because other sections up towards the stage were empty. Other parts of the show were strange too, but at least Jen was impressed by Lady Gaga herself and her clear desire to be true to her fans and put on a good show.

You know what rhymes with Lady Gaga?

Nicaragua!

 Jen's business trip to Nicaragua was back in October, so posting the photos now is a little late. She went to Granada, a historic town on the edge of a huge lake. Her taxi ride to town from the airport was an Odyssey in and of itself, but when she got stranded with a broken down taxi in the torrents of rain, she couldn't help noticing that it was in a beautiful spot with a view of the lake and a little café.

The town is centered on a colonial square and her hotel was situated there as well.

The highlight for her was going out on the lake and seeing monkeys and beautiful jungle lushness.

The pleasures of the visit were in stark contrast with her return trip during which she came down very sick, finding herself getting the shakes in the Panama City airport. The illness lasted several days and had so weakened her by the end that she threw her back out. Is that even possible?

Arequipa

For Veterans Day weekend, we took the opportunity to visit Arequipa, Peru's 2nd largest city (Lima has roughly 10 million, Arequipa not quite a million). It lies at 7,500ft, but even so has two volcanoes towering up over it. Many tourists go through on their way to adventuring in some of the dramatic scenery several hours out of town, but as weekenders we satisfied ourselves with getting a taste of Arequipa itself.

Even our watered down version of adventuring was pretty fun, as we went about 15 minutes up the city's river, the Rio Chili, for a short rafting trip. The river cuts down between the shoulders of the volcanoes, and even though the outskirts of Arequipa are still up on the rim, down in the river canyon is was pretty and scenic. At the start, it was a little more rugged but later the river rolls through neatly terraced farm plots. Carter had gotten himself nervous about the trip, but also mastered himself and, of course, once in the rollicking of the waves he didn't want it to end. Jennifer and he got out and walked around the one Class 4 rapid. We're not convinced it was truly a Class 4, but the river still was plenty fun for a family like us.

 This picture is from the town square, with the Chachani volcano in the background. These volcanoes are part of a string around here, many of which have revealed tombs of Inca sacrifices. We took a tour at the museum that houses the "Juanita", the ice princess...so called because she was sacrificed and buried so high up that she's been frozen for a thousand years and remarkably preserved. Amazing to see in person.


On a side note, all the postcards, etc., show the other nearby volcano (El Misti) with snow, but apparently global warming has meant that there hasn't been snow on Misti in 5 or so years (as per the taxi driver).

The photo shows the large church, built from the white stone that makes Arequipa famous. We stayed right in the colonial zone, with streets lined by colonial buildings made of large blocks of this stone. Even our hotel's common areas was once a colonial mansion, with paintings and vaulted ceilings around a courtyard.

I tried cuy for the first time (guinea pig). I asked for it as traditional as possible and the photo shows the result. It was greasy, not very meaty, with most of the food value in skin. Given a choice, a hungry person would probably opt for something else, but I'm not certain. But hey, it came with fries. In the evening I enjoyed another local specialty, a bisque of Andean crayfish. As I mentioned on Facebook, both lunch and dinner featured food with the head still on.

 As parents of a 6yr old, even here we spent a fair amount of time at the playground. Both days we walked to a local park that featured play structures and various small amusements. On Sunday, it was full of families, including many that showed the typical traditional style; very particular hats, blankets artfully tied so as to be carryalls. The older woman in the photo had two long, black braids down her back, and then a knit thing that kind of tied the two braids together.

There were some animals to look at, including a monkey I photographed drinking an Inka Cola right next to the sign saying "Don't Feed the Monkeys". There were also enough small biting flies that I am still scratching now as I type.

 We also explored the historic convent (Monasterio Santa Catalina) that takes up a very large city block right up from our hotel. For hundreds of years, wealthy families would donate to have the honor of a daughter going into this seclusion. Behind the walls, hidden from view, is a warren of paths and rooms, even "streets". Like a small village, there were areas for novices and others for more senior nuns...some even seemed to have been elites, with larger rooms, servants, a piano. Bright colors, paintings and decorative touches, and a kind of idyllic charm — as long as you don't mind the idea of locking women away for their whole lives on a single city block.

Below is a photo I took from the balcony on our hotel floor. Jen and I sat out here Sunday evening for a sunset game of Scrabble. Not shown in this idyllic picture are the roofs we also looked over, with some funny roof dogs cavorting and occasionally barking at us for being fellow roof dwellers.

Arequipa had a wonderful climate, warm sun with cool breezes, and a big sky. Lima would make anyplace seem bright and quiet(er). It is a city that has a strong identity, a mix of colonial and mountain cultures, and we were sorry to leave.

October / Mes Morado

October is known as the Purple Month as Limeños honor the icon known as El Señor de los Milagros. The painting of Christ survived an earthquake a couple hundred years ago, while all else was flattened, and now the icon is marched in processions all month and devotees wear purple. I've seen grandmothers in purple frocks, but also saw an upscale business women in purple blouse and fab purple pumps, and some houses are bedecked in ribbon. Considering we've felt 2-3 tremors since being here, a little devotion to an earthquake survivor seems prudent.

I also want to note the interesting Moorish influence that lives on in Lima. I don't know how other South American cities are, but Lima from its founding has been a bastion of colonialism. So it's no wonder that vestiges of the Moors, that had such an effect on Spain, can still be discerned here. The ornate enclosed balconies are everywhere in the old parts of town. The traditional cookies called alfajores are everywhere, even having a couple stores dedicated to them. Peruvians very often use the phrase "ojala" to express hope, a derivation of "insha'Allah", or "god willing".

The colonial era here, as everywhere I suppose, created all sorts of cultural mashups. Today is Dia De Los Muertos, but also a time when Criolla music is traditionally honored. Criolla, in music and food, is a mix of influences from Spain, African slaves and Andean peasants. The rhythm is drummed on a cajón (= "drawer", from the days when the slaves would use a wooden drawer) that the player sits atop.

Below are some Google images of all these things.