La Tercera Semana: I Smell Dead People... & a Guinea Pig!

Hola!  As you might be able to tell from the title, this post is not for the faint of heart.  Be forewarned!  I am going to dig in deep to the senses I have been experiencing this week: the sights, sounds, tastes, and - my personal favorite this week - the smells!  My nose has been having a lot of fun this week, to say the least.  I'll save the juicy stuff for later...

Following a quick meeting to start the week off on Sunday, I branched off on my own to take a stroll along the Pacific coastline in Miraflores AKA my favorite district in Lima thus far.  I am a sucker for flowers and, I assure you, there are flowers everywhere you look in Miraflores.  While taking a photo of a vibrant, orange hibiscus flower, I was lucky enough to spot my first Peruvian hummingbird.  An Amazilia Hummingbird took a quick sip of hibiscus nectar before (very, very quickly) fluttering away; I was unable to snap a photo, because my eyes are always eager to see birds with my own four eyes rather than through the camera lens.  I need to train myself better for you all, huh? :)  After waiting around for another glimpse, I gave up, and found another surprise - two tropical bird of paradise flowers in front of the Iglesia Virgen de Fátima!  These were the first real pair for my eyes.  So much more beautiful than their plastic mimics, obviously! 
After getting out my oohs & aahs, I continued to a nearby park and photographed another first: a Red Crested Cardinal!  Not a true cardinal, but a tanager, and a tropical beauty not native to Lima or Peru.  A rather handsome fella.  I am such a lucky girl!
In checking out a few shops on this day, and I happened to wander in to a chocolate museum (imagine that?)... I'm officially in love with chocolate tea.  Yum!  Made with natural cocoa beans from the Amazon, very light and not too sweet.  I have to go back ASAP and I will definitely be bringing some of this treasure back home with me!  I filled my brain with new information, sights, and experiences on Sunday, from exchanging money on the streets (FYI: those blue-vested men have the best, most honest exchange rate) to navigating the busy streets on my own without getting lost (OK - I may have looked at my map a couple times, but still - doing good without my compass).  Every day, I am a little more oriented.

There is SO much color (& calor AKA heat) here!  This Tuesday, the Peru group grabbed seats on the top of a double-decker bus for a tour from Miraflores to Plaza de Armas and the Museo de Convento de San Francisco de Asis in the central portion of Lima.  I smelled "green" and clean air on the top of the bus, a nice switch from the gas fumes that usually fill my nostrils whilst walking around.  The streets of Lima are filled with people, vibrant colors, and gorgeous architecture.  You rarely see a completely white building here, and I love that.  I found myself hanging outside of the bus for most of the tour, my camera around my neck and greased with sunscreen!  Inside the Church of San Francisco - now solely a museum - we had the opportunity to sneak a peak at the catacombs!  This venture was by far my favorite aspect.  An ancient burial place, the catacombs wreaked of ancient earth and death... but, at the same time, they were so interestingly beautiful.  Holding the remains of several thousand (estimated 25,000 - 70,000) bodies, the group was walking on top of tombs and viewing different artworks the entire time we were in the church.  In the catacombs, human skulls and femurs are arranged in a circular pattern, some adorning the walls; truly morbid, yet amazing works of art.  I wouldn't want to be the guy who decided to move the bones around, but I sure loved looking at it.  A different kind of beauty... and smell.  All of the architecture was incredible, clearly adopted from European and some Muslim influence many, many moons ago.  I found myself day-dreaming often; wondering what it would be like to walk the catacombs with the mere light of a candle or what it would be like to view these magnificent, monstrous buildings before they were dwarfed by skyscrapers and hidden behind the jungle of telephone wires.  I think I was born in the wrong era... if only!  One downside: no pictures inside of the church!  So that means there are no skull pictures… Bummer, right? :)

Over three weeks have passed in my adventure to Peru, and I can hardly believe that time is passing so quickly.  On Friday my Peruvian mom dished up some homemade pasta – yes, pasta – for lunch.  Again, yum!  The dish is a favorite of my host sister’s, and I could tell/taste why; it was so delicious and my favorite meal here so far!  Much like lasagna (it smelled much like it, anyway), but without the layers of tomato sauce and with gobs more cheese.  I can handle that, and was thrilled to have an Italian inspired dish after finding out that my family was going out for Italian food in celebration of my grandmother's birthday this week.  Jealous!  But, overall, it was wonderful to hear their voices yesterday.  I also tried a different type of chicken soup this week (chicken is super popular here) - feet and all included.  Thankfully, I didn’t have a chicken foot in my bowl, but one of the cousins in my host family did.  She started gnawing and it flew right out of her hand, and onto the floor!  We got a pretty good chuckle out of that one… :)  Another plate, aji de gallina is a close second favorite for me.  Aji de gallina (chicken and rice covered in a yellow chili sauce) is a Peruvian staple, and my host mom makes it often; so it's a really good thing that I like it so much, huh?  We also eat a lot of arroz con pollo (chicken and rice), too, which is basically the same thing to me.  I wouldn't dare tell a Peruvian that, though. ;)  

Here it is (arroz con pollo)... with fresh pineapple juice!  Another yum!  My Peruvian mom makes fresh juice almost every day.

Saturday was the most eventful day of the week.  I joined my Peruvian mother and sisters in an excursion to the cemetery, to visit the girls' father, Teodoro.  He passed away nearly 15 years ago from illness.  I won't give away the age of my host mom, but she is closer to being my grandmother than my mother, so his passing was not unusual for his age.  He lived a long, happy life - they told me - and my host mom calls him "Te adoro," which means I adore you... So sweet!  Here in Peru, funerals are a celebration of life, but visiting the cemetery here is much like it is in the United States.  One difference, though: people are buried on top of each other.  At this cemetery, it was 5 layers for each plot.  Thus, there are strangers buried within the same plot of their father.  Interesting!  To start, the girls bought gorgeous flowers upon walking in, arranged them at the grave site, and said a prayer so perfectly harmonized.  I wanted to experience this, as my host mother often does this alone.  I was happy to have sparked an interest in the sisters to join us, and they wanted me to take their pictures even, which I was more than happy to do for them.  Earlier in the day, I could feel the pain and sadness that they shared, and their strong love for their father brought tears to my eyes.  I am grateful that they shared this special moment with me.  Hey, Papa, I love you! 

For lunch, we stopped at La Olla Arequipeña and I tried more traditional Peruvian dishes!  For starters, I tasted rocoto relleno: a capsicum pepper with beef, onions, boiled egg, and cheese stuffed inside.  Gorgeous and super pica = hot!  My host mom and I ordered chancho a la caya, which is a Chinese style pork dish that is normally roasted and fried to crisp the skin.  Peruvian mom = not impressed.  I thought it was OK, but the star of the show at lunch today was cuy.  Believe it or not, I ate a little bit of guinea pig today, because that is what cuy is!  I won't go into the gritty details of how they do it, but one of my host sisters loves cuy so much and dove right in, head first to be honest.  She tore the head right off and began gnawing away, starting with the ears!  They say that the ears are the tastiest part of any animal... well, I'd rather scratch them!  I was kind of scared to try cuy before I came to Peru, but it wasn't bad at all.  Cuy was actually my favorite of the dishes that I tried today, and I got to eat hominy today, too.  A little slice of normal for me. :)  We topped dinner off with a bite of helados - ice cream - from the D'Onofrio man outside the restaurant.  These guys/gals that sell this brand of ice cream never cease to crack me up.  First of all, they are everywhere, and they have a really loud horn.  They ride and/or walk the streets, forever tooting their horn, and this is the sign of the ice cream man!  Sure enough, people come crawling out of their businesses and apartments.  I wish I could describe the horn better, but from 18 floors up it sounded like a dying Howler Monkey.  Thus, for my first two days in Peru, I was certain that there were monkeys in Lima.  Sadly, there are not, but there is a ton of ice cream!  Beware of the pictures that follow... it's not a booger face, it's guinea pig meat...

The third week has treated me well!  I am certain that there is much more beauty and fun in store to overstimulate my senses here in Peru.  As always, I am looking forward to the next day, but I am doing my best to be fully present in the moment.  Three more months are ahead of me.  I have been enjoying a lot of excursions alone and with my host family alike; I am used to this type of thing with the jobs that I have had in the past and the experience I have with being the independent, only child.  I have also enjoyed times with the girls here.  Last weekend, while in the park passing by a small concert with a few others from the group, two old men grabbed our hands and danced around with us.  I smiled and laughed more in this moment than in any other so far!  My goal now is to find a Peruvian guide/friend, for I am eager to see more and, even in a house full of Peruvians, it gets lonely sometimes.  As my uncle would say, everyone needs and deserves alone time, each and every day.  I surely have been basking in my solitude, but I do miss the company (and proximity) of my loved ones!  Nonetheless, I have been so adventurous in Peru.  I want to share (part of) a piece that reminds me to keeping going wherever my heart desires, and I hope that it encourages you, too, if you ever feel alone and it holds you back from doing what you want to do.  It also reminds me to look at others in this way.  Again, from that wonderful little book of dreams…

You Have Everything You Need to Take You Where You Want to Go by Douglas Pagels

You have abilities and talents and attributes that belong to you alone, and you have what it takes to make your path of success… lead to happiness.

You have qualities that get better every day!

You have courage and strength to see things through.

You have smiles that will serve as your guides.

You have gifts that have never even been opened and personal journeys waiting to be explored.

And you need to remember: if you have plans you want to act on and dreams you’ve always wanted to come true…

You have what it takes, because…

You have you.

I trust that the weekend treated you well, and I wish you a great coming week.  Chow for now!  - A