Día Libre

Saturday, June 17

We went to a Saturday morning market in San Blas. The market was kind of small, but I stopped in a store just off the market to make my best purchase of the trip – a beautiful painting of the Virgin Mary. I’m really excited about it. I had a long talk with the artist/owner of the store about Christian and Andean art in Spanish (I should have been an Art History major, for reals). My souvenir purchasing has not gone as planned (in that I just keep buying myself and not for friends/family), but I still have five weeks here so I’m not that worried about. Besides, the Lima airport has some pretty neat stores filled with T-shirts and shot glasses galore.

I made a sort of poor decision at the market – I bought some ice cream from a woman off the street. She had a sort of cooler tied around her neck and was offering ice cream cones for only 1 sol (= 30 cents). How could I refuse?! I didn’t feel too swell after that, but it was still worth it.

We had lunch at Casa Campesina (our hotel/hostel type thing) and then Kathryn and I took a nap (typical). We’re super active people. Then I skyped mis padres and had a jam-packed evening following. Dinner, church, dance performance, fireworks.

Dinner – Chinh, Carlee, Kim, Caroline, Jane and I went to a restaurant near the plaza. It was nice not having to mess with 17 people trying to pay separately. We managed to get in and out pretty quickly (that’s what she said) so we could make it to church on time.

Church – Kim and Caroline headed back to the hotel and the rest of went to the Jesuit church on the plaza to meet Carlitos and his wife for Mass. When we tried to enter the church, a woman standing at the door yelled us at and wouldn’t let us in. She kept on telling us that tourists were now allowed, and I kept telling her that we were there for Mass, but she wasn’t buying it. In fact, she was incredibly rude. Good thing that I’m so irresistibly charming and that my Spanish skills are so top notch (neither of those things are true) that she finally relented and let us in. Evidently, tourists try to come in during Mass times so they don’t have to pay to enter. True to my Cavanaugh thriftiness, I’m going to remember that for the next time I visit a church. The church was magnificent and Mass was great. I really do love Spanish Mass. The best part was when we went up for Communion; Chinh flashed the priest a smile and his whole face lit up. And then he patted her face with his hand. She was super excited, and I was behind her in line and I just lost it. He was like Santa Claus approving of one of the children on the nice list.

Dance performance – We then walked with Carlitos and his wife to a dance performance that we could get free entrance to with our “boleto turistico.” We came in super late, but it was still interesting (not to the old man in front of us who fell asleep). I loved the dancing, but even more than that, I loved the singing. The women sing in this high-pitched, whiny voice that I found incredibly amusing. It really sounded awful.

“Fireworks” – When the dance performance was finished, we booked it, and I mean booked it, to the plaza to watch fireworks. There were SO many people there! It reminded of Las Fallas in Valencia when everyone would pack into the streets to watch the fireworks (minus the retardos con petardos who would light firecrackers into the crowds, but it’s so packed that you can’t move and if a firecracker comes near you, you just have to hope for the best --- miserable). Well the fireworks were supposed to start at 8:00, and an hour and a half and a gelato trip later, we found ourselves still waiting so we just walked home. Very anticlimactic.

I spent the next hour complaining how I didn’t want to update my blogito, how I didn’t want to pack, and especially how I didn’t want to go the Amazon the next day. I couldn’t find a sympathetic ear, so I skyped my boo Ryan instead. An excellent solution. That night I dreamt of all the dangers that awaited me in the jungle.