First thing’s first though—the recap. We’ve been sort of doing
a goodbye tour before heading to Huánuco, since we won’t see anyone in Callao again
until late December. I don’t really know how we got so lucky—but a lot of our
goodbye tour has included delicious food.
We started Sunday by walking to Consuelo’s house, where she served
us up some aji de gallina, a traditional Peruvian dish with potatoes and hen.
Afterwards, we had some turron, which is possibly the most ridiculous dessert
ever. It’s this tan, crumbly stuff, kind of like a hard-ish cookie, with layers
of honey with anis flavoring inside of it. The top of turron is covered with
honey, then finished with rainbow sprinkles and candy stars. It’s ridiculous
looking, and in all honesty, it’s not as delicious as other Peruvian desserts,
but there’s something insanely cheery about it and it’s pretty darn tasty (how
could it not be?)  |
| Ladies and Gents: Turron. |
After lunch, we headed to church. Eder, Consuelo’s son,
delivered the sermon and it was a bit of an interesting experience—because multiple
times throughout the sermon, Eder was interrupted by a few senior members of
the congregation, voicing their contradicting interpretation of the scripture. Eder
took the interruptions in stride and wasn’t flustered—which earns him a lot of
respect in my book. It’s always good to have a variety of opinions and open
discussion, but preaching is intimidating enough without the audience
participation.
Moving on, Monday, as another part of the farewell tour, Wilfredo
treated Katrina and I to some of his fantastic ceviche for the second time. You
can check out my older post about ceviche for more details—but it’s basically
very limey, very oniony fish dish and it is by far my favorite Peruvian food. The tour continued in a bit more dramatic of a fashion when we ventured to Miraflores to finally try parpenting. Parapenting is basically like parasailing—minus one tiny detail—the string attach to a boat. You have a giant parachute/kite type thing attached to you and that’s it—the rest is up to the coastal winds around Miraflores. To start, you and your guide…driver…I’m not sure what the correct word is—casually jump off a cliff, the wind catches the parachute, and you take off. We sored over the city and horrifyingly close to a few buildings, but it was an amazing experience.
Nearly ¾ of Peru’s population lives around the Lima area;
however, sometimes the city just doesn’t feel that big. Before I got here, I
was imagining Lima to have New York City appearance, with skyscrapers everywhere;
however, while parts of Lima that have that look, for the most part, Lima is a
little more… subtle. In other words, it’s a not as tall as NYC; like some of
the Peruvian people, it’s just a bit shorter. Because of this, Lima doesn’t
always feel grand and expansive; however, when you’re in the sky over the city
and you’re able to see all the large buildings, you realize that Lima goes on
and on as far as the eye can see. I’m so thankful to have the new perspective on
the city.
The parapenting ride ends with a few dips over the ocean, while waving at surfers and tour buses, followed by a skid landing back at the landing site. I’m thankful I took a motion sickness pill before the ride because the dips at the end were a bit dramatic—but I successfully made it back to earth without vomiting, the wind catching said vomit, and throwing it back in my face.. The whole experience was far scarier than I’d imagined it would be—but it was a great and, in all honesty, I wouldn’t mind doing it again.
The parapenting ride ends with a few dips over the ocean, while waving at surfers and tour buses, followed by a skid landing back at the landing site. I’m thankful I took a motion sickness pill before the ride because the dips at the end were a bit dramatic—but I successfully made it back to earth without vomiting, the wind catching said vomit, and throwing it back in my face.. The whole experience was far scarier than I’d imagined it would be—but it was a great and, in all honesty, I wouldn’t mind doing it again.
Tuesday, Katrina and I cooked up some American chili and
cornbread for the family, which is always a bit of an adventure. First,
Graciela doesn’t own measuring cups. Second, Peru uses the metric system.
Third, Peru doesn’t have the same baking supplies/ingredients in their stores as
the United States. Fourth, their baking supplies are all, naturally, written in
Spanish. And, last but not least, the oven here is a bit tricky. For example, our
cornbread was supposed to take 25 minutes to cook at 200 degrees Celsius—it took
45 minutes at 255 degrees. All of that being said, Katrina and I managed to
overcome and produce a decent dinner; however, in retrospect, loading everyone
up with an excess of beans before we spend nine hours trapped in a car was
probably a less than stellar idea.
And that brings us to today. We’ve spent most of the day
watching all the Hulu we can before we lose a consistent internet connection,
which means I’ve spent an embarrassing amount of time with Glee, Once Upon A
Time and The Voice. I also went on an embarrassingly slow run, trekking my
running route for the last time until January. I definitely have a lot more
packing to do tonight, but all in all, I feel fairly prepared for tomorrow. I’m
less than excited to have a day of being in a Dramamine coma and vomiting into
a plastic bag, but at least I’ll be vomiting up delicious peanut butter cookies—I’d
much rather barf that than, say, spaghetti noodles. On that glamorous note—I’ll stop disgusting you and get to packing—we’ve got a big day ahead of us tomorrow! See you in Huánuco!
Parasailing looks horrifying! You are brave.
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