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| Scenes like this abound. I only wish there were some way to capture them all. |
Wednesday I slept in a bit while Lili and Laura toured some churches, then we found a great little mom-and-pop restaurant for lunch, we meandered a bit, did some shopping, hit up a chocolate factory, more meandering and then a very nice dinner for Lili’s last night in Peru. And that was literally all we did. Literally.
Thursday we did a little more shopping so Lili could make
sure to have all of her gift bases covered, and then we escorted her to the
airport. Turns out that one of us has a “real” job and had to be back in the
US. So instead of being the Three Amigas, we are now back to being the dynamic
duo.
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| Sometimes it's the little things that amuse |
After dropping Lili off at the airport, Laura and I decided the
best use of the afternoon would be to get massages. This was my second of the
trip and, while not the best massage I’ve ever had, at $8 a pop, who can
complain? Indian food for dinner (go figure) and back to the hotel for the
night.
And that is exactly how lame we are. But I guess it’s okay
to have some down time while traveling (despite my inner voice screaming that I
MUST use every minute of a vacation to the fullest). These past couple of days I’ve
hardly taken any pictures as we haven’t done much and yet I somehow feel that’s
a good sign, in a strange way. It means I’ve started to connect to this place,
to feel like less of a tourist (even though I obviously still totally am) and
to just BE here.
Since I’ve been the one of the three of us who can speak
Spanish, I always end up in the front seat of the taxis we regularly take (you
take taxis absolutely everywhere here). And more often than not, I end up
having conversations with the drivers. In a cab in the US, you mostly sit in
the back and there’s no conversation with the cabbie. But here, where it’s such
a relational culture, you sit in the front seat (you also do this even if you
are the only one in the cab, which took my American mind a moment to adjust to)
and 95% of the time the cab drivers strike up conversations about where you’re
from, what you’re doing here, etc. 
And in this way I have learned a lot about life in Peru. I’ve
learned facts and figures, I’ve learned about what we should and shouldn’t do
while here, I’ve learned cultural tidbits and I’ve learned lots of history
about the country. But the coolest thing I’ve learned is that I love the people
of Peru. I love that they genuinely take an interest in the people visiting
their towns and that they love their country and can speak about it with such
pride. And mostly I love how, not only are they just doing their job and
getting me from place to place, they show such interest in their fellow man and
in being so genuinely kind and helpful and friendly while doing so. I love how obvious
it is that relationships come first here and how, even from such a simple thing
as sharing a cab with a stranger, I am growing to love this country.
And now, on a completely different note, in honor of our friend Lili who sadly had to leave us today, I give you a couple of my favorite expressions of hers. She is idiomatically challenged and we laughed an awful lot about both the ones she botched and the ones she just plain made up. Sure wish I could remember them all as there were some definite classics along the way. But these ones stuck with me:
“You can give a horse water but it still won’t drink”
“It’s as blurry as a cat’s eye!”
“It’s as blurry as a cat’s eye!”
“It was as scratchy as a cat’s ass"
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| Lili's last dinner in Cusco |
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