May 23, 2015

Today, a Saturday, was my last day of work this week. My understanding is that in Peru the kids get Sundays and Mondays off. Had a great time at La Universidad del Pacifico. The English level at this school was also quite low, but there was active teacher engagement and the students seemed genuinely interested in trying to learn.

On the way home I saw the train from the old song, “This train is bound for glory…” Or maybe the Virgen de Guadelupe is returning. Hard to tell.

Then it was time to head for a lunch. Pablo spotted a spot on our way to Sonia’s the other day, so we headed back through Chorillos to check it out. Passed this birthday palace on the way. It’s the little clashes of worlds that interest me most.

The restaurant was another seafood place (no surprise there) called La Travesura Marina. It was a spiffy looking restaurant

with lively and pert mesineras eager to provide a successful eating experience for the gringo that had just walked in. I was fighting a bit of a cold and the idea of a little fish stew sounded good to me.  I was kind of going for minimal but the waitress assured me that I wanted something more concentrated.
I was not prepared for what arrived at the table.

My lunch lay lurking somewhere in there and so I gamely tried to do it in. It was too much for me. I got about ¾ of the way through and then I was stuffed. It was also really salty. On the whole, a great restaurant and Pablo and I will probably dine there again with the new story teller that is arriving tonight. But maybe I'll stick with the more modest platters.

Jaime Oliviero is a story teller from Canada who will be outstaying me here in Lima. He and his wife, Diane, will be here for a month and they arrive tonight. He reminds me a little of Tom Pease. I’m looking forward to meeting him. His tour manager will be Sergio,

Sergio

who has already arrived to get things ready. Sergio hails from Chile, so I am once again getting exposed to the distinct accent that marks Chilean Castellano. Sergio's is pretty mild as accents go, but there's that familiar dropping of S'es

Pablo, Sergio and I went to the market to pick up a few necessaries for life around the apartment. There we ran into another street performer, also a statue, but with a slightly

different schtick. 1 sol was all it took to get him moving and into friendly mode.

But wait! There’s more! Pablo and I got free tickets to: Brisas del Titicaca, a night club specializing in Peruvian folk dance. The show started at 9:45 and ran until 2:00 am. It is, of course, named for the Peruvian lake located south of Cusco. The moniker has been a favorite of English speaking adolescent boys ever since English speaking adolescent boys became aware of it.

But Pablo and I were there to take in the folk dance.

This was another one of those instances where the action was faster than my camera could record, so I only got a couple of photos. As a veteran of a number of international folk dance festivals in Europe and North America,  I had, perhaps, unrealistic expectations. But the costumes were grand, and the dancing very energetic and much better than the food. Fatigue set in and we weren’t able stay the whole show.  But it was an adventure while we were there.