Pachacamac Part 3: The ending

It's hard to imagine that I have been here at KUNIRAYA for a month! I will leave on Saturday to spend two days in Lima being a tourist. Christian and I are working furiously on the chicken coop in hopes of finishing by Saturday when I leave.
This is the first Hallowe'en I've experienced where no ghosts or clever costumes will come to the door. I don't mind not being a teacher tomorrow! So from me to you, Happy Hallowe'en!

On Monday, a new wwoofer friend came. Her name is Letetia and she's from Philadelphia. She's very beautiful and has good taste in music.
Yesterday, Stephanie, Tauli and we three wwoofers went to the beach for the day.

We saw beautiful pelicans quite up close, sea lions (lobo del mar, said Stephanie. Letetia looked it up and it translate as sea wolf. Oh well! They were so interesting and made such a funny growling sound), we saw seals too quite up close and gulls with red parts--not sure of their name.




We went fishing  with this man, who takes customers out on the water, which was really fun. Doesn't this pleasant expression say it all?

Stephanie caught two, Tauli caught two and our fisherman caught two.

We watched the sun set before returning home. This was the family's treat for us, especially because I'm leaving Saturday. It was a lovely day.

When I was a teenager, I was in the Sudbury Theatre Centre Youth Company and one year we did a production of the musical "Danny Dunn and the Homework Machine" based on the children's book. Many, many times this month, I've gone back to this musical because of one song. When I'm working alone (which is often) it comes into my head as an earworm. Start at minute 4:00 and end at minute 8:30:

Yesterday when we went fishing, I noticed to my surprise that my inner earworm was:

Two Sundays ago I walked up the local mountain (about 3 hours). It was beautiful. There are no trees, just low bushes and many, many flowers, unusual and beautiful rocks, breathtaking views...

 

It's interesting, but a week and a half later it's turning brown and dying. I was there in the right part of spring. Now the weather is heating up and  the mountain will soon return to its desert-like state. The geography here is kind of fascinating. Ocean beside desert. Everything is covered in a damp dust. I will get rid of my "work shirt" on Saturday, turning it into rags, because I can't get the dirt out. But that trip up the mountain seemed dust free!

For Beate, Denny and Kevin, and any other holstein-loving people, I tried to catch the cuteness and funniness of holsteins walking all over the mountain. Stephanie thinks it's illegal (it's a conservation area) which I think means that the sheep and goats on the other side of the mountain are probably grazing illegally too!

Close to the top of the mountain there was a man flying his kite while lying down.

When  I reached the top, I ate my banana and orange, while looking at the view. I waved to Christian who was 10km away at the ruins and museum I went to two weeks before. I couldn't see "our" house because it was covered in trees, but you could see everything all the way to the ocean.

Seeing my banana reminds me that I've neglected Donna by not describing the variety of food adventures I've had while here. I'm afraid I haven't taken pictures either! But let me start with the banana. It's actually orange. The bananas I've eaten while here have been orange on the inside. They are slightly less sweet than the bananas I'm familiar with. I also have had mandarins as they are in season here. Christian and I ate a tuna fruit (prickly pear) which grows on a cactus and was quite delicious and very red inside.

Each breakfast we have avocado with parsley and spices added which we put on crackers or toast, usually a potato and a lettuce salad. And a cup of coffee! Stephanie is a really good cook and we have bean dishes, egg dishes, soups etc.  She's made cake and chocolate puddings using healthy ingredients. I made the lentils and rice one day remembering the recipe I used to feed Donna from the More with Less cookbook! Xenoria made us two lunches. One is a traditional soup from the mountains where the corn that's used (corn is white here with large kernels) is dried a bit, the skin is taken off each kernel and then completely dried so that it can be stored. The Andean people stored this corn in community vats. Xenoria's mother did all the work for the corn we had in the soup. It was in chicken stock and we each put a little pile of cilantro, parsley, chives and something else on top of the soup followed by a smaller blob of chili sauce. So pretty and so delicious. The other dish was also traditional mountain food. It was a bean and potato soup with large broad beans.
Yesterday, when we came back from fishing to the beach, we went to a lovely restaurant with this pretty view:

Christian and I had the most famous Peruvian coast food--ceviche, which is raw fish in lemon juice (which is actually lime). Ours had onion and spices over top. Sooooo good!


We also shared a seafood platter with battered seafood--also delicious.
and....
also for Donna, we went to an ice cream place. I confess that I didn't have any, but here's a picture of the beautiful choices (they are prepared more like gelato)

Christian and I went to Pachacamac village to try foods this Sunday. We had Pisco sour (traditional here) 

and then we had picarones

choncholi (chicken)

chicha

anticuchos (beef heart) on a bed of rachi (cow stomach and intestines)

While we were hanging out at the plaza we ran into Tony and Yulmari which was awesome. We visited, having a drink and sharing some of the snacks that Christian and I picked up.

And this morning, Donna, Yulmari and Tony treated us to a traditional Venezualan breakfast. It was delightful.




The main staple is arepas, which is a corn pancake, which was served with black beans (delicious), scrambled eggs with peppers and 
tomatoes (I think, also delicious), and grated cheese. We loaded up pieces of arepas with the  other dishes and ate this with coffee. Sooo good! 

Speaking of Yulmari, I have been grateful to be her assistant a number of times this month. She is in charge of the paper-making workshop which is really interesting. I have helped take dried paper off the boards and helped make little plant pots, We do this by using a mash made out of palm leaves and placing it over the bottom of bottles, jars and bowls. They're quite beautiful. Too bad I'm traveling light! The paper is made of corn husks, palm leaves etc. It's lovely when it's done too. Because Yulmari has no English and I have no Spanish, communication has been cause for hilarity. You'll find us laughing often. When in each other's company for most of the day, about 8 hours, we sometimes communicate by singing. Yulmari sings in a descending scale (starting on lah), singing "Lynne, Lynne, Lynne, Lynne, Lynne, Lynne,Lynne". I respond  (mi doh re) Yul-mar-i, Yul-mar-i" We teach each other songs:

What better way to communicate can there be?