Day 5: A Break

Wednesday morning - or afternoon, rather - was a day of preparation for Thursday night's festivities. It was going to be Kira's 23rd (AHEM-27th-AHEM) birthday and she was going to have a Mexican party of unknown proportions at their house in Cusco. She had Mexican food shipped in from Lima from a friend there (can you believe they can't get chips, salsa, tortillas, taco seasoning, etc. in Cusco) and during Tuesday's run-about around town we had successfully found a waiter who was willing to work at night as a bartender at the party and the whiskey, tequila and beer was already purchased.

But: there was still plenty of grocery shopping to do. Cusco has a massive open-air marketplace where you can buy fresh flowers, fruits, vegetables, and fish & meat (freshness is questionable) from the local Quechua-speaking campesinos (indigenous population with the colorful clothing and little top-hats). We had a laundry list to shop for, mostly vegetables that would go into the tacos and fajitas that were going to be made. We also picked up some new roses for decoration and of course massive amounts of fresh cheese blocks. It was interesting because all of the old ladies working at the stalls referred to the girls as "mama". Mama this and mama that. They just ignored the gringo standing next to her :o).

After shopping at the market, we went to the supermercado (supermarket) to buy chicken and ground beef. The girl working at the meat counter was unusually hot but I think since I was standing next to Vanessa, my game was pretty much ruined. Not to mention that I don't speak very much Spanish. Vanessa told me to talk to her while they were grinding the steak up and she disappeared into the aisles, but I was frozen and didn't just want to sit there and ask "How do you say" (point at a piece of meat) over and over again :o/ .

Earlier in the day, Vanessa's mom had gotten her last injection following the dog bite she got while at the farm before I had arrived. To celebrate this and as a gift of my gratitude, I told her that I would take everyone out for dinner on Wednesday night. We all had to be ready for the birthday party the next day, so I figured it would be nice to have a relaxing meal and then maybe watch a pirated DVD at home. When Vanessa returned home and got ready, we called the cab and went to a superb meal in old Cusco that, no surprise, the family knew the owner of. The restaurant had an Italian name and the food was a wonderful, wonderful mixture of food from the Andes and modern, international flavors. I got a piece of Moroccan tamarind-spiced lamb on a bed of quinoa with some dried fruits and a port reduction sauce that was out of this word. It was almost too rich, but went down easy with a glass of red wine!

Yusteen, it's amazing how nice a $10 meal is in Peru :o)