After my wonderful haircut earlier in the day, we had a lunch/dinner date at Erika's cousin's house, which was nearby. Erika had told me that Orfelinda (Orfi) takes very good care of her mom when she's gone and is a great cook. Eating is high on my list of favorite activities in Peru, so I was definitely looking forward to this event.
We walked over to her house up a rock-strewn dirt road near the highway and I was blown away when we got to her house. It looked pretty much like a normal house from the area, but after walking in, it was a really nice house with carpet, living room, big glass windows between the rooms, it was really nice. And Orfi was there preparing a FEAST for us: potato and chip appetizers, tequenos with guacamole, arroz con pato (rice with duck), salad, and mousse de lucuma for dessert. Normally, I won't be caught dead eating salad because of the problems with the water there, but I was assured that this was a fully organic salad and everything was cleaned with bottled water, which is how she prepares all of her food. I was still doubtful, but figured I'd give it a fair review and, sure enough, I can proclaim her food gringo-friendly!
And given that it was a celebration type of meal (for my arrival, of course ;o), there were some fine beverages, such as passion-fruit/pisco (pisco sour, with passion fruit replacing the sour) cocktails, and oh boy, was there wine. And more wine. And then some more wine. We were having a grand old time, everybody was laughing and having fun, my Spanish was better than ever, and there was even some dance moves being thrown down to the Peruvian folk music that was being blasted. Once we finished her four bottles of wine, her husband then went down and bought four more bottles from the local liquor store. Man, was that day a riot.
Seeing as how we had to get up at 3:30am the next morning to head to the airport, the sober person at the table (her mom) was smart enough to make us head home at around 9:00pm before too much damage was done. Lucky for us, waking up wasn't so bad because the drinking was spread over six hours or so and we stayed well-hydrated all day. We had to be ready, we were heading out to Cajamarca that morning for the main-event trip!
J. Riley, there are rumors of a pre-wedding meal/cultural experience at Orfi's house being offered for Friday night...
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