No such thing as easy

Good food and coffee milkshakes makes them happy













We have an endless number of examples of the way nothing ever seems to go as "planned" here. Today, Matthew and I tried hard to be organized, leave the house relatively "early" in order to get lots done. HOWEVER, language is still a barrier and I don´t always understand directions. Poco a poco.

Task 1: Go to the Sony store to see if there is someone (anyone!) who knows something about fixing Matthew´s camera.
Level of difficulty: Medium.
Pass/Fail: Fail.
Reason: We passed it riding the combi, not realizing it was inside a mall. We´ll try again later today.

Task 2: Drop laundry off at a lavandaria that will charge us less than 12 soles.
Level of difficulty: Fairly easy.
Pass/Fail: Pass!
Reason: I mean, really, how hard is this?

Task 3: Go to the immigration office and get an extension on our passport so we can legally stay longer than the 60 days we were allotted at customs when we arrived.
Level of difficulty: Extremely difficult.
Pass/Fail: Fail.
Reason: Supposedly there is no such thing as an "extension," but from many people we´ve spoken with, we´ve heard that anything is possible here in Peru. Apparently not today.

Task 4: Buy a camera cord so I can upload my photos to the computer while Matthew´s is down and out.
Level of difficulty: More difficult than expected.
Pass/Fail: Fail, for the moment at least.
Reason: My camera was not made in Peru and a 2.0 USB cord is rare, even at actual stores like Radio Shack. I hope that another Radio Shack that we´ll visit tonight.

Task 5: Eat.
Level of difficulty: Medium.
Pass/Fail: Pass.
Reason: We stopped by a small coffee shop that also serves lunch and ordered delicious coffee-milkshakes. Que rico.

Task 6: Buy our tickets for Colca Canyon.
Level of dificulty: Medium.
Pass/Fail: Pass.
Reason: We sort of planned ahead by talking to Frank from Nativos last week about the cost, etc, and although getting to the office from our host home by 3 a.m. Saturday morning is going to be a task in itself, I think it will work out. Vamos a ver.

Task 7: Find Internet to update blog, etc.
Level of difficulty: Extremely easy.
Pass/Fail: obviously...

All in all, it has been a pretty productive day so far. Who knows what this afternoon will bring. Two more days of classes, then we´re on our own again.
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I started a post yesterday, but didn´t publish it because I was hoping that by last evening I´d actually be able to post photos. But no. Maybe one day? So read on for the "bonus post."

El Mercado at Lunchtime
It´s nothing like the North Market in Columbus, that´s for sure.













The Plaza de Armas at Sunset













After having a bit of a break, living in an actual house for two weeks, it was strange being at a hostel last night. (No, we wern´t kicked out of our host home...)

Way back when we were on our way out of the mountains from our failed attempt to go to Cusco, we shared a ride with a lovely German girl and ended up traveling with her to Albancay, Nasca, and (finally) Arequipa. We parted ways upon arrival in Arequipa as she headed to find a bus for the Colca Canyon and we began a hunt for a hostel. Our cell phone rang for the fourth time ever two nights ago-Nikola was going to be back in Arequipa for a night!

Flash forward to last night: We met her at her hostel, where we hung out on the roof with some Brits, Austrailians, and another German traveler. It felt different to be around people from all over the world who are traveling and volunteering here in Peru. Usually, it´s just Matthew and me in Spanish-speaking environments, but it was nice to be around other travelers. We went out to a restaurant and I had a delicious vegetarian sandwich...no intestines last night! Good food, good company, good evening.

After dinner, we all went to a grocery store where Matthew and I ran into Salima, another friend we met when we were in Mejia last weekend. The other day, we ran into a friend we met who was trying to help Matthew with his camera troubles. It´s just weird to think that there are actually people we know here!

Overall, yesterday was a good food day: breakfast at our host home (bread, papaya marmalade, tea, fresh pineapple juice), lunch at a giant market (empenada, deep-fried mashed potato ball stuffed with ??, fresh, made-before-our-eyes mango/orange/berry juice), dinner (vegetarian sandwich goodness). We ARE eating (Dad, please stop worrying!), but food is sometimes difficult, as we don´t understand the menu and sometimes accidentally order soup that contains parts of animals I prefer not to eat. I am so glad we have "discovered" the market, it makes for a cheap lunch. Today it was empenadas, cake, and banana and milk juice. It tasted just like a smoothie. mmmhmm.