Festia de la Patria en Lima, Peru

I ate cow tongue. And it was delicious. I was a bit weirded out at first but after the first bite (reminds of finely roasted beef) I couldn´t wait for the second. We spent most of the two days in Lima doing what the rest of the country was doing--celebrating Peru´s independence day. We took a city tour and went atop this marvelous mountain...but it was so cloudy that you could only see about 20 feet in front of you, so we missed out on the spectacular view that Lima provides, nestled between mountains. We went to the national parade and I was a bit surprised to see that the only participants in the parade were military. The country must be particularly proud to show off its military, people cheered and loved the display, though it seemed a bit gloomy to me. We went to a cool chinese restaurant and ate a feast for about 2 bucks each. Everything is sooo cheap here that it is laughable!

I eat full meals (much better than what you could get in the US) for 2 bucks. What else?
Hotels for 5 bucks a piece.
Taxi rides for about a dollar.
Bottles of water for 30 cents.
Beautiful Alpaca wool sweaters for 13 dollars.
Freshly squeezed juice slushies for 1 dollar.

It´s nice because I´m quite broke and poor.

Anyways, I wrote last time about the deplorable conditions in the rural areas of Peru. Well the following day I picked up a newspaper and read about the President´s anual speech he gave the night before. One of the main issues he wanted to address was the disgusting rate of poverty (some stats suggest it is over 50%), he wants to lower it to about 30% during his term (until 2011). I was so happy to see that this was such a point of concern for the nation and I hope he follows through with his promises and that his term isn´t characterized by corruption and mismanagement like every other term seems to have been in Peru´s history.

Though the government has its faults the people are warm and friendly (aside from the constant begging and offering to seel something). I got money out of an ATM in Chimbote (6 hours north of Lima) and was so mad when the machine gave me dollars. I stormed off in search of a bank that would change my money. Well, I had forgotten my bank card!!! Much to my surprise a woman came running after me with it in her hand shouting that I had forgotten it. Wow, that incident made my heart jump a few beats. The hostal and restaurant service have been excellent and we´ve encountered some very kind people (friends of Leah´s) that have put us up in their homes, fed us gorgeous peruvian cuisine, and taken us around the city.

I love Ecuador and am starting to like Peru as well, the language is a bit different but the food is delicious! We are in Cuzco now...which will be the subject of my next entry. Until then,

love