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We arrived in Lima on Friday night and went immediately to our hotel and rested for a few hours. Dinner was at six followed by an introductory talk on what to expect on the trip. Then everyone went up to bed to get rested for a busy day Saturday.
In the morning, we took a walking tour of the city. The first thing that struck me was how colorful everything was. The people were dressed in bright reds, yellows, blues and all the colors of the rainbow. Even when there was no music the atmosphere felt like music. It didn't matter if we were in a market seeing people pick out there dinner "on the hoof", meeting a mother with a child on her back, or being blessed by a medicine man. It was all colorful and happy. This is a typical scene around town. The white hat indicates that the woman is a merchant. The dance group is a troup of teenagers performing at the cultural center. When people go to the market in Peru, they don't get their meat all packaged in plastic, they pick it out while it's still running around. Unlike us, they know it is a healthy animal. The hair of a vicuna is used to make wool. We went to a sweater shop and felt the difference in texture and softest in various sweaters made with dirrerent yarns. Vicuna yarn is exquisite. We were invited to dinner at a family home where we were served guinea pig, a specialty in Peru. Before it is served it is presented on a platter very artistically surrounded by vegetables and complete with head and feet still attached. Then the grandmother takes it back to the kitchen and cuts it up. Her daughter showed us how mothers in Peru keep their children safe and snuggly much like American Indians. An Incan medicine man held a ritualistic ceremony for us in which he offered food to the gods for our well-being. October 2, 2009
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