Day 10

Today we decorated the class room for independence day and there is a contest for who is the best.  So if on Facebook you "like" the page for ECELA Lima you can vote for your favorite room.  Our group is called the Vicuñas.  The n should have a tilde but can't figure that out right now.  A vicuña is a a member of the llama family along with Alpacas.  I took a nap because we were going out in the evening.  Below my window I heard all this commotion.  I saw a man who had a bicycle type cart for selling fruits and vegetables in a tug of war with his bike and the police.  He was right at the entrance to a parking lot.  That's important to the story.  Finally he wins the tug of war takes his bike into the parking lot, but not before the police take something out of his box.  Once the bike is in the parking lot the police seem to lose all interest in it.  The man walks out and past them and just keeps on going. Another police car pulls up, they talk, then they all leave.  No one touches his cart again.  The explanation is that it is illegal for him to sell on the streets near my apartment.  So they were going to appropriate his bike.  But once it was in the parking lot, it was no longer on the streets they couldn't take it.  But I suspect someone thought there was more because another man was using his cell phone to take pictures of the police car license plates and the police.  So who knows?

Tonight we went to the water park.  This park has the fountains coming out of the grounds and 13 different fountains.  All with different features,  the last and bests is not unlike the Bellagio with water sprays set to music.  But they took the term dancing waters to a whole new level.  The center piece has a show projected onto the water so it looks like a hologram.  You had a show, a 30 foot ballerina dancing, then folk dancers and lots more.  It Was fantastic.   One of the fountains which is set in ground, creates a maze so you can walk in and around the fountains to the center without getting wet.  But of course that was no fun, so a bunch of kids, teenagers were busy pushing their friends into the sprays. 

I got about three levels in and then the sprays changed and I had one hit me right on the back.  Apparently it is best to learn the spray pattern first. There were booths set up with treats to eat and of course face painting for e kids.  I saw my first plate of Cuy.   Now this is considered a delicacy and a Peruvian favorite.  So I knew I would find it sooner or later.  What I wasn't expecting was to see that the piece had its little claw still intact and fried,  Cuy is Guinea Pig.  One of the students bought a plate, I passed. Without the claw I might have considered it but the claw did me in. 

We returned by taxi and wouldn't you know it guess who was singing on the radio.  Wow, what are the odds?  She just follows me everywhere.  But they are very find of 80's music so I expected I might hear it eventually.  But in a 10 minute cab ride?   I got home by 9 and my family had saved me dinner, pasta with Alfredo sauce and langostinos.  I told her I could eat while I was out but she wouldn't hear it.  So no Cuy for me, I knew I had dinner waiting.  But I did have a Churro with a filling of dulce de leche.  Now I have had a churro before in Texas and I thought no big deal. But it was cold and unfilled.  Well, a warm churro filled is the best thing I have had in I don't know how long.  It is heaven in a stick and way too dangerous for someone wanting to lose weight.  I have to walk pretty far to get it so that may save me.  I'm afraid though I may be tempted now everytime I see it.