Peru, August 17- Part II

"On our way back down to the bus, there were many Peruvians on the side of the road like a market selling stuff. I hurried to the bus and sat on my cold, bare legs & Greg had bought a scarf for him mom that I borrowed & wrapped around my legs. That kept me from shivering drastically on the way home, but as soon as we got back to the Monastery, I changed! I put on 2 pairs of pants, 2 pairs of socks, my runners, a shirt & sweatshirt & my coat if I can remember accurately. I wasn't going to be cold any longer!

"We had supper late that night b/c Owen, Liz & Ann had gone to Machu Picchu since they were sick the day before and were to return at 8pm? (I think) So, a couple of us went last minute shopping before supper- I was with Kirk- and I tried desperately to find another painting like the one I had purchased days before, but no one had what I wanted. Oh well...

"...we returned to meet the group for supper & went to this amazing Spanish restaurant for our very last meal at Cuzco. It was wonderful! Apart from being at 3 or 4 different tables throughout the restaurant, we really enjoyed it. I was upstairs in a balcony area with Hose Carlos, Sari, Tyler, Tanya, & Liliana (I think) and we enjoyed looking over the banner at the band & dancers below. That's right! There was a live Peruvian band (5 guys) and 2 male and 2 female dancers in wonderfully decorative & colorful costumes and we watched them almost all night. The band did very well and there was one guy playing one of those pipe flute things and he was really good at it. I was really impressed, because you still need to breathe at some point too and he could change notes very quickly and play for a considerable length of time before a break. Sometimes, he even added a second one in front of it and blew down both of them!

"The dancers were very cool to watch and after one song, the 2 ladies went off and the 2 men picked 2 women from the audience & they danced for a song! I was quite surprised to see this b/c if we were in North America, most people would be very resistant to just getting up & dancing in front of everyone else, but not there! They seemed to really enjoy themselves , but the song seemed quite long at the same time.

I had cream of chicken soup & that was it, but it was really good. The two best kinds of pop are Fanta and Inca Cola, of course.

"After supper, we all went back and had a devotional and then went to bed! The devotional was in our room (me, Liliana, Tanya & Sari) and I seriously got nothing out of it b/c I was so tired. I was trying hard to fight it, but my eyes were so heavy and I kept drifting off. Finally we were done and could go to bed, but I had told Sari I would braid her hair, so she went for a shower & I said I was just going to lay down until she was ready, but when I awoke, she was in bed & all the girls were with the lights off, so I changed my clothes & went to sleep too. Thank- you Lord for sleep!"