Ayacucho, Day 6

Yeesh I thought I was going to take it easy the past couple days and instead I met some people, celebrated my birthday a day early with free beers and dinner, tried some terrible Peruvian wine, and slept for most of my actual birthday.

My journal:
"10.05pm - 19 Septiembre 2006
"Hoy es mi cumpleanos! I made some friends yesterday who said they´d take me out for cake and drinks tonight, but 1/2hr after they said they´d be at my hotel they still hadn´t shown up so I decided to leave. It has occured to me that 7pm for me might mean at least 7:30pm for Peruvians, but I wasn´t too concerned since I´d already partied with them the night before.

"It started out with them approaching me on a bench in the central plaza, we got talking, and they seemed charming enough. We went for drinks...all for free of course (their treat), then they bought me dinner and wine."

Peruvian wine isn´t very good. Anyway, they were a lot of fun to hang out with and it was great to be able to socialize (with however much difficulty) with a group of people. Eduardo, I learned, is a vacationing policeman; I forget what Monny does; Jonathan works in administration. I liked them all but even though we had a good time hanging out I still had to keep reminding them of ´my pareja´ (my partner) at home. If I don´t insist that I have a pareja, it´s too hard to ward off their advances. When I said goodbye and went back to my hotel they did make sure I had everything I came with (my money, glasses, etc), so even though they were forward like most South Americans I´ve met so far, they seemed to care that I was safe.

They even offered to take me on this 3 day tour across Peru, ending in Cuzco (my next destination), but since they didn´t show up for my birthday cake I guess that´s out of the picture. Bus it is! I don´t know if I would have accepted the offer for sure...it was definitely attractive in a Kerouac, On the Road, no-care-in-the-world kind of way.

So, for my actual birthday, since I lost my friends, I had a little celebration of my own. I went to a little cafe at which I had a little torte (some kind of pastry) and hot chocolate. Woo birthday!

Anyway, today was a little more eventful. I decided to wander off to another artisan market, in the east side of the city, at which I bought a warm hat made from alpaca wool and a beautiful embroidered belt. The latter was one of those things that, though not essential, I just had to have it´s so gorgeous. It only cost me S/12, or about CA$4. The hat will come in handy in Cuzco, which is much colder than Ayacucho.

I also did my best to converse with the merchants who were curious to know where I was from etc. The usual questions, but perfect for practicing my Spanish.

Tomorrow I´m going to look at bus schedules and follow the wind again.

P.S. I posted a couple pictures yesterday if you want to check them out.