Home is Where the Heart is...
Trip Start
Jul 02, 2009
1
14
Trip End
Jul 18, 2009
Tacna, Peru
Friday, July 17, 2009
Our last day consisted of packing and cleaning and shopping and lunching (because who can do without the biggest most delicious meal of the day?) and goodbying.
For our souvenir needs, we returned to the little row of tourist shops in the Central area of Tacna. I never knew Tacna had so much traffic until this morning. I joked with Brian that we went by way of Africa when we finally got there. Some of us went off to get juice as we had done for breakfast a week earlier, and the rest of us got serious about shopping. Later in the day as we were shopping, our Peruvian friends who were hanging out with us and helping us haggle, told us that robbers were there and were planning to rob us! I guess there were 5 of them total, 2 at one end of the street and 3 at the other. This raised some alarm amongst us, but turned into nothing. Brian told me later that when he has to deal with that kind of issue, he stands next to a gringo and, in Spanish, says something to effect of: "Hey, do you see that guy? He's a thief." And usually the guy goes away. He's also confronted them directly and said things like, "Can you be more obvious? Do you really think you're going to be able to rob us? You should just leave."
We had another rather heaping dose of protein at lunch with just the church leaders and workers. The restaurant literally translates into "The Place of My Grandpa," but Chiqui and I figured the better translation is more like Grandpa's Ranch. This place, though similar to the patio restaurant we had eaten at the week before, had quite a few attractions including a soccer field, water slide and pool, playground area, hamsters in a cage, rabbits in cages and chickens/roosters in cages. We aren't sure if they use those to cook...
One thing we have not had sparingly this trip is Peruvian food, which sounds like an odd statement(considering we are in Peru), but really it is a different thing for us as we've "played it safe" as Mark says. Havng Brian and Chiqui leading things this year as opposed to our Chilean brethren, Tito and Patty has resulted in us having more cultural food experiences. We had 2 types of picante, a traditional version with various meat parts, and a seafood version with whole shrimp and crab legs. Picante is basically meat in a somewhat spicy sauce with potatoes. We also had the bbq platters of meat cooking over a live coal. On these platters was lamb, beef (which some of us think was alpaca), chorizo (different than what you're used to), and pork. One end of the table had Lomo Saliado, which is strips of beef cut up and cooked with onions and tomatoes in a sauce. That is mixed with cooked french fries and heated together before it is served. It is usually served over rice and is one of our favorites. There was also a large platter of fried pork chunks and potatoes which had been boiled and then fried. 2 plates of ceviche also circulated the tables. If you left the table hungry, it was your own fault.
Back at home we finished packing and hung out with whoever was there. The church was preparing for a night of competitions with the youth, so there wasn't much time to say goodbye before we left for the airport. Only a handful of our friends went with us and it wasn't long before we were heading through the gate, getting on our first plane and thinking more and more about home.
Our layover in Lima was much shorter this time around which left us a little time to get coffee, last minute souvenirs and snacks before Mark had to get on his flight which left almost an hour before ours did. Our plane departed at about 2AM on the 18th and we arrived back home (CA time) around 8:15AM. Our bus was close to being on time, and though we spent some time in traffic on the 5, we made it home to cheers of celebration where warm showers and familiar beds awaited us.
So concludes Mission Peru 2009!
