Relaxing Day in Huaraz
Today was all about relaxation and recuperation. As you recall, Tim was sick yesterday with a fever. However, after 12 hours of sleep and a bit of orange juice, he felt much better when he woke up this morning, albeit a bit tired. We hung out in the hotel room and managed to find a West Wing episode being broadcast in English with Spanish subtitles - it was one of the good old classic episodes. 
After our morning of leisure in our P.J.s, we made our way to Cafe Andino, the local ¨gringo¨ peak-bagger hang-out for breakfast. Although we felt a bit out of place being the only non-peakbaggers, we feasted on a breakfast of eggs, hashbrowned potatoes, and banana pancakes, all topped off with espressos and lattes. The clouds were developing quickly this morning and we knew it looked like the weather was shifting towards a storm.
After the long breakfast, we made our way to the internet locutorio for some serious picture uploading to our website. With Tim recovering his energy, and with a storm on the way, it was a perfect way to spend the mid-day. Done with our pictures, we walked the 20 feet back to the hotel for another quick pause and an episode of Everwood in English. Nothing like American TV on a cloudy, low-energy day.
Mid-afternoon, we ventured out into the streets of Huaraz to catch a bit more of the local life, and to look for a place to film our parting shots of the video. We found some incredible parks and walkways along the river and enjoyed watching the locals wandering the streets. We also ventured into incredibly risky territory - let´s call it ¨The Case of the Mystery Meat.¨ We purchased what looked like satay from a local street vendor. We thought we would just walk off with the stick of meat and eat it while walking, but she invited us to sit down inside her little tarp/tent. We realized then she was going to cook us a whole plate of food, including lettuce for the base of the plate. The fried potatoes and meat were placed on top of the lettuce... We´re not sure how much of an issue it will be, but we´re a bit nervous about how our stomachs will handle it. Tim was about half way through his meat when he turned to me with a huge wad in his cheek and said quietly, I can´t swallow this. Indeed, most of the meat was really rubbery, and worse, we didn´t even know what animal we were eating, let alone what part of the animal it was. Tim managed to get his cheek wad into two pieces and gulp it down, but not without some quiet gagging. He finally had to hand the plate back to the lady with a small piece of meat left on it. I´m sure they think we are wasteful Americans, but it truly wasn´t the most pleasant meat experience we´ve had. Hopefully the scraps will be fed to some of the many cute dogs we´ve seen in Huaraz. I´m sure they´ll be able to chew it and get it down. 
Following the harrowing meat experience, we wandered around other parts of Huaraz, taking in the sights, and watching the storm roll in. The mountains around us became black with snow and rain in the air. We walked past the cathedral that is still in the process of being built after its destruction in the 1970 earthquake that killed 30,000 people in this town. The evening was capped off with a visit to the Bistro de los Andes and traditional chicken in spicy cream sauce, and the not-so-traditional spaghetti with carbonara sauce. As we ate, a marching band of kids from one of the local schools came down the main drag, each carrying a lighted paper mache figure over their heads. It was a fitting end to our last day in Peru - people celebrating the good life here, even the kids.
Tomorrow we head back for Lima at 11 a.m., so we´ll have the morning to leisurely get ready and have one more coffee before our long journey home. We´re not really looking forward to Lima, but it´s all a part of the journey. And what a journey it´s been. Thank you Lord for your excellent grace to us while traveling and your incredible creativity in your creation. Peru has been a huge gift to us.