espoceria, piedementos and more made-up spanish

Huaraz is my favorite place in the world. Last night we all hung out by the fire drinking wine and talking, then had palenta in honor of my celiaks (no puedo comer triega), read a bit (I'm already almost done all my books and pretty pissed at Jordan for not letting me bring more). Today we went into the town, which is the coolest place ever. Actually the drive down is my favorite, it's about 45 minutes passing little kids herding baby sheep and dogs and pigs being friends, I wanted to take so many pictures but it's really hard from the taxi and our driver and mejor amigo Theo was getting annoyed with my "mas lente, quero tomar un photo). Jordan is still SUPER sick though so I don't think we're going to be able to do the trek, maybe just a one-day one, which is actually fine with me because I realized I'd be terrified to sleep outside here, and freezing.

We had our best meal of the entire trip and possibly ever today; I found a little doorway in the middle of the main street of Huaraz and behind it was a courtyard where we sat outside at a restaurant, I had a really good salad and Jordan ordered a mystery meal that came in a box wrapped in banana leaves. It's called Pachamanga; It had a potato, a hot tamale a sweet potato, Peruvian corn (which has huge kernels and tastes very different) green beans and about three different types of meat with amazing sauce, it was possibly the best thing I have ever tasted. The best part about it was it was like a wonderful surprise box that just kept revealing more and more food! Oh and my salad was just delicious.

Some things I love about Huaraz and Peru in general:

the first thing I can't get over is how freaking cute the children are. Not only that but they're so happy and playful! And the best part is that their parents are very loving and affectionate with them, which you don't often see when travelling outside of North america especially in poor areas. Even though the children are filthy and poor, their mothers still take the time to braid their hair and sometimes put flowers in it. I took a million pictures of mothers kissing and hugging their kids, or laughing at them while they played, it's really beautiful to see.

The other thing is that the people are probably the nicest people I have ever met, ESPECIALLY when travelling and looking so obviously like a tourist, there is barely any begging and everyone says good morning and tries to help you when you're walking around. Also everyone seems really happy. It's like the best poverty I have ever seen haha.

Huaraz is GORGEOUS.

The animals!!! Can't get over it. Baby pigs playing with puppies, dogs lounging on the roofs of houses there are adorable animals everywhere. This place is a photographers dream. Jordan is getting very annoyed of my picture-taking though. I think this camera is my favorite possession, I would love to just walk around for a whole day taking pictures, if only I wouldn't have to walk back up the impossible climb to our hotel. Going to eat dinner now, tomorrow we're going to try and do a day-hike in the morning if Jordan is up for it and then go horseback riding. For those of you who are concerned I'm getting a tan.