¡Feliz Cumpleaños Perú!

First things first...I am switching back to the original font cause when I view the site, it appears that this type font is easier to read, and as I have do have older readers with poor eyesite out there (Dad....) I am sure the switch will be appreciated.

Second...why have I neglected the blog for the past couple of days? Well, as my Peruvian friends know very well but the Americans may not, this week is a celebration of Perú's independencía from the evil imperial Spain. The 28th of July is the actually celebration date, while the rest of the week, from 28th at least till the 31st, is for extra celebrating. And celebrating independence in Perú means, just as it does in America, a lot of eating and consumption of beer. Yesterday, after showing off our site to the people who are working at Huaca de la Luna-the other location where the Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Perú (im leaving out a lot of accents in that name, but thats just because Im not sure where all of them go...) does archaeological research- we went to the local discotech/club La Carpa. We had rented the space for the day and everything was paid for- the space, food and, of course, the beer. Appetizers were a potato salad with ahí sauce and if you were brave enough, ceviche. I, being brave and unafraid of Peruvian bacteria, chose the ceviche which in my opinion was well worth it, as it had shrimp, fish, octopus and squid with sweet potato and yuca. Following this was the second course, cabrito (little goat) or duck. The duck came with delicious rice, but by the time I got it I was so full that I could only pick at the rice and chew on a few bites of duck.

The rest of the day was spent drinking and dancing- I think the final count was 20 cajas (cases, in other words) of beer. I left the place for a brief interlude to go the Linea station to arrange a date to leave for Lima. See, I am going there for the big Moche conference, and I had an open ticket. But I wanted to leave ASAP for Lima (as I am entirely sick of being in small town, small minded Chepén) that I requested to leave Friday, tomorrow. Well, apparently this was difficult to do. I managed to reserve a seat for the day I wanted, but now I have to go to Chiclayo (the town from where the first class bus leaves) early tomorrow to be there at NOON to pay thirty extra soles, and my bus doesnt even leave until 8:30!!! Oh well,  I hear that there are great musuems there.

Today we went to this lake for a barbacue and to relax. To get down to the lake, you acutally had to walk for some ten minutes, leaping over this huge wobbly columns of dried mud. It was so lunar that it was acutally kind of fun, even if I constantly worried about tripping and falling or breaking an ankle. Apparently during the wet season the lake grows to ten times the size it is now, cause all the ground we walked on was actually just dried lake bed. It was a slow day, but really quiet, tranquil and nice after the rather, well, loud day yesterday.All in all I had a wonderful time, surrounded as I was by the Andes mountains and good company, though not not so good beer.
So then, on to Lima!!!

Eve