This weekend, we went to "the bitch"

Real life photo of our weekend at the bitch

Sorry, making fun of how almost every Spanish speaking person refers to the "beach".  It is a hard word to say, but the difference is very important...anyway, the point is, we went to the beach!!

We didn't just drive an hour to get to this beach like you go to get to Punta Hermosa, we took 1hour 20 min plane ride and a 3 hour taxi ride to get to it.  We went to Mancora!  Which is a beach on the northern coast of Peru about an hour or so from the Ecuadorian border.

We treated it as a postponed honeymoon, and it was amazing.   We paid for plane tickets and were lucky enough to stay in Carlos' uncle's beach house which is right on the beach.  Those chairs you see above are what is right in front of the house.  Tropical beach paradise.

Advertising and free welcome drink!

When we arrived to Piura, a city that is cheaper to get to than the actual closer city to the beach, they greet you at the airport with a free mini drink, Algarrobina (made from algarroba, or what is similar to carob) and free advertising to keep you cool in the form of a fan.  Awesome.  The drink was the best of its sort that I have had here, probably because most of the algarroba in Peru comes from Piura...

The airport is the size of a house, and you can see the front from the back.  As soon as you exit the airport you have taxi drivers hounding you for your business.  We had some follow us all the way across the (short) parking lot and out onto the street trying to get up to pay 250 soles for the trip to Mancora.  We finally managed to get two other kids who were also going to Mancora to split a taxi with us which brought the cost down a lot.  We ended up with probably one of the worst drivers.  He didn't work the accelorater well, would veer into the other lane, and attacked the curves at full speed only to lurch to a snails pace as soon as he realized it was a curve.  It also took him 3 hours to make a 150km trip, on a highway where you can average about 100km.

When we arrived to Mancora, Mancora, we had to switch from the nicely paved New Highway to the old Highway which is the equivalent of  a dirt road.  I hope that this old highway didn't run unpaved all the way down to Lima...even in a new car it felt you you were riding in a wagon on a well rutted road. We finally arrived at the house and got to stretch out our bums and the caretaker of the house met us and showed us around.  If i had a beach house, I would want it to look similar.  It had huge windows the looked out onto the ocean and wood and tiled floors and white cloth sofas.  It was beautiful.  We hit the sac and work up the next day on the shores of the pacific.

We spent 2.5 days eating seafood, hanging out on the beach, playing in the pool, and watching tv.  Amazing.  The beach that we at is called Pocitas, which literally means, Little Wells.  This is because in between low and high tides, the rocks cause the water to collect in little pools that you can sit and play in.  The temperature of the water is probably around 80 normally and in the pools it probably reaches about 85 with the sun.  The beach also has loads of marine life.  We saw tons of fish, pelicans, birds, crabs, and mollusks around.  Because we had technically entered down season, most of the beach was deserted and Carlos said it felt like we were on a deserted island.

the lower deck from the upper deck

the pool and the view to the upper deck

hanging out by the pool

riding a mototaxi!  great for towns, horrible for cities

ahhh the view......

getting ready to eat a pacay, or ice cream bean

playing ball with the pacay and...some other fruit

ta-daaaa alien fruit! bean thing

You eat the white stuff on the outside and throw out the bean.  It feels like wet cotton and is just sweet

later in the day these bits of water will fill more an become little pools

the beach...probably around 4km of beach like this

before we got sunburned

Sunday funday

Entrance to the Real Felipe 

Two Sundays ago Carlos and I went to the Real Felipe.  It's ALL the way across town and technically in a different department all together.   We went from the department of Lima to the department of Callao.  The Real Felipe was an old Spanish fort on the coast.  It's really quite huge and it is said that it is the largest complex/building that the Spanish constructed outside of Spain.  Its in the shape of a pentagon and hag hugely thick walls and crazy maze-like towers.  The Real Felipe was built to protect the Spanish from invasions, but what it is famous for is Peruvian Independence from the Spanish.  Yup, the Peruvians used the Spaniards own fortress to take over Lima and win Peru back.

Google Image of the Real Felipe's shape

It was cool to see the fortress and they had several rooms with old uniforms and maps and things documenting the war for independence.  You got to put a face and a place to all the names of the streets that you hear in Peru as most of them come from the Independence.  It is interesting that all of the people who fought for Peru, probably came from Spanish stock, and all of them were caucasian.

Outside there is a "tank park" and a "cannon park"  where they had old tanks and cannons that you could look at and not touch.  In one of the rooms that we were taken to on the tour, Carlos took me to a certain case where all of the Army's highest decorations were held and said that his grandfather won all of them.   Every single one.  The awards are at his mom's house along with the swords that Carlos and his brother played with as little boys.  Carlos was so excited at seeing something in a museum that he has in his house.  That would be pretty cool.

Gun Park

The actual tour was kinda funny because the guide in a soldier, who has no public speaking/people herding skills and only speaks Spanish.  There was a group of American exchange students (the highly talkative, and annoying kind) and 2 groups of French speakers, who I don't think understood a single thing.  Too bad they make you pay for a tour you cannot understand.  Good thing it is cheap. Only 12 soles, but I go in under the "Peruvian" price of 6 soles.  yay.

We were dying of heat and hunger by the time we left the Real Felipe so we headed back towards home and stopped at a FOOD FAIR!!  I had seen them setting up when we drove out to the Real Felipe, and convinced Carlos to stop on the way back for lunch.  Really, if there is food involved, he doesn't need much convincing.  The fair was in a part of town that I had never been to before (San Miguel) and was set up kinda on an island in the middle of a major street.  Yay Peru.  They had all of the usual foods plus ribs and food from the jungle.  The ladies making the jungle food had little cups full of suri, fat worms that they eat in the jungle. We decided against trying them, or rather I did.  I was not in the mood for trying very traditional foods.  We chose ribs with Peruvian style lima beans and causa with a huge avocado on the side.  It was most certainly a Sunday Funday.

Food fair!!

"and its happy to see you!"

Nut as difficult as you think

Honey Roasted Almonds!

This is outside of my usual vein of posting.  Although I make a lot of things, I don't usually post the results, but I was very impressed with myself with this one and today was a day that I feel like I needed to document this creativity.

When I was home in January, my parents gave me a lot of raw almond that we saved from my grandmother's place.  I have had bad luck in the past with trying to roast and salt them, and I have a lot of honey that I bought at the farmer's market in Miraflores.  I have to use it up before I return to the states for good.

I have recently come to enjoy honey roasted nuts.  Back when Southwest gave you them, I hated them, but I guess my tastes have...matured?  So, I had a hankering for the sweet/salty taste of honey roasted nuts.  I Googled a recipe and came up with this little video on how simple it is to make them.  I can't tell when this video was created, but its pretty simple and straight forward.  I crossed checked with a few other recipes, but found that this woman's recipe was the simplest out there.  All you need is:

2 cups of almonds (raw or roasted)

2T honey

2T water

2t oil

1/4C sugar

1/2t salt (I added a little more, and I actually think that you could add closer to 1t to balance out the sweet).

If your almonds are raw then you should roast them on a tray.  

Heat the honey, water, and oil in a pan and bring it to a boil.  Add the roasted almonds and stir to coat.  Keep the fire on and continue to mix the nuts until most of the honey mixture has been absorbed.  They say absorbed, but since the almonds have skins on them, I feel like most of the moisture evaporates...but whatever.

Mix the sugar and salt in a large bowl and when the honey mixture has been absorbed (or evaporated), pour the almonds into the bowl and mix to coat them with the sugar and salt.  Spread the nuts out onto a flat surface to cool.  Check them periodically to make sure they are not sticking together in a big clump.  The whole process took about half an hour with the roasting of the almonds included.

Let cool and enjoy!

The start and end of school

These past two weeks have been filled with all things Peruvian.  Its like suddenly once we are married all these things just kinda pop up.

The first Peruvian culture experience of this group of experiences was shopping for school supplies.  All the schools start like, now.  And if you have school aged children you have to buy them all of their supplies.  And by all of the supplies, it doesn't mean a box of pencils, some notebooks and folders, and some crayons.  It means ALL of their supplies.  For the WHOLE year.  The school sends a list of stuff and you have to go buy it and then turn it in on a certain day.  Boxes of crayons, sets of pens, scissors, all types of colored, textured and plain paper, 5 types of glue, paint, brushes, googly eyes!  and the list goes on.  Apart from these items, you also need to provide : toilet paper, paper towels, hand soap, a comb, styrofoam plates, plastic cups and spoons, kitchen cloths...  I'm surprised you don't need to provide a bed and a wardrobe as well (lies, you have to buy extra clothes and socks as well).  Man.

One one hand, it makes sense to have everything now.  In case your parents don't follow through to get you stuff during the year.  On the other hand, if everyone in your family has been interviewed and screened, you would think that the school has picked parents that will follow through.  So why can't you ask for supplies during the year?  It takes up a lot less space.  Also, why does a three year old need 5 types of super adhesive glue?  He will probably come home with himself glued together.  And scissors?  We had 6 year olds in Spain who would consistently made squares into abstract snowflake cutouts with their scissors. Geez. Peru.

The second Peruvian culture experience was going to a Peruvian wake.  Carlos' boss's father died, and we went to pay our respects.  The wake was held in a special room on the back of a church.  It was very bright and airy, and filled with flower arrangements that people had sent.  The florists use bamboo to prop them up...and foil to make things shinny.  It was very interesting.  All of the flowers were white.  We stayed long enough to make a good impression on the boss and pay our respects an then we left.  I guess its just the circle of life, and now I have experienced how Peruvians deal with death.  Sorry, this is a little odd to be writing about, but it gives me another glimpse into Peruvian life.  I'm glad we decided to have a celebration of life for my grandmother instead of a funeral.

The last event that I experienced was a graduation.  Carlos' brother graduated from med school this year!!  The graduation was held at another university that was about a half hour away in traffic and then you had to cross the entire school and climb a mini grass hill to go to the pavilion where they were holding the graduation.  Not good for all the ladies in heels and all the old folks who were going to see their grandkids graduate.

The graduation was like most graduations-long and arduous.   Except, instead of someone from the school acting as MC, they had hired some guy to do it and it sounded like he was some movie announcer announcing the worlds best action/drama movie preview.  For the whole graduation. It was hilarious.  They also had a table of special honorees that was filled with the different deans, the patron, the namesake of the class, and other important old people.  Whenever anyone got up to give a speech they had to address the crowd, the students and each and every one of the member of the honorees.

The part that really surprised me was when they started calling people up to collect their diplomas.  It was like a beauty pageant crossed with the Oscars.  For example...the guy would say "Next we call John Smith up to collect his diploma.  He would like to thank his mother, his father, his sister, the love of his life, Ana, his dog, his grandmother who put up with him and God for helping him through this challenge.  He hopes to become a plastic surgeon in the future and wants to spend time devoting his skills to the poor."  For ALL of them.  I asked Carlos about it and he said that they have to do something to fill the time from when the student is walking down from their seat to collect the diploma and taking a picture and walking back.  Imagine if they just called the name and then you sat in silence while they walked through everything.  Very awkward.  If someone had decided not to write a dedication then the anncouncer would just say "Katie Brown is picking up her diploma and now the deacon is moving her tassel from one side to the other that signifies that she has graduated. We wish her all the best".  And then call the next person.

After the graduates walked across the stage I thought things were going to go a lot faster, but then the various deacons stood up to talk and they babbled on and on.  One of them didn't make any sense at all.  He just made all sorts of examples and non-connected connections.  One of them was the worst public speaker ever (and he has been a deacon for 17 years!! and he hasn't learned yet).  He would literally get to the most "interesting" part of his speech and then lose his place and have to stop and search for it again, or turn the page, or find the page.  That was painful.

Finally after all 270 students had graduated and everyone has spoken and been thanked, the graduation finished at 10pm (5 hours long) and there was a toast and then we scooted out of there to avoid the traffic and have a celebratory dinner.  I think that was the longest graduation I have been to.

It was interesting to experience the beginning of the the whole school system and the very end.  Yay for more views of Peruvian life!  I felt very...involved these past few weeks doing every day things instead of touristy things.  It was quite the contrast from having family visiting and doing more touristy stuff.