Ingenio, Concepcion, y San Jeronimo

Today we went in a combi to Ingenio with Mari.  We went to the bus station to make sure we would all get seats.  Emil was trying to be a gentleman and give a woman and her kids a seat.  Mari said, "Oh, no, he shouldn't have given up his seat."  She said it for two reasons: he would have to stand for the hour-plus drive to Ingenio and since he is so tall and the buses are made for shorter people, he would have to stand hunched over.  Somewhere along the way, Lauren stood and he sat.

The trout tourist attraction in Ingenio.

When we got to Ingenio, we went to the trout tourist attraction.  There were trout in large pools of water.  There were spigots that had water rushing out of them in a sort of waterfall and every so often a trout would jump up into the waterfall.  We got a bit of the way into the attraction when it started to rain and then to pour.  We stood underneath an overhang for awhile and a woman came by selling umbrellas and plastic tarps.  After we had waited a bit, we decided to go out in the rain and get lunch.

Trout with garlic sauce, potatoes, salad, and mate de manzanilla.   Yum!!!

They had various types of trout dishes.  I got trout with garlic sauce, Lauren and Mari got grilled trout, and Ylfa got trucha crocante (crispy trout - sounds weird in English :) ).  Max doesn't like fish, so he got pachamanca.  Emil also got pachamanca.  The pachamanca is cooked underground.  There was pork and beef, potatoes, sweet potatoes, a sweet sort of tomal, and corn.  All of that food for just five dollars.  All of the food was yummy!  After we ate, we went out behind the restaurant and a man who worked at the restaurant gave us some large coins to play a game.  There was a tall box to throw the coins at, and if you got it into one of the holes in the top they would fall into a slot that indicated how many points you got.  We also saw the cutest puppy there.  Everyone was playing with the little puppy.

The game we played a the restaurant.

After that we went to some of the artisan shops on the side of the road.  Tino's sister owns one of the shops there so we stopped there.  I got a purse and a poncho made of alpaca.  After we poked into all of the little shops, we went down to get a combi to Concepcion, where Lauren and I teach in the mornings. We hiked up the stairs to the statue of the Virgin of the Immaculate Conception.  We were all wheezing by the time we got to the top.  Lauren go to the top the fastest, then me, then Max and Franci, and then Mari and Emil and Ylfa.  Max was proud because he smokes and he still got up there faster than some of the non-smokers.

The statue of the Virgin Mary, where we climbed to the top.

  Lauren and I climbed the stairs up to the top of statue.  We lost our breath again going up the steps.  The final stretch was on some metal stairs that culminated in a small platform at the top.  We both barely fit and were being very careful as we took pictures of each other.  There really wasn't much safety precaution up there.

At the top of the Virgin Mary statue.

We waited for the others to go up to the top and in the meanwhile, went to look at the cart with souvenirs.  I bought some keychains there to remember it by.  When we were walking back down, I was talking to Mari.  She was telling me that Tino had gotten into an accident when he was in a bike race and had ripped up his face really badly.  She had been paying for some pots and had to tell the lady that she couldn't buy them anymore because her husband needed medical care.  The woman told her just to use the meat off of crickets to heal the wounds.  So Mari went out and looked under rocks for crickets.  She said that she got hundreds of crickets and they tore off the legs and put the meat onto his wounds.  She said that he barely has scars from that accident now.  So crazy!  She said she encountered scorpions and spiders when she was looking under rocks for the crickets.

As we walked down the streets to catch a combi to San Jeronimo, some women from on top of of a building started whistling at Max and calling, "Amor!"  It was really funny when he looked up and realized they were all howling at him.  He turned bright red and everyone laughed.

San Jeronimo rainbow.

When we got to San Jeronimo, there was a big rainbow in the sky.  I haven't seen a rainbow in so long.  It was so pretty!  There are lots of shops selling silver and gold in San Jeronimo.  We peeked into a lot of shops and I ended up buying a really pretty heart necklace.  We were all tired by then after a long day, so we hopped in another combi and went home.

Lauren and I went into town to drop off our laundry.  She only brought one pair of jeans, so she was wearing shorts.  We couldn't go a block without men whistling and catcalling.  It was pretty funny.  Even a couple of policeman whistled at her.  I was laughing so hard.  We went to the store there and she got some leggings to put under her shorts so she wouldn't have that problem anymore.  Haha!  We were going to head on home, but then Lauren wanted to stop in a shoe store to get some flats.  I looked at some of the boots (I know, dangerous) and I ended up getting a pair of really sweet reddish boots.  I know I need to control myself in that area because I really don't have much room in my luggage!  At least I have one pair of Peruvian boots.

When we got home, Mari and Emil started playing chess.  We ate dinner while they were playing and Mari brought out popcorn after we had finished eating dinner.  I was hoping to go to karaoke, but it's raining and we're all tired...so another time.  Now it's time for sleep!!!