Wednesday and the Zoo

I had so many things that I needed to do yesterday, and unfortunately, writing my blog was pushed down to last on my list, so here I am writing on Thursday morning.

Even though I had stayed up until midnight with Mabel, I still woke up early.  I think it had something to do with all the things I needed to accomplish...the list kept swirling around in my head.  I knew I had to finish my weaving, so I got up and continued my weaving before breakfast.  After breakfast, I continued weaving as well and Angela came to get me for ballet class.

I taught them a new ballet move in the second part of class and it took them longer than usual to get it.  I thought they might want to move on, but they were trying really hard to get it up until the end of class.  When I told them we were going to do the ending stretches, Pilar said, "Noooooo."  It was really cute.  I'm glad they are both enjoying the class so much.  Pilar has told me at the end of class most days that "La clase estaba muy bonita," meaning that the class was very nice.

I went back to weaving after ballet class in order to get as much done before lunch because Ylfa wanted me to come with her to the post office after lunch since I had already sent a package.  She thought that I could help her with some of the paperwork.  After lunch, Lauren, Ylfa and I got her box and set off for the post office since we wanted to get back in time for them to go to the mountain school.  When we got there, the woman behind the counter said that Ylfa's box was broken and she couldn't send it like that.  It did look like it had already made a trip halfway around the world.  The woman gave us another box, but it wasn't as big as the one that Ylfa had brought.  While Ylfa tried to fit all of her things into the smaller box, I helped Lauren mail her two postcards.  When we went back to Ylfa, she was frustrated because she couldn't get her things into the box.  The woman told us that there was a store nearby that sold bigger boxes, but I was determined to get everything into the box.  We took everything out and I started rolling the clothes and blankets up really tightly.  We put some items inside the decorative gourds and when it was filled to the brim, there was only a sweater left.  Ylfa said it was all right, but I said it would fit and it did.  They didn't bring along the engineer for nothing!  Haha.  We got everything sorted out and got back to the house with a bit of time before they were going to the mountain school.  They had decided to take the kids on a field trip to the zoo since it was the last day for Ylfa and Emil at the school.

I went back to my weaving and Mari came to tell me that she was leaving for the school to go on the field trip to the zoo, but that I could go with Pilar later.  I thought that would be good so that I could get some more weaving done.  Unfortunately, right after Mari left, one of the strings on the loom broke.  I had gone the whole time without breaking any and that was the third one I had broken that day.  Mari said that usually volunteers break lots of them.  Pilar and I left soon after that since I couldn't do any more weaving until Mari or Tino fixed the string.

On the way to the zoo, which is right up the hill from the house, Pilar was asking me what my favorite animal was.  I couldn't think of something, so I asked her what kinds of animals were at the zoo.  She started naming off a lot of animals and she said she liked bears.  I said I liked bears and monkeys too.  Mari had told me that Angela was dying to go to the zoo because one of the lionesses was supposed to have had cubs in February and she wanted to see them.  Mari told me that Pilar didn't really like the zoo that much.  I asked Pilar why she didn't like the zoo and she told me that it wasn't that she didn't like the zoo, but that it just pained her that the animals were in such little cages and didn't get much food.  She's a very wise and caring child.  Once we got to the zoo entrance, there was a big sign with all the pictures of the animals in the zoo.  Pilar pointed out all of them to me and as she was doing it, a man told us, "You know that all those animals are in the zoo live."  I thought it was pretty ridiculous that he thought he had to tell us that.

Pilar posing with the poster with all of the animals in the zoo.

We bought our tickets, which were less than a dollar each, and then Pilar was my tour guide around the zoo.

Pilar posing along the pathway in the zoo.

We saw bears, monkeys, owls, condors, eagles, snakes, a jaguar, pumas, lions, peacocks, alpacas, vicunas, and a lot more.  Pilar made sure that I had a good look at all of them and got to take pictures.

One of the bears.

The lion.

The lioness.

I think this is a zamaño or jungle guinea pig.

One of the peacocks.

The toucan came right in front of me to pose for this picture.

In front of the one of the cages, she said "excuse me" and pushed her way in front of a couple of teenagers who were kissing in front of the cage.  I started laughing and she just continued to tell me about the animal inside without batting an eye.  We stayed and watched the pumas for awhile.  She was telling me that one was the mother puma and the other was her baby.  When we finally saw them together she said to me, "Oh the mother is caring for her baby."  Except it looked more like one was mounting the other, and after a bit Pilar said, "Oh, maybe one is a male and the other is a female."  I thought it was pretty funny.

A puma among the cactus.

The poor otorongo andino, Andean jaguar, was pacing back and forth in front of the opening to the cage.  It looked so restless and made me think even more about what Pilar had said about it being sad that the animals were in such small spaces with such little food.  When we went by the alpaca cage, Pilar and another little boy were picking grass to give to them.  They would come right up to the front and take the grass from their hands.

Pilar feeding the alpaca.

We also saw Angela, her aunt, and grandmother across the zoo and I took a picture of them.  They were all smiling and waving and laughing at us.

Tino's mother, sister, and Angela.  Their smiles make me smile, especially Tino's mother.

We saw the big group of kids with Lauren, Dwan, Ylfa, Emil, and Mabel.  Pilar said to me, "Wow, Mabel is yelling really loud at those kids."  Afterwards they were saying it was so hard to keep the kids in a line and keep them from running ahead of the teachers to see the animals.  Dwan also said that one of the zoo visitors had asked to take a picture of him.  Ylfa said, "Yes, look at the gringo in its natural habitat."  :)

Pilar and I left the zoo and it was so sunny that I was dying of thirst.  We stopped at a store nearby, but the drinks were more expensive there since it was by the zoo, so we decided to get a drink further down the mountain.  I stopped to take pictures of a plane that was on display on the mountainside and also a church.

The church that was by the zoo.

We also took pictures overlooking Huancayo since you could see over the whole city.

Pilar took a picture of me with the view of the whole city behind me when we were walking back from the zoo.

We stopped at a store on the steps down to Avenida Giraldez and I got us some water.  We were talking as we walked along the street and went past a man on a payphone.  He apparently wasn't too busy on the phone because he said, "Hola, guapa," ("Hello, beautiful.") as we went past.  As we neared the house, I told Pilar for taking me to the zoo and she told me, "No, thank you."  :)

A bit after we got back, the rest of the crew came back too.  I got Tino to fix the broken string on the loom so I could continue weaving and I kept weaving before and after dinner.  I didn't end up teaching English class either because everyone in the class had places to go.  I didn't mind since I needed to finish my weaving.  I was almost done when Tino came in to ask me to translate an email for him.  After he finished asking me questions he told me to find him when I was done so we could weave in the final part.  When I went upstairs to find him, it had started to rain and he was grabbing people's clothes from the clotheslines.  I was helping him and he told me I should stay inside because I was going to get myself all wet.  It was kind of fun running out there in the rain.  He came down afterward and wove in the final thread.  He can weave incredibly fast.  I felt relieved after getting it done on time.

Tino finishing the very end of my weaving.

I took a shower and when I came into the dining and computer area, Mari, Tino and Ylfa were sitting and talking to a woman at the dining table.  She's here for a week or two to take weaving lessons from Tino, not do the volunteering at the school.  I had thought the woman who was going to be taking lessons from him was local.  Anyway, she seems nice.  Her name is Emily and she's from England.  I stayed up writing my blog and was so sleepy by the time I made it to bed.