Domingo

---

¡Bailamos!
Last night we went out to a club, and I think it was high time: all week I've been getting incredulous looks from Peruvians when I tell them I've been here since last Saturday and not yet gone dancing! I think it might be some sort of cardinal sin in a culture whose heartbeat is music dance.
Had a fabulous night - didn't recognize a single song, didn't care. Didn't know how to dance to a single song - looked like a fool. But it didn't really matter - when you're one of only five gringas on the entire dance floor, you are popular as can be - it was more of a challenge to lose the guys than to find them! Ayoye - can I dye myself brown or something? Maybe then, as long as I didn't open my mouth and speak broken Spanish, I could blend in with a crowd for just a moment or two...

This morning, I was finally introduced to the infamous Huancayo Sunday market - and did it ever live up to the hype! Blocks and blocks and blocks of the downtown core were taken up by artisans' stalls, literally hundreds of craftspeople peddling their wares... it was actually all a little much for me, and I found myself overwhelmed by both the prospect of bargaining (aaah!) and simply the sheer amount of stuff one can buy - to the point where I left empty-handed, musing about what I might get next week, but feeling a little shopped even though I had bought nothing!

Today was Philip's last day in Huancayo, so for his farewell dinner Vikki and I decided to bake a cake. However, Vikki and I did not succeed at baking a cake - we got as far as liberally "following" a recipe translated from Spanish (baking soda? we don't have any? oh well, we don't really need that, do we?), doubling the proportions (we think! no measuring cups to be had...), and then subsequently watching the whole soggy mess ooze out of its pan and onto the bottom of the oven, refusing to solidify into anything remotely resembling baked goods although we left it in for over an hour.

Then we went to the store and bought a cake.

---