Dancing in the park

Friday, August 22, 2014
Miraflores, Peru
So the second day back in Lima was the day we officially said goodbye to our beautiful little Puma Family group. We have all become like such a little family and it was so sad to see everyone leaving. 

The day started early as Collette got up bright and early to leave for her flight . I had a first breakfast at the hotel with Susan, which was interesting, as she filled me in on some interesting gossip!! Said a quick goodbye to Harold in the lobby first - that was weird, but maybe now I understand why...
 
Then a few of us went for breakfast at a place that Harold recommended - I admit I am starting to trust Harold's food recommendations less and less! This place felt like a big diner and not very exciting at all. Both the decor and the food was less than fantastic.

I spent some time packing up my stuff and evidently I have bought more than I thought! I went to the post office to try and send some of it home. What an ordeal! It seems that post offices overseas are very different to post offices at home. Remember the experience in Prague?! So I waited for what seemed like an eternity, there were no boxes or packaging anywhere that I could see, so when I was called I basically plopped all my stuff on the counter and the lady took out this one random box from under the counter . I don't know what was going to happen if someone else that day needed a box. It was way, way too small to fit everything in it but she was determined! So even though the box didn't come close to closing, she taped the entire thing all the way around numerous times, so it was basically an odd shaped package made of tape. She then sent me over to another counter, where I waited an inordinate amount of time, not sure if I was at the right place or if I was going to be served. Eventually I was fingerprinted (!) and they asked for a copy of my passport. Which of course I did not have. So I had to walk all the way back to the hotel to get it. But naturally the post office doesn't have a photocopier. So they sent me to a small convenience store over the road so I could pay to have it copied. Then paid a fortune for the postage and tried to explain that I hadn't completed all of the parts of the form because I couldn't understand some of the questions in Spanish. They didn't seem to care, so now I just hope the package actually makes it to Australia

Later that day I met up with Sarah and Farah for afternoon tea nearby. (I'm writing this a year later and I have a feeling that either Elizabeth or Susan joined us, but I can't remember which - I really should be more organised and write sooner! Or write better notes than just "afternoon tea with three". Anyway...) It was great to have a debrief. I have felt all along that this group was great because everyone was so lovely and it felt so adult, not bitchy at all. No one really talked about each other, we all just did our thing. But for the first time today we actually spoke honestly about the different people in the group and our feelings, which really helped give closure I think. Also, being able to discuss "the gossip" was interesting - turns out most people know by now! I'm sure Harold would be horrified to realise that. 

Sarah and I then took a taxi to our new hostel in Miraflores. It was a bit gross, I have to admit. I probably would have chosen a different one, but it was just so nice to have someone to stay with and see more of Lima with, so I'm not complaining! Spent some of the afternoon just being lazy downstairs, wasting time doing nothing online and drinking tea .

Come early evening, we decided to walk through the cat park to some shops/markets/restaurants, but stopped on the way as we found this amphitheatre-type thing with lots of people around. They were people of all ages gathered around - oldies, kids, teenagers, families, middle aged people. Basically people of all walks of life all gathered around for some kind of show. 

We were approached by three local guys in about their twenties, who asked us if we could take their picture. In hindsight that was quite a clever conversation opener on their part, because they later mentioned that they go there every Friday, so it seems odd that they would care about photographs at their local hangout. They informed us that at the moment there is a poetry reading going on and that later there would be dancing. Realising that I am from Australia, they asked about native animals. We all ended up in this long conversation about native animals and then somehow found ourselves talking about Bertrand Russell and other philosophers . It was certainly very different to any other conversation I've had with a group of males trying to be flirtatious. So they invited us to go salsa dancing later in the evening. 

Meantime, the dancing started at the park. The dancing was terrible, just little old men, kids etc. One of the old men invited me up to dance. At this point, nearly everyone else sat down so pretty much all eyes were on us. Someone was talking into the microphone and everyone started to laugh. I later asked the guys what was said and was told "oh, it doesn't translate well". Bullshit, but I still have no idea why everyone was laughing at me! Then another little old short man with bright yellow shoes asked me to dance. He was just as bad a dancer as the first guy (as was I)! I'm certain people were filming us. I had no idea why - it's not like anyone there was anything other than terrible, but there is now footage of me humiliating myself on a least a few people's phones in Lima. 

We then left and had dinner, got a bit dressed up and went back to meet them later. On the way, this dog followed us, pretty much the entire way. It even stopped to wait for us at the ATM. So weird. 

The salsa club was actually a lot of fun. Mateo was very outgoing and an incredible salsa dancer, and managed to make even me able to dance. They say a good dancing lead is important, but I had no idea just how much until this night! David was a little more shy and spent most of the night chatting/dancing with Sarah. Pretty sure he felt sad that he lucked out the minute he found out she was recently married. The third guy, JoseCarlos, didn't come because apparently he had to go home to his mother. The guys didn't find that funny at all. It's a very different culture. Home about 3am. What a night! 

 
 
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