The museum had lots of artifacts from the Nazca, Inca, Moche, and Chimu cultures. I'll have a few photos of the museum up in a bit. Our tour was in English but it was still difficult to pay attention to everything. What was most interesting were the different vessels that the Moche people made. They had really intricate carvings to make their jugs look like the various foods that they ate. There were also a lot of relics from the mining that was done for bronze and silver (which is fairly plentiful here). Of course the best part were the fertility jugs and I hope you take a look at the one I posted
After the museum, Chris mentioned that he wanted to watch the fútbol game between Holland and Russia so we obliged him and went to a bar in Barranco to watch, drink, and eat. I hadn't watched much soccer before but I did enjoy it. I also really enjoyed that my large and delicious two course meal plus beer cost ~$3. After, Ernesto took me to the grocery store to buy some tofu (which is called queso de soya=soy cheese) and other necessities which I think is fun to do in a different country. They have a lot of the same brands, but I tried to buy some new ones (also, all the american brands are 4x more expensive).
I had a good night with my host family. Jenny's kids were home so I chatted with them a bit and then played Rummicube with Jenny and Pina (her daughter). After, I met up with Patty, Ernesto, and the other volunteers (plus a few more) to go dancing. Patty was guiding around her favorite clubs and I think we went to a different one every 45 minutes. The clubs were similar to the ones in the states except usually the people dancing are in couples (boyfriend/girlfriend) and there were a lot of older men dancing with their younger girlfriends. They played half American music and half Latin (salsa, merenge, and reggeton). The guys wouldn't really ask to dance, they just stared, so finally at the last club I decided that I wanted to salsa, so I asked a guy and we had a great time doing a mix of dances.
The clubs were still relatively full, but we all went home around 3am. I talked with my host brother (Marco) today and he said that most people leave the Barranco clubs at 3 and go to Miraflores to dance until 5. When I got to my room I saw that Jenny had waited up for me. I felt a little guilty, but Marco told me that she always does that and I shouldn't worry about it. It seems exhausting for these parents to wait up all night when their kids don't usually get home until 4 or 5 in the morning. It's their issue.
So the buses! There are four different types of public transportation: cambis (minivans stuffed full with people), another that's like a slightly larger cambi, taxis (the most expensive, but still super cheap) and buses. On the bus there is a driver (who like all drivers here is batshit crazy) and his assistant who collects the fares. His assistant stands in the doorway which is like the backdoor of our city buses and pulls it open and closed with a rope. As the bus drives along, the assistant stands out the open doorway yelling the main stops of the route and hurries people in and out of the doorway. If you want to catch the bus, you stand wherever you want along the side of a street and hail it over as it passes. If you fail to get on within 5 seconds the bus will take off with the assistant hanging halfway out of the doorway. The bus itself is generally a 10' van with 30ish seats packed in and a tiny walkway for extra passengers. Occasionally the assistant will come around (as best he can) to collect fares and hand out a ticket. When you want to get off, you yell "baja" along with the upcoming street name and the assistant will yell that up to the driver. He then drives right up to the street and then slam on the breaks so if you try and stand up before your stop you fall onto the people sitting around you. The buses have numbers but a lot of different numbers go exactly to the same place and currently I know of five buses that can get me to Miraflores and back. Most people use public transportation and it's a pretty quick and cheap way to get around but I think it will take me a bit to get more used to it.
Today I took the bus all by myself to Miraflores (unfortunately I was lost so I got off 12 blocks before my stop) and went shopping for a while with Danielle and Patty. Clothing prices have a very wide range--although they tend to be more similar to US prices than food or transportation is. My best purchase of the day though was a churro stuffed with chocolate sauce. I thought I might faint from the glorious bliss of that first bite and I anticipate eating many more before I leave. There are lots of pastry shops and little restaurants to buy desserts at and I'm looking forward to expanding that culinary horizon!
Tomorrow Ernesto is taking me to the hospital where I'll be working so I can learn how to get there by bus and meet some of the people who work there. I'm really looking forward to starting work and having a more structured schedule.
Final note: I found out that I was .5mm away from the right spot on the shower faucet where I can get hot water (the margin of error is extremely small) and hopefully I'll be able to find that precise location tomorrow. It was a small victory but one nonetheless
