Something tells me it's all happening at the zoo....

A couple things: First of all, I’ve changed the settings of my blog so anyone can comment – you don’t need a log-in name. So feel free to add comments. Try to say who you are, if you’re not logged into gmail. I’ll delete anonymous comments if they start getting out of control.
Second: I’ve been here for six weeks now, which is longer than I’ve ever been outside of the country. Weird.
Third: I still haven’t eaten guinea pig (“cuy”) yet, but this weekend the YAVs have a retreat in Huanuco/Tingo Maria. This will be the first time that I’ve left Lima. People have told me they eat a lot more cuy outside of Lima, in the provinces. So wish me luck…

Last Wednesday, we went to the zoo.Well, it wasn’t just a zoo. We went to Parque Sinchi Roca. “We” were myself, Damaris, Daniela, Julia, Cristiano, and Dayra. According to Daniela, Sinchi Roca is the largest park in Lima. And I believe her. It’s huge. And it’s really nice, as far as things in Comas go. For one, it’s green. There’re actually trees and grass. And a giant pool (which was closed until summer), a tiny man-made lake with paddle boats and motor boats you can rent (reminiscent of Lake Susan in Montreat, but smaller, if you can imagine that), camp sites, plenty of soccer fields, a small zoo (obviously), amusement park-type rides, food/drink/souvenir stands and even TRASH CANS!!!! (big, outdoor public trash cans are almost non-existent in Lima).

Yesterday was a holiday, which I didn’t find out until the day before yesterday – I had been planning to go to work with the compassion program all day. I’m still not sure exactly what the holiday was. Daniela told me the name of the holiday, (which I forgot) but she didn’t know exactly why it exists. So since most families were off from school/work, the park was packed. Kids playing soccer. Couples picnicking on blankets in the grass. Huge groups of people circled around performers doing drama and comedy. All in all, it was a pretty cool scene. The whole scene overall kind of reminded me of Brackenridge Park in San Antonio on a nice weekend.

We actually didn’t get to the park until after 5pm, so we didn’t have too much time to explore before it started getting dark. The actually weren’t going to let us in to the zoo part of the park at first, but then Daniela pointed at me and said that it was her son’s last day in Peru before he went back to the United States, and they let us in. The zoo was very small, and mostly included animals from South/Central America. There were a couple gorgeous parrots and toucans, a bunch of different kinds of monkeys and small birds, a baby leopard, a giant constricting snake of some kind, a fox, and an adult puma. They were all in cages/exhibits that were probably much smaller than they should be. But you could get up really close and shake hands with/feed the monkeys, which was cool.

It was a fun afternoon. The entire family agreed we’ll have to go back some time, when the pool is open and when we have more time to see everything.