Last Day and onto Lima

So, yesterday was our last day in Ayacucho. Boo.

We started the day be going down to the market and getting some travel day fruit (including a new funny stripy fruit that was melon-esque). And then we went up to the bakery to get some traveling sweet bread. Yummy.

Next, we headed on an important errand that had been put off until our last day. When mom was in Peru last year, she got to know a lovely little girl named Rosa Cristina. Then, really tragically, this young lady was hit and killed by the number eight bus (remember how we always take the 14...) a month later. So, we needed to get over to the cemetery and pay our respects. We got some flowers and added them to the large collection at her grave. Even in a society where losing children is more normal, it never gets easier, and to have had this beautiful face taken from the world in such an unnecessary way is pretty unacceptable. She deserved a full life. So, that was a pretty sad thing for yesterday, but at least Rosa Cristina can live on as people remember her. Here's a picture of her last summer

Anyway, after that we went home to get things ready. I packed while mom prepared some math tool kits for the classrooms. I don't know if I told y'all, but mom's suitcase broke in Lima on the way here, so we had to go back one suitcase down. Luckily, our suitcases were almost entirely full of stuff for KATC, so we didn't have as much stuff. Plus, I'm a packing extraordinaire, so I got everything put in no problem.

Then, yesterday was Sunday, so even though I had puca for lunch and dinner on Friday and for breakfast and dinner on Saturday, we had to go up to the mirador and get some more. No regrets. Gilli + puca 4lyf.

Last night, I drank coca tea and inca kola and ate freshly picked granadilla from the tree in the backyard and generally just had a jolly good Peruvian time of it.

But! It was super stormy! Rain and wind and lightning! And planes can't even take off from Ayacucho if it's cloudy, because taking off from a valley at 10,000 ft and gaining enough altitude to get over those mountains all around is hard work, ya know? Luckily, it was pretty clear when we woke up and the plane took off no problem.

After a lovely 50 minute flight over the Andes, we are now in Lima for 16 hours. In theory, we could go into the city for a bit, but that's an hour drive and we'd have to do something with our bags, and Lima is a scary place where people smash taxi windows to steal bags off your lap, and there's a Starbucks at the airport, so we're just spending the day here. And I am so pleased with my soy hazelnut latte right now, I don't even mind the thought of a whole day right here... And we have so many snacks too!

So, hopefully we'll be Houston-bound around midnight, and then back in the States tomorrow morning! Wish us luck!