So I woke up this morning at about 4 AM with the desire to have my poor little legs amputated. Fortunately, when I graduated from BYU, Uncle Scott and Aunt LuAnn bought me a first aid kit. I brought it with me. After scavenging through everything (it's got hundreds of things, thanks you guys!!!)I found a few small packets of anti-itch cream. I applied it liberally and could fall back asleep. When I got up, Abuelo, Steve, and I drove to Calca to the botico to get some caladryl, my addiction for the next six days. The pharmacist was horrified at the sight. But here's a picture of Calca in the morning.
After Calca, we stopped by Abuelo's friends house who is a doctor (didn't occur to me to say, hi, look at this!) His home was stunningly beautiful and his steward took us through the complex. In the back, some of the staff were preparing cui for the festival that day. We have unbelievable timing. Abuelo lives in Lamay and once a year, they have a festival celebrating their patron saint, Santa Rosa. Today was the start of the festival and they had dances going on all day. Anyway, cui is basically guinea pig. They raise the cui in legit stables and then kill them, as shown here.
Then they boil the whole thing so that they can just pluck out the fur as shown here.
I don't have a picture of cooked cui but if you think they just serve the meat, you're wrong. The serve it to you whole hog. Closed eyes, little ears, little legs in the air, small yellow teeth . . . with a side of fries. I wish I were kidding. Anyway, here's a picture of my legs this morning. My skin is significantly more angry at this point.
Anyway, we decided to spend the entire day at the festival. The coolest thing is that all of their dances were not for tourists. It's for them. We were the only tourists for most of the day. This warranted several shout-outs to "Los Americanos" from the MC throughout the day. Everyone stared. So the dances in Lamay are pretty much all the same. They have a line of men and a line of women that twirl around. Then they have two men chase, kick, and whip a third man as some sort of comic relief. They'll also usually have a line of little boys and girls doing the same dance off to the side. It was wonderful!!! Here are some pictures of the dancing and the costumes. The costumes are so intricate!
Half-way through the day, we stopped off and chatted with Abuelo's cousins for awhile who live in Lamay. The cousin's daughter and grandaughter were visiting from Germany. We went back out for a couple of hours to watch more of the dancing and the festival. Here are some boys playing foosball.
And have I mentioned that Peruvian children are beautiful? They're so cute. Tomas thinks it's because they're naturally more beautiful than kids in the northern hemisphere. I think it's because of two things. One, they don't wear SpongeBob SquarePants t-shirts. They wear little vests and jackets and sweaters so they're super cute. Second, they're just beaming. So cute!
And three more pictures and we'll be done with today. First, this is super typical of Peru. There's a questionable bucket of a sloshy liquid being ported around a sold by the glass. I use the article "the" specifically because there's only one glass. And everyone uses it. I stuck with Cielo!, the bottled water down here.
And here's a picture of Tom, Steve's cousin, and Steve's aunt from Germany. They were fantastic and really fun to talk to.
And here's a picture of Jonny and I enjoying the festivities.
When we were walking back, it was so incredibly itchy on my legs. As soon as we were through the gate of the Ponderosa, I pulled up my pant legs to see a whole lot of swelling, as if I had sprained my ankle or something. Gross. At that point, to Steve's credit, he had his grandpa take me to the hospital. Oh Peruvian hosptials. You know, I got took so many precautions and spent so much time at the health clinic in the states getting medication and shots to avoid this. Actually, it was pretty nice. The doctor gave me a shot/pills of corticosteroids/anti-histamine and I was good to go. the whole thing cost 85 cents American because Abuelo knew the doctor. Thanks Abuelo!!! The frustrating thing about the doctor is that the whole experience was only in Spanish and I was 5% scared that it was something serious and I couldn't tell at all what was going on. It got even sketchier when it seemed like the doctor thought that plants had made my skin more attractive to the insects and that I could not have any Inca Cola, chocolate, or fat. Solamente pan y agua por dos dias? I asked. Si. Uh . . . what the heck? But, when he said those magic words of corticosteroids and anti-histamine, which are the same words in English, I felt relieved and happy that whatever the doctor thought, at least it was the right prescription. So after collecting six pills and getting a shot in the high hip, I was good to go. The pills definitely took the edge off and the swelling went way down. Thanks Lamay hospital!
After Calca, we stopped by Abuelo's friends house who is a doctor (didn't occur to me to say, hi, look at this!) His home was stunningly beautiful and his steward took us through the complex. In the back, some of the staff were preparing cui for the festival that day. We have unbelievable timing. Abuelo lives in Lamay and once a year, they have a festival celebrating their patron saint, Santa Rosa. Today was the start of the festival and they had dances going on all day. Anyway, cui is basically guinea pig. They raise the cui in legit stables and then kill them, as shown here. 
Then they boil the whole thing so that they can just pluck out the fur as shown here. 
I don't have a picture of cooked cui but if you think they just serve the meat, you're wrong. The serve it to you whole hog. Closed eyes, little ears, little legs in the air, small yellow teeth . . . with a side of fries. I wish I were kidding. Anyway, here's a picture of my legs this morning. My skin is significantly more angry at this point. 
Anyway, we decided to spend the entire day at the festival. The coolest thing is that all of their dances were not for tourists. It's for them. We were the only tourists for most of the day. This warranted several shout-outs to "Los Americanos" from the MC throughout the day. Everyone stared. So the dances in Lamay are pretty much all the same. They have a line of men and a line of women that twirl around. Then they have two men chase, kick, and whip a third man as some sort of comic relief. They'll also usually have a line of little boys and girls doing the same dance off to the side. It was wonderful!!! Here are some pictures of the dancing and the costumes. The costumes are so intricate! Half-way through the day, we stopped off and chatted with Abuelo's cousins for awhile who live in Lamay. The cousin's daughter and grandaughter were visiting from Germany. We went back out for a couple of hours to watch more of the dancing and the festival. Here are some boys playing foosball. 
And have I mentioned that Peruvian children are beautiful? They're so cute. Tomas thinks it's because they're naturally more beautiful than kids in the northern hemisphere. I think it's because of two things. One, they don't wear SpongeBob SquarePants t-shirts. They wear little vests and jackets and sweaters so they're super cute. Second, they're just beaming. So cute! 
And three more pictures and we'll be done with today. First, this is super typical of Peru. There's a questionable bucket of a sloshy liquid being ported around a sold by the glass. I use the article "the" specifically because there's only one glass. And everyone uses it. I stuck with Cielo!, the bottled water down here. 
And here's a picture of Tom, Steve's cousin, and Steve's aunt from Germany. They were fantastic and really fun to talk to. 
And here's a picture of Jonny and I enjoying the festivities. 
When we were walking back, it was so incredibly itchy on my legs. As soon as we were through the gate of the Ponderosa, I pulled up my pant legs to see a whole lot of swelling, as if I had sprained my ankle or something. Gross. At that point, to Steve's credit, he had his grandpa take me to the hospital. Oh Peruvian hosptials. You know, I got took so many precautions and spent so much time at the health clinic in the states getting medication and shots to avoid this. Actually, it was pretty nice. The doctor gave me a shot/pills of corticosteroids/anti-histamine and I was good to go. the whole thing cost 85 cents American because Abuelo knew the doctor. Thanks Abuelo!!! The frustrating thing about the doctor is that the whole experience was only in Spanish and I was 5% scared that it was something serious and I couldn't tell at all what was going on. It got even sketchier when it seemed like the doctor thought that plants had made my skin more attractive to the insects and that I could not have any Inca Cola, chocolate, or fat. Solamente pan y agua por dos dias? I asked. Si. Uh . . . what the heck? But, when he said those magic words of corticosteroids and anti-histamine, which are the same words in English, I felt relieved and happy that whatever the doctor thought, at least it was the right prescription. So after collecting six pills and getting a shot in the high hip, I was good to go. The pills definitely took the edge off and the swelling went way down. Thanks Lamay hospital!
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