Alfredo really enjoyed his birthday – Nohemy´s friend Betty and her husband Lucho came to the house for the meal which was Alfredo´s favourite fried pork, with a special spicy sauce, a mint and onion salad and potatoes, plus the inevitable maize they love so much here. Betty brought a bottle of wine and Nohemy was listening to her favourite Mexican music and singing away. Their tenant who runs the bar also had her birthday the same day and we were invited next door. Just as we were about to leave the hairdresser tenant on the other side arrived with his girlfriend and daughter and we carried on drinking beer whilst they ate the food Nohemy gave them, the beers that Ruben had brought - who was very happy to see how well the puppy has settled in. Lassie loves to explore the patio and the two little girls play with her a lot - she is brilliant with children. Then Ruben had to go so we went next door where another plate piled high with food was given to us, including guinea pig - I had to refuse mine as I couldn´t manage another thing. Alfredo and I went halves on 6 litres of beer for his tenant and her guests and we stayed with them a couple of hours.
The following day I accompanied Nohemy on a visit to one of her friends leaving Alfredo to keep an eye on the workers. On the way we bumped into another friend of hers - an old guy called Metoya who promptly invited us to go and have a beer. We were near his house so he popped in to get his jacket and showed us his garden which was full of roses and fruit trees - he gave us several avocados each from a tree there, plus apples and peaches. We walked to a nearby shop with seats in it and they shared 3 litres of Pilsen beer and I had 2 cusquenas which are 620 ml. He is a very old worldly kind of guy and said how much he enjoyed our company and invited us to go for another beer the following week. He has played in a trio called Trio Imperial de Cusco for many years and promised to give me copies of their CDs to add to my collection. We got back to the house at 7 pm and Alfredo accompanied us to a nearby pizzeria for his favourite pizza and we shared a large family one which gave us 4 slices each. By the time we left there we were so full we could hardly move - Nohemy and I even turning down the chilled beers Alfredo offered us from the fridge, left over from the day before!
Nohemy and I went looking for the chacra one day last week and you would have laughed if you could have seen us climbing up and down embankments, crossing streams, and all to no avail - there are chacras one after the other and in the end we gave up as I could not remember the way once we got off the track. I think we entered the right way but got lost once inside – we crossed a field of maize and then I recognised the fallen tree where that photo of me was taken (after we had both clambered down an embankment catching our skirts on twigs etc. We then followed the path with the narrow stream (but it went in two directions and I couldn´t remember which direction we went in last time), then there were two bulls tethered right by the pathway so we detoured through another field of maize and somehow after that we got lost. We had a good laugh in the process though. Nohemy couldn´t believe that she had forgotten how to walk in the countryside. The Andean people we met on the walk back were very friendly, greeting us, and we chatted to an old guy who Nohemy remembered from her youth. I definitely want to go back there, especially as Henry said I can go there whenever I want and even mentioned it to his parents and their custodian farmer - it is an absolute paradise of a place, birds singing in the trees, the sound of running water in the narrow canals and when out on the unpaved road/lane outside the water thunders down from the mountains over huge boulders - if one fell in they would be swept away by the sheer force of it. Because of this there is no shortage of water in Urubamba even in the dry season, although they do switch it off at times. Nohemy said that hasn´t changed in all the years she has grown up here. Afterwards it was our intention to go to the recreation field as Alfredo had heard earlier that the mayor was going to treat people to a beer and snacks but even though we got there an hour after it was supposed to start there was absolutely nothing going on. The problem here is that nothing ever starts at the time it says it will - we popped into La Tranca Fija instead only to find their fridge had broken down so we had a coke instead of the cold Quara beer we had been looking forward to.
I had a lovely day last Friday when I went to Pisac. I got there just after noon and there was no sign of Sarah in either the internet cafe or the cafe I found her in last time. So I did a tour round the market stalls in Plaza de Armas but unfortunately the guy selling the CD I want wasn´t there that day. I went and saw Beltram for a while after that and then went to Ulrikes for lunch and also exchanged another couple of books. I think I will keep exchanging them as I read them so that I leave a nice pile in readiness for my next visit. I had the vegetarian lasagne for lunch which was delicious.
By about 2.30 I decided to head back seeing as I hadn´t found Sarah, was halfway down the narrow street leading to the bus stop when I heard my name called and she came out of a different cafe and was thrilled to see me. I must still have her email address wrong because she hadn´t got my message yet again. We had lots to talk about and after a coffee in that cafe we walked back up to Ulrikes and had 4 games of Scrabble and I didn´t head home until gone 5.30, having arranged for us to meet up in the original cafe at 10.30 on Wednesday morning. She wanted to show me a property she has viewed to get my opinion on it. From the description it didn´t sound like a good idea. Nohemy thought so too and said she must buy a house where there are plenty of other people living around and not in the countryside because there is always someone who might think she has money and could break in and even kill her for it.
On Sunday at 12 noon we caught a bus down the main road just outside Urubamba to have lunch at a cafe there and were lucky to sit at a table outside in the sunshine and the food was delicious - I had a roast duck breast and it came with a stuffed pepper, baked spaghetti and baked potatoes and was exceptional value for money. In addition to sharing a large bottle of coca cola we also knocked back a litre bottle of fig wine which Nohemy had bought on Saturday.
You would not believe what a laugh we had on Saturday. We went to Tupac Amaru Plaza as usual and Nohemy said there were stalls selling clothes for dogs and I bought a frilly dress which she looks adorable in - just wait until you see the photos! Then it started raining and her head was getting wet so I said to Nohemy we ought to look for a hat as well. On a different stall selling doggy clothes we found a fuchsia pink bobble hat with holes for her ears and when we put it on her she looked so funny that Nohemy and I were crying with laughter and couldn´t stop - and that continued the rest of the day because of the comical looks of disbelief on people´s faces or people laughing hysterically too.
On Tuesday I didn’t go to Tunupa restaurant as planned because Alfredo went to Cusco which meant Nohemy would have been on her own and there was no way I could afford to pay for two lunches at Tunupa so I deferred that until later in the week. We had a nice day though - we went to market to buy the necessary to cook lunch and whilst on our way bumped into Metoya, one of the members of Trio Imperial de Cusco, who is an old friend of Nohemy and who promptly invited us to lunch. We went to a nice cafe and had the set menu and afterwards went for a few beers. In the shop where we drank these we persuaded them to put on some andean music and Metoya had us up dancing and we generally had a good time. Metoya said his two fellow musicians are on holiday at the moment, one in Quillabamba, the other in Trujillo, but he hopes they will be back before I fly home - if so he will arrange for his group to play just for us, which I thought was a lovely suggestion. We kept ringing home to see if Alfredo was back from Cusco but no reply at either house. When we did get back about quarter to seven, Alfredo was just arriving back then and we put a smile on his face when I suggested going to their favourite pizzeria and we shared the usual family size one. I love the pizzas here because they are cooked in a brick oven over firewood and come with creamed garlic sauce, a spicy chilli sauce and powdered oregano, and they give you a load of garlic bread to keep you happy while you are waiting!
Wednesday was another lovely day. As Nohemy´s workmen didn’t turn up she decided to accompany me to Pisac to meet Sarah and we caught the bus around 9.15 and arrived at the cafe where we were to meet Sarah at 10.30. I had forgotten when making the arrangement to meet Sarah that there was a big fiesta at San Sebastian in Cusco that day, so we went to Pisac with the idea of hoping to persuade Sarah to come to Cusco with us. We had drinks in the cafe and Sarah also wanted to speak to her shamen who was there with his wife and daughter so Nohemy and I went up to Ulrikes and I exchanged another 4 books and at the same time found the vendor of that CD I have been looking for, and he remembered me from last time and let me have it for the 10 soles I paid last time so I was well pleased. We said a quick hello to Beltran and then went back to the cafe and within a few moments the three of us were on our way to the bus stop but actually managed to get a carro to Cusco which is a lot quicker. I felt very nervous at the bendy road though as the driver was going fast and there was no barrier on the edge and a very steep drop into the ravine below. Sarah was telling us that one night there was a horrendous noise and it was a car which went over the edge and Nohemy said it happens regularly.
On arrival at Cusco we had a 10 minute walk and then caught a bus to Nohemy´s house in Cusco and we left some of our things there and it was a 20 minute walk to San Sebastian and soon we were all enjoying ourselves tremendously in the fiesta which was a major event with dancers and bands and the parade of the saint which took about 40 men to carry it. There were street sellers everywhere and young lads waiting their turn to dance were very friendly and Sarah was really enjoying herself - it was the first such fiesta she had ever been to. We found a great place for lunch and had roast lamb which was a lot of meat for 3 quid a head and came with baked potatoes, the baked spaghetti dish and rocoto relleno (stuffed pepper). After the meal we went back to the fiesta for another hour or so and Sarah treated the three of us to dishes of fruit (figs, pineapple, apple and peach in a syrup) and we all nearly died of fright when they let off the fire crackers which are really loud. They string them up on cane frames so that when one goes off, several hundred go off and the noise is indescribable. At 3.30 Sarah had to leave as she had to get back to Pisac so we walked back and put her in a taxi. After a flying visit to Mega superstore to stock up on a few things, we headed back to Urubamba and got back just after dark. Nohemy really enjoyed the day as well and got on well with Sarah.
Sarah is going to come to Urubamba for the day either tomorrow or Sunday. If tomorrow I am going to cook my Malaysian chicken soup speciality and if Sunday we will all go to the restaurant outside Urubamba for the roast duck. Nohemy has said that even after I go back home Sarah must keep in touch and come and visit. Sarah will be flying home around the same time as me, but if she ends up buying a house before then she will be coming back here not too long after. She has her flight back from San Paulo in Brazil, which was all arranged before she left England so will only be in Peru until around the 13th. When she is with us tomorrow or Sunday Nohemy is going to show her a couple of properties she owns in Urubamba to see if they are of interest. She would be quite happy to sell one of them in order for the house extension to advance a lot quicker.
