A Cloudy Capital, A Juggling Festival, and a Starbucks

We went to Lima for the weekend to attend my first South American juggling festival, and to try and make some money to support our new volunteering habit. We were successful on both fronts. We arrived on Friday and headed to the house of a friend of a friend, who agreed to put us up for the weekend. And not only was it a free place to stay, but it had a hot shower, a firm mattress, and it was located in the heart of Miraflores, a ritzy hot-spot for Lima. We waited for my friend, Grillo, to get off of work, and we had the good fortune to wait in the neighborhood Starbucks, and I had my first real cup of ¨American¨ style coffee in over eight months. It was so good. So good. It cost more than a cup of the same coffee in a Starbucks in the States, but it was worth it.
When Grillo (Spanish for cricket and only a nickname) got done with work, we headed off to the other side of town to go to the festival. When we got there we were almost instantly greeted by a guy who had passed through the house in the Sacred Valley, and it wasn´t long before I encountered half a dozen more. I was hoping to see some jugglers that I´d met earlier in my travels, but old friends from Harin proved good enough. I got some good juggling in, saw some better juggling, and a great fire show ended the night. Pictures appearing now:

They look just like every other photo of a fire show, right?

We got a slow start on Saturday. We enjoyed a leisurely breakfast in a well-lit kitchen, with a lovely conversation with our cleaning lady. We stayed in a nice place. After breakfast, Grillo came over and we all went to a fabulous little vegetarian restaurant to get some lunch. Ahh, life in the big city. Hang out and eat. Hang out and eat. After the restaurant, we went to an outdoor organic market that´s in a nearby park every Saturday, and stocked up on some food to take back to Ica with us. And after that it was back to the festival for more juggling.

I think we missed all of the workshops, as we arrived a bit late, but we saw the competitions and a puppet show. Both entertaining. All in all, it was a good festival, but it kind of just reminded me of the Sundays we spent in Parque Forestal in Santiago. Only, I believe there were actually more jugglers (and better ones) that hand out in that park every single Sunday. But it was still a great time.

Sunday we decided we should actually try to sell some things. We thought we were going to have some space on a table in a big craft fair on Saturday, but the fair was cancelled at the last minute and we were left to look for some space in the street. We´ve been making clothes and bags out of used clothes that we´ve bought along the way. Nati can be seen modelling some of the finer products below. She, of course, is responsible for both of these. My products are generally a little cruder, and more like t-shirts. Exactly like t-shirts. But I´m honing my skills and hope to make something ¨pretty¨ someday soon.

We went to an area called Barranco, where we heard we may be able to put down a blanket, and after a little exploration and enjoying the view of the Pacific, we found a great spot on the porch of an abandoned colonial building. We thought we might get hasseled by the local cops, but they seemed overjoyed to see us and stopped and chatted for quite a while on several occassions. We had lots of chatty visitors, sold a good amount of our store and may have even recruited a volunteer or two for the project. We´re definitely going to return to that spot, probably in a couple weeks. Ian is leading a few meditation retreats in Chile for the next two weekends, so we´ll be in charge and won´t be able to get away.

I liked Lima. I was already looking forward to returning over my morning cup of Starbucks. But its good to be back at the project too. We should started working with adobe tomorrow. Yay!