Peru 2014 - Part 9 Zoo and Party

National Bird of Peru - Cock of the Rock

Saturday August 23
 Giancarlo came at 9:00 to get us to go to the zoo-
Parque de Las Leyendas. We were going to take the Metro train for a while, then a colectivo. The train was so packed, literally like sardines, that after waiting on three of them we decided to just take a  colectivo from the train station to Javier Prado street, then another to the zoo area. Two hours later we arrived - probably less than 20 miles away. Traffic is crazy here! We finally saw a llama -at the zoo. It was a huge zoo, with mostly Peruvian animals from the mountains and jungle. They did have an opossum, fox, grizzly bear and black bear from North America, and 4 animals from Africa. Zoos are always bittersweet for me. It was cool to see some of the animals, but they have a long way to go in habitat development. It was nice to have a chance to talk with G for a while. He speaks slow and clear for me. We compared a of what is in Peru with what is and is not in Arkansas. On the walk back to the bus stop, we passed a girl working in a booth that was identical to Jazmín. We also bought "causa" from a street vender. This the mashed potato dish we had the first day here. It is really good, I'll make some at home. On the ride home, there was a 5 yr old little girl that was fascinated by us and chatted with us the whole time she was on. She kept asking for Mark to say something. His earrings are the oddity here, so she asked if he also had fingernail polish like hers.  People don't really interact much on the street or transportation here, so it was nice.
When we finally arrived back at our hotel, we went to pick up the laundry at the scheduled time 4:00. I was ready to get out of my "what not to wear - Lima" outfit of shorts and into jeans ( EVERYONE here wears jeans) but alas, 4:00 in Peru really means 5:30. Oh well, that allowed time for dinner. We had awesome braised chicken and fries for dinner, then got our laundry.
There was a birthday party at G' s house for a friend of theirs - Myra, and was supposed to start at 10:00 at night, but we are starting to learn that really means later....  The party was really nice. One girl, Alejandra, was from Florida, and another guy, Cristian,  spoke English very well, so Mark had someone to talk to. I understood about a third of the conversations - but enough to get the gist of most things. We stayed till 2 in the morning drinking Pisco Sours, eating papas rellenos and other good treats. G let everyone try the Rock Town Apple Pie Moonshine we brought from Arkansas. We were the first to leave,  so there is no telling how late the party went.