Though day three ended at the beginning of day four, day four began early for me. I rolled out of bed at about 7:30 AM, and it was a very big morning for my host, Gonzolo. It was his aunt and uncle’s 50th wedding anniversary, and he was very honored to take me to the party and the mass with him and Susan. We got in the car before nine and drove to the town where Gonzolo grew up. We arrived at the church which is very different than those I have seen in the US, much less adorned and not really appearing as a church on the outside, but beautiful in its own right. The church was absolutely packed, so much so that people stood in the streets just to hear the priest speak. He took time out of the mass to speak about Gonzolo’s aunt and uncle, and how the length and breadth of their relationship was an example of real love.
After mass, we made our way to his aunt’s home, where it was set up for a party, complete with rice to throw at the 50th year newlyweds. They sat at the head of the room and the whole room toasted while the made speeches about their relationship and what they had been through in order to get them to this point. There were tears of joy in their eyes as well as that of their family members.
After the ceremony, it was time for more food, traveling on my stomach as usual. We ate stuffed tamale peppers, Gonzolo’s late mother’s recipe, while he introduced me to his nieces. They were impressed to hear I went to Oxford, but laughed as we both tried to communicate, neither speaking the language of the other well, but the girls trying much harder than I.
Ceviche
We left to pick up Susan’s friend, Cinthya and her daughter; I fell asleep in the car. When I awoke I found that we would be eating again, and I would be introduced to the next Peruvian dish that everyone kept asking me if I had eaten yet, Ceviche. It was an assortment of raw fish, sweet potatoes and other seafood items. Surprisingly, It was one of the best things I have ever tasted. I made the comment to Susan, that Peruvian food cannot really be compared to anything I have eaten before, because it is really so different in its flavoring and textures. We finished the afternoon in the pool at their apartment complex, though cold it was a relaxing end to the afternoon. I also had my first Peruvian supermarket experience later in the day, which was interesting, since it was exactly like that in the US, complete with people handing out trays of samples; a COSTCO moment.
We finished off our day by with watching the movie Seventh Son with Jeff Bridges, but in Spanish. It was interesting enough, because I just read in the Rotary magazine about Jeff Bridges and his No Kid Hungry program, which Rotary recently began to help with.