Peru, Day 48: Goodbye, Cusco

I knew this day would come. I knew I would have a hard time leaving. As always, it's harder than I thought it would be. Honestly, today was a wonderful day. I enjoyed every minute even though I knew the whole time that I should be sad. And I was sad. But I was also happy. Today was full of love, memories, food, beauty, and hope. And some more food.

It started here. In the road out in front of my friend's apartment. After meeting we decided to catch a bus to somewhere, but ended up in a taxi to somewhere else.

Actually, let me rewind to the part where he doesn't speak English and accidentally deleted all of the pictures I had on my camera from the last couple days. He decided he would make it up to me by 1) taking as many pictures as I would let him, and 2) hanging out with me. I'm not sure if those were entirely unselfish but either way I agreed... It was about 30 seconds before I regretted agreeing to the first one. Ok, yes, he took some nice pictures, but I am not one who enjoys cameras being stuck in my face all the time. I definitely had to steal my camera back repeatedly as my idea of a great last day in Cusco was not one seen thru a camera lens. That being said, I'll always remember all the emotions I felt today as they have ALL been captured in one photo or another. And no, you don't get to see them all. Sorry, not sorry!
*wink*

 By some magic he captured a picture of the place I'd done my volunteer work out of a taxi window even tho I'd failed to take even one, every day I walked up slowly with photo-capturing devices in my hands. (In other words, you have him to thank for a good number of pictures not only in this post, but of this whole trip in general...)

Driving to somewhere else landed us at his old apartment where he attempted to turn in his key but couldn't because no one was home. I wasn't exactly thrilled with this activity, but what can I say? He paid for the taxi so we went where he said. And I got to see a spontaneous game of football in a basketball court. And then...the next order of business was food.

Er, the next order of business was walking to find food, and if I see a pretty flower, the first first order of business all-of-a-sudden becomes to take an amazing photo of it.

And finally, it was time for food. But somehow 5 sole street pizza wasn't what we were feeling, especially since I'd been attempting to try the Peruvian-Chinese fusion food since I got here. It's called Chifa and the rice that comes with every meal is called Chaufa. It's good. Actually, next week I'll do a whole post, complete with plenty of pictures, on this meal. Anyway, it was a lot of food, but somehow we managed to push through all of it. We were pretty impressed with ourselves. (Pictured, that's not even half of it. That's not even one persons' whole serving. To be fair, it was about 2pm by this point and all either of us had eaten so far today was some chocolate...)

And you know it had to be good because below is probably the only picture you will ever see of this smile:

(Apparently no one explained to him when he was a kid that you don't actually have to be happy when you're in a picture, you're just supposed to *look* happy. Anyway, if there's ever a picture of him smiling, you know he MUST be happy... Way to go, Chifa!)

After eating I somehow talked him into taking one last trip to the mall with me since we were right next door and the last time I'd been there I'd seen a few things I wanted to invest in. It turned out to be a basically fruitless trip, and then we just wandered around looking at all the things we could find to laugh at. Turns out he got the last laugh because I got bored and he had fun taking pictures of Bored Beth. And Coke, and cake, and really EVERYTHING else. I've spared you the photos because unbeknownst to him, they look the same in Peruvian Plaza Vea as they do in American Wal-Mart. And the prices are actually comparable as well. Well, relative to the respective economies.

 Next up was dessert. (I told you there was a lot of food involved in today...) But it didn't actually last very long. Ice cream for me, tres leches for him. And we might have traded a bit...

 Some more buses and taxis and a lot more walking ensued. We wandered basically all over the city center. He was looking for something. I knew exactly where it was, but A) I didn't know it's what he was looking for, and B) he wouldn't have believed me if I'd told him I knew. We ended up in the Market San Pedro finding souvenirs for my family but naturally I can't post pictures of those because naturally they will read this before they see their gifts. *cough*cough* (You do read my blog, right??) And you see those clouds hanging ominously over the Plaza? Strangely enough it rained almost every day the last week I was in Cusco. I like to think that the place was just sad to see me go...

But...I'm not going to lie, it didn't dampen my spirits much. Still just as strange and silly as always.

My last full day in Cusco ended with a sweet, final dinner with Nina, and then the Ninja Turtles in Spanish. So many new things, so many normal things. Of course, it's bittersweet. Looking back over everything I've seen, done, experienced, and learned here, I don't want to leave. But every chapter comes to an end. Tomorrow I'll start the Lima chapter. And who knows, maybe the Cusco chapter has a sequel, or at least a follow-up...