Today, I was going to the Inglesia de San Fransisco. I got up a bit later today because of the crazy fiesta last night...I ended up having breakfast with the couple I was bunking with in the hostel. They were a very nice couple from Connecticut. I left at 11am and took a taxi to Lima Centro.

Lima Centro is the downtown of Lima. It is safe during the day, but by night, it is best you don`t walk alone. The tour was great, but unfortunately, I was unable to take pictures. The church was beautiful inside. I took the guided tour (in English) of the museum and the catacombes. The catacombes are in the basement of the Church. It was the place where the followers of San Fransisco were buried. The graves still contained the bones of the deceased.

Afterwards, I walked to the Plaza de Armas, where they were having a huge parade. I did not know what was the occasion, but there were dancers, music, and floats everywhere. I took pictures of the architecture of some building because they were so beautiful.

3pm was approaching and I had to take a taxi to Mirella´s. The driver (like all drivers in Peru I noticed) was crazy, zig-zagging his way through trafic. On top of that, he wanted to buy my phone off of me for 200 soles!

When I arrived to Mirella´s house (in Burca), her family welcomed me with open arms. Her parents, uncle and aunt, and family friends were there along with a few cousins. Immediately, her father offered me a beer, got up in front of everyone and said to me: "I want to be the first to welcome you to my home. Any friend of Mirella is my friend and is always welcome in my family and my house. I keep you near my heart." Isn`t that nice! I was very touched my that and thanked him for it. We had a very traditional supper where we started with "chuppe", a soup with jaquas (a typical vegetable from Peru), and then we had trout with potatoes (I think, well they tasted like patatoes). Throughout the evening, her family was asking me all sorts of questions. I had a bit of trouble understanding, but was able to manage with Mirella translating what she could. More of her family arrived in the evening. One of whom spoke French, perfectly! He had spent 5 years in Montreal until he was deported. With him next to me, I was able to have many conversations with her family. One of which was a debate on the catholic religion, something you should never do with latinos since they are really religious, but we were able to learn from eachother.

I was so overwhelmed by the hospitality of Mirella´s family that I told her that if she ever comes to Canada all she has to do is pay her plane ticket and Eric and I will take care of her, since it is much more expensive in Canada. However, what initially intended to be a kind offer, turned out to be an insult to Mirella. She thought I was saying that she is poor and I have pity for her, and this is the reason why I am willing to pay for her accomodations. I became flustered, since a) I was surprised by her interpretation of what I said since it was NOT what I meant! b) I tried to explain to her, but it was hard because she did not understand my English and I could not speak Spanish clearly to her. We abandened the topic and started talking about other things, but in the back of my mind I really felt bad.

I went through it in my mind thinking, deep down, did I really have pity for her? How could I think this when her family was so giving with me? Why was it an issue with me?

My analysis and rationalization of the situation was quickly interupted when suddenly, Mirella´s father fell backwards and hit his head on the corner of the wall. Everyone laughed not thinking much of it, but I knew it was something more serious than everyone assumed it to be. Blood started gushing out, and me, Mirella, Vanity, and her friend drove her father to the emergency hospital 20 minutes from where we were. Peru has a privatized health care system so we had to go where he was covered by his insurance.

After 2 was seemed to be very long hours, her father was alright with 10 stitches (thankfully!). When we came back, we put on some music and I danced with Mirella´s mother. They thought I danced very good (obviously...). When it was time to go, Vanity´s friend offered to drive me home. I thanked her family for a wonderful time, and especially thanked Mirella for being so welcoming with me. (Eric, you know how to meet very good people!).

The ride home was interesting, because that was where I found out that Vanity´s friend was really her boyfriend a month ago. He ended up pouring his heart out to me about his relationship and told me that there were still feelings involved. I realized that relationship problems are identical anywhere in the world, which made it easy for me to empathize with him. I arrived home at 11pm. I needed to go to bed early, because the next day I was leaving to Cuzco early in the morning...