July 2,

We awoke in our new place, and immediately looked out the window to Misty!! …Ha-ha, just kidding. I didn’t sleep well – couldn’t get to sleep until 0330 then slept “in” until 0900. So it was a rough start of the day. I then looked out at our glorious view of Misty. There were lots of clouds in the sky, which is fairly unusual – as per the time we have spent here. Jeff said he slept well, getting up around 0500, his normal.

Since I had such a late start we skipped breakfast and opted to go to Restaurante Amaranta, which we first ate at nearly a month ago! It was June 6th. Hard to believe it was that long ago… and yet I still do NOT have my passport. I did receive an E-mail yesterday, that stated – my “passport has arrived at the U.S. Embassy in Lima, Peru…your passport will be shipped within one week” to Arequipa. Anyway we arrived at the restaurant, and again we were there first to dine in just as they opened. There were others ordering take away that were before. So we just waited our turn at a table. The waiter came, he only speaks Spanish so he called the lady, who does speak some English, and she came over when she could. We both pointed and ordered which he could have done, oh well. The delay is mostly due to the fact we don’t speak Spanish. I had Soltero de Queso- a mildly pickled salad of corn, carrots, onion, tomato with cheese and parsley; with a main of Pollo en Salsa de Champinones- a chicken thigh covered with a chicken mushroom gravy over potato slices, accompanied with a big scoop of rice. Jeff had a starter of Menestron- a type of Minestrone Soup; with his main being Atomatada de Res- Beef Stew with Tomato Sauce. All of our food was fantastically delicious, which we washed down with the included beverage (which we didn’t know). The bill was only 28 PEN, but Jeff gave 30 PEN ($8.81). That was a super-crazy, small amount of money for all our food… especially when I remember how much lunch was yesterday.

After eating we went on a walkabout for steps and to burn some glorious calories we’d just consumed. Then we headed back. I blogged and Jeff read; then we watched some of the World cup games. Supper was wine with cheese and a new kind of bread- it had cranberries.

     June 3,

I was up and about earlier after having slept well. Our place is very quiet compared to the last one – no dogs nearby. We readied and had our Javas with breakfast of French toast with that cranberry bread. Very good! Then I blogged as I was getting behind. Jeff read.

At 1300, we went out for lunch. We had seen a Mexican restaurant, called Tacosvill, so we went there. We ordered a Jarra de Limonada O Jamaica- a purple drink of a Hibiscus flavored Tea; a Nachos Clasicos snack- tortilla chips with guacamole; and a shared main of Aztec Menu- Shredded Chicken breast in a peanut sauce, beans with ground beef, and spanish rice and three, hot corn tortillas. That main was the most unique “mexican” dish we have ever had. A peanut sauce type-mole on chicken. We ordered another three tortillas to finish the main with. It was very yummy 😋 and a lot of food. The bill was 71 PEN, or $20.84.

We left and walked around. We went all about looking for a replacement vase- even to the local, large-stalled market, where we bought our first Queso Helado (with the 1923 recipe). We didn’t find it here, but continued on leaving the big market area. We ducked in and out of small shops, and finally, we were rewarded. We also found the shampoo and conditioner that we have found just about everywhere in the world! That is amazing if you think about it.

We then finished getting our steps in. Then we arrived back to our place, in time to watch the Argentina and Cape Verde match. What a game that was!! We had a French supper- cheese, pepperoni, crackers and wine. It’s been a nice couple of days simply living, someplace else.