My friend ´Brendie´ and Huancayo

Time passes too fast and I’ve been too busy with everything for the past weeks, travelling, work and socialising. I wrote most of this post ages ago, but never got around to publish it, so good time to share it and also I've been missing Brendie lately, I wish you were here, this is for you.

Thougtful Brendan in Ayacucho

My good friend Brendan, who was my colleague at La Casa de Panchita returned to USA in December. He was living here a quite a while, almost a year working hard to make life better for the children in Jugando Aprendo. (Changing the lives of the child domestic workers in Peru)

He’s a bit “crazy” person, like me, so we came along very well from the beginning. Especially I miss and envy his incredible dance moves!!!

Brendan (tall one) dancing at the LCP birthday party

In the evenings I often heard outside my window “SARI, SARI, SARI” and there he was passing by my house and of course hoping I may have cooked something or I will cook something when he comes, as I often did, because the ones who know me well, know that I’m the happy person when I make food for other people. Also Brendan didn’t use his phone, so he couldn’t ever call me and I kind of liked when he was shouting outside. We had our talks about work, life, development and a lot more, we complained about the crazy things we had to deal with in Lima. After we have complained to each other all the bad things we went through that day (like annoying bus ride) we felt better, because we understood each other’s (most of the time). Sometimes we had arguments, because our views differed or simply because we both enjoy having good debates once in a while. Also we shared all the good moments we had at work and in life what made us want to stay in Lima, despite of the negative aspects. Always we ended the evening with something positive. 

We also did two trips together, one to Ayacucho with Adele and other to Huancayo to escape the hectines of Lima. Since my camera was stolen I could not share Ayacucho with you, but I got the photos later from Adele.

Crazy company of two girls, in the bus with VIP seats

My "western" bestie in here Adele & Brendan in Ayacucho

Last night out with Brendan

Huancayo

Before Brendan left Peru we decided to do one more trip together and espace the hectic Lima. Ended up going to Huancayo. We decided to stay in place called Peru Andino, because Lonely Planet recommended it as a quiet place run by an old couple, very friendly and sweet. Naturally we had not informed them beforehand that we’re coming, because we decided that we’re going there just 5 min before we took a taxi. They had just woken up, because it was fairly early in the morning, I think past 7am or something, and they told us that this is a low season so they don’t have much activity going on, so better to call first, they only had one room they could offer to us. We’re pleased, because house was beautiful and the couple was very sweet and we would be the only people in the house. How great is that! After a long night in bus we decided to rest for a while, well only 8 hours with VIP seats means you can more or less sleep, not like in a bed, because seats don’t go all the way down but enough to be able to be comfortable and sleep at least few hours. Still we're tired. 

When we woke up we headed to the village nearby to eat and see trout fishery. Brendan loves fishing and we both we’re graving to eat some good fish.  We had to take and minibus, combi they called it here. Brendan was not so happy about it at first, because his back was hurting and he, as well as me, was sick of the combis in Lima. But in Huancayo combis were great (Brendan would say they’re never great) so much newer than in Lima, they don’t drive as crazy as in Lima, they don’t try to cheat you with the money and they care for their passengers. Although our bus did have some kind of race with the other bus and the mirror of the other bus got broken in one of the crossroads, because they both tried to go at the same time…not a happy ending. When we arrived to a small village we’re starving because we only had a little breakfast at the bus station in the morning, so first things we did was to find a place to eat and there were many restaurants. Unfortunately I don’t have any pictures of our trip because Brendan had not charged the battery. After the meal we headed up to the fishery, pretty amazing and so much fish. Being there reminded of my Uncle Jyrki, who sometimes took me and my sister with him to fisheries when I was little. But this fishery was totally different what I had seen before. I wish I could have taken some photos to show to my uncle, but no battery. After the fishery we returned to the city with another combi and walked around the city for a while. I was being little bit grumpy because I was tired and had headache, not being able to sleep more in the morning, but refused to admit I was dehydrated, as Brendan was suggesting, drank the water though, as he suggested. Also the altitude affected me a little as well, because Huancayo is about 3250 meters above the sea-level. It was a Friday peak hour and the steers were full of people, kind of annoying to walk and I was graving for coffee, but there was nothing so in the end we headed to the shopping mall and founded Starbucks. Good coffee (compared what Peruvians make, it’s like water with color of coffee) and a chocolate muffin. After coffee I was starting to feel better, but we’re both exhausted so we headed home with some light snacks to eat for dinner.

Saturday we got up earlier, had breakfast and btw their coffee was great, and it was local peruvian coffee, also because we’re able to add the water so we could make it as strong as we liked. It was raining so to we chill out for a while in the house and decided head to Chupaca, a little village nearby where there is always a fiesta on Saturdays and it was true. Once we got out of the bus we started walking towards the music and ended up to square next to church and there were people dancing and drinking. 

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First we thought it was a wedding but after two charming old ladies, who were part of the crowd, started talking to us and we find out it was a baptism party. There was an orchestra, beer and some local alcohol was passed around to all the people who were there, even to us. People were dancing chatting. We chatted with the two old ladies, who invited us to join them with the crew to have a lunch with them.

 We’re delighted and followed the crew who walked with the orchestra, who was playing all the way to the community hall (or something like that). People from the streets joined in and more people were coming in all the time.

In the hall there was a band. People sat and parents and grandparents of the children who were baptized had their own table. At the begining there some music and people were dancing for a little while. Then guests of honors talked and thank all the people for coming there and celepbrating with then this special occacion to take this children as a member of their community and then it was time to eat.

 More people were joining in the party all the time and there seemed to be a lot of food. We got our lunch too and I even ate the meat, because I wanted to be polite. After the quests of honors had eaten gifts were passed around, there were a lot of fruits and bigs…I guess a plenty of food to eat for them for a while!

  After the gifts it was time for us return to the city our friends told us, because later it would be difficult to get a bus. They were from Huancayo too, so four of us made our way to the bus, buying some stuff on the way. They bought for us a really yummy bread and some biscuits and I bought for myself a local hat, which later turn out to be a mistake because it was smelling so bad!

 

We returned to our guesthouse to wait for our night bus would leave. It was a perfect day and a perfect relaxed weekend despite of the fact that we spend two nights in the bus! Huancayo was a small city and there was nothing special too see in the city itself, but it has develop a lot and there are modern shopping malls and everything you need. However the small villages near by were worth to visit and there was more to see if we have had more time, you can do trekking near by and do a trip to a glacier or visit some lagoons. Next time!

Now it’s 1, 5 months since Brendan left. I still miss his company.  Hardest part of traveling is that you need to leave good people behind not knowing when you will see them next time. It’s easier to leave people in Finland because I know I will always go back there and see my friends, but the friends with friends who live outside Europe is little bit harder. Maybe we’ll meet in Mexico in May or who knows?
 P.s. Brendan asked me to write here that he is single, intelligent, very handsome and extremely nice person, so all the single ladies out there who are reading this, if you’re interested contact me and I can introduce you to him ;)