Saturday at the market

Our breakfasts have now acquired a certain degree of routine: after showers, one of us goes down to the bakery to get rolls and avocado. The other sets the table/washes the dishes/cuts the fruit for the morning juice. We're still experimenting with the right mix of fruits, but there are plenty to choose from downstairs: pineapple, papaya, mango and lots of different types of banana.
After breakfast today, we got the bus to Magdalena, to go to the market. It consists of numerous shacks/small buildings close together under one cover. They house vendors of fruit and vegetables, soap, kitchen utensils, makeup, spices and herbs, medicinal plants and powders, Chinese, butchers, fishmongers and more. Whatever takes your fancy: sweet potatoes, beans of all kinds, dried lama, dried potatoes, mango, papaya, figs, ciruela (Peruvian plums), soup and wok vegetables all rinsed, chopped and ready to go, ginger, aji sauces, eucalyptus leaves (against colds), culantro (coriander), cebiche, anticucho, sheep's head (for soup) crabs or shellfish, squid!
Ducks are killed right in front of you, while the guinea pig family in the cage next to the counter happily munch away at their lettuce.

At the market

Everyone is excelling in trying to think of new, flattering nicknames for you and thus make you interested in their goods: señorita, bonita, niña, muñeca, reina...
We bought a cafetera - a pot for brewing coffee, so I don't have to buy the expensive German cappuccino powder anymore. Then we went a bit nuts in the fruit section...tomorrow we're making strawberry marmalade for Michael's mother, the meeting with whom was very pleasant and also pleasantly short ;)
Apart from that we found a very nice sesame oil, sweet potatoes, celeri, coriander, wok veg, mango, pineapple, figs, ciruelas...
Now I'm going to have to head home to be there when the landlady comes round with the guy who is to fix our door bell. That is, the function to open the door from the flat is permanently disabled somehow, but at least now we will know if someone would like to come in, without them shouting at the top of their lungs from the street. I hope she will not be too interrogative.
We now think that Michael is becoming famous on our block - he is the one with the blue-eyed, tall foreign girlfriend. It seems we're the excitement of the week in our house. I guess the only other foreigner is the Italian gentleman keeping a tienda next to the pet shop - but he's been here for 20 years already.
Tonight Michael has a rehearsal with some guys who are going to play at a school jubilee on Monday. So we'll buy some beer and go there...then we'll see what happens.

Oh yes, yesterday we went to have cebiche at Manolo's in La Punta again. Then I came for a quick visit to IMARPE. I instantly felt at home downstairs, in front of a big aquarium with cichlid fishes...the hungry fish watched my every move. Michael's office and colleagues awaited upstairs - talk about your reputation preceding you! Well, they were nice, and Jacky and Nathalie are going to take me on a girls' night out soon, which I look forward to very much. Watch out Lima!