Laughing it up in Lima

As I have mentioned millions of times, we were lucky enough to have both G and JC in Lima at the same time as us. It is always lovely to have company when you are traveling, but it is even more lovely to have company from the place you are visiting, and JC is most definitely from Lima. La Punta, to be exact. This proved to be so wonderful. JC's friends (and family) are still in Lima, so, instead of scrounging around for something to do during the government imposed 'dry weekend' leading up to the country's federal election, we were taken to the birthday party of one of JC's friends in their homes (and by 'homes', I clearly mean their parent's home. People live at home until they are married....maybe I was born in the wrong continent...).

We all showed up at the house and walk in the front door. The first thing we see are the grandparents of JC´s friend. We round the corner and are then able to see that the rest of the party guests are being entertained by a clown for grown ups. And by 'entertained' I mean that he was making the guests do any number of embarassing things, including dances and animal hats and noises. I was very relieved to see that JC was also extremely confused about what was happening. Apparently clowns do not commonly make appearances at 29 year old's birthday parties, even in Peru.

Phew.

Though it was more than a little confusing, the clown did get people up and dancing (even if it did involve a 'rave' whistle). After the clown left the fun and laughs continued and one of the members of JC's entourage thrilled us all with his amazing guitar skills (particularly flamenco).


We spent some time with JC's friends several times and everytime they never failed to deliver on the laughs - though, admittedly they were often at the expense of one of JC's friends who´s English was sometimes humourous, not always on purpose (marimamas = marine mammals). The best thing was that he was always laughing too, and never stopped trying to speak in English (I could really learn a thing or two from him...). He was also a pretty good tour guide.

My time in Lima just confirmed tht which I already knew. Its always good to see the sites and the tourist attractions, but it is always the people you meet and the experiences you have that really take a place or a trip from 'alright' to 'amazing'. Based on our experiences in Lima, it was definitely 'amazing'. And we have JC and his entourage to thank for that.

Thanks. My abs were still hurting days after we left from extended laugh sessions (does that count as a work out?).