mame

you can find them in the markets... but more often along the street... being sold by a man holding a huge knife to start the opening process for you if you so choose... mame! mame is ever so quickly becoming one of my favorite fruits. if there were a category for favorite fruit that didnt look or taste like a fruit, it would top the list. although fresh, it's texture is more like a dried fruit. it is quite the experience to taste. i have yet to master the skill of opening it... or for picking out a ripe one.. but the eating part i have completely under control ;)

my first experience with mame... involved spending time in the kitchen of SALI with one of our students, whom.. actually wasn't even one of my own students but somehow we started a friendship, despite the learning of english bringing up together. Marta is full of personality, every time i get to see her. She studied tourism in her university and is currently a tourist guide in our area, which is why she is studying English. She loved to talk to me about the history of Peru and share information about food... people.. everything she can think of. Marta's mother sells fruit in a local market.. so she always has some kind of fruit with her. when she learned that i had never experienced mame before... she quickly... pulled one out of her purse... and before i knew it had opened it up and was sharing it with myself and other students. we were all kind of in shock, a mame is a little big to just be carrying around in your purse. but ..that explains marta, you never know what is going to happen next she is full of surprises. and very generous. 

mancora

imagine... the waves are rolling in... the sand is hot beneath you... the tiny crabs are scurrying across it, dodging the hooves of horses giving tourists rides on the beach... the sun is shining brightly... hammocks are always an option... its all peaceful with the exception of the consistent vender trying to sell you sun glasses which you happen to be wearing, or some form of food or drink.... you my friend have found yourself in mancora. 

this is how i spent four days of my life recently. for easter weekend, SALI did not have classes on thursday or friday... and the four other girls i live with and i, planned a trip to the north. my northern friends would tell me that the beaches in the north are the most beautiful, but i labeled them biased. but alas they have their reasons, many many great reasons. we left immediately wednesday night after classes ended at SALI... then spent the night on a very cheap but surprisingly not so shabby bus.. another surprise was that we all slept pretty well on the bus trip and we were ready to start our day in mancora at 7 thursday morning when we arrived. (more or less) we stayed in a hostal, giving the impression of a summer cabin, but it was really all we needed, a small room with bunk beds and a small bathroom... and a hammock. and trees and green and air. we really didnt stay in our room much. as im sure you can understand. why sleep in the room when youve got a beach to sleep on? because yes, thats really what we did all weekend, sleep. in different places. different places on the beach, in our hostal, hammocks, and maybe occasionally nearby hotels hammocks or lounge chairs or sand. 

that weekend was a lot of fun for us. all of the intern girls went together, and it was good for us to spend that time together. we are around each other all the time.. we live together, eat together, work together... but we dont specifically set aside time to spend hanging out together. so it was nice to have that time that weekend to spend relaxing together and in conversation, getting to know each other a little bit better. i think it is safe to say that we came back from that trip a lot closer, and definitely with ...each our fair share of jokes. the girls like to randomly yell out whale around me now... because ... well we were on the beach, about to eat some lunch... when i suddenly grabbed Patty's arm and said "is that a beached whale???!" with great excitement.. only for everyone to turn around and begin laughing hysterically... because it just happen to be a kite surfer whose kite had fallen into the water facing us... in a huge whale like shape i might just add. yeah, im not going to live that one down for a while. 

all in all it was a great trip, 

mancora + spending time with those girls = wonderfulness. 

coconut milk anyone?...i wasnt that big of a fan... but gillian loves it.

Heather, myself, Gillian and Courtney... .Patty is taking the picture... the whole time we didn't get a single picture of ourselves together. Im not sure that one even exists.