abuelita mamita part 2

when i said mamita sent us some food but more on that later... . heres the more on that later.

something i really like about living in peru... is that if you live... 15 hours away from your family over rivers and mountains... and your family decides they want to send you something... all they have to do is package it up and send it out on the next bus leaving town. bus transportation is more than common (some ratios right now would be pretty appropriate, sorry for that). and you can send anything from letters to things to be translated (which we had to do to be married) to well... boxes of food and im sure a whole list of things. and it gets there the next day usually.

so... this week are the festivals for san juan (saint john) in moyobamba (where julton is from, where his family lives, 15 hours away over rivers and mountains) its traditional to eat juane (a delicious mixture of green rice and chicken, cooked in a banana leaf) and to.... dance around a tree before you chop it down and collect the prizes on top.

well, we didnt get a tree topped with goodies.... BUT jultons grandma labored over some juanes in her kitchen this week... and we got sent juanes... chicha (a drink from the jungle made from fig leaves which ide never tried before... for me its a little like bear (but without alcohol) and fizzy and kind of like a juice, but its not a juice as julton reminds me ebcause i keep calling it that) and a big branch of green bananas. so what was our thursday lunch? yep... juanes and bananas and chicha! delicious.

the chicha fizzed and bubbles out of its bottle for a while... i guess a 15 hour ride in the belly of a bus can do that to you.

julton can never decide what he wants to do in pictures. its hard to get one of him just smiling. he is either goofy, or too sesrious, or just awkward. im not sure what this one is, other than the look of him telling me between fotos... julie just put the camera down... im hungry and weve got juanes and you are taking pictures!!!! we could be eating these right now!!!! thats what that face is saying.

if you live near a peruvian restaurant, i encourage you to go get some juane, but im sorry, im pretty sure its not going to taste as good as jultons grandmas. your just going to have to come to peru for that!