Mimi came back from Cusco on Friday morning and fell sick. It could be the change in altitude, catching up with her, or contaminated food or water, catching up with her. In any case, she spent the day curled in a fetal position in bed when she wasn't running to the bathroom.
By evening, after a remedy of soup, medicine, and rest, she felt better if weak. We had plans to celebrate her last night in Lima by going to a peña called Brisas de Titicaca and now we had to go without her.
A peña is a dance show with live music. Customers sit at tables arranged around a dance floor. When the professional dancers stop, amateur aficionados take over and party till they drop.
The dancers were decked out in incredible costumes, polyester and sequins in an array of neon colors that glittered more brightly than the dancers' sparkly smiles. And smile they did, for four whole hours, the length of the show. They smiled, brightly and convincingly, even during the most difficult dances. The most impressive, in my opinion, was the scissor dance.
Men holding prop scissors danced, jumped, and contorted. Think break-dancing with elements of yoga and the kossack dance. They did flips, stood on their head, and jumped on one foot while the other was wrapped somewhere around their bodies. When they finished, they were still smiling. Amazing.
We left at 3 a.m., and early exit since the dance floor was open until 5 a.m., but Carlos had to wake up at 6:30 a.m. to go to work.
Saturday, we had big plans for Mimi. We were going to take her to visit Carlos's work, present her to the volunteers, show her the farmer's market, and eat a giant alfajor cake before her flight home at 10:55 p.m.
But when I arrived in the morning to pick her up, she was already packing. It turned out that her flight left Lima at 5:30 p.m. (10:55 p.m. was her second leg from Bogotá to New York). We hustled. In the end, Mimi only had time to visit Carlos's work, which was enough. We hurried home, hurriedly ate lunch, and hurried to the airport. And we said good-bye.
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