BEST English Lesson EVER

After our night on the island, we went to the Mercado Central in Puno to buy gifts for all of you out there reading this. Well, not all of you. Some of you.

Anyway, the market was pretty much what you would imagine a Peruvian market to be like. Stall after stall, haggling in bad Spanish, walking past people screaming àmiga, amiga, comprar! Emily screaming "ocho soles or NO!" as she haggled over $0.30 increments (1 sol) with the vendors desperate for her business.

So, about halfway through our shopping excursion, we were browsing a few stalls which seemed to be unattended. There was a group of about 20 people gathered in a semi-circle around a chalkboard. We didn't really pay attention to the group, but could feel their eyes on us, which isn't all that unusual because we are the whitest and tallest people in the entire country.

Anyway, I was looking at a few hats and all of the sudden I heard the group chorus "black."

And then they said, "blue."

I was wearing black shoes. And blue jeans.

Then they said "green," the color of my shirt.

I turned around, and there were 20 sets of eyes staring at me as I looked back at them.

I waved and the instructor said, ¨what color are your eyes?`

I said azul, and the group replied "BLUE."

P.S. We tried alfojores after searching endlessly for them... each restaurant we were at did not have them, so we finally asked a watier about them. He walked out the front door and arrived back about five minutes later with them. They were okay, tasted like pie crust with extra sugar. We were expecting something that resembled the Little Debbie Christmas trees. The next time we saw them was in the window of a cigarette store (like a mini Peruvian 7-11)and they looked suspiciously like the ones we had at dinner. Now, we are keeping an eye out for ones that do not come in a plastic sealed bag.