Now, I hadn’t planned on spending a week in Trujillo. About four, maybe five days, is about as much as I’m usually willing to deal with, between the various family issues, and the house – though admittedly, now that the house has real floors, walls, a roof, electricity, wi-fi, 24-hour a day running water (it still, from way back in those early days, only gets water from 5-6 in the morning, but they’ve installed a huge tank on the roof that both holds more than enough water for an entire day, but also because it’s up there, there are now taps for running water, rather than filling up huge garbage cans and pots and buckets with water for the day), etc.

But, one thing and another, mostly that family stuff, turned a planned getaway for a couple of days to the northern beaches into staying in Trujillo. Besides, while I was informed I simply had to be there on his sister’s birthday, the 6th, apparently, as we saw, it was just a nice day out with the family eating, the party, you see, was Friday night, the 9th, so that no one had to work the next day…. Oh, there’s a bit party? Yes, 60 people, all night long, you’re cooking the food. Umm, no, I’m not. Apparently, yes I was. At least it was only a big causa, and a couple of pots of yuca and seco de cordero, and they bought all the ingredients and got them laid out. And occasionally, one or another even helped.

Now, I don’t claim that this is the Peruvian way, or even the Trujillo way, but each and every party I’ve been to whenever I’ve visited, be it a birthday, an anniversary, or just a get-together, has more or less run the same way. So first, it was called for 9pm. The first guest arrive at almost 10. More trickled in until about 11, by which time there were maybe 20 people there. Sitting in those chairs on both sides of the living room, talking sottovoce to each other, with music at a moderate volume going. No one circulating, no one dancing, no food or beverage served.

At 11, there were a couple of speeches, first the birthday girl, thanking everyone for a wonderful life, then a couple of toasts from different folk – Henry, her daughter, and one brother-in-law. Then each man in the room danced a short waltz with her. Then there was this sort of sort of conga line without the conga part that circled around her while each of the women danced with her. At this point, beers were served, to the men only, and they have this custom where one beer is opened, one glass provided, and each guy pours himself a drink, drinks it down, and then hands it to the next guy, who does the same – a communal beer. Well, quite a few of them, but always one beer and one glass going at a time.

Around midnight or a little after, there was a mariachi band. I don’t know the fascination with mariachis in Peru, but they do seem to get hired to come to fiestas a lot. They sang for about half an hour.

As it approached 1 in the morning, it was time for the cake and the Happy Birthday singing and the blowing out of candles.

And then I was told to go ahead and serve the food. The giant causa de atún, and the seco de cordero (that’s actually a photo from the next day, from leftovers, as I was too busy and tired to take one the night before, and I can tell, because we didn’t serve rice during the party). And then the music got cranked up, the women were allowed to start drinking beer too, though not much, and it went on until 5:30 in the morning. Oh, and those 60 people? Never materialized. We might have hit 30. I excused myself around 2 or 2:30 and tried to get a little bit of sleep in the bedroom with pillows piled on my head. Ah well, last day in Trujillo.

And, some last looks at other food.

The day of the fiesta, while out picking up some ingredients, we stopped in for lunch at El Portón (dished.gasp.stand), not far from the house, where we had really good ceviche and chicharrón de pescado, both made from lenguado, or sole. Two big shareable plates, a large bottle of Inka Cola, it was, if I remember right, 78 soles with tip, or about $24.

My last night, and the family elected to go out for pollo a las brasas, roast chicken with fries and salad, as my good-bye dinner. Wouldn’t have been my choice, but whatever. It was good, at a place we’ve been to before, La Noria, more in the center of town. Apparently they used to have difficulty with dine and dash, so you now place your order with your waitress, who gives you a copy of the order, you go pay, the cashier then puts in the paid order to the kitchen, and gives you a receipt, which you show to your waitress to prove it’s been paid, at which point she starts to serve you. Anyway, I’ve had better pollo a las brasas. Still, 1-1/2 chickens with the fixings for 93 soles, just under $29, isn’t bad.

And then for me, it was off the next morning, early, for my flight back to Lima, only to find that despite having gotten a confirming email from Avianca at about 7:30 in the morning that the flight was on time at 9:10, that all flights were grounded due to fog (it really wasn’t very heavy fog, kind of surprising), and we would be delayed until the planes flew in from Lima (3 flights a morning come in and go out, and then the same in the evening).

Now, in the tiny little airport, there’s just a single coffee shop, serving up really overpriced food. Like a cold “croissant” with a slice of ham and cheese in it for 16 soles, or $5. But, I know from experience, that just outside the airport gates, a mere five minute walk from the terminal, there are half a dozen little restaurants. So once I knew that I had at least another two hours to wait, I wandered over and took a seat at El Gran Pajaten (scan.keeps,egging) where for the same 16 soles, including a tip, I had a plate of scrambled eggs and sausage, with three bread rolls, fresh papaya juice, and a coffee. And, the best coffee conversation out of the 80-some year old father/grandfather of the woman running the place (he was trying to help out, as the waiter was running late):

“Do you want a café con leche?”

“No, I’d like a black coffee.”

“I’m not sure if the coffee is black, it’s from Ecuador. Will that be okay?”

“Yes, yes it will.” (he went over to ask his daughter if the coffee was black and she burst out laughing, so I didn’t feel bad having had to control my own laugh).

By 10 a.m., the fog had burned off, and Lima’s only a 45 minute flight away, but apparently with scheduling and all that, the incoming flight didn’t arrive until 11:36, and we didn’t get underway until about 12:20, which meant by the time I got to my hotel in Lima, got checked in, had a hot shower for the first time in a week (they may have running water in the house, but no water heater yet), it was after 3 before I was ready for lunch. And that, and my last day in Lima, I’ll save for the next and last vacation post.