My son Jack came to visit, and it was the highlight of my stay in Arequipa, and it will continue to be. I can't describe how wonderful it was to have Jack here, and I hope all my kids can make it down. We visited the Santa Catalina Monastery, which dates to the 1500s and is loaded with amazing art and artifacts. It's like a little city, with streets and houses, gardens, crypts and honest-to-goodness real living nuns tucked away in a corner of the monastery. We weren't allowed to see the nuns (about 20 of them live there). We hired a guide, a pretty woman who never changed expression or tone of voice as she told us fun facts in pretty good English: "In the 16th and 17th century... OK ... the girls training for to be nuns .... OK .... couldn't speak for at all from ages of 12 to 16 .... OK." Sounds like a fun life, huh. The tour group we were in included a German couple, and the German guy kept inappropriately fondling his girlfriend throughout the tour. Weird.
Next, Jack and I went to Colca Canyon, or Canyon de Colca (as I work on my Spanish). Amazing place. We saw condors gliding above the canyon, and a couple of really quaint Andes villages -- Chivay and Maca. Colca is the world's third deepest canyon and is about twice as deep as the Grand Canyon. As you would expect, the views were spectacular. Our Colca tour group, which included a whiney American and his silent wife, went to a hot springs/swimming pool. Jack and I didn't have bathing suits, so we took about a 50-minute hike along the Colca River. For me, it was the highlight of the trip. We saw locals plowing with an ox, three donkeys and a horse hanging out on the trail, and dramatic scenery. We were at about 13,000-14,500 feet, I believe, which made breathing part of the adventure. We made it back to the "hot tub" just in time to catch to our van back to Arequipa.
The rest of the week, Jack provided support for me as I started a new job as assistant director at the language school here. I was really quite busy, teaching, eating alpaca and street food (delicious) and guinea pig (so-so), and assuming my duties at the school. I developed a wonderful bond with a class I had in August, and Jack got to meet the students and chat with them. He also was a guest in a couple of classes, talking about his poker business, his upcoming tour of duty in Afghanistan, and life in the U.S. In my class, we played 20 questions to figure out who this young gringo was -- they finally got it that he was mi hijo.
Jack left Saturday afternoon (Sept. 10), and it was all I could do to not start bawling my eyes out as I saw him off at the airport. I miss all my kids so much -- Alec, Caroline and Jessica -- and Jack's visit really brought that home to me. I love and miss you guys.
No comments:
Post a Comment