What a day!

Yesterday was definitely the most eventful day I've had in Peru so far. I witnessed a robbery, got pooped on twice, got tricked by a sneaky Peruvian, and blew a surprise, all in one day. It all began when I was walking to meet a friend at her NGO job to chitchat for a bit. As I was walking along the beautiful green park, watching the dogs lolling in the grass, listening to the birdsong, feeling very peaceful and in tune with nature, I felt a drop of rain on my arm. ...Except that there wasn't a cloud in sight. I looked down at my arm to see a nice fat fresh circle of bird poop. So much for in tune with nature.

After leaving my friend, I was on my way to meet another friend, Jorge,  who has been showing me around the city and not letting me pay for a thing. Waiting at the station, I saw a man selling jerseys, and since there is a Peru - Chile game today, I thought it would be nice to get him one. I asked the man very specifically for a player from La U, not Alianza. Those are two clubs with a famous rivalry, and Jorge is a diehard U fan. The vendor very kindly pointed out two players from La U and suggested a famous one, Farfan. So I bought that one and, very happy with my surprise, waiting for a good moment to surprise my friend.

Fast forward an hour or two, and the subject of the game comes up while we're sitting in a cafe. Excited, I pull out the jersey and show him. His face lights up when he sees the jersey, but when I show him the back, his smile freezes in place. Uh oh. Turns out, Farfan plays for Alianza. I can just see that vendor laughing to himself for pulling one over on the gringa. To top it all off, on the way back from the cafe, yet another pigeon poops on my bag and my foot: extra points for getting a two-for-one.

After the cafe, we went to the Parque de Las Aguas to see the water show and fountains there. At the entrance, I saw two men running at top speed. For a split second, I thought they were fooling around, until I saw the iPhone clutched in the first guy's hand and the look on the second guy's face. They hurdled the entrance, both getting entangled in the chain before regaining their footing, and sped off down the block. I still don't know if they got the guy, but since there were five cop cars in the vicinity, I sure hope they did.

After all the events of the day, I was relaxing in Jorge's house with some of his friends, drinking a few beers. While Jorge went into the kitchen, I was chatting with his friend Carlos, who's getting married soon. I turned to him and said, "So tomorrow's your bachelor party, huh?" He looked at me with a blank face and replied, "Oh really? I didn't know." Then Jorge came running out, saying, "It was going to be a surprise!" Whoops.