First guest from Finland!

This week I hosted my first visitor from Finland! Emilia, my classmate from elementary school, is travelling around South America and stayed in Cajamarca from Tuesday to Saturday. Conveniently enough, Cajamarca celebrated the Fiesta de Corpus Christi on Thursday and Friday, so I had those two days off and could spend time with Emilia. On Wednesday I did go to work, though, and Emilia accompanied me to Chamis and sat through my four English classes. She was the guest of honour: before going to class, all the pupils lined up on the schoolyard, sang the Peruvian national anthem in Quechua for Emilia, and put their as yet fairly limited English skills to the test by exchanging some pleasantries with her.

Since I hadn’t had much time for tourism during the four weeks I’d spent here (although I admit that lack of time is always an excuse), Emilia’s visit was a perfect chance to finally get to know Cajamarca and its environs. We climbed up Santa Apolonia hill to enjoy the view over the city,



walked around the city centre (which, in the case of Cajamarca, is not exactly huge) and the mercado, took a relaxing, very hot bath in the Baños del Inca,



took a tour to Cumbe Mayo (famous for its rock formations),





went to the pre-Incan necropolis of Otusco,



visited the Llacanora waterfalls,



and had a look at the famous Cuarto del Rescate where Inca Atahualpa was held prisoner by the Spaniards. Emilia even dared to go watch a bullfight at the Corpus Christi fair, but I chickened out of it at the last minute. I suppose no matter how many years I spend in Hispanic countries, I won’t get it out of myself to sit and watch bulls being killed, not even for the sake of curiosity. On Thursday morning we got to admire some enormous paintings that had been painted on streets around the Plaza de Armas in honour of the Corpus Christi feast.



It was great having Emilia over, and showing her around made me realize just how much I’ve grown to like Cajamarca!