I got to Juliana's house just before 10, and once all of the other volunteers but John had turned up (he was staying in this morning), we and Juliana got a taxi to Ingenio. It's about 10 minutes further than Concepcion, so it was quite nice seeing the familiar scenery. We stopped off briefly at Concepcion for ice cream - there's a dairy farm there where they make ice cream with just the cream from the milk, so that was an interesting but nice taste.
When we arrived at Ingenio, we walked around a trout farm. I'd seen one before in La Merced two years ago, but this one was a lot larger, and the size of trout ranged from the eggs and babies to ones as long as my arm. I fed them some pieces of my ice cream cone, they jumped up crazily trying to eat them. Then we found a stall selling pure honey, so we got some free tasters. I bought a honey chocoteja there to see what that was like - a prune covered in honey with nuts floating it, coated in chocolate. Heaven - later on I realised that eating chocolate was probably a very foolish idea, but hopefully walking and drinking lots of water would stop there being any bad effects. We then walked around a restaurant which offered views of some natural springs - unfortunately the path was closed for wet season, but the little that we could see was spectacular. Then we went to the restaurant next door to eat trout. It was great laughing with the other volunteers - Jesse joked that we should form a band, our first hits being "Straight from the Cow" (re. the ice cream from earlier) and "Canchis Canchis", a quechua term which Juliana told us translates as 'Hanky Panky' (I can add that to my quechua vocab, which currently has about 5 words in it). Afterwards we got a taxi back to Huancayo.
John, Danny and I went to the market in the afternoon - the Huancavelica market is about 1km long, this time we walked to the very end. We saw artesanal goods, and nearer the end there were animals (1 guinea pig for 20 soles) and computer games - I had a look, and bought a few gifts before we turned back. Then I wandered to the internet cafe while John and Danny went back to their house, then walked about town for a little.
At about 6-ish I went back to Juliana's - she wasn't in at first, so I waited about in her kitchen until she got back. I watched some TV until Jesse and Jenny came over, then John and Danny, then we all went out for pollo a la brasa to ccelebrate my last night in Huancayo. Juliana paid for me - she said that it was a gift from her mum, who was too ill to come tonight. Nelly came along too, with her brother Mario and her nephew Miguel. Hilda and Yesy joined us there (Juan Jose was with his dad for the evening), I had a really lovely evening seeing everyone together. We took photos, and exchanged gifts - Juliana got me a typically-patterned bag, her mum had gotten me a typically-patterned purse, and Hilda gave me a wall-hanging with an image of Huancayo on it. That was really lovely, I wasn't expecting that! I gave Juliana a 'Royal Wedding' mug and some earrings for her mum; for Hilda and Yesy, Mum had packed chocolates. Those went down really well.
Soon it was 9pm, and it was time to say goodbye. Bye to Nelly and her family, who'd been my family last time. Bye to Jenny, Jesse, Danny and John, the new friends who I'd have to leave so soon. Juliana said that she'd come over tomorrow to take me to where the cars leave for Lima, so I took a taxi back with Hilda and Yesy.
The next hour was spent frantically trying to pack everything - I hadn't even begun packing beforehand, but I'm generally a fast packer. Soon my suitcase and rucksack were bursting, but the room was empty apart from my pyjamas, clothes for the next day, and the doll I'd named Jaiyo was sitting on the bed where he'd been that first day. I said goodbye to Juan Jose in case he wasn't up in the morning - I'd be leaving just before 7am - then went to bed myself, praying that the journey tomorrow would be a safe one.
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