You Know it’s the Week Before Peruvian Independence Day When…

…everyone is painting their house...

...or business...

...or church.

They have a week of festivities here in Peru for Independence Day so who wouldn’t want their house to be looking its best? Er, at least lots of relatives, friends and random people will be visiting to celebrate. There are Joneses to keep up with in Peru too, I’m just not sure what the stereotypical Peruvian last name is.

I had no idea how common sprucing up the house for Fiestas Patrias (as they call their Independence Day here) was until I realized that whenever I walked around town this week I saw at least a few houses getting painted. I took all these pictures in a 10 minutes walk this afternoon. And I didn’t even take a picture of everyone I saw painting.

As much as I would love my next blog post to be about how wonderful (or crazy, or incomprehensible, or disgusting) the week of partying was I will actually be doing a little traveling myself. There is a two week mid-year school vacation beginning with Independence Day on July 28 so I want to take advantage of some days off to see a bit more of the country.  As long as I remember to take a few pictures on my vacation I will update you all afterward.