Christmas day started off by opening up a little gift my parents sent me - a scarf, necklace and pendant. It was a cute little morning with my little strand of Christmas lights on. After that and my morning run, I left the house to figure out how I could spend the day (nothing was going to happen in my host family´s house because my host grandmother went to Trujillo and my grandfather apparently doesn´t like celebrating the holiday). After walking around for a while, checking out the internet and chatting with people in the Plaza, my friend who is the president of the water office in San Ignacio called me to join her for lunch.
Lunch of papa de la guancallina - me encanta! Then we went to several different caserios. At the first one, La Falda, they served us each a plate of the cow they killed the day before. It was taste, but I was so full! There was traditional dancing in La Falda called negrito. This is a dance where one person dances at a time, stomping their feet on the ground at different tempos with the rhythm of the music (played by a harpist and violinist). It´s normal for everyone to participate, such as people 80 years old to 5 years old, so, when they asked me to dance I really had to. It was so fun and so difficult! Really doesn´t look that hard, and I am embarrased to say I danced for 8 years when I was younger, but it really is quite difficult. But, alas, the gringo danced, so they all cheered and loved it! Haha!
Well, Vilma and I continued onto Las Viscas after this and did more of the same - chillin´, dancin´, and laughin´. At this site I also asked the violinist if I could use his instrument and play. So, we spent a bit of time trying to teach eachother different songs - him teaching me the tune for the dance and me teaching him fiddle. It was fabulous!
Then, returned back to La Falda because there were tons of people! This is where my friends Teigan and Kate met up. We watched more dancing. I did more dancing. And Teigan caught it on film! (I wouldn´t realize it until later how many people had caught it on film and how practically everyone in Palpa knows I danced at La Falda...talk about a ´quick win´ Peace Corps!) Then it was off the celebrate Christmas the American way...
Teigan, Kate and I went back to my place and made hot cocoa (with a splash of the lovely American Baileys), lit a candle, and chilled. It was so relaxing. Nice to get the warm feeling of being around people who feel like long time friends. Then we attempted to watch Elf, which didn´t work, so watched something else...but I feel asleep 5 minutes into it dreaming of snow.
Next day, we woke up at 4 ready to go fishin! A friend, Alberto, picked us up at the hora Peruana (an hour later) at 5 and we hit the road with 3 other home made cars that resemble sandboarding cars and 10 other people. A trip these guys take each year, and one that Alberto invited us to join in on. Got to the beach using back sand roads 2 hours later, a layer of sand in our hair, and barely able to keep our eyes awake after 2 hours of sleep. But the beach certainly put some life back into us! It was gorgeous! The anticipation of getting there was great too. We could smell the salt and feel the wind before seeing the water as we came over the top of the sand dunes. This beach, Puerto Caballa, only has 3 people living there, about 6 houses and only a total of about 100 people know about it. Just gorgeous and crystal clean.
Whiel there we had a little Thermodynamics review as we watched the clouds being pushed over and down the sand mountains and dissipating into the ocean, bringing the wind and dropping the temperature. Nerds, I know. But, we are all WatSanners. Caught fish (using a net that we let sit out for 2 hours) and went off to a little incove to look for little crabs. The cliffs of the incove reminded me of New Zealand (flash back of other good times). Made a soup with all the goodness. So rico! Pulled in the fish line and cooked the 6 fish we caught. They were soooo great! Finished the day with a nap, when I got burned, teaching the guys how to play frisbee, and swimming in the water. It was a perfect day! Got back at 6:30 and craaaaashed. Little burned, good food in the belly, and too warn out to attend the celebration of Palpa´s anniversary.
Next day we cooked a cake. Chocolate cake. Mmmmm...
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