quick summary of the past few weeks

so, i haven´t been doing a good job keeping up with this...but that´s the way it goes. i had a sweet, sweet birthday celebration last week. i was going to meet up with teigan and kate in la venta, teigan´s site, at 5. but, alas, one should never tag a time to an event because it just won´t start at that time. i think just because i was so excited to get out of my site and hang out, it intentionally took longer. so, it started that friday with me visiting a water system in san ignacio with 5 other people...keep in mind, ´hora peruana.´

well cleaning goes as such: one man puts a rope around his waste, another man lowers this one into the 6m deep well. the man in the well takes one end of a 50m long half-inch thick wire and sticks it as far into the tube as possible to clean out roots that are stuck. this goes on, and on, and on, because there are tooons of roots clogging up the well. i thought it would only take 2 hours, and took 4.5. so, by the end of cleaning two wells and lots of tubes, we get back to the taxi to start the 15 minute journey back to palpa. however, the car doesn´t start - as to be expected. the taxi driver fiddles with some wires which does nothing; we climb to the top of a hill to get cell phone service, which doesn´t work; finally we push start the car and get it going. so, now we´re all back in the car and starting the climb up the mountain on the road...i hear a ´hiss, hiss, hiss´ and then we stop the car and get out - the TIRE POPPED! of course. so, we change the tire. get back in, and the car won´t start! omg, at this point i didn´t even think i was going to be able to leave. well, a car comes around the road luckly (it´s kind of far out there and not many cars drive by), so i get a ride back in the car with the taxi drive who is going to get help and we get back to palpa. i felt bad ditching the rest of them, but they told me to get in and go and, well, i didn´t refuse. got on the soyuz, peruvian style late, and headed off to la venta.

now, that´s just friday...the 18th...

then was saturday. i will sum it up because i am currently ´late´ to the christmas celebration that is going ot happen tonight in San Ignacio. saturday i got two packages from the mail box from my parents (THANKS!). went sandboarding in Ica which i would recommend to everyone! then, topped off the night with gluten-free cake that kate baked and the three of us had a blast frosting and late night swimming in the oasis and pool. it.was.a.blast. :)

headed back sunday (my real birthday) and bought a bike in Ica which is beautiful and now i feel free to travel around anywhere, and had a small dinner of pollo a la brasa with my friend here. it was small and sweet.

now is Christmas time (24th) and the big day for celebrating the holiday. I am currently going to San Ignacio and told there will be dancing, music, and killing a cow. They also told me they will cook Panchamanca since I told them it was my favorite Peruvian food. Not exactly sure what to expect though! Late tonight there´s supposed to be dancing in the Plaza in Pala and a big church service. All there festivities happen leading up to tonight at midnight. Tomorrow there isn´t much of anything, so it´s quite a bit different. Not Santa, trees and present...but then again, I do get to help kill a cow. So...it´s all just a little different!

I hope you all ´desfrutar´ your Christmas day with family and friends! All my love!