The Results Are In!

Here are the top vote winners.

1. Mi amigo secreto. I am sorry to say that mi amigo secreto isn’t as exciting as you probably assumed. Amigo secreto is like a secret santa gift exchange. Ysabel was the name I drew. She is in my morning English classes at the office. So I felt compelled to give her a teacher-y type gift: a Spanish-English dictionary. And she loved it! She wrote me a Christmas card and gave me some chocolates as a thank you. Friday, December 22nd was our Christmas Party at the Office. We had our gift exchange, each person describing who their gift was for, and us guessing. Conrado, the director of the Network, gave me a lovely vase. I also received a box of chocolates from the whole office. We had a Christmas lunch of Turkey, applesauce, something similar to a waldor salad and a champaign toast. It was fun celebration(that I forgot to bring my camera too).

2. My birthday in Huancayo. The fair trade team that I work with hosted 2 encuentros this year. One Huancayo for the artisans in and around Huancayo, Huancavalica and La Oroya. The other in Huacho for the artisans in and around Lima. The night we spent in Huancayo, Willy showed us around to a resturant and a bar with a live band and we danced and danced. Koki told the band members that we were celebrating my birthday, so all night they were giving me shout outs i.e. Kori, you’re not tired yet? - Kori, why aren’t you dancing? - Kori is from North America and its her birthday! It was a rather long celebration, and by the time we got back to the hotel at 4am the door was locked and we had to ring the bell several times before we were let back in! In the morning we visited several of the artisans’ workshops and the first one prepared us mundungo soup... I don't really know what was in my bowl, but they stew a sheep, so its kind of like a luck of the draw situation. All I know it that the mystery item was rather chewy!

3. 12 minutes till midnight and not a sole to spare. This is our New Year’s Eve story. During the day Kelly and I walked to the beach and jumped in the waves. In the afternoon we headed back to my house/church for service, Panetone and hot chocolate, and a chance for the church members to meet/ question Kelly. From there we bought a 7 sole bottle of ‘top shelf’ Champaign (which they dusted off for us) and headed to the hotel where Jamie and his friends were staying, hung out shared stories and cheap-Champaign toasts. Kelly and I headed out to get to our hostel’s New Year’s Party before midnight. We left at 11pm, plenty of time to spare(it should only be about 20 minutes maximum in taxi). At first it was rather difficult to hail one, and when one stopped I haggled for a price that was way too high, but I accepted because it’s a holiday and we wanted to get there rapidismo. When we got in I realized that oh no, I only had a large bill which are sometimes difficult for a taxista to break. So I told him this and we stopped at a gas station to break the bill, and a second gas station neither had enough change, or they were just being stingy. So I told him ok, we are heading to a hotel and they will be able to break it at the desk. So we finally head off (not far, maybe 10 minutes down this road). But he turned another way… hmmm I think, maybe he knows a short cut. Then we get to a part of Barranco that I don’t know, and he starts asking people where this street is. Oh crap, it wasn’t a short cut… So I tell him, sir we were very close before when we were at the gas station. If you go back there I can help you find it. But, of course he didn’t listen. What do I know? I am a dumb blond tourist to your city, right. He hears me saying very close and thinks I am talking about the time, because it was very close to midnight. Yes, señorita its close to midnight. No, sir I say you are going the wrong way. Finally we get to a part I recognize and I direct him from there, more forcefully, so that he will listen. We get to the hostel and I run inside to break the bill, the girl at the front desk checked her drawer and there wasn’t enough change. In my small change I was only short 3 soles, so I asked her to add it to my room bill, like they do with the bar and meals and services of the hostel. But, she wasn’t a regular employee and didn’t feel she had the authorization to do that. In the end, one of the girls there took pity on me and just gave me the 3 soles. I ran outside to the taxi and gave him the fair. He gave me one of his cards and told me to call anytime I needed a taxi (right, not in this life time)! We got inside dumped our stuff in the room and headed to the bar, it was 12 minutes till midnight. We ordered 2 cuba libres(rum and coke) and a bottle of Champaign. Ready to forget the disasorous adventure and celebrate. This was a pretty rockin’ party with a dj and they shot fire works off the roof of the hostel at midnight.

4. Kelly's visit. The write in ballot winner was that you wanted to hear about Kelly’s visit. I’ve posted pictures on my facebook account from her visit with captions to tell you all about it. http://owu.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2010987&l=058df&id=24100417

5. Lions and sand dunes and piscos, Oh my! This story is from the first week of January, still on vacations. The lions come from the zoo in Lima. I went with Eduardo, Jamie and Jim and Jane(Jamie’s friends from home). We got there pretty late in the day, close to closing time. We managed to get around to many of the animals before they shut down. We were in the area with tigers and lions when they were trying to get them into their night cages. We stood there frozen in awe as we heard one lion roar a magnificent roar, and the other 2 answered fiercely. With listening to this its not hard to understand why lions are the kings of the jungle! Sand dunes come from our visit to Huacachina. I caught a bus with Dave(who's family had also just left) to Ica, about 4 hours south of Lima. Huacachina is a tiny oasis town outside of Ica. There we met up with Jamie, Jim and Jane. We took a dunebuggie/sandboarding trip around the massive desert sand dunes. As our driver sped over, up, down and around the dunes, I screamed so loud along with Jane that at one stop our driver was laughing so hard he practically fell out of the buggie! Our driver would come up to cliff-type edges and we wouldn't know whether or not we were going over or if he'd slam on the brakes. Then we would get out and sand board down. Ica is known for its piscos(a famous liquor that Chileans and Peruvians argue about who invented it) and wines. In the afternoon we took a tour that included 3 bodegas and a chocolate factory-there we tasted 'drunk rasins' soaked in Pisco and dipped in chocolate. At the oldest bodega in Ica, Dave and I bought a bottle of Crem de Pisco- pisco, fig and cream-very yummy over ice. We became quite knowledgeable about the processes of fermentation and Pisco makeing, (also the flavors)!

6. More Pictures. Here are some pictures with captions to describe more of my happenings from before Kelly came and after she left. http://owu.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2010983&l=c0e45&id=24100417