Summary:
New Year's and the New Year's celebration in Peru was unique on so many levels. It was strange being away from most of my family and relatives, and on top of that learning the customs of a different tribe, but they were so much fun it was worth the trip.
Three accomplishments
1) Dancing all night long -- It is easy to do this when you start at midnight and the DJ plays an eclectic mix of spanish, 80's and dance music until 7am. The dancing was fun and since we were a large group of 20+ people there were many people to pull out to the dance floor and dance in a group with. Given all the food and drink available pairing it with 6 hours of a hot aerobic workout was an excellent thing. After the dance was over we changed into swimsuits and threw ourselves into the pacific at 7am, it was a great way to cool off and at that hour the ocean was lovely.
Pre-party gathering
Dancing the night away
Opening bottles of champagne (my chore)
(Walking home in the morning after dancing to the beach)
2) Incredible Food and alcohol -- We had many snacks and desserts available before the midnight and during the party they served aguadillio (or levantamuertos) a spicy chicken soup at 4:30AM. The catering was done by Buen gusto in Lima and they served sandwiches of lomo saltado, peaches and cream cheese, artichoke and cheese, and desserts
(Aguadillto Chicken soup at 4:30 aM)
3) Staying healthy -- I was able to go running both on New Year's Eve morning and January 2nd with no problems. Ericka and I felt like slugs for now working out on New Year's day but then we realized we had been dancing for 6 hours and earned a pass.
Yoga in the morning
Three areas for improvement
1) Less Blackberry time -- I need to spend less time attached to electronics -- I will be limiting my updates over the next 12 days as I should really immerse myself in the time and people here while I can.
2) Better reporting -- I will try to be more concise and substantive in what I do post while I am here as you really don't need to know about every coffee break I take while I am here.
3) More unique reporting -- We are settling into a pleasant summertime rhythm for the next few days and I will try to report only the substantively unique things to keep the signal/noise ratio high.
Yours,
Ruben
