Giving Thanks, Peruvian Style

We hope that all of you in the United States had a very happy Thanksgiving last week!  Despite being in Peru and away from home for Thanksgiving, we managed to have a really good time celebrating the holiday twice!  We really have so much to be thankful for, so it was fitting that we were given two celebrations to give thanks.  

Thanksgiving Day: 11.24.11 

On Thanksgiving day, we had dinner with all of the other students in our study abroad group, as well as the directors of the program.  Everyone made a dish at home and then showed up at our study abroad office for an amazing dinner.  Caitlyn decided to attempt to make Mica's famous pumpkin roll for the very first time this year (it's just not Thanksgiving without Mica's pumpkin roll!), so we got together at her house and our host moms helped us make it.  We ran into a few bumps during the baking process, so the final product didn't look as nice as it could have.  As we were trying to actually roll the pumpkin roll, it started to break apart.  Once it was rolled, our host moms were trying to make it better, but they just kept transferring it from plate to plate, which really made it worse.  Luckily, after it had chilled in the refrigerator for almost four hours and we added some powdered sugar, it didn't look too bad!  Best of all, it tasted absolutely delicious.  Goes to show, never judge a pumpkin roll by it's cracks.

The finished product! We sliced it and then cut it down the middle so there would be more pieces.

We also had two turkeys, which were very moist and flavorful, along with many other traditional Thanksgiving dishes: stuffing, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, etc. Because they don't have cranberry here, someone made mango chutney instead, which was really good.  

Delicious homemade bread made by our friend Anne!

Most of the food.

Paul's plate! Delicious.

Oh, and did we mention that there were TONS of desserts?  Even more arrived after this picture was taken.

After eating, we sat around with some of the other students and played Uno and Pictionary, which was really fun.  We love board games, and we've missed playing them since we've been here!  It turned out to be an amazing Thanksgiving, and we were very thankful for that!


Thanksgiving Part Two: 11.25.11


The day after Thanksgiving, Caitlyn's host mom threw us another Thanksgiving dinner.  She invited Paul's host parents, Caitlyn's host uncle, and her best friend Rafita.  The only traditional Thanksgiving dish we had was turkey (which was very good), and the rest were just random Peruvian dishes. They made arabic rice (some kind of sweet tasting rice with raisins), a salad in the shape of a wreath and covered in ham, apple puree, and cake!  We really enjoyed being able to spend time with our host families, and we thought it was nice that they wanted to help us celebrate the holiday.  

Caitlyn's plate.  Much different than our IFSA Thanksgiving plate, but very good.

Left to right: Paul's host parents Ricardo and Marilu, Rafita, Concho, us, and Caitlyn's host uncle Luis.

Brisas de Titicaca: 11.26.11


On Saturday night, we had another event with our study abroad group at a place called Brisas de Titicaca (Breezes of Titicaca).  Brisas is kind of like a La Comedia type place -- you get dinner and a show.  At Brisas, they put on performances of traditional dances from all over Peru.  We had the best seats in the house, literally right in front of the stage!  The cool thing is that the dancers will come out and perform, and then for about 10 minutes in between each dance, they play music and allow all of the people from the audience to come up and dance, like at a club.  The whole spectacle is about 5 hours long -- it started at 10 and when we left at 2:30 AM it was still going!  We had a great time dancing together, and the performances were beautiful.  

These skirts each had tons of layers under them!  The white skirt was biggest, it probably has almost 20 layers.

During the Marinera, a dance from the north of Peru.  It was very artistic and entertaining.

A dance similar to the Marinera called the Tondero (thanks Jaz!), danced by couples.

Us with two of the dancers!

All in all, we had a really nice Thanksgiving weekend!  We have so much to be thankful for: our families, friends, homes and country.  And of course we are incredibly grateful to have had this experience to come experience life in Peru!  Being here has taught us a lot about ourselves and the world, as well as made us appreciate what we have at home.  Speaking of which, we'll be home in less than two weeks!  The countdown has begun. 

Dancing in the Desert

Well here we are, about a month after our last blog post once again.  Sorry for being so lazy about writing the blogs, it's just kind of tedious sometimes.  We only have three weeks left here in Peru, and we are starting to feel the time crunch!  We have papers to write, exams to study for, plus we want to try and have fun and enjoy the last few weeks that we're here.  Since we last posted, we've done some pretty interesting stuff, though, so here goes!


A few weekends ago we decided to finally go down to the beach and actually get in the water.  Neither of us had ever been in the Pacific Ocean before, so we were really excited!  The beach that we went to is actually all rocks and despite being incredibly smooth and not jagged at all, they really hurt your feet when you walk on them barefooted just because of the balance of pressure they create.  Another thing we didn't think about when going to a beach covered in rocks is that the waves bring the rocks in, so when you stand in the water the waves throw rocks at your legs!  We decided to sit down, but despite that, Paul kept getting pelted by rocks and ended up with several welts on his shins.  It was still really fun, though, and now we can say we've been in the Pacific!

A couple weeks ago we also decided to visit the Parque de las Aguas again.  If you've been following our blog, maybe you remember that we went there during our second week here in Peru with our study abroad group.  We wanted to go back because we didn't really get to fully enjoy it the last time.  The cool thing about revisiting it was that we ended up getting to see the light show that they display on the main fountain, which was really beautiful.  While shining all different colored lights on this line of fountains, they would also project moving images, such as a ballerina dancing, as well as lasers.  

We thought the silhouettes looked cool in this picture.

The main fountain. Such pretty colors!

They kind of look like they're dancing!

The dancing ballerina being projected onto the fountain.

Just last weekend we went on a trip with our study abroad group to a tiny little town called El Carmen which is located in a more desert-like area.  Much of the afroperuvian population lives in the area as well, so we went there to learn about their culture and traditions.  The trip was very relaxing, as we spent a majority of it hanging out by the pool at our hotel.  

Our hacienda!

The gorgeous pool area.

While in El Carmen we also had some afroperuvian dance lessons, which was definitely a sight to see.  Neither of us are really born dancers, so we looked pretty hilarious trying to keep up with our instructors.  After all of our hard work trying to learn the dances, we got to visit the home of a famous afroperuvian family who lives in El Carmen and has kept up the traditions of afroperuvian dance and music.  These traditions have been passed down through the generations since the slave days.  They put on an amazing dance and music performance for us, but unfortunately we didn't have our camera to take pictures of it all.  Then on Sunday, we went to visit some pre-incan ruins just outside of El Carmen.

The cross has been there since the Spanish first arrived, but the wood has been replaced many times.

View from the top.

This week we have a ton going on, including a Thanksgiving dinner that we're putting together with our study abroad group, which should be fun.  All of us are bringing a dish, and it seems as though there will be tons of food.  Caitlyn (and Paul is going to help) is going to make Mica's famous pumpkin roll for the first time, so hopefully it turns out well!  Happy Thanksgiving to all of you in the United States!  We miss you and hope that you have a happy holiday.