Xmas in Ica (Day 1)

Friday 22nd of December

I woke up very late in the day as I hadn’t been able to go to sleep until around 3:30 the previous morning (late bus ride in). I was awoken to my host mom telling me we were leaving for lunch. I quickly got around and we all headed out in a Moto taxi to the city center. We sought out a restaurant that seemed fitting for the family and chowed down on typical Peruvian foods (Causa, Papa huancaina, etc). By this point in the day, It was fairly hot. I thought that I would be the one dying from the heat and the Peruvians would be fine. And while I was thinking it was toasty, so did my host mom, which meant we had a sufficient flow of iced drinks throughout the lunch. After lunch, we all left to chill in the city center for a little bit. My host mom bought me ice cream, along with one for herself, and we consumed our scrumptious and cold snacks to cool off. 

After our time in the city center, we returned back to the house with some serious intentions, get this place ready for Christmas. We dug out the Christmas decorations we did have and got to town. The tree was definitely very tricky, as the majority of the stands were broken. My crafty aunt that lives in Ica ended up coming over and we ended up wrapping wire around where the branches would go so that the branches would stay in place. I then thoroughly confused my host sister when I began doing the lights and was putting them inside the tree branches.

After we somehow figured out the tree, the family started on a decoration I had no idea how to help with. They had all started on a giant sort of something (very descriptive I know). But I honestly had no idea what they were making and was of no use. Turns out they were making a giant nativity scene (And by giant I mean humongous). 

After they got the nativity scene assembled we put up a few remaining lights around the house before we called it a day (for the decorating). We knew that we would have to buy a few more lights before we would be done decorating officially, but we all decided that we were exhausted and had a big day ahead of us, Paracas!