Spending Christmas in Iquitos

Well, our second Christmas in Iquitos was a success. We spent the day of Christmas Eve hanging out in the house trying to hide from the heat, it was uncomfortably hot. We barbequed for lunch and then saved our appetites for the big meal at midnight (typically the time when Peruvians eat their Christmas Eve meal). We went to church and then over to join our friends at their house. We were in charge of the hot chocolate, champagne, and Arabic rice. The meal was delicious and it was a lot of fun slipping into a food/champagne coma with good friends. We spent Christmas day having a lazy morning and relaxing by the pool followed by watching Christmas movies on TV.

Garlic had a nice lazy Christmas too. He followed us around the house in between all of his naps. Our other cat has temporarily run away. We´re hoping that he´ll return soon because we miss him, and so does Garlic.

We also played with some fireworks and sparklers, as is tradition in Peru. You´ll hear the sounds of fireworks gioing off everywher all over the city around midnight.

My friend actually created a big snowman for her front yard. And she made the whole thing by hand! A wired shape and a white cloth for the body, a cardboard hat, a real broom, and some construction paper for the details. It was pretty impressive.

It was a great Christmas because we also had the chance to skype with family back home. I hope you all had a great Christmas!

Decorating For Christmas

We have decorated our house for Christmas, well just the outside of the house. Something that makes me feel a little strange and homesick about celebrating Christmas in the jungle, is that it´s really hot here. And to me Christmas is supposed to be cold and snowy. I feel like it´s not really the season here for Christmas since it´s permanently summer. So, I decided to focus on wintery decorations to convince myself that its Christmas time. I hand-made a bunch of snowflakes and used the colors blue, silver, and white. Props to Coco for putting up all the lights and helping me shop for all the decorations. We actually had a ton of fun listening to Christmas music and decorating.

 We even managed to find some silver pine cones in the market of Belen. They obviously reminded me of the pine trees back home.

Below is a picture of the snowflake ornament my mother gave us. It was kind of our inspiration. And it´s hanging in the center of everything.

Coco was asked to decorate the squad so I helped my out a bit. I helped him decorate the tree and made him some snowflakes since he kindly requested me to make some. I think he did a great job putting it all together. Merry Christmas everybody!

A Little too Late

Well, I kind of missed the whole wedding, oops. Like I explained before, I was already committed to my preschool Christmas production and couldn´t escape during my friends wedding. I rushed to their small lunch reception and arrived just before the food was being served. All I could manage were a few pics of them sitting together. But I saw pictures from others, and I think it was a beautiful ceremony, too bad I missed it. Best wishes to my friends Carmen and Cesar!

Another Wedding

A friend came to me yesterday and told me she´s getting married tomorrow in a small ceremony here in Iquitos. She asked me to take the pictures, but unfortunately I´ll be tied up with my preschoolers and their preschool production during her ceremony. So I told her I would rush to the lunch reception to take more photos. So, we´ll see how it goes. But I went to her house to take pictures of her details. I think their wedding will be beautiful and perfect. I can´t wait!

Celebrating A Year of Safe Flights

Yesterday we went to a fabulous party organized by the Air Force to celebrate another year of flying. And this year there were no accidents of any kind to report. And that is happy news for everyone so there is a celebration to acknowledge the work of the pilots, mechanics, and everybody else who makes everything happen in the Air Force. Everybody was there, dressed up, and ready to have a great time. There was a small ceremony with speeches and awards followed by some videos from all the events of the year. Then it was on to the food. We had paiche fish gourmet style and enjoyed a spread of cheeses, fruit, and breads along with a chocolate fountain.

Here you can see some pictures of the bar Coco designed. He created a five page menu of mixed drinks available from the open bar and created the whole look of the bar. I have to say he did a great job. And everybody really enjoyed it. Here is a page from his menu.

And of course we danced the night away untill our feet couldn´t take it anymore. We had such a great time.

Flying in Formation

There´s a couple of special events coming up for the Air Force and all the preparations are under way. Monday is Air Force Day and Coco and  the pilots have been practicing flying in formation for the big day. I imagine it must be so fun for him to be flying alongside his friends just like he used to do in the Academy. They will be flying together on Monday and then celebrating all day. And next Saturday we´ll be going to a formal party for the Air Force Day. The pictures in this post were all taken by Coco during his recent practice flights while he was co-piloting.