Last weekend I had the fortune to have a surprise (well kind of...) birthday party thrown in my honor.  Normally in the past I have celebrated my B-day with family, which would consist of us going out to dinner followed by me going to a bar with a few friends where my night would usually end (fairly boring I KNOW).  Who would be so bold to break me from my mundane tradition?  The culprit was none other than my girlfriend Zdenka, she single-handedly orchestrated the festivity (with support from other friends).

Since my birthday (August 31 for those who didn't know) fell this year on a Monday, Zdenka decided that it would only be appropriate to plan the party for Saturday night (to better accomodate the inevitable next day hangover). 

So Saturday arrived and I had made plans with Zdenka to go dancing with our friends Evelyn and Lorenzo in Barranco at Rustica (a rather decent place with a fairly large dance floor).  I arrived at Zdenka's house at around 8pm and ended up waiting nearly two hours for Zdenka to get ready (she was stalling).  On our way to Barranco, Zdenka was constantly texting and talking on her phone to people who she assured me had to do with work (she was talking to the invites).  When we got to Rustica Evelyn and Lorenzo were already inside and had snagged a table, which seated 10 or more (I found that rather odd at the time).  We order a few 1 liter size beers that come in these huge mugs, at which point I started to suspect that something was up.  Then Zdenka's phone rang and before I knew it she was gone, a few minutes later she returned followed by a horde of my friends and family (at this point it all finally came together). 

With the surprise out in the open the party began to take off.  The music was great, the beers plentiful, and the feeling that someone (who went through all the trouble of putting together a surprise party) truely loves you made the night wonderful and more than I could have asked for.  But wait it doesn't end there, oh no there is more to this than I have discussed yet. 

My favorite cake torta helada (cold cake) a cake covered in jello, was brought out by the work staff at Rustica and the entire bar began to sing happy birthday in tremendous unison. 



So there I was enjoying my party without a single problem and then the DJ comes on the speaker to announce that he "needs three brave men to come up on the bar and compete to see who has the best dance moves".  This is roughly when I noticed that I was being dragged across the dancefloor and to my horror towards the bar.  Before I could even argue or run away I found myself standing atop a bar with two other dudes facing a full bar of people (this is the kind of situation that most of us fear).  Out of the speakers can the bump and roar of (one of thousands of roughly identical) reggaeton songs.  Realizing that I had a pair and slightly buzzed on watered down beer I began to do what came natural to me and shaked my thang (and quite well if I might be sold bold). 



When the music came to a halt the DJ called out to the crowd for a judgement in an American Idol (God I know I just referenced that show) kind of way.  Now I am not pulling your chain nor am I painting this story in my favor but I was sure as hell shocked to find out that I had beaten my two other opponents (one of which I had suspected was gay for his persistent attempts at trying to grind up on me).  And just when you would think the public humilation would be brought to a halt, the DJ called out to any guy who thought he could out dance the Champ.  Out of the corner of the bar appeared this muscle head who hopped onto the bench (good God WHY!).  The music was turned on again and I was therefore subject to kicking ass with my awesome dance skills.  The verdict was then asked of the public who unanimously voted in my favor (SE QUEDA!), while the other dude was sent home (SE VA!). 



For having been such a good sport and being subject to such embarrasment I was reward with a free 1 liter beer (aw...the taste of victory...slightly watered down). 



The rest of the night was spent consuming medicore but still efficient libations and dancing to my favorite songs with an over inflated ego (long live the king!).  The rest of the details are kind of fuzzy but I am sure that I didn't do anything to idiotic (this time).

So Sunday was a fairly uneventful day given the fact that Saturday night I spent it drinking and dancing with my girlfriend and some friends of mine in Barranco & Lince. We partied in Rustica (not my favorite of places, but the drinks are reasonably priced) which was pretty fun until I was harrassed by one the security guards.

Try to picture this if you will. Here I was, this poor buzzed guy just minding my own business trying to take two full Chops (they are these huge 1L mugs filled with beer ofcourse) to our table when out of nowhere comes this huge dude in a suit and tie. He tries to pull me to one side and actually grabs me which, I was not a fan of by the way. I asked what the problem was and he asked me where I was going with my newly purchased beers? weird question when your inside a bar/club. I told him I was following some friends to our new table. He asked me where that was but unfortuantely for me I didn't know exactly where that was, so I told him "that I didn't know and that I was following my friends there".

By this time the guy was getting pretty impatient with me and just kept asking me over and over again where my table was, this really started to piss me off so I told him he should stop talking and try listening since he obviously didn't here me the first time. Finally after 5 minutes of ridiculous back and forth nonsense, my girlfriend shows and with two other guards and some wait staff. They all asked what the problem was and before you know it what was once an arguement between two became a huge orgy of a argument. I finally got fed up and handed the two chops to the idiot of a guard and told him to take them to the table. This must have really pissed him off because he looked like he wanted to beat the crap of me ( he probably could have too). Finally some manager type comes along and escorts us to our table and the whole thing was finally ended in a very anti-climatic way.

After a few hours we left that joint and headed to Voce which is a pretty swanky club in Lince on Av. Petit Thours. The place charges a S./20 cover which is fine I guess. The drinks are actually quite expensive for what you get. The same beer in Rustica costs S./7 more making it fairly uneconomic in comparison. The dance floor is fairly big but that doesn't really mean anything in Lima since by 12am - 2am the dance floors are usually so packed you can barely move. We hung out at Voce for a while and the headed out around 3am.

The next morning I woke around 11am, still in a bit of a fog from the night before. My father and I hungry headed out to Lurin a town located just south of Lima near the Pachacamac ruins. According to my father Lurin has some of the best chicarron in Lima, even though I find the chicarron in Chancay to be better. Along the way I happened to come across some horses that were grazing along the side of the road. There is a place right next to the Pantanos de villa which is located by Av. Huaylas right before it merges with the Panamericana Sur (south). There you can go horseback riding along the beach for a reasonable price (I can't remember how much exactly). I do remember it being a lot of fun the last time I did it with my friends and family.




The above picture was taken yesterday when I was driving down Av. Sucre in Magdalena del Mar yesterday when I drove by this huge church/monestary, not really sure which but I really grabbed my attention. I chose black and white because I thought it would make a more dramatic photo. The colors were to washed out which is why I chose to take the photo in B&W.