to try and explain what the holiday is all about in Spanish. So us three Americans, with some help from others, prepared the entire meal start to finish. We made three chickens (no turkeys down here), 3 types of stuffing, mashed potatoes, roasted vegetables, bread, green bean caserole thing, 2 pumpkin pies, and an apple pie, accompanied by plenty of wine. We spent the day in a boiling hot kitchen, cooking in shorts and tank tops--a definite change I'm sure from some of you who were cooking in the snowy east coast. We then moved our kitchen table outside where it was a bit cooler, and sat down to gorge ourselves with about 25 people in total. Everything went smoothly and it was a ton of fun all day. Everyone really enjoyed the food, no matter how odd they thought it was. Then it was back to work the next morning.Hanukkah too has been very very difficult to explain to people here, especially in my broken Spanish, especially since I'm a little fuzzy on all the details even in English. I put together a make-shift menorah out of a hodgepodge of items I found around here; some vitamin bottles, a medicine bottle, the tops of beer bottles, a coiled rope, a cork, an egg carton, etc. It's actually pretty cool. Some of the items have since caught on fire or melted, oops!, so I've had to minimilize and just put my candles on the piece of wood. It's been fun watching people watching me light them every night with wonder, and a little confusion. This holiday has also been celebrated in shorts and a t-shirt, far from the usual back home.
The monkeys have also been a bit problematic because of the heat. They spend a great deal of time down on the cliffside, where there some water and a cool breeze, but where we are unable to 
take data, or even see them for hours at a time. This means we usually lose our monkeys for a day or two. They also had some weird movements lately, where we think the group had split in two. We actually didn't take any data for about 10 days! That's a lot of work we need to get done in the coming weeks. So the past couple of weeks have been really frustrating...and did I mention hot? Before the monkeys went all crazy on us, we began darting! Boi and I have been chosen to be the darting team (it's less cool than it sounds). We take a little wooden dart with some mouse-trap clue on it, stick it in this large plastic tube, and blow. The aim is to hit a monkey, for now a peripheral juvenile, in the hopes that the dart will stick and fall off having collected some hair for later DNA analysis. It was been great fun to try and get a good angle and be sneaky about it so the monkeys don't exactly know what's going on, and to get a good quick shot. It's pretty difficult because the monkeys move a lot and are at various heights and such, but man, I can hardly express how fun it really is to shoot those monk
eys.
take data, or even see them for hours at a time. This means we usually lose our monkeys for a day or two. They also had some weird movements lately, where we think the group had split in two. We actually didn't take any data for about 10 days! That's a lot of work we need to get done in the coming weeks. So the past couple of weeks have been really frustrating...and did I mention hot? Before the monkeys went all crazy on us, we began darting! Boi and I have been chosen to be the darting team (it's less cool than it sounds). We take a little wooden dart with some mouse-trap clue on it, stick it in this large plastic tube, and blow. The aim is to hit a monkey, for now a peripheral juvenile, in the hopes that the dart will stick and fall off having collected some hair for later DNA analysis. It was been great fun to try and get a good angle and be sneaky about it so the monkeys don't exactly know what's going on, and to get a good quick shot. It's pretty difficult because the monkeys move a lot and are at various heights and such, but man, I can hardly express how fun it really is to shoot those monk
eys.We've planned a 15 day vacation over Christmas and New Years, and we all can't wait for tuesday to arrive! Our plan is to go as far south as possible. We're going to Uruguay for a couple of days, then flying from Buenos Aires to Rio Gallegos and then going to El Calafate, where there is a beautiful glacier and mountains, and then to Ushuaia in Tierra del Fuego--the End of the World. It's so close to Antartica, I'm going to try and become a stowaway on a ship. It's literally the farthest south we could possibly go on this continent, and we're all anxious to experience a little cold! Exactly what we'll be doing for the holidays, I dont know...probably some hiking
and camping, and wildlife viewing. Can't wait for vacation!So I hope everyone has a wonderful Hanukkah, Christmas, and New Years. I'll be sure to
post some more when I get back from vacation.
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