Chan Chan, or how we came to give our email addresses to 30 Peruvian schoolgirls

Sorry bout the lack of updates, but we have been busy travelers. Anyhow, we are up in Ecuador, in a town called Puerto Lopez. Ecuador is much greener and swarming with Vermillion Flycatchers, which never cease to impress me with their bright plumage. When we crossed the border from Peru we asked the guy next to us in the bus what sort of currency they use in Ecuador (quetzales? sucres?). Turns out they use the good ol US dollar, which is oh so convenient as we no longer have to divide everything by 3 to figure how much it costs.

We have been migrating north in seach of warmer water (which we have found!) and sun (no sign of any of that yet). Apparently the sunny season on the coast doesn´t begin for a couple more weeks. Maybe this is a good thing, since the last sunny day (in Mancora, Peru) resulted in some pretty serious sunburn on Rose´s legs. In fact, she is just now walking without a limp and it is about a week later (slight exaggeration maybe). The only consolation was that the burn was acquired during a great surf session in which she caught a bunch of sweet waves... Small price to pay? We´ll have to see how the scars turn out... Anyhow, we migrated relatively quickly north along the frigid and desolate Peruvian coast. We had a great visit with my aunt Elena, a nun living in Chulucanas, Peru. She showed us all sort of interesting local sights and introduced us to our new favorite pastime, the siesta!

Anyhow, before it drifts too far into the past to remember, I just wanted to relate a funny experience we had down by the town of Trujillo, Peru:

As you can well imagine, Rose and I blend right in down here, except for the fact that we are really white and a head taller than everyone else. We are somewhat self-conscious about our conspicuousness. In fact, the highlight of our trip so far was being mistaken for Brazilians the other day - how cool is that?

Anyhow, one day we were strolling around the ruins of Chan Chan, a huge, pre-colombian adobe city and ran into a huge herd of 12-13 yr. old schoolgirls, dressed in matching uniforms. They were out for a holiday trip (8th of October, anniversary of a war with Chile that I think Peru actually lost) and didn´t seem too keen on the adobe city. However, they were fascinated by us, especially after we started to chat with them a little bit. Pretty soon were were being mobbed with questions (How old are you? How many kids to you have? What the heck kind of name is Ty? (¨Rosa¨ rolls nicely off the castillophonic tongue)), requests for photos with us, and our email addresses. After posing for a bunch of photos and writing our email a couple of dozen times, they were so kind as to give us a ride in their bus back to the main road, saving a kilometer or two of walking. Anyhow, now we have a little sense of what it feels like to be a rock star - or at least the member of a tween-oriented pop group. Should be good preparation in case our musical careers finally start to take off...

More soon loyal readers, and maybe even a photo or two.

Ty

Huanchaco

Greetings from Huanchaco, Peru! We arrived in this quiet beach town on Saterday after spending 3 days in Lima visiting museums, dodging traffic, and trying to decipher Spanish language newspapers (things are not looking good for Pinochet´s family). Among the more unusual museums we visited was El Monestario de los Dezcalsos (monestary of the barefooted monks). It has an enourmous collection of Peruvian religious art decorating the monks´quarters, preserved from the 17th century. We toured the rooms where the monks slept, ate, prayed, made wine, and mixed medecines. The monestary was, and still is, an oasis in the midst of a pretty overwhelming city, made more so by the remarkable amount of diesel in the air. After 3 days we felt glad to board a bus for the 10 hr. overnight ride north which began with a viewing of ¨Die Hard 4 ¨ that made the journey through the endless outskirts of Lima all the more riveting.

Although Lima was stimulating, it feels great to be in a more tranquil town where a person can hear the ocean and breath clean air, smell the ceviche! We spent some time in the water yesterday, I laying on my surf board and paddling around more than standing on it. The surfers here share the waves with men dressed in blue pants and white shirts, a sash around their waste paddling slender and pointed boats made of reeds. Traditionally a fisherman´s sport, they paddle out in unison and seem to share a ride on the same wave back into shore--no competition for waves there.

Pues, we´re heading into the neighboring town of Trujillo today to check out language schools now. So, look for the next EMM in Spanish!

Hasta luego,

Rosa