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