Happy Spring Time Everyone!!! It is actually the winter season down here in Lima so it is quite foggy on most days. We have about three weeks until we head back to the States so we are starting to plan our return. One of the things we have been doing is trying to find an apartment. We are a little nervous in taking an apartment "Site Unseen." Every since we arrived in Peru, we have been asked the question, "Have you been to Machu Picchu yet???" We would respond with, "No....not yet, but it is our plan sometime in the future." [View Full Entry]

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Hello Again! We had our friend James visit us from Seattle and he was interested in doing some hiking. After checking out different options we decided to head back to the Cordillera Blanca near Huaraz where we took my parents in December of 2007. After hanging out in Miraflores for a day, we took a bus to Huaraz and stayed at a relaxing bed & breakfast, The Lazy Dog Inn. After hanging out there for a day and a half and eating Diamox to help with the altitude, we headed out for a 3 day/2 night trek through the Quebrada Quilcayhuanca [View Full Entry]

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(Singing) "Don't you want me baby......don't you want me ahhhh...ohhh!" Here is another update from the land of 80's one hit wonders and incredible surfing lefts! With about three 80's stations in Lima, it is not uncommon to hop into a cab and hear your favorite song from 25 years ago (if the radio has not been robbed yet). Well, there is just under 3 months left here in Peru and things are still going well. Melanie has been very busy lately meeting deadlines for her projects and I have been sticking to my goal of attending Spanish classes. Melanie was [View Full Entry]

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Happy Holidays to everyone and we hope you are well! As I mentioned in the last entry, Melanie needed to go to Iquitos for three weeks to work on her Dengue Fever project. I met up with her on the 13th of December and she finished her work on the 21st. We decided that we might as well stay for an extra five days to do a little jungle excursion for the holidays. Iquitos is a city of over 400,000 people and it is the largest city in the world that you cannot reach by road. It felt more like a [View Full Entry]

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Happy Holidays Everyone! We definitely miss the holiday feeling down here in Lima. It is just not the same as the weather gets warmer and warmer. Everyday starts off with low clouds followed by clearing around noon. The average daytime temperature along the coast (when the Sun comes out) is about 70-75 degrees. After thinking about it for a long time, Mom and Dad Bergeron decided to come down to Peru for a week for a quick visit. We spent the first few days in Miraflores and Lima getting acquainted with the surroundings, eating great seafood, visiting museums, and sampling a [View Full Entry]

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Melanie and I have just reached our three month mark living in Peru and you know what that means? Yep...thats right....we have to make a run for the border......Bolivia. When you enter Peru, citizens of the U.S. receive a 3 month tourist visa and in order to reniew it, you have two options. Option one involves going to the city cetner of Lima and paying money but that only guarantees 30 extra days. Option two is quite a bit more fun because you get to travel. All you have to do is cross a border for at least 24 hours and [View Full Entry]

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I know it is a weird title to have for this blog but it is sort of an interesting story. Every five to 10 years, Peru wants to know how many people are living here so they literally do a door-to-door census. Peru picked a date (October 21st, 2007) and required everyone to stay in their homes for 10 hours from 8am to 6pm. People are also required to stay sober during this time. I went surfing at 5:30am with our friend Dave and returned to our apartment just before the deadline of 8am. I thought it was sort of funny [View Full Entry]

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It is difficult to believe that Melanie and I have been here for about two months already. Melanie has lived overseas before but this is new for me. It is interesting going through the daily routines down here in Lima which usually starts with walking 20 minutes to Spanish class. I just completed the month of September spanish class but this month I am going to test to see how disciplined I can be by studying by myself. I will give it a try for about a month and see what happens. Check out the following youtube video to see what [View Full Entry]

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Hello from Peru!!! Time is flying by down here in Peru! Six days after our arrival (Aug. 10th), Peru was shaken up a bit with a magnitude 8.0 earthquake. We were on the ninth floor of an 11 story apartment building at our friend Dave's apartment. It sure felt as if the building was made of rubber as we swayed back and forth for about 3 minutes. Lima was not really affected by quake but the Pisco region sure was. Melanie and the other two medical fellowship recipients volunteered to help out with the relief effort down in Pisco for about [View Full Entry]

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Hello from Peru!!! This is the first entry for this travel blog and I am just getting acquainted with it. Melanie has just returned from helping out with the earthquake recovery effort down in Pisco area of Peru. We will be moving into our new apartment on Sept. 4th. Our friend Dave has been extremely kind in taking care of us over the past few weeks. More later! [View Full Entry]

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