Ray and Rose on R&R in Peru, July 28, 2008

Yesterday, July 28, was Peruvian Indendence Day. Flags were raised, parades were marched, salutes were saluted. It was a huge party for everyone. We traveled to a small town nearby called Monsefu'. (Mohn seh FOO). We went with our new friends, Tom and Maribel. He is a transplant from the States and Maribel is his lovely wife. He is a fairly brave individual. He has left his former home in the US to move permanently to Peru to start his new life with Maribel and her son, Brian, who is a really nice young man.

We just made a day of running around Monsefu', watching people, eating EVEN MORE FISH at the Delfines Restaurant, and scarfing down an order of picarones (a sort of Peruvian doughnut, fried right in front of you and eaten with syrup.). I think picarones are made from pumpkins and flour. As a matter of fact, here is a link to a recipe and an excellent picture: http://perufood.blogspot.com/2006/02/picarones-pumpkin-fritters.html

After the picarones, we jumped in a taxi that brought us back to our little town for ten soles. We showed our friends the apartment we were renting, and they started seriously considering moving to Pimentel instead of living in Chiclayo. When the place is a little more organized, I'll shoot some pics of the apartment. Anyway, we had some American style coffee (we brought it from Costco, good ol' Jose's Columbian) that we made in the drip coffee maker we bought here. That device has pretty much saved our sanity. Tom was particularly pleased with the coffee since he says he hasn't had a decent cup since he got here. You will find that coffee is a weird experience in Peru. If you ask for coffee, even in a nicer restaurant, you just might get a cup of hot water and a packet of Nescafe. (This sounds familiar. Have I written this before?). Another method of making bad coffee is by using coffee extract. You place your cup under a hot water spout, fill your cup about three quarters full and then add the liquid coffee extract. Just nasty. I am on a mission to convert Peru to decent coffee.

Today, July 29, Rose and I took a short shopping trip to Chiclayo to buy some provisions that we missed the other day. Really, I think we just did it to see if we could find the stores and get back without any help. I am happy to report that we succeeded. We got home, logged on to the internet and discovered that not too far from our home in California, they had a 5.8 earthquake. Very little, if any, damage.

To those of you we left back home, we miss you guys. That is the only really bad part about being gone for this long. We really appreciate our neighbors on both sides of our house for keeping an eye on things. We wouldn't be able to enjoy this trip without you guys.

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