Stokes in Peru

(Taken from the rooftop terrace of the hotel we stayed at) Greetings all~ I hope as we roll into August that life is treating you well. As for life in Peru, I am gearing up for the routine of full work weeks, something I haven't experienced for quite some time. As I mentioned in the last blog, swine flu (or the less colorful name it now is given) has been sweeping South America and caused the start of the school year to be pushed back another week for the students. The students aren't the only ones who have benefited-with the short work week (we only were allowed to come in Thursday & Friday of this week), Marianella and I took the opportunity to escape away for an extended weekend trip. Late Friday night we boarded the bus for an 8 hour trip to the highlands and the small city of Huaraz (pronounced War-as). Now you might say that sounds like a pretty miserable excursion and I would normally agree; however, Marianella lined us up with a wonderful bus, where the ultra-co...

Greetings again everyone~ I hope life is treating you well back home in the States. I see it's been slightly over a month since I last updated the blog, so I figured I should fill you in on what's going on in our lives recently. If you didn't know, I was recently back in Minnesota for a brief two week visit. The visit was more business than pleasure, as my availability for socializing was curtailed by selling furniture, cleaning out our house, and preparing the place for the next renters to 301 Wyoming. So I apologize if you didn't hear from me while home, but I anticipate that my return trip after Christmas will allow for more relaxed times and socialization. As you will see below, I did take the opportunity one morning to take some pictures of the Twin Cities area, just so we don't forget what St. Paul is all about while down here in Peru. In addition to the historic sites of St. Paul, you'll also see some pictures of the University of Minnesota's new,...

Greetings again everyone~ I hope life is finding you well. It is time to update my blog once again as we just got done entertaining my Mom and sister Mary for two weeks in Lima and the surrounding area. If you've been following closely, you'll know that they were our first visitors from the States to Peru and we had a wonderful two weeks together. Whether we were spending time with Marianella's family, exploring Lima, or heading on a road trip to Parracas National Reserve, we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. With our friend Sue and one of her friends arriving this Thursday, this blog entry is going to be long on pictures and short on text-which I'm going to assume everyone is just fine with :-). Enjoy the pictures! Our night at the Dance: At Love Park (my favorite statue in the city): A Different Perspective of Love Park: A Stylin' Dog: At the Water Park: A Windy Day at Parracas Reserve: Pelicans. . . Penguins. . . And (3 month old) Sea Lions, Oh My! The Stokes/Viz...

Greetings again everyone, I hope spring fever has caught all of you back in the States and that the sun is shining upon you. Life has been going pretty well for Marianella and I in Peru. As you have seen throughout this blog, Marianella has been doing a pretty good job of showing me around Peru, but our travels up until this time have been around central and southern Peru. With a week-long vacation on Marianella's schedule last week, we took a few days to explore a bit of northern Peru. Our initial plans were frustrated (fog canceled our flight), but we were able to regroup and have a very enjoyable vacation in northern Peru, as you will see below. Trujillo Trujillo is the largest city in northern Peru and was actually where the groundswell for independence from Spain originated. Located along the Pacific coast the plane took little over an hour (think Minneapolis to Chicago) to land us in this wonderful city, which rapidly moved up our list of favorite cities in Peru. Maria...