Semana Santa a couple weeks and a few soles short

So I'm three weeks late of posting about Semana Santa. Many people emailed me to talk to me about what goes on here in Peru during the Holy Week before Easter, and the honest answer is...I have no idea.

The great thing about Semana Santa for me this year was that because it's consists of four vacation days for Peruvians, it also is four free vacation days for us volunteers. And seeing how things at site have been somewhat difficult, I had no personal qualms about getting away from the rain and dreariness of Cajamarca for bright sun, sand, and surf in Northern Peru.

My friend Bron and I went up to Mancora, Piura for a few days to "dry out". It was a good move for both of us. We had a great time. We met up with other Peru 9 volunteers, and we made a bunch more new friends from our great big Peace Corps family.

One night we all went out dancing, and for the first time in my service we were in a big PC group of Peru 7, 8,9 and 10ers all just having a good time. There truly is something that connects you to other people even if you didn't spend three months in training with them.

We also made new friends with some local fisherman. One day we (Bron and I) headed to a remote part of Piura to get away from the Semana Santa crowds with our new friend Brian (Peru 10). What we didn't realize was that we were going to a place that had no restaurant, store, or very consistent transportation. So after a couple hours of lounging around the beach we got hungry. We knew that we were pretty isolated and foreigners so we asked a family BBQ-ing on the beach next to us where we could find some food. In their awesome Peruvian generosity they invited us to eat with them. We had good food with a lot of potatoes (of course), but even more we had great conversation. Again, we were explaining what Peace Corps is and what we do, and they were teaching us about their lives. They were fishermen and so they showed us the fish they caught and how they wash their hands. They explained things to us about Peruvian culture as they knew it living on the coast. All in all, it was a great time, with great conversation. And we made new friends with more of the awesome people of this amazing country.

Brian, me, and Bron meeting the fish that our friends had caught that day.
Bron learning how to wash her hands like a fisherman with one of our friends.

The sunset in Mancora. It disappeared so fast, I didn't really have time to get a great shot.

Here I am catching up on the latest in movies, music, and television. I'm reading Entertainment Weekly. Thanks Big Sis for sending them to me.

As for the title of this blog, I did come back from vacation totally broke, but it was worth every penny.