I'm going to Chiclayo!!!

Yesterday was the graduation at the seminary where tio David is the director. I was looking forward to it because my cousin Julio was graduating. And he lives in Chiclayo, another little town north from Trujillo. I hadn't seen him in about 8 years! I was also excited to see his mom Mary which is my first cousin and the rest of the family. Plus I was going to go back with them to Chiclayo. They got in late Sunday night, I had gone over to Yesenia's house and hung out with her for a while at the little store and when I came back Tia Palmira told me that they had gotten here. They were staying in some dorm rooms at the seminary. So I went to go look for them. Well that didn't quite go very well, I went into the wrong room and apparently they all had left to go get something to eat anyways. Oh well. So I figured I would just see them in the morning.

The next morning I went for my daily run. I got back and got ready and went downstairs for breakfast. Mary and Claudia, her daughter, my cousin, was there with her 2 little kids. It was so awesome to see them again. We had some coffee and bread and just talked and talked. We decided to go for a little walk and then go buy a bus ticket for me. The ticket only ended up costing me a little over 5 bucks! We went to this little place to grab a bite to eat beforehand. We got this AMAZING fruit salad there. It had so much good fruit in it: watermelon, pineapple, banana, apple, grapes, ciruelas(I don't know what this is in english), canteloupe, honey dew, oranges, mangos, ahh it was great!

The graduation started at 7 so I got ready and we all went together. The place was packed. There were alot of people there and it was so hot in there too! No air conditioning! Ah! But I'm kinda used to it by now. The ceremony seemed to take forever but it was kinda nice because the guy that spoke only spoke english so it was easier to follow. After the ceremony everyone went back to the seminary for supper. It was so fun to just all hang out and laugh and remember old memories and just catch up. The dinner was good we all ate so much. And I met alot of interesting people. There were alot of people from the U.S. that came for the graduation. So it was nice to speak english again for a change. I rarely ever do unless I call my brother or something.

Julio(dad), Julio, and me

Mary, Lucas, Julio, me, Claudia, Raquel, Julio

waiting for the food to finally get there
The next day we went to the bus station. We got there maybe 15 minutes before time to leave. We sat around and waited a while, apparently they don't let people board until 5 minutes before they take off. I wanted some snacks for the road so me and Julio left to go to this little corner store next to the bus station. We tried to hurry since we didn't have much time. When we came back we just all sat there and then all of a sudden I heard my name on the loud speaker and then they started saying everyone elses name. I guess everyone had boarded the bus but us! We never heard them announce they were even boarding! So they were just waiting for us to get on, ha! So we got on the bus and headed to Chiclayo. I was soooo excited! I'm told it's always warm there so I was definatley looking forward to that. The bus ride was only about 3 hours. Not too bad. The scenery was really pretty. We went through all these little towns that looked so cute. There was a point where when I looked through the window on my right I could see lush green grass and mountains in the distance, and when I looked to the left there was desert and behind that was the ocean! It was crazy! I've never seen that many different types of nature scenery all together. It was beautiful!



rice fields
Chiclayo is so cute. It's alot smaller than Trujillo, which isn't very big to begin with either, and when we got off the bus it was really warm and sunny. We got to their house and just hung out and my cousin Raquel(we call her Kela) came over too. I was going to be staying with my Tia Chelita and Tio Miguel and they only live down the road a few blocks away.

I went to their house later on that evening. Tia Chelita is so cute and little! I just love her! I hadn't seen her in about 8 years either, any of them for that matter. And I had never really met my cousin Chavela, she lives there too with her son Jorge. I couldn't believe how grown up he was. Last time I saw him he was only 8 years old! Kela has this cute little mutt names Sabrina. She didn't really like me at first but I think she is warming up to me now. In the front yard, (well it's not exactly a yard but it's infront of the house and then there's another metal door to get out)there are all these cages with guinea pigs in them! I have never seen so many gunea pigs all at once, not even at a pet store! There were baby ones, medium ones, pregnant ones, it was unbelievable! My cousin Samuel raises them and then sells them as food and also sells their poop for fertilizer. Yeah there were huge bags of that all over..I can already tell this is going to be a fun visit..Ah I love it here!

guinea pigs

guinea pigs

and more guinea pigs