You may recall that last October, Stephanie took her sister Liz to Bolivia to renew her visa, and on the return trip, there was a mix-up with their bus tickets. That resulted in Stephanie have free bus credits, which would expire by the end of April. We offered those to Gabriela to be able to visit the brothers in Puno and to have the chance to see the area.
We decided to send Anne and Abbey, which involved getting a special, notarized permission from the Peruvian governement: minors are not permitted to travel without their parents in Peru. That took a little time, but it wasn’t too complicated; Stephanie was able to request the document on her own in Cusco.
The girls had a good trip. Orlando and Magdalena took it upon themselves to stand in as their (rather protective) surrogate parents. They also took off several days to take the girls to visit several local attractions, which was incredibly hospitable of them. The girls thoroughly enjoyed their time there.
There was only a minor hiccup on the return trip. The lady at the bus station was not at all happy that these two minors (she kept calling them Peruvians, since they are residents) were traveling alone with a Venezuelan. Peruvians can be quite prejudiced against Venezuelans. But Magdalena and her daughter were able to persuade the bus agents that all was okay, and they finally let them travel home—though not without many words and looks that showed how they felt about the whole thing.
In other news, the tea tires that Kevin and Rachel transplanted have been a huge success!
Juan David 