We spent a day hunting, asking around, being led from place to place in search of our dream apartment in Huanchaco. Our options ranged from a tiny dingy room with no windows in the back of a surf shop, to a room in the house of a nearly deaf old man, to a room in a hostel complex that obviously catered to young volunteers and surfers of partying inclination.
We evaluated each one, not really taken with anything, and Rob kept saying “There’s got to be a diamond in the ruff out there somewhere. We just have to find it.”
Our front porch
The last place we looked at was this diamond in the ruff. For the same price as all the others (S/.100 or $35 a week), we have a furnished apartment twice the size of my studio in Seattle. Two bedroom (though our landlady is storing stuff in the smaller bedroom), a decent-sized kitchen, a laundry area, a living room, and a little porch. It’s on a main road, but farther away from the beach (and thus the surfer crowds). There’s plenty of natural light, and wi-fi!!!
Did we really bring so many books with us?
We made a gleeful run to the local supermarket and loaded ourselves down with fresh fruits and vegetables, beans, rice, pasta, etc., and are set to start cooking up a storm. I cooked the dish I’ve been craving most last night: black beans and rice with plantains and a fried egg, and this morning Rob made us a delightful fruit salad with yogurt. For lunch? Egg salad sandwiches with a salad of quinoa, mandarins, green onions, pecans and lime.
Delicious breakfast, courtesy of Rob
Cooking lunch--egg salad sandwiches and quinoa salad
If you can’t tell, we’re in heaven. We’ve spent the past few days furnishing the apartment, cooking, and arguing over the computer (“But I need to catch up on writing all those posts!” “But I need to edit photos so you can add them to your posts!”)
It is a bit noisy, however. When I woke up at 6:30 yesterday morning because of what I thought was a tornado, or possibly World War III (it turned out to be a bus driving by), I groaned to Rob: “As a concerned citizen of this neighborhood, I’m going to lobby for mufflers on all buses.” We’re right across from a school, and they’ve been having a volleyball competition the last two days. The cheering is fine, and the loud music wouldn’t bother me normally, but their playlist seems to consist of only the top five songs on the Peruvian charts. I think I would have liked Shakira’s new song if I hadn’t heard it so much (5 times and counting already this morning). And if I hadn’t seen the music video.
We’re heading into Trujillo today to go to the market and find a few more things we need—broom, extra towels, french press—and then we’ll be set here in our little palace. We’re still not sure if we’ll end up staying here after the Parental Visitation in December, but after two days I think we’re both already in love.
robertkittilson
Jessie Kwak
