"Where's my hat, we're going to go on trampoline and take a siesta," says the boy that not 12 hours ago was crying and anxious because he was afraid to approach kids on the trampoline because they spoke a different language.

Today was another low key day (slideshow). We slept in until 8:30 again. Ruben got a quick morning "sprint run" in the hopes of doing some weightlifting in the gym, but they didn't have it set up yet. Ericka and Lauren traded tips on yoga and Pilates on her deck, then Ruben joined them. Shel managed to quietly avoid the mayhem, although he was able to help with Lauren's form for a few pictures.

After we cleaned up, Elias and Ruben went back to the playground for a bit. Elias begged Ruben "Dad, come on the the trampoline. Dad, come on the trampoline, Dad, come on the trampoline!" Finally Ruben relented. Just as he got on there, a bunch of other kids showed up and joined in. Elias said "Dad, you can go away now" so Ruben hung out at the club drinking Coke light until Lauren joined for a bit. We watched as the boy wound up socializing in English - although about what, we don't know. All we could see was an occasional game of what looked like tag on the trampoline, then some form of negotiations that involved going on the see saw (yes, they still have them here) and the swings, until the gang of kids had to leave for lunch.

The five of us eventually headed first to Asia for a quick internet fix and coffee (better than the day before, but not quite up to Seattle snobby standards), then north to a town called Mala for lunch. We ate at an open air restaurant called La Huaca, which had the hugest camerones (shrimp) ever.  Lauren's dish (Colitas de Camerones with ajo, until they insisted she have the rest of the camerones too) had yucca, Elias and Ericka had steak, Ruben had a heart attack on a plate and Shel had calamari. The only upsetting thing was when a woman walked into the courtyard and started pointing and begging for Lauren's food. Ericka tried to get her to go away, but she wouldn't, and finally called the waiter over who had to push her away. You could see she had soiled through her pants although (fortunately) she didn't smell. The waiter told us that was the first time that had happened, although Ericka was dubious.

We left there and went to the market at Mala - a true "local" market that also caters to tourists who come from Lima (but not foreign tourists, they tend to go to the upscale Asia Boulevard, which is a stark contrast to this market). Here's where you get your groceries, fruit, dead chickens, beer, clothing, just about anything really cheap. We wandered around the market and noticed how many things were in yellow. Ericka had told us that you are supposed to wear yellow underwear for New Year's for good luck.  We also looked for some sandals for Elias, but weren't able to find the type he wanted.

After our trip to Mala we went back to the Asia mall for ice cream and finally settled on some slightly large crocs-that-look-like-keens for Elias, even though they were kind of pricey. He'll grow into them. On the way back Elias decided he wanted to just be dropped off at the trampoline, so we did because we all wanted to go back to the house for our siesta.

All four adults hung out on the deck - Ericka in the hammock, Ruben and Lauren on one couch and Shel on the other. Ruben took a good 15-20 minute nap and everyone else read. Elias came back a little while later and grabbed his hat and said the quote that started this post. We just had to laugh.

At that point Lauren and Ruben took a walk down to the beach to finally put their feet in the Pacific - a must do whenever they are by the sea. They walked north to see the rock formations and take pictures of the birds.

The beach is littered with tiny little white crabs shells as well as other shells, and an occasional bit of what looks like jelly fish jelly. The inter-tidal zone is littered with the holes that are the homes of the red crabs. Some of the red crabs were out but not many as it was still the middle of the day (the crabs seem to like the morning time the best). If you do see one hanging halfway out of their hole and you walk close the scurry inside (we theorized they can feel the vibrations of your steps in the sand). There is a little trash, but not too much. The birds are very skittish and don't allow you to get too close, even if you walk closely.

We made it out to the rocks along the water, even though some of the sand was very squishy. The sand here is very fine and in places where its very wet it feels like it will give out underneath you in places. The rocks were covered in birds in places. At this point we noticed the tide was coming in so we turned back closer to shore.

As we approached Ericka's house we noticed Elias coming back from the beach and he came out to meet us. We spent a lot longer with him on the beach and watching all the birds. Snowy plovers were diving and grabbing the Mui Mui crabs that were tossed about in the waves. But more impressive were the Peruvian Pelicans that were flying just above the really big deeper waves.

We came in for dinner once it got colder - dinner was tofu stir fry cooked by Shel, chicken cooked by Ericka and some limeade made by Lauren. Desert consisted of making a fire on the beach and making smores. Lights were out early as we had an early wake up call planned for Monday to go up to San Francisco de Asis where Ericka is coordinating the building of the community center.