Absentee spouse emerges from jungle

February 3
From Sue
We skyped with Eric this afternoon and he is safe and sound (if not a little sunburned) in Iquitos. He enjoyed his time on the river and will have many stories to tell as you can imagine. Tomorrow he meets with folks at a university and presents a talk or two at another university.
Elijah is feeling better and the reason we know that is that he is tormenting his sisters again.
We are managing ok. We had a picnic in the park and got some ice cream. There are people selling ice cream from their bicylces all over the place here. I guess now is a good time to talk about the food in Peru. (I am a Reigle after all!) It is a good thing that our family likes carbs because it is a carb rich diet here. There are many kinds of potatoes; rice and pasta are also popular. The national dish is ceviche which is raw fish treated in a lemon/lime juice which sort of makes it safe to eat. I have tried it once and don't intend to again. The bread is awesome and we buy a lot of it fresh-as in still warm. It is also inexpensive. The desserts and baked goods look fantastic but we have not yet, the key word being yet, splurged. We have been creative in our cooking using the ingredients that we recognize and can find. A major discovery this week was cheddar cheese; we looked all over and couldn't find it. It is labeled Cheddar Ingles aka gringo cheese.
Thanks for all of your prayers. We feel God's hand on us. We are still homesick but knowing that so many of you are praying helps a lot.