Today we had a wonderful day with our new Peruvian friends, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski and his wife, Nancy Lange.

We were introduced to them via Senator Dale Schultz, Eileen’s former boss in the Capitol who is Nancy’s cousin.  Nancy is a native of Baraboo, Wisconsin -- and also has roots back to Peshtigo, as well, where her grandmother is from.  She also worked for now-congressman Jim Sensenbrenner back when Jim was a state senator in Madison.

Pedro is the former Prime Minister of Peru, and has served as it’s Minister of the Economy and Minister of Energy and Mines.  Mr. Kuczynski is also currently considering a bid for president of his country in the April 2011 election.  He is a wealth of knowledge and an extremely interesting person to talk to -- and would serve the people of Peru very well if elected.

We made contact with Nancy several weeks ago and she graciously invited us to their country home for lunch. Shortly after we arrived, we were talking with Nancy and there was a rumbling sound kind of like an airplane flying overhead, which turned out to be a very short earthquake tremor.  We moved into the backyard, and watched a large mirror on the patio swing back and forth for about 10 seconds.  Thankfully, no damage.  It was our first, and hopefully our last, South American earthqauke.

We spent the better part of 8 hours with the family -- Pedro, Nancy and their daughter, Suzy -- and had an amazing time.  We reminisced about Wisconsin, talked about world affairs, and learned so much about the Peruvian people, their culture, and way of life.

Nancy also gave us a tour of their home, where they raise chicken, rabbits, ducks, and llamas, as well as have a large garden, horses, and even a “turtle refuge”.  We also swam in their very warm pool; playing a competitive game of “keep away” between Nancy and Jeff versus Eileen and Suzy, while Pedro played an amazing concerto on the piano.

As we have found with others in South America, the Kuczynskis were extremely gracious with their time and have already gone out of their way to show us a good time in Lima.  We plan to meet up with Nancy again tomorrow as she has offered to show us around the “city center” of this city of 9 million people and its historic sites.