An aside from Nancy: while in Lima we had stayed with Tien in La
Casa de Gringos, which houses various transient transplants all
working at the same NGO, which happens to be affiliated with Johns
Hopkins University. Perhaps it therefore shouldn't have been a
complete surprise when we met Hopkins medical school students Hau and
Rob (pictured above right) and discovered that not only did they
know Mike Lai (my friend from high school!) -- but he had even
played violin at their wedding the previous fall! Talk about a small
world -- I'm used to this, but I didn't really expect it in Peru! The
amazing thing is that they weren't even really supposed to be at the
Gringo House -- they just happened to be passing through at the right
time after a longer stay in Iquitos. We met up with them in Cuzco too,
this time planned; it must have been their sweater purchases that
inspired our subsequent shopping spree...)