Can I tell our story? Can I tell it in English? I can speak Spanish/Castellano, but sometimes I butcher the grammar when I write. This is probably going to end up being kind of long, but anyway, here goes...
To start off, my name is Dennis and I'm the American citizen...Erika is my Peruvian queen. Our story started out when I worked with a friend named Andres who grew up in Peru and came to the US when the University of Kansas brought him here. We became friends when we worked at a job for a little while a few years back (2003, I think). I always told him that if he ever went down to Peru and wanted to bring any of his gringo friends that I would love to go some day. Eventually that day came in 2006. In July of 2006, I went down there with Andres and his wife and another couple. I was the fifth wheel and the only one who couldn't speak Spanish. Well, at the time I was tired of dealing with American women. I had always thought that Latin women are the most beautiful in the world and to top it off, had heard that they are very passionate and dedicated to their man...definitely MUCH better than what I had been dealing with here in the US. My partying days were over and I was looking to settle down if I met the right woman. So before we went down, I told Andres that I wanted to find myself a sweet, beautiful Latin woman while down in Peru. I didn't think I would in just two weeks but thought it would be worth a try

So I sent him some pictures of me and he did some "marketing" for me before we went down

I had a few potential dates lined up before we even got on the plane. But the second night we were in Lima we went to a party with a lot of people who Andres went to school with. That's where I met my sweetheart. My first impression was Wow! She looked gorgeous and seemed shy with a touch of confidence. We couldn't communicate so we just started dancing. Everyone at the party stopped what they were doing and started cheering us on like something straight out of Footloose, Peruvian style. Everyone was filming and taking pictures of Erika dancing with the crazy gringo. So after we danced, we had Andres translate for a little while and we ended up exchanging emails. For me, it was love at first sight, but I wasn't sure what she thought. The next day me and the two couples I was with left for Cusco but Erika and I emailed each other a few times a day while I was away from Lima. I wanted to see her again BAD!!!

When we got back from Cusco Erika spent the first day with us. We had a lot of fun in Lima and a couple of beach towns to the south. The next day we were sitting on the couch at Andres' family's house with a pocket dictionary ("nuestro amigo"), trying to converse on our own. After several minutes, Erika did something I'll remember for the rest of my life. She flipped through and pointed out the word "matrimonio". I felt a warm and fuzzy feeling go through my body. I looked at her and she smiled nervously and gave me a look that said "What do you think????" I must have had the biggest smile on my face. I have to admit I was a little shocked but I thought about it for probably two or three seconds then shook my head up and down and said, "OK!" The rest, as they say, is history.