Wow! This is great!! No, wait a minute....

As you all know, because you've heard about it and have probably already received yours, everyone everywhere is converting to "chip-PIN" credit cards and readers.

Huh.  Did I say everywhere?  And by the way, S. Morris needs to be more careful with his cards.
Anyway, everywhere apparently didn't include the central mountains of Peru.
We received our shiny new chip-PIN cards from Bank of America, and headed out on a road trip. We stopped at our favorite grifo to fill up the tank, and after waiting in line,

 we filled up the mission SUV.

Gleefully knowing that never again would we have to sign a credit card receipt, we presented our chip-PIN card.  After a bit of a wait, 

¡Negado!  Denied!  And so it was at almost all of the businesses along the way.  Luckily, we had the good sense to carry some extra cash, the universal language.

After only three months, we were able to convince the folks in the US that we wanted our swipe-type cards back.  When they arrived, they were accompanied in the envelopes with the following pamphlet:

Super!  There are certainly times when we're away from Huancayo, in some sketchy places, where if we really broke down, this would be great!

Uh, oh!  This is what our "Maps" screen on the phone looks like about half the time here.

I guess that since we're not on the map, we ARE out of reach.  Oh, well, at the least the good 'ol swipe cards work...so far.

We hope that all your fantastic plastic transactions go more smoothly, and that you're on the map.

Dave & Paula