Dear friends of the California Café,

Greetings from all of us to all of you who have visited our home in Huaraz, Peru. Today we would like to share a little about the future of our beloved cafe where we enjoy opening the cafe's doors and becoming a moment in the lives of so many amazing people. As most of you know Tim and Luisa are now located in Miami, Florida, but our doors have always remained open and have continued to provide jobs and livelihoods to our hard working friends who share the vision of making the cafe what it is; a great spot for travelers and Peruvians alike. The California Café brings the possibility of hope and opportunity to all the people that work here, allowing these people to reach their goals of education and self-improvement, and to maintain support for their families.

Now in these moments of the pandemic we have unfortunately closed our doors, already sacrificing two months from mid March to mid May during which we have tried to maintain our employees through the quarantine with the food supplies and other stocks of resources from the cafe. With recent events in Peru and the evolving situation there, we are still unable to open for business and must wait for a more stable and safer environment, but unfortunately, we do not know when that will be. As of May 22 the quarantine has been extended through the end of June with the possibility of further extension. In early May when we started this campaign, we had nothing left to give to our employees and they have no other source of income.  Many thanks to the people who responded we sent the first support on May 15th; needless to say our employees are very grateful (see the video below).

We continue to reach out to all of our friends who at some point in their lives visited the California Café and enjoyed our little home in the Andes of Peru, and would like to ask that you help support our employees with a small donation. We are confident that these difficult times will pass and we believe that by helping one another we will make it through.

Thanks from Judith


Good day, from here at my home I would like to send gratitude first to Tim and Luisa Norris for their concern for us, their employees and collaborators and our respective families, above everything for our security and health. Through them I would like to express my gratitude to you, friend, family, and clients of the California Cafe for your generous support, because thanks to you we are able to carry and cover part of the necessities in our homes. The California Cafe spent almost all of its resources distributing them to all of us workers since the pandemic started and we are grateful for this. Because ... we saw the concern that they had for us, their collaborators since at this time it is difficult for the California Cafe to open its doors. They are preventing for us and the clients, thinking of security and health .... in this moment they prefer to wait for some time to be sure before the Cafe again opens its doors. For this they have seen the necessity and the way to support us after they had already done so. Many thanks for their support. Thanks for being always there for us. We would like, at least for me, that everything passes quickly, this pandemic, this crisis that we are living through to be able to attend to you with the same warmth as always that is characteristic of the California Cafe, to receive you with care, responsibility, and security as always. We hope that you are all well in your homes, taking care of yourselves, and that everything is going well for you. Many blessings and grateful for all.

Thanks from Juan Carlos


Hello, good afternoon everyone, I am Juan, I have worked in the cafe for more than five years now, my current position is administrator. I want to offer my sincere thanks to Mrs. Luisa for having supported us a lot, including sharing the last of the cafe's supplies to give us support, and she still works to raise more support for us. I am extremely grateful for her and I want to express my gratitude for all the people who are helping out, Tim's family, Luisa's family, all of the friends, family, the people from the peace corps, and for all the people with good hearts who help us. The support really serves us and we are very happy for the help that has been offered. The situation here is very difficult. It is now more than two months since we have not received economic income or been able to work since the beginning of the quarantine. With the help from you we will be able to go along a little longer. I don't have words to express my gratitude but we are very happy for the help, may thanks from the bottom of our heart.

Thanks from Edikson


Hello, good afternoon,
My name is Edikson Rogelio Pellejo Salaverry, and this afternoon I would like to thank Mrs. Luisa and her family for sending economic support for all of the employees of the California Cafe. At this time we are going through a powerful crisis that is effecting everyone and in all reality I miss the work very much and I would like that God lets this pandemic pass soon and we return to normal like before so that we can return to work. And thanks from my heart to Mrs. Luisa and that God blesses her and that you have a good afternoon. Thanks again Mrs. Luisa and blessing for all  of your family. Thanks.

Please enjoy these shared memories.