Five City Tour

We did quite a bit of traveling this past week.  We managed to visit five different cities in a week´s time, and most of them were outside of our mission boundaries!  But we're not rebels.  Our area manager now works out of Arequipa and he requested that we come down for a week of training and to help him set up this new program in his sector.  They are behind us in regards to implementing these new workshops.  So it was great to see a different part of Peru all while moving the work forward.

We started out by heading to Puno for our third visit there.  We went out on Saturday, May 2nd and it took just about all day by bus.  At least we went in style on what is known as a bed seat because the seat can recline so far back, if you choose, that you are almost lying down.

We are becoming pretty familiar with the route between Cusco and Puno.

We held a facilitator training meeting Saturday evening for the members who are going to present the workshops to the Puno Central stake members.  Then on Sunday, we attended two church meetings, met with a Elder Becerra, from Tumbes, Peru, who leaves for home this next transfer and is interested in BYU Idaho Pathway program.  We gave him an overview of how it works and gave him the website to refer to for more information.  His English was pretty good.  The down side is the closest Pathways location is 4-8 hours from his home.  We also fit in a training with one of the full-time missionaries that has taken over teaching the Daily Dose classes to the missionaries there in Puno.  He is pretty shy and serious and I can't imagine him showing much enthusiasm while he teaches, so hopefully the training is going to help him do a better job.  We told him to enlist other gringo missionaries to help him.

We then held the Mi Camino fireside that evening.  It was by far the biggest turnout we have had EVER!  When I saw the crowd I was worried how the presentation would go.  We did it a bit different this time.  They had me present the introduction and then the rest of the fireside was given by the local priesthood leader in charge of self-reliance and we just supported him by floating around the room and giving assistance to anyone who needed clarification on the assignments.

 To my amazement, the fireside went quite smoothly and I'd have to say it was one of the better, if not the best, fireside we've done with this new presentation.  I gained a testimony that it is important to work with the local priesthood leaders and let them take ownership of this work.  I think the work will bear more fruit if done in this manner.

We headed out Monday morning with Carlos Hale to Arequipa.  The terrain was very different than what we had seen so far in the Cusco mission.  It is about a 5-6 hour drive from Puno to Arequipa.  We started out in the altiplano, passing plenty of herds of llamas, alpacas and even a few glimpses of vicuna.

 Here is what the drive looked like to start with.  Flat, straight roadways.

 Here's a few of the herds we went by.  Sometimes they were right up near the roadway.

It then transitioned into desert, which reminded us of Nevada.  Until we saw these...

which reminded us of the Bookcliffs in Utah, not as colorful, however.

Long before we arrived in Arequipa, we caught our first view of Misti, the large volcano that overlooks Arequipa and you can see where ever you may be in town.

 There are also other mountains and volcanos near Arequipa as well, but they don't stand out the way Misti does.  It made me think of Mt. Rainier that towers over my hometown of Seattle, but Rainier has a lot more snow.

Near to Arequipa is a huge cement factory. And the land surrounding the factory for miles is ideal for making cement.

Monday after getting checked into our hostal, we headed out to explore.

Our hostal, Negrita's house.  They sure do love the color orange for their homes both inside and out.

We figured we'd start with the Plaza de Armas.

The Plaza was swarming with pigeons, as they sell pigeon feed to the tourist so they can have an up close and personal experience with the birds, apparently.  And we found full-time missionaries!  There was a group of about 8 missionaries apparently spending their P-day seeing a few sights.

Arequipa is a Spanish colonial city.  It did not exist until the Spanish conquered Peru and settled there, so there are no ancient ruins like in Cusco.  The architecture is from the colonial era, done in soft stone, no hard rocks to work with in this part of Peru.  Here are some sample photos of the architecture.

They use a soft white stone to build most of their buildings.  Thus, the nickname for the city is the White City.

The next morning we visited the Self-Reliance Center that we've heard so much about.  It was impressive, we were not disappointed.  First of all, it is a building all it's own, not a few rooms inside a stake center.

 The building on the right is the Self-Reliance center.  Two stories no less!  And inside were nice big rooms and separate offices, very impressive.  The church owns the building to the left as well.

What's even more impressive is they have regular service missionaries that are dedicated and committed to serving every day in the center.  Our manager, Carlos Hale, doesn't have to do much of anything in the center.  Everything is taken care of by these service missionaries.  Oh, how we would love to have a set up like that in Cusco!  We have tried and tried to get volunteers and local service missionaries called and have not been successful.  

Arequipa has seven stakes compared to Cusco's two stakes so that probably helps out a lot.  The center is close to the university so it is convenient for the youth to stop by and visit. It looks professional and has a professional feel about it.  Cusco is light years behind Arequipa but our center really has only been open since we arrived so Cusco is in the infancy stage.

We had free time in the afternoon so we did some more sightseeing.  We visited a tower that lets you overlook Arequipa.

The tower from below.  No elevators, you climb to the top.  Below is looking down from above.  You can see the Christ statute.

We also visited the temple site.  There isn't much there, just a dirt field.  The church hasn't broken ground yet but will probably do that by the end of the year and then it will be almost 3 years to construct.  Just in time for us to come back down on our second mission!

Dave stands on the Arequipa temple site with the Misti volcano in the background.

We headed back down to the Plaza de Armas just as it was getting dark.  We had hoped to tour the Monasterio de Santa Catalina which is nearby, but by the time we got there we only had 30 minutes to closing and the entrance fee was 40 soles, not worth the price for the time, so we took a few outside photos and called it good.  Maybe next time, if we have another time down there.

 The Monastery is huge!  The photo above just shows a portion of the outside walls.

 Cindy stands in front of the main entrance.  Below is a sign at the entrance.  That is about all we got to see of the place.  They still have a cloister of nuns living in a private section of the monastery.

 Dave tries to look as tough as this knight, but he just doesn't have the same amount of hair coming out of the top of his head so he just doesn't carry off the intimidation as well.

As it was dark by the time we finished up at the Monastery and it is only a few blocks from the Plaza de Armas, we headed back down there to take a look at the night view, which was very charming.

The main cathedral lit up at night.

Wednesday we left Arequipa with Carlos and headed down to Ilo, a small port town on the Pacific Ocean coast.  The countryside was pretty desolate.  Here are some photos to give you an idea.

 Just outside of town is a big mine, called Cerro Verde.  We drove past that.  Then we headed into pretty arid countryside.

This part of Peru is the northern tip of the Atacama desert that is mostly in Chile.  Nothing grows here unless you are near water.  There were a couple of spots we hit that were like an oasis in the desert after miles and miles of nothing but sand.

This made me think about Lehi's family as they traveled from Jerusalem to Bountiful.  I think it would have looked a lot like this, mostly desert and an occasional oasis to rest up in from time to time.  How it must have been hard to head back off into to desert and leave one of these green spots!

We loved Ilo.  It was small and quiet and yet there is a stake of the church in this little place.  The temperature was just right, not too hot nor not too cold.

They had a pretty walkway from one end of the harbor to the other with interesting statutes and sights along the way.

 Even a kids playground right there on the beach.

Some more things for kids to play on, made out of old rubber tires!

These two bronze statues sit next to each other as a tribute to marine life, one a mermaid and the other a pretty buff fisherman.

They had many sculptured plants/shrubs.  Here a peguin, below a pelican.  There were also dolphins, fish shrubs as well.

A big purple octopus sat on the rocks near the shore.  And below was a nice dolphin fountain in middle of a small plaza.

We ate lunch at a restaurant that sat right on the water.  We ate on an outside veranda that allowed us to watch the pelicans fly by, the harbor seals play in the water and little birds even came right up onto our table to eat the crumbs.  It was warm and sunny.  It was charming and felt like a little piece of Paradise after the cold of Cusco.

 View from our table as we ate.

 More table side views.

 After eating, we headed over to an area where the seals kept swimming to.  Man were we able to get some great close up photos.  Dave even filmed a small video.

In the evening we trained the facilitators that are going to be giving the new workshops to the members there.  We also set a date for the introductory fireside, Mi Camino, on June 14th.

Our two facilitators in Ilo.  Both have been working self-reliance for awhile.  

The next morning it was on to Tacna, a city about two hours further south from Ilo and very near the border to Chile   Just as we left Ilo, we stopped at Playa Ingles, which historically was used as a pirate cove.  Now it is used as a beach resort.  You can barely make out the waterslide they have into the cove, but the water here is really cold. 

The landscape between Ilo and Tacna was mostly sand dunes and beach.  We figured someone could come down and open a 4 wheeling/dune buggy recreational business.  The only problem is, all these sand dunes are out in the middle of nowhere.

Rock sculpture for the Peruvian Air Force (in honor of Kelan Steck)  There is a big Air Force base out among all this sand and desert.

We also saw an awful lot of these little huts, abandoned now, but apparently used by migrant workers in their day.

Carlos said in Tacna, we were only 35 kilometers from the border.  There is a lot of commerce in Tacna as many Chilenos travel across the border to shop at Tacna since their currency is stronger than the Peruvian sol so they can buy more for their money.

We arrived in Tacna late morning, so we had plenty of time to explore a bit.

Apparently this fountain was made in France.  The people were quite proud of that.

For lunch we went to a polleria broaster, which is a very popular style of eating establishment here in Peru.  They love chicken, especially when it is cooked in this manner.

Our hotel was very pretty in the lobby.   They seemed to have a penchant for green, as our room was painted in three different shades of green and the bedspreads were green as well.

There are three stakes in Tacna, so in the evening we had a large group that we trained about the new program and how to be facilitators.  It was a very productive meeting.  Afterwards we all went out to eat pizza.  Here in Peru, they love to eat pizza but only for the evening meals.  Most pizzerias don't even open until 5 pm.

The next morning we left Tacna and headed back to Arequipa by way of Moquequa, a small town know for it's dairy farms and cheese.  Carlos' wife had asked him to pick up some cheese so we went ahead and bought some.  When we got home and tasted it, we wished we had bought more than just one slab.

Moquequa was a green valley hidden among desert and sand dunes.

We trained the self-reliance specialist there in Moquequa, which amazing has one stake as well.  Then took some time to go up to the Christ statute they had overlooking the city.

When we got there we found a small kids playground.

This Cupid statute looked liked he was aiming to hit the Christ statute above.  Below is a view of the park from above at the Christ statute.

 And they have a suspension bridge from the park to the other side.  Why anyone would want to go to the other side, we couldn't understand as it looked like there was nothing there.

We had some great views of the town and valley from the Christ statute.

After this brief stop, it was back to driving and heading home.  But not without a stop for lunch at a small roadside restaurant that served what they call river shrimp, but we found out was ...

 CRAWDADS!!  And apparently big ones.

Out back was a pit that is used for cock fights. 

 Here are all the cages with the contenders inside.

We spent the night in Arequipa one more time and then it was back on the plane to return to Cusco, the higher elevation and colder climate.  It was hard to leave the warmer weather, but we learned a lot, helped train a lot of volunteers, and had fun while doing it.  How can you complain about that?  Have we mentioned before how much we love serving a mission?  

Spiritual Thought for the Week:  "I'll go where you want me to go, dear Lord.  Over mountain or plain or sea;  I'll say what you want me to say dear Lord; I'll be what you want me to be"  Hymn 270