Reality Strikes

Obviously keeping this blog updated has turned out to be more of a challenge than I had anticipated. Here we are in November, and I never finished writing about July.

But I am still optimistic! I always believe I can do ALL the things! 

The internet here is still pretty crummy, but it IS at least workable. Sort of. Kind of. A little bit. Plus, I've figured out how to reduce the size of the photos, so they will load faster.  Because the internet here does NOT like uploading pictures.

And no one cares about what I write, right? It's all about the pictures! 

But until I AM fully caught up, I shall put the date of the event I am writing about underneath the blogpost title. So when I am writing things in November [sigh] that occurred in July [double sigh] I don't confuse everyone. 

That being said, here's a random picture for today's post. And an apology. Did I say that I'm sorry somewhere? Anywhere? Because I am.

I call this, "One of These Things is Not Like the Others"

Preparation Day in Cahuachi

Cahuachi is a site of ruins approximately 2000 years old, found very close to Nazca.  If you are interested in the details, you can find more information HERE. One of the members of the church in Nazca offered to bring us there and to be our guide.

We were driving the "small" car on this trip, which meant the Assistants would not be able to come along, since the Tajedas and the guide would be riding with us. So sad! 

But Pdte thought "maybe there are seats in the back of that car." And we checked, and by golly, there were! 

The Assistants tried them on for size and declared they were perfectly comfortable!

"Lots of room," they said!

This picture is taken from the parking lot of one of the chapels in Nazca.
See that white mountain?
That is a SAND DUNE! Thousands of feet high! Larger than the nearby mountains.
Amazing.

Cahuachi proved to be fascinating. It was not crowded. It is very isolated. There were few others who were there. There were paths marked with white rocks to show you where to walk (and where you should not walk).

Here are some unrestored walls.

Restored sections

There were some holes here and there along the way,
providing ventilation to the underground structures.
Some of them were quite deep. Some were not.

Close examination of one of the deep holes!

There were pottery fragments scattered everywhere.
It is (exceedingly) illegal to bring any ceramics out of Perú, so here they all stay.

On our way back, we passed several small cemeteries out in the middle of nowhere.

Then we stopped to visit a marvelous ancient aqueduct, still functioning today. It gathered water from three springs. One of the trees there (not the one with the large branch over the aqueduct) is believed to be at least 1000 years old. Perhaps 2000.

Pretending to lose their balance...

A bad picture from an interesting angle.

You can see how green it is here
as the aqueduct brings the water away from the springs

Another bad picture (sigh).
This is someone's house. In the middle of nowhere.

What a great afternoon.

Nazca Interviews!

After interviews in Ica we drove to Nazca - dropped off the Assistants - and then drove on to Marcona (in the dark) to meet the District President and his wife. We were accompanied by the Tejada's. Then we drove back to Nazca (in the dark) to spend the night there.

It was a looong day. 

Oh no! I missed 2 companionships in Nazca! They slipped away before I could snap their pictures. Nazca, as you can see, is a small Zone.

While President conducted interviews, I continued getting to know the missionaries and working together on Spanish and English.

Life is good. And life in the mission is even better.

Ica Interviews!

We have such great missionaries!

Pictures of Pisco!

We always love to see our missionaries!
Note the photo-bomber! He's very adept at noticing a camera, and racing for the photo.
He's very quick!

We met the Stake President of Pisco and his wife.
They are great leaders!

President had to make some private phone calls, so I entertained myself
by taking pictures.

The perspective is hard to see here, but it was a steep drop to the beach.