Peru Adventure 2018

 

What a wonderful opportunity! Chad invited Dennis and me to go on a trip with them to Peru to hike in the mountains and stay with local people.  We met Chad and family at the Atlanta Airport and flew together to Lima Peru arriving on the Friday, March 30 at midnight.  The next morning was Saturday General conference and Chad was very good to make sure we could watch conference in our hotel room.  On Sunday we were in Cusco and he had arranged for us to be at the mission office.  We all stayed at the Wayta Inn that was within walking distance from the mission office so we could go there and watch General Conference in the office.  We sat on one side of the office and the elders and members sat in the lobby on the other side of the office.  We all watched the same screen.  

 I was so glad we were able to watch conference because as it turned out a historical announcement was made concerning the Priesthood.  A restructuring was put into place combining the Elders Quorum and the High Priest Quorum into one.  Chad was the Elders Quorum President in his ward at the time and realized that he was at that point in time, released.  I also watched Priesthood Meeting with Dennis and Chad in the hotel room in Lima. March 31, 2018

The mission office.

The lobby of the mission office.

We had just watched Sunday General Conference at the Cusco Mission office on Sunday April 1, 2018.  Chad and Dennis had brought goodies for the elders and members to eat while they watched conference.  

 I really appreciated Chad finding us a nice family run local Inn.  This was breakfast Monday morning at the Wayta Inn in Cusco.  We had stayed there on Sunday and then walked to the Mission office to watch Conference.  Chad was very accommodating to his parents, particularly his mother who wanted to watch conference.  From there we had to take a fairly long ride in a large van Chad had hired to take all of us to another part of town.  We stayed in a different hotel where we would meet our guide with the Ayni Peru travel company.  We also left our luggage there while we were trekking.  

While we were eating lunch in  Cusco I got a call from my doctor's office back in Utah.  I had blood tests done as I wanted to know if I carried the APOE 4 gene that researchers think may be related to Alzheimer's Disease.  I was delighted to learn that I did not carry those genes.  I am APOE 3/3.  Now it will just be up to me to live the lifestyle appropriate for not having high cholesterol that in turn would restrict blood flow to the brain and cause dementia.   Dennis took my picture in the  moment of joy.  

  

We were excited to be in Cusco and enjoyed seeing traditional dressed women with a baby lama.
I didn't know we would be seeing a lot more of that same thing when we got to the mountains.

We met with our guide at the Casa Blanca Hotel.  He wanted to know if we had everything we needed for hiking in  high cool mountain weather.  We then went out for a walk and  got some dinner.  The little pizza shop we stopped at had all the ingredients laid out and we could choose what toppings we wanted. The cheese tasted a little different. I didn't like it and Sophie didn't either. Chad ate all the pizza no one else wanted. Dennis helped him. Unfortunately that night and the next day both  Dennis and especially Chad were very sick. 

This was our second hotel room (Casa Blanca) in Cusco.  They kept our luggage while we hiked.  We just carried a back pack of clothes and supplies. The walls in our room were made with rocks that had been painted white.
We were going to hike the Lares Trail with guides.  The cost just for our guides, lodging and food on the Lares trail was  about $700 each.

We were picked up from this hotel and drove in a van for about 1.5 hours to the town of Ollantaytambo in a place called the Sacred Valley.

 This is the little town of Ollantaytambo.   We went to the local market and bought some fruits and vegetables for the people we were going to stay with that night.  Our hosts live at a high altitude where potatoes grow well but a lot of other foods do not.  Our guide said it would be a treat for them to have food from the market.








This woman at the market sat on the curb with many other women.  Some were shucking corn.  She was peeling a papery like skin off the large  kernels of corn before she sold it.

After driving for several hours gaining altitude all the way we were met by some colorfully dressed  Peruvians who got in the van with us.  We drove a little farther and got out of the van to position ourselves on a hill to watch a lama blessing ceremony.  Lamas are very important to the people.  They have been used for transportation, food, and their wool for clothing and blankets.  They asked their Gods to bless the lamas to reproduce and flourish. I found it interesting that the people dressed warm except for the open toe slippers on their feet. 

The first thing I noticed as we got out of the van and started going up and down the hills was that it was hard to breath at that altitude in the Andes of Peru.  My research said the town of Patacancha, Peru where we were staying that night and not to far from the Lama ceremony was 15,308 ft in altitude.  That is about about as high as I have been. We were purposely having a ceremony and a hike that night to try to acclimate to the altitude.    

During the ceremony they played instruments and flower pedals were sprinkled on our heads and on the lamas.  At one point they danced and Jeana was asked to dance with them after she had donned a colorful shawl.











We drove on a little higher yet to our lodging for the night.  This Ayni Tour included home-stays so we were actually in the homes of local people and their families. This was our lodging with a kitchen and dining hall inside. The bathroom was in the large building but with an outside entrance.  Dennis and I and Chad and Jeana had separate lodgings that had been build for guests.  The owner of this home was a very industrious man (Juan) who was also the mayor of the town. 

 This was the little round room that Dennis and I stayed in.  Chad and Jeana stayed in one just like it.  The owner had built it for guests.  The rest room was just up the hill (which was good for Chad as he was still very sick). Chad unfortunately was sick all night and still managed to hike and carry a heavy backpack all without eating that day or evening. We did go on a hike late that afternoon to help us get used to the altitude.  The hike took us up past their gardens of potatoes and other vegetables that grew on the mountain slopes.   

 

Our room was small and quaint, clean and pleasant.  The ceiling was very interesting to me.  Our hike started just past the house and up to the gardens that were surrounded by wild flowers.

From the top of our hike we could see their small town with the yellow school for the children.  In the mornings and afternoons many  colorfully dressed children would pass by the house on their way to school or home again.

After our hike this little girl who was the daughter of the lodge owner was out playing with her kitchen things.  She was cooking dinner like her mother was in the house.  I stopped to play with her for a while.  It is interesting that little girls all over the world like to do the same thing.  

 This was a cute little Andes Mountain girl I saw going on her way to school. 

 The owner and our host said that traveling artists had come by and wanted to decorate their walls by painting on them.  This is a picture of his wife who is a excellent weaver as the picture portrays.  I felt bad that she would not smile, but I was grateful that she was willing to pose for the picture.  As we sat at the long dinning table we looked at that painting on their wall. She was also a good cook. All kinds of potatoes were served in many ways at every meal we ate.  I also felt bad that we were not able to help prepare the food. 

 

I loved all the potato soup we were given for dinners and lunch.  More paintings on the wall, this time of a lama. I am facing the wall that has the painting of the woman of the house.  I was sorry Chad did not feel like eating.  

This the the side of their house with the wife and homemaker dressed in the traditional costume.  She had been into the city where their oldest son was going to school.  She had to take him some food and clothing or supplies.  She had just returned a little while before we arrived and thus had some help preparing food for us and I suppose also cleaning our rooms.  

After a nights sleep and breakfast we got into the van again and then were dropped off  in the mountains with a guide and a helper who had some horses.  One horse had supplies and the others were to be used in case someone was tired and needed to ride.  

At one point near the end Dennis and Soren did decide to ride the horses.  They had their rain gear on as it started to sprinkle. 

 We saw many lamas as we trekked a long.  They were just part of the landscape. 

  

We also saw many bodies of water.  This was one we had to go around and finally use stepping stones to get across as we headed up to the road. Sophie slipped and stepped in the chilly water. I had an extra pair of socks for her to change into. We got up to the road and walked along it for a while. The rain was getting a little heavier.  Our helper guiding the horses ran to the dwellings on hillside and asked if they had plastic to cover our backpacks and supplies.  I was surprised that they were not already prepared since they had told us to be ready for rain.   

We hiked it and it was a wonderful adventure with a different kind of beauty along the way.  I wish the people there had the gospel of Jesus Christ and could make covenants with him in the temple so they could be together with their families through out eternity.

This was a dwelling we saw up high on the mountain as we hiked.  There is a man sitting in it watching as we went by.  I imagine he was a lama caretaker.

I admired Chad for being able to hike and carry his backpack especially after he was so weak from being sick the day and night before.  It was a little chilly at times but what an adventure at 15,000+ feet.

Soren is a friendly little guy and everyone liked him, especially the man who took care of the horses.  Soren was a good little hiker.

  This is the kitchen of our second lodging in the town of  Challacancha. We didn't really see the kitchen of our first home-stay, but I suppose it was similar.  At our first lodging a door separated the kitchen from the dinning room. We all drank a lot of hot water that had a few leaves in it.  At one point I saw a woman picking leaves off a bush for tea.  The water helped to keep us warm.This woman is sitting in front of  the fire used for cooking.  There was a vent so smoke could go outside.   

Our second home-stay took us to a little more rustic lodging.  We are sitting at tables in the kitchen watching our food being prepared.  They waved the wandering chickens out of the kitchen and cooked on an open fire.  At one point a woman brought firewood into the kitchen and began to chop it up with an ax on  the dirt floor.  I wanted to help her chop wood but didn't dare. They did have a fridge and a simple electrical light. They also had a green house when they grew some spinach for our soup. We later learned that a program at the school helped families build greenhouses.   

These were the living quarters for the family.  The kitchen was a separate building.  

Chad took the opportunity to sleep after hiking, not feeling well and while waiting for dinner to be cooked.  Dennis and I ended up sleeping in this room  as Jeana and Chad needed to be closer to their children. The room was chilly and there was frost on the grass in the morning.  They did give us a plastic bottle of hot water to put in the bed to help keep us warm.  

                                                                                                                                                   

This was the family green house.  It was not too far from the kitchen and other dwellings.  The school, run by a humanitarian group also helped the children and parents to have toothbrushes and toothpaste.  As the family made improvements in their lives they were given opportunities and choices to add things like a refrigerator, electricity and the green house. I think these people were doing the best they could.  The children walked to school but we also saw a motor bike or two, usually heavy laden with many people riding at one time.

 
Our host sang and played on his instrument. To stay warm I had every layer of clothing on that I had brought.  Our host wore open toe sandals.  The guide said it is just what they have been wearing for generations and it would not be polite to ask why they wore those shoes in the cold climate. 

Dennis and I took a hike up the hill above the lodge where we were staying.  It was impressive to see all the rock walls that had been build over the years.  Also impressive were all the buildings they kept adding on to their little housing compound.  Dennis and I slept in the a curtained off portion in the far left building.  There were mattresses stacked up in one part of the building.  I wondered if the Ayni Trekking company supplied them with beds for a larger group of people if the occasion arose.

In the morning before we left (as with the last lodging we stayed in) the women from all over the hillside came with wares for us to buy.  Dennis bought a neck scarf.  I had purchased gloves from the last stay. 

Us with our backpacks and hosts before we leave and trek on.  The building behind us is the kitchen.

  

 

 As we moved on the next morning we passed a pretty little lake with a community boat it in. Our guide told us the families could come and fish there if they wanted to.

Overlooking the city and trying to picture where Machu Picchu was for our adventure the next day.  Thank you again Chad.  I always wanted to go there.

Once we were back in the town of Ollantaytambo we went to a restaurant and ate some dinner then hiked to the massive ancient Inca archaeological site built into the steep mountain side.  I believe they said it was used for storing grain (quinoa?) or maybe potatoes if the Incas ate what the local people of today eat.

     

Amazing mountains on one side of the city and terraced fields on the other.  The ancient Inca buildings are high above the same old city where Dennis is standing.  So much of the houses, the roads, the walks, the walls and other buildings are made with the stones they had all around them.  

 

Outside of our hotel in Aguas Calientes and on the train to Machu Picchu. 

Chad was our tour guide who arranged all of our trip to Peru.  After hiking the mountains with the Ayni Tour Group he arranged for us to go to a different hotel in Aguas Calientes.  You can only get to Machu Picchu by train so we went to a hotel in Aguas Calientes and stayed the night.  The next morning we got up and took the train for about thirty minutes to get to Machu Picchu.  It was an amazing sight.  I am very impressed that the Inca people could have built it.

This was a secret trail at Machu Picchu built by the Incas that allowed the inhabitants of the the city to cross the river and get in and out of their mountain dwelling.  For part of it they carved a narrow trail out of the mountain and put up a stone wall from the ground up, to support the path.  They left a 20 foot gap in a section of it that could be bridged with tree trunks and later removed so only the right people could pass.  The fall off the trail is a 1,900 foot drop.  That would have taken a lot of man power to build the rock wall up to the path.  I wondered if it was voluntary or slave labor.

Thank you Dennis and Chad.  I fell very blessed to see Machu Picchu.