Home Sweet Home... Cusco

 

We left SLC airport last Monday at 12:15pm and naturally the flight out of DFW was late, nothing new there! We arrived in Lima at 3:00 am Tuesday morning, exhausted but happy to be here. We were told that we needed to travel to Cusco a few hours later. We were in SHOCK! Fortunately that plan was changed to travel to Cusco on Thursday afternoon. It’s Peru, we always have to be flexibleJ We finally arrived at the hotel at 4:15am and dropped into bed, it was HEAVENJ We slept until early afternoon when our ride came to take us to the Church Offices to get Rich’s visa going. We met our dear friends Taylor Godoy an Area Seventy and over the Seminaries/Institutes in Peru and his half-brother Armando Rebaza who is over Visas and Travel for Peru. We had a great visit with them. Later we went to the National Archives to visit with David Tirado, our supervisor for Family Search. The archives were pretty much what we had imagined. They are downstairs in the Palacio Justicia (Justice Palace), shelves and shelves stacked to the ceiling with big hard bound books, the rows and stacks go on forever! It was musty and cold but the room where David and Julio (another contract worker) take the pictures was pretty comfortable because of the big lights used to capture the images. We spent the afternoon with them learning some more “tricks of the trade.” Later we went to dinner with Rich’s driver and friend Jose Luis Briceño and his family. We have known them for years; we went to Jockey Plaza, the big mall in Lima. It has changed! It’s huge and beautiful with fountains and tons of stores. We had a great time.

Wednesday we spent in the archives and practiced taking pictures and learning more, sure hope we can remember everything! We had delicious pollo a la brasa (rotisserie chicken w/French fries, Peruvian fast food) with David and Julio. Later our driver, Graciela took us back to the Church Offices to get our tickets to Cusco and pick up our passports. We went to bed early, we were pooped! Thursday morning we met the Lowes another couple working in the Family Search, they had just arrived from a trip back to the states. They work in Huancayo. 

We made it to Cusco Thursday afternoon and Fernando Agüero, the mission secretary met us. He brought us to our apartment which looks just like all the apartment buildings in Peru, similar to the tall building in the photo of the view from our bedroom. We’re in a third floor walkup, just upstairs from Hermano Agüero and his family.  I had prepared myself for the worst and was pleasantly surprised, we have two bedrooms, living/dining area, kitchen and bathroom. The kitchen has no oven, only a gas cook top and a dorm room size refrigerator but it’s easy to buy things here, so a big fridge really isn’t necessary. We do have a microwave and there is no hot water to the kitchen so we have to boil water to do dishes. The bathroom is TINY but nice; it has a 15 liter (a little less than 4 gallons) water heater that will get you through a shower if you turn the water off midway to soap up.  We’re learning to be fast! The homes here have no built in heat; even the brand new mission home has no heat! Fortunately, we have two space heaters and good warm blankets. Thank goodness for Paradox thermals, they have saved us at night!

Estefania, Brother Agüero’s 18 year old daughter has helped us immensely with bargaining for goods. The vendors here see “gringos” and the prices double/triple/….She is quite the negotiator and has been great. We tell her what we want and she goes into the tiendas/stores and bargains away.

We met President Harbertson and his wife last night; they have been here for about three weeks. They are freezing in the mission home so they are trying to get some heaters for them. They’re from Farmington, Utah, and they are so happy that we’re here. We told them all about high altitude and what they need to tell the missionaries that are coming up, she was taking lots of notes and I think we helped ease their minds about a lot of things. The Cusco Mission is not easy. Missionaries serve in some of the highest locations in the world here so, I hope we helped them with some of their anxiety. They are anxious to get us busy working in the districts. It will be interesting to see what we can do.

 Julie looking cute, all P-Dayed up with typical Cusco street scene

Rich in P-Day duds in another narrow Cusco street

Steep Cusco alleyway

 View from the front of our apartment, Looking Due East

 Walkway to the Plaza De Armas 

Cuy Chactado (Deep Fried Guinea Pig) in a traditional Picantería