Off The Plateau; Rich and Julie’s Peruvian Chronicles Part Two: Raging Rivers and Mango Mounds

Rich has had a sore foot for the last week or so. We have no idea why or what happened but he was out of commission for a few days. He is feeling much better now but taking our usual morning walk has been out of the question. We had some difficult books to work with this week but managed nearly 4,000 new images with 1200 images that we had to retake. If we get 4 images that aren’t perfect the auditors in SLC sent it back and we “get” to re-do the whole book. We were feeling pretty sure of ourselves and we took the images too fast, so there was some blur on the pages. We have been much more cautious since and decided that we’re not trying to break any “Family Search Record” for number of photos taken in a week!

The branch in Curahuasi changed their meeting time from 8am to 9am Sunday morning so we were able to leave our apartment at 6am and get to Curahuasi on time. It was nice that we didn’t have to go Saturday afternoon and pack a bunch of stuff to spend the night. It makes for a long day but when you have baby chicks chirping in a box on the way it makes it worth the trip. There was a confirmation of a young lady today in church; wisely she put her parrot outside on a tree during her confirmation and for sacrament meeting. He was one happy bird, squawking and screeching all morning; he obviously loves to come to church! Our deaf friend Julian always brings his dog Chico with him to church. Chico loves to greet everyone and then quietly lies under the benches until he hears a “disturbance in the force” and then he’s up and ready to defend the “chapel” from any intruders. Curahuasi is always an adventure.

Mango season is in full swing here and Curahuasi has huge mounds of enormous mangos on every corner. They go for the whopping price of …sorry to make you mango lovers jealous… $0.30 each! They are delectable. We each eat one or two every day.

On our way to Cuarahuasi, we cross the Apurimac River, the longest tributary to the Amazon. We have been told that the Amazon has eighteen tributaries that are each larger than the volume of the Mississippi River. Mighty indeed, where it empties into the Atlantic, it forces fresh water out into the ocean for fifty miles and depending on where you draw the line, the mouth is around 350 miles across.

All of the rain in the Altiplano, where we are has charged the rivers on their way East. Impressive at low levels, the Apurimac is raging like Assyria right at the top of its banks. We’re hoping it won’t go over and block the way to Curahuasi, although landslides are just as threatening during the rainy season. We shall see. Because of the rain the countryside is beautiful and green. The cornfields are

Our apologies for the number of dog pictures but they abound, are absolutely everywhere and often, out of control.