Prohibition, Punctuality, and a new jungle road trip

Monday morning we attended a missionary zone meeting. It began at 8 am and usually runs about two hours. Julie had taken her clothes to change into so she could go to work in the archives after the meeting. We were asked to talk about the Savior’s time in the Garden of Gethsemane, The Atonement, and what an incredible blessing it is in our lives. We were at the end of the meeting and felt pretty satisfied with our contribution. However, the end of the meeting was at 1 pm! It was a great meeting, but we were all wiped out by the end. We decided to go to our favorite hamburger place, Papacho’s to have lunch, and by the time lunch was over, we made the decision to forget work and go home. We were pooped. We both felt like we were getting the flu on Tuesday, we were achy and nauseated. We took it easy, slept a lot and by Wednesday we felt great. Just weird!

As we we walked on Wednesday morning we came across a “mancha de perros” (literally, a stain of dogs.)We counted 17 in the group with more coming in. We finally figured out that there were two obviously very attractive females in the pack. It was quite the sight and only one minor scrabble broke out while we stopped to take some pictures. The dog situation, in Peru in general, is out of control. Very few have the money or are willing to have their dogs spayed or neutered. Most of the dogs in Cusco are so used to people that they rarely bother anyone, but we always carry our homemade “pepper spray” because we just never know. Our two dogs that we did spray once continue to run from us, hackles up and barking their heads off. We always have a good laugh at their terror.

Surprisingly, the combination of disproportionate dog populations and bad driving rarely actually clashes. However on Saturday we saw a driver run down a pedestrian canine, not killing it outright. Not a pleasant experience!

On top of missing a couple of days of work, we had some very difficult books to photograph so our numbers were down. We’re not too worried because we already met our annual goal at the end of September, so the images until the end of the year are “extra.” We’re just about finished with the big room of books and will soon move into the smaller room. 

The archives have "prepared" another room in the basement for more documents of some sort. Workers have been making all kinds of racket putting  old metal shelves back together. Marta, the woman in charge and her assistants have a huge job to put some type of organization to the heaps of papers stacked all around. We very happy that we just have to take pictures in the next room!

Saturday morning we met the first counselor in the Mission Presidency, where the cars leave for Quillabamba. We traveled to a district conference there. He had asked us to be there to leave at 7am and did not show up until 7:30. We paid to have just the three of us ride in the car instead of the usual four. It is crowded and uncomfortable with three adults squished in the backseat of a Corolla type car. 

The trip to Quillabamba was spectacular. We went over the mountains out of Cusco, then down in the Sacred Valley, through Urubamba and Ollyantaytambo. After leaving the Sacred Valley the road begins to climb up 5,000 feet with amazing switchbacks and vistas to the Abra Malaga Pass. This pass sits at 14,500 feet above sea level and at the foot of the massive glacier, Veronica (17,500 feet.) This is the Continental Divide of South America, from here heading east, the road drops nearly 20,000 feet down to the Amazon jungle basin. It is absolutely incredible.  A good part of the trip is above the tree line, so all we could see was nothing but ichu grass and snow on the nevados (mountain peaks that have snow and ice year round.) When we crested the pass and began our decent down the other side in just a few miles everything changed. We didn’t need our jackets, we rolled down the windows and the lush, sometimes flowery and humid smell of the jungle permeated our car. We saw palm plantations, spectacular flowers and blooming trees of every kind. There were mango trees everywhere; “they grow like weeds” we were told. The  limbs already had large albeit green mangoes everywhere. It looked like banana plants grow like weeds too. This area where Quillabamba sits is called the “ceja de la selva,” (the eyebrow of the jungle.) It was plenty humid but fortunately for us, there was a nice breeze blowing, so outside was pretty comfortable. Peru is well known for having the largest number of microclimates in the world, from arctic glacial to tropical jungle. The internet, that we always know tells the truth and never lies, says that Peru has 28 of the 32 world climates and we have heard numbers as high as 120 microclimates. We saw that in spades! 

The human gene pool varies as well and one sees radical differences among congregations in the jungle, coast, and Altiplano areas. Peruvian variety is truly amazing.

About an hour out of Quillabamba President Patino informed Julie that she would take any of the women who showed up at 4pm, into a separate training meeting! She thought she would be able to take it easy in the hotel until the 7pm adult meeting. Wow! We arrived for the 4pm meeting and there was a good attendance. The meeting started and then the women were excused to have training with Julie for “45 minutes.” The 45 minutes actually became an hour and a half, but Julie managed to use her background and experiences and in the end had a great meeting with about 15 sisters. We had a break, a sandwich and a purple chicha drink then the 7pm meeting started. Julie played the piano for the meeting and after the opening song as she sat down on the stand; the district president asked if she would give a talk on the Book of Mormon, because the person who was assigned to give it didn’t come. Thank goodness for inspiration and the gift of tongues! We are both believers, because Rich had several times when he had to rely on pure inspiration too and in three separate meetings was asked to take up 40 minutes! For the Sunday meeting, Julie again played the piano but we were both ready with talks for this occasion. What an exhausting weekend. We get to do it all over again next weekend with the Ayaviri District, but we will for sure be better prepared!

Coming back up the mountain, the fog was thick, thankfully we had a careful driver and we arrived home safely about 7:30pm. We were both so wiped out that we were in bed by 8:30pm and sound asleep. What a crazy weekend! 

Hora Cusqueña...

Prohibited to throw trash...

Guard sheep

Roscoe or something like that...

Canine flash mob

Communist flash mob

Yellow brick road

Just adorable

Just adorable II

Papers to organize 

Sack on lap

Roof  dog

Construction crew

Fancy duds

Leaving the Sacred  Valley for Quillabamba

All the way down

Quillabamba fruit wagon

Quillabamba hotel TV and  "Air conditioning"

Quillabamba hotel TV feed in the ceiling

Quillabamba hotel a room  with a view