Juliaca, Pearl of the Andes...

Thanks to our good friend, Pat Mullen, fully half of these photos are possible because Rich in mindless drone mode formatted the photo disc and Pat helped him recover them. Many thanks to Pat!

Urubamba district with the Johnsons

Storm over Titicaca

Traffic jam en route to Quillabamba

Road to  Quillabamba

Road to  Quillabamba

Road to  Quillabamba

Road to  Quillabamba

Road to  Quillabamba

Road to  Quillabamba

Road to  Quillabamba - Nevado Veronica

Road to  Quillabamba, rock slide

Tourists chilling by the road to  Quillabamba

Skies above the Sacred Valley

Skies above the Sacred Valley

Skies above the Sacred Valley

Skies above the Sacred Valley

Skies above the Sacred Valley

Fuser the mighty

All lined up

Noble looking llamas

Noble looking llamas

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Quillabamba road overlook

Hyperbaric chamber

  

Juliaca, Pearl of the Andes...

Juliaca, Pearl of the Andes...

Juliaca, Pearl of the Andes...

Juliaca, Pearl of the Andes...

Pigeon with a headache???

Wheel barrow crew in Puno

Lake Titicaca from Juli

Hermanas Hasler and Johnson

Elders Hasler and Johnson

The Wayra

Yunguyo Hermanas

President Albarracin and family

Future Missionaries

The beginning of the week was pretty calm and we worked our way through some more difficult books. Rich wasn’t feeling well, so Julie worked Monday and Tuesday.  Rich went to the doctor on Tuesday and got some medicine.  On Wednesday, Rich went with the Harbertson’s and other missionaries to Quillabamba. Rich went to drive the car that broke down a few weeks ago, back to Cusco. It was about a twelve hour day of driving. He was pretty pooped when he got home.

Thursday morning he went to the doctor again, feeling really terrible chest pains. The doctor decided that he had walking pneumonia and gave him antibiotics, cough medicine, etc. We needed to travel to Puno on Friday and Rich got the OK from the doctor so that’s what we did.

We left early Friday morning with the Harbertson’s and the assistance and made the five hour drive to Puno. 

On our way, we passed through Juliaca, Pearl of the Andes (their name, not ours). There is this tendency to give these subtitles to cities in Peru that just make you wonder. Espinar is called, “The Garden City.” News flash, there are no gardens there. Well, Juliaca, Pearl of the Andes prompted Julie to quip, “Black pearl, maybe…” We surmise that, “mud bog,” or, “sink hole,” does not hold the same romantic allure as, “pearl,” does. The main street is made up of tiger trap sized, muddy holes, filled to the brim with water. The president told us of dropping into one so deep that it killed his engine.

In Puno, we grabbed some lunch and then went back to the hotel and Rich slept all afternoon. The Johnson’s were also in Puno for a Family History fair and we met them for dinner.  We got a good night’s sleep and by Saturday morning Rich was feeling better.

We had a district conference in Juli about an hour out of Puno, so we left at 11:00am and were back in Cusco about 9:00pm. It was a long day but fulfilling. Julie and Sister Harbertson had about 25 women to train, so Julie taught her part and translated for Sister Harbertson. Rich and President Harbertson had a training session with the priesthood then we met altogether for the adult session in the evening. 

We hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast except for a few crackers. We were all starving by the time we arrived in Puno. We picked up the Johnson’s and had Pollo a la Brasa for dinner. Chicken and French fries never tasted so delicious!

Sunday morning just when we finished getting ready, the room was plunged into pitch darkness. It turned out to be a planned regional black-out, but nobody told us. We were glad we had planned to leave just then, at 6am. We drove back out to Juli for the Sunday session of the conference and brought the Johnson’s with us. 

After the meeting Rich stayed to do several interviews and the Harbertson’s left because his brother and wife are visiting and they needed some time to visit. While the Johnson’s and Julie were waiting for Rich the branch from Yunguyo had prepared a “Wayra.” The Wayra consisted of heaps of boiled potatoes of every kind and size, chuño, big hunks of cheese, fried pieces of trout and another fried fish they called “ispy.” The ispy were like fried anchovies. A “Watia” is very similar but the potatoes are roasted in the ground.  For the wayra, they spread clean blankets out and dumped the mounds of potatoes in the middle and passed around the fish and cheese and we all stood around and ate, with no plates or napkins. It was delicious and such a fun time to get to know the members better. So many of them are such sweet humble people. What a blessing to be able to associate with them.

After Rich finished his interviews he ate some of the wayra and we left for the bus station to catch a combi back to Puno. We were able to rest a bit in the late afternoon and met the Johnson’s for dinner again Sunday night. We had a wonderful weekend and Rich was feeling so much better.

On Monday, April, 27, we left Puno at 8:00am for the eight hour bus ride back to Cusco. The bus line we use is very comfortable but we were more than ready to get off when we finally pulled in to Cusco. 

We had about an hour at home and had to go to our district meeting with the two young sisters and two elders in our district. Usually this is a five hour round trip to Urubamba and back, what a blessing to us that they were in Cusco for a multi-zone meeting on Tuesday. Thank heavens we didn’t need to get on another bus and go to Urubamba! Bed never felt so good. We love serving here and we are so grateful for the incredible experiences and opportunities we have here and our family at home has. We truly feel watched over in all that we do.