Tuesday, February 28, 2017

Traveling to Ayacucho



We took the Elders to a little Chifa restaurant after district meeting.

Then we went to our house for a quick slice of apple pie before they headed out.
On Wednesday, we took an 8 hour bus ride to Lima, got up the next morning at 2, headed to the airport at 3 for a 5:00 flight. We ended up waiting until almost 9 before our plane finally took off heading for Ayacucho.

Ayacucho's arch of triumph. That street, just about a block from the central plaza, was always crowded with pedestrians.

We caught a cab up to a lookout spot over the city.  There are 33 Catholic churches in Ayacucho (one for every year of Christ's life).

Then we hiked down stairs to get back into town. High altitude and lots of stairs - that's all I can say!


The central plaza with everyone getting ready for the upcoming carnival.

Some Wari ruins we had a chance to go visit near the city of Quinoa. 

These kiddos were dressed in period costumes and would let you get photos so they could earn a little money during their summer break. Okay, maybe I had fun and thought it was worth the couple of soles. 

These pre-incan wari buildings were supposedly destroyed during an earthquake. 


Excavation wasn't very regulated when they first began but now they are trying to protect what is left as they continue to uncover these historic remains.


This obelisk commemorates the Battle of Ayacucho near the city of Quinua. 

Walter (left) was our tour guide for the day.  He told us all about the battle and the history of the area. He has a couple of weeks of summer vacation and this extra bit of money-making left before it's back to school for he and his friend. 

They took their job very seriously and were very good about posing us for plenty of photos throughout the tour.

We climbed to the second story to look out over the beautiful countryside.  It was so green and it was nice and cool which we really really liked!

Now for the real reason we flew to Ayacucho, we met with Sister Segovia so she and her husband can get started with chapel open houses in that area.

We were then able to meet up with Pres and Hna McGinn and Stake Pres and Sister Ataurima for a nice dinner overlooking the plaza de armas and we enjoyed the evening with good company.



The Ayacucho Carnival was actually set to start the day Curt and I were flying back to Lima.  The carnival is a few days of lots of dancing, drinking and a little bit of orneriness.   These kiddos got us with some water balloons as we were passing.
We were already seeing quite a few parades of dancers and musicians in the days before the carnival actually started.


The McGinns were staying during the carnival for a stake conference.  A large portion of the celebration was right near the plaza (and the hotel).  Sister McGinn ended up in the middle of  the celebrations - with lots of talcum powder!


Back through Lima, jumped on a bus and headed for Paracas.  We'll miss the cool weather but gosh - how can we complain about these views from our hotel room?!?
We arrived in time to enjoy our balcony and then we got to watch the pretty sunset over the ocean.

We got to enjoy it just a little more the next morning before we headed into town for church.


Elder Arco and Elder Morris were so helpful to us this week as we had a training in their ward and then prepared for the next week's open house.   Peru Lima Sur has some of the best missionaries!

Lots of traveling this week.  We were jumping on the bus for the last 5 hour leg of the journey back to Nasca.  We got back about 10:30 and it seems we're always ready and happy to sleep in own bed again.



2 comments: