Thanksgiving Leftovers

One of the highlights of our service here as missionaries was also the most unexpected: service as Pathway Missionaries. Pathway is an online program to prepare students to succeed in a university level US school (e.g., BYU Idaho in English). A somewhat unique feature of the online Pathway program, however, is the required participation (as in being phsyically present) in a weekly student "gathering," usually held at an Institute. That is where we come in. We host the weekly "gathering" for a group of Pathway students. We provide encouragement, answer questions, pass on annoucements and call on students to give opening and closing prayers, but the students actually lead the class; they take turns as the "student leader" conducting the class in English

For our students, Pathway, which is entirely in English and follows the same lesson plans and materials as in the US, is largely an English class. Many already have university degrees; it is the ability to function in English at a higher level that they lack.

Thanksgiving is not a holiday here and most Peruvians have only the vaguest idea of what it is. Our efforts to explain the holiday to the Pathway students resulted more or less in a discussion about traditional Thanksgiving meals (Peruvians have a keen interest in and appreciation for good food). 

Without clearly thinking through what we were doing, we promised Thanksgiving "themed" treats for the gathering on Thanksgiving (gatherings are held on Thursday evenings). The problem we soon discovered was that the classic Thanksgiving foods, such as pumpkin pie, dressing, cranberry sauce, etc. are not generally available here. Turkeys are, as they are often eaten here for Christmas dinners, but this was light refreshments and we weren't baking a whole turkey in our little kitchen in our apartment to take in a small taxi to the Institute. 

So, instead, we decided celebrate the day after Thanksgiving, i.e., Turkey sandwiches from the left overs (i.e., turkey and dinner rools), along with chocolate chip cookies and cranberry juice (but also with some delicious local aji sauce)

OK, it was pretty lame, but we all had a great time.

Here´s the group.

Another food experience we had was to celebrate the end of the semester with our students.  So after the last class for this semester, some of us got together at a small restaurante called "Más que Arepas," owned by the husband of one of the students. (Arepas, a corn bread sandwhich, is the quinessential Venezuelan food).  The food was delicious and the company was great. We are looking forward to continuing with our Pathway group for the next semester beginning in January.

Give life a break and see what happens

In late October we joined a group of senior missionaries to visit a national park about 100 kilometers north of Lima. After taking about three full hours on the Pan American Highway North to get out of metropolitan Lima, you begin to see the country side. This is what it looks like:

The most striking feature about Lima and coastal Peru is how absolutely barren it is. What would a place look like if it didn’t rain at all (not just infrequently, but never)? That’s much of coastal Peru. However, with just some almost imperceptible changes in topography that lone and dreary place becomes this:

Coastal Peru always has lots of mist and clouds, especially during the winter, but still nothing grows. But here in the Lachay National Park, due to a unique confluence of topography and wind, moisture in the air is trapped and concentrated and falls as heavy dew on the ground. Still no rain, but enough moisture to support life, and given the chance life will take full advantage. 

The place is full of interesting vegetation, all oriented toward taking advantage of dew, and with vegetation there are animals. There are snakes and foxes, although we didn’t see any, and some odd-looking rodents of which  we saw a few, but there are lots and lots of birds.

We enjoyed walking around (on dirt rather than concrete), taking in the green and watching the birds. Here are some pictures. November is the beginning of the dry season so it wasn't as green as it would be during Peru's winter months.

Petroglyphs in one of many caves left by ancient inhabitants of the October 2017 era. 

Abundant life includes bugs and other critters (and flies that took advantage of some open windows in our  parked van and which we battled all the way back to Lima)

Cienequilla: Unexpected Adventures

We had an unexpected Wednesday holiday and were anxious to get out of the city. One danger in living in a different place is that when you feel a little homesick you sometimes try to recreate in your new place the things you like to do in the old place. This often doesn’t work out. We wanted to go hiking on a trail in the mountains just like we do in Park City.

After some checking on the internet we identified a hiking trail near Cieneguilla, which isn’t too far from La Molina, that leads to some petroglyphs made by the ancient Pre-Inca inhabitants. The trail starts in the village of Santa Rosa de Chontay, a small village a little further up the Lurin River from Cieneguilla. 

The first problem was getting there, since we don’t have a car. That problem was easily solved by Uber. However, when we reached a point about halfway between Cieneguilla and Chontay, the driver stopped and said that this was sa far as Uber goes. When I insisted that the destination I had requested in Uber was for the church in Chontay, he simply said again that this was as far as Uber went. After some discussion, he finally relented and said he would take to us the church in Chontay, but we would have to pay more, in cash. We were being held up, but we reluctantly agreed.

This is why he said Uber didn’t go farther. Earlier in the year, there were massive floods (“huaicos”) through river valleys such as the Lurin River valley where we were, leaving roads looking like this and worse. What was once a nice paved highway was now cleared of debris and passable, but still only a narrow rocky dirt road (and hence the driver’s reluctance to drive his low clearance Hyundai sedan much farther).  

Good to his word, the driver took us up the rough road, through the narrow streets of Chontay to the little plaza in front of the church, just as he promised. We paid him the additional amount, plus a bonus.

Like most towns in Peru, Spanish colonial Chontay is old, dating from 1630, and even older from the perspective of the Incas and the earlier inhabitants. It is a small, poor village and we had the feeling of being very much alone, in a very small rural village in the middle of nowhere.

The importance of getting to the church was that from there we could find our hiking trail, over a bridge across the Lurin River.

The Inca Trail. When most folks speak of having hiked the Inca Trail, they are referring to a famous and popular hike to Machu Pichu. Actually, saying you have hiked the Inca Trail is a bit like saying you’ve driven on the interstate highway system. A distinctive feature of the Inca empire was its trail system (which is Inca Trail). With caches at key places along the trail and using runners (much like the Pony Express) the Incas could maintain relatively fast communication and move goods and troops easily throughout the empire over this trail system (although later the Spaniards would also benefit from that trail system in their conquest of the Incas). The Inca Trail down this river valley leads to the large ancient Inca city of Pachacamac (see earlier post) and was a key part of the Inca trail.

This is the trail and more of the trail along the hillside in the background.

A few years ago there was a competition for school projects dedicated to preserving cultural heritage. Remarkably, the students in Chontay were among the winners with this project to mark the Inca Trail through their village and to the petroglyphs. Some of the student names are recorded on the signs.

I’m not sure if the Disney trademark department has signed off on this, but this piece of southern California culture has managed to work itself into the signage for the Inca Trail in the remote Santa Rosa de Chontay.

This refers to the bell rocks, so called because of the sound they make when they fall on each other and above is the rock with the petroglyph and information display. 

They were made by people who lived here a long, long time ago. A little underwhelming, given the effort to get here, but we had reached our destination.

Having completed the hike to the destination petroglyphs, we had to face to question we really hadn’t worked out – how to get back to La Molina (as it was clear there would be no Uber car). We made our way through the town to the main road. Except for this woman and her goats and dogs (who by the way were useless as herders) there was absolutely no traffic. 

However, we met a couple of women who were also waiting and told us that this was the place to wait for a bus or combi. They were really nice and interesting to talk with (but when we talked about the trail to the petroglyphs, they had no idea that they were there, but did confirm that anciently Indians had lived around here). But really there was absolutely no traffic on that road. Finally, a small blue subcompact came down the road and the two women flagged it, like it was someone they knew, and got in. Then, just as they were leaving, one of them opened the door and motioned to us to get in. And we did. 

Cieneguilla is really not famous for its petroglyphs, Inca Trail or hiking, but for resorts along the river valley that feature hotels, camping, restaurants, swimming pools, large green lawns, horseback riding, four wheeling, wading in the river and basically a place for folks from Lima to come to relax. We had asked these women which was the best one and they said Kankay. When we came to Kankay, which was about half the way back to the center of Cieneguilla, we got out. 

 

We had dinner  (polla a la brasa), enjoyed entertainment (local artists lip-syncing to their own traditional native flute and guitar Andean music, but dressed in Plains Indian headdresses while dancing in circles like the war dance in old western movies - a little strange).

Horseback riding around the lawn.

This is a place designed for people from Lima who drive up in their cars. We, of course, had no car. When I asked one of the attendants where to get a bus or combi, I was told I needed a mototaxi (and in a tone of voice that suggested to me there would be no bus or combi coming down that road), but not to worry because she would call for one.

 About 30 minutes later this came to take us back to Cieneguilla. A mototaxi essentially is a motor cycle adapted to have two wheels on the back with a rear bench seat enclosed (sort of) in a plastic covering. They are quite common in Peru (and I’m told an import from India). They are also not known for stability or safety.

As you’ll note, it is noisy and the driver engages the clutch going downhill so he can speed through the curves. We weren’t really sure where he was taking us, but suddenly he stopped, pointed to bus and told us to get on it (as it was about to leave).

We did, although we had never ridden buses here (too confusing and crowded) and were not sure where this one was going, but it was headed down the road in the right direction. We later figured out that this bus went to La Molina, and for a few soles took all the way back home (well, to a bus stop within walking distance). Also, since we got on at the start of the route, we got seats all the way Buses here are crowded with most people standing.

Also, with few exceptions, unlike in the US (and most everywhere else), the buses are not part of an organized city bus system, but purely private enterprise. You buy a bus, hire a driver and someone inside to collects fares, paint the names of some of the major stops on the side (to provide an indication of your route), and you are now part of the greater Lima mass transportation system.

No, this did not turn out at all like a hike in the mountains in Park City, (but it was OK, in fact a lot of fun)

An Earthquake in Lima

On November 15, at 9:43 PM, "Sismo Detector", an app that issues earthquake alerts in real-time, warned the world than an earthquake had been detected in Lima, Peru.  Turns out that was the moment after Jefferson Farfan’s opening goal against New Zealand. Peru, with their white jerseys and a red diagonal stripe and known as the "blanquirojas," would go on to win the game 2-0, and earning a spot in the 2018 Word Cup in Russia. " Futbol"is a big deal in South America, and the last time Peru went to the World Cup was 36 years ago.  So Peruvians are still celebrating and will be for some time.

Before the game, the Peruvian President Kuczynski promised a national holiday the day after the game, but only if the team won, and it was a promise he made good on. 

This is a link to Farfan’s goal, set up by a perfect pass from Christian Cueva. I’m not much of a soccer fan, but this looks like almost the perfect play for the futbol equivalent of a fast break. As in many sports, in soccer the best team doesn’t always win, but that wasn’t the case here. Watch the players; the Peruvians really are better.

https://streamwoop.tv/replay/Jefferson-Farf-n-Peru-goal-vs-New-Zealand-1-0-

Here’s a link to the game. You want to start at about minute 24 to catch the play.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvMopoGzJhc

In other world cup news of interest, (especially to our family) Italy is not going to the World Cup for the first time in 60 years (expect management changes there).

Much to their chagrin, Chile is not going (but Peru is).

The Dominican Republic is not going (and I’m not sure they ever have – that is a baseball, not a futbol, country).

The USA is not going, for the first time since 1986, after losing to some Caribbean island country the size of an average US county (talk about needing to make USA great again).

Neither is the Czech Republic.  

Mexico and Brazil? Of course.

By the way Sismologia Chile in a tweet later clarified that “It is confirmed that there is no natural earthquake in Lima. Apparently the emotion of the Peruvians made the application activate.”

Halloween in La Molina - A party for those who are not dead

I don't think el dia de los muertos is as a culturally significant in Peru as in Mexico, but the American tradition of costumes and trick or treating is very much part of Lima. Halloween was also the night of a Primary Halloween party followed by a ward party.

 

This is Moana, also know as Andrea, Pepe and Karina's daughter at the primary party (Karina is one of the legal coordinators in the office).

 Karina and Evie admiring the cute picture Evie just took of "Moana"

Following another Mormon Halloween tradition, the primary party ended with "trunk or treating."

Since they weren't sure how it was done, we helped Pepe and Karina decorate their car with lots of ugly spiders (and treats).

The theme of the ward party was different cultures with tables featuring foods from each country and region of Peru (sierra, jungle and coast). A representative from each gave a short presentation about the country or region.  For example, the American rep (who works with DEA in the embassy) lead crowd in "YMCA." The food was all good, and the most popular?  American (pancakes with lots of syrup and all kinds of desserts, including Evie's brownies) and Mexican (tacos with salsa and guacamole).

Next, there was a special program with these professional dancers. In these traditional Peruvian dances, I think the girl's job is essentially to look beautiful and spin around at the right time; the dance is really all about the guy's feet. Check em out.

A dance followed, very late into the night.

Check her out, she knows all the moves.

Brethren:  This is how it's done.

Otavalo

In 1735 a team of French scientists set off for what was then known as the Viceroyalty of Peru, but now Ecuador. Their task was to take an exact measurement of one degree of latitude at the equator. By comparing this measurement at the equator with a measurement that had already been made in France they could settle the then burning scientific debate whether the earth was spherical or bulged at the middle. Why would anyone care? Well, then as now scientists felt great passion about the competing theories (“round” earth followers of Descartes vs a Newtonian “fat” earth society). Also, the answer would allow for more accurate ocean navigation, something of military and commercial importance at that time.

Quito became their base of operations, working out of the building described in the early post as the municipal cultural center. The story of this remarkable expedition is told in a book Evie and I read a few years ago titled The Mapmaker’s Wife by Robert Whitaker. It is a very interesting book and a great story. In addition to adventures of the expedition, there is also a murder, a story of love and devotion and a harrowing story of survival down the Amazon.  

A few miles north of Quito is a monument called the Mitad del Mundo (the middle of the world), which marks the location of the equator. The word Equator wouldn’t work for the monument, since in Spanish that’s the same as the country name. You can straddle the yellow line and be in both the north and southern hemispheres. 

But, unfortunately, that isn’t quite true. The monument marks a location identified by these French scientists in the early 18^th century. With the benefit of modern GPS technology, we now know that these Frenchmen were off by about 240 meters. Using GPS technology, some others identified the real equator and built another monument called the Intiñan Solar Museum to mark its location. They had used early civilian GPS technology, however, and we now know from more advanced GPS systems with military precision that they also were wrong, and in any event the exact location moves a few feet throughout the year.

So, it you want to straddle the equator, you have several options in Ecuador, each in its unique way probably wrong. But I’d still pick the Mitad del Mundo because it is the better story. Off by 240 meters! The earth is a big place and given that these Frenchmen were basically eyeballing this with early 18th century equipment they had carried into the jungle and up and down mountains, taking their readings and making their calculations by hand in difficult circumstances (altitude sickness, frostbite and violent winds in the mountains and alligators, snakes, scorpions and ''moschitos'' along the rivers), it is amazing they were able to do it at all, let alone get that close. And by the way, they proved Newton correct; the earth bulges slightly at the equator.

This has nothing to do with our trip to Ecuador, however. We did not visit these monuments that we know with confidence do not actually mark the equator. Rather, we had a more interesting adventure planned. With the Johnsons in a borrowed car we headed out Saturday on a fascinating tour through the countryside north and east of Quito. Our first objective was Otavalo and its famous market. Otavalo is about 20 miles north of Quito. (Since the equator is about 10 miles north, we crossed the equator and into the northern hemisphere on the highway north. I didn’t notice a sign signifying the momentous event.)

This is in the market. The shops were interesting, especially the beautiful textiles and alpaca wool products.

The Church is quite strong in Otavalo and has been for some time. This is a mother and daughter we met at one of the shops who were members and, of course, identified us first as missionaries. It was fun to talk with them. The population of Otavalo is still mostly indigenous and, like these sisters, the women still wear the traditional black skirt, white embroidered blouse and a shawl; not just to dress up for the tourists in the market, this is what they all wear on the street.

A one-man band making his way through the stalls.

After shopping we went to a small town farther north called Cotacachi, which is famous for leather goods. Sister Johnson bought a nice leather bag for temple clothes. The Johnson’s also had memories of a nice restaurant that was run by a Danish family nearby. We went looking and, after winding around some old dirt roads, fields and some of the less desirable neighborhoods, we found this place, pretty much just as they had remembered it from years earlier.

La Mirage Garden Hotel & Spa, a five-star resort located just outside Cotacachi. 

We had lunch, which was an interesting experience (the food was also really good). The appetizer was served in a music box that played "Music of the Night" from Phantom of the Opera when opened (a classy place for some old senior missionaries).

A view of the back from the restaurant. Notice the birds in the lawn.

Peacocks, along with other birds and animals, patrol the back yard.

 After lunch we made our way back to Quito taking a different route through the country side. All along the way we saw hundreds of these: green houses. Ecuador is a large exporter of flowers. While most of Ecuador’s revenues come from oil exports and it is famous for bananas, flower growing (floriculture) is one of its most important industries. It is the third largest flower exporter in the world,  of mostly roses). 

 

A band just a few miles north and south of the equator here is the ideal place for growing flowers, especially long stem roses. It has the maximum amount of natural light year around and, at this altitude with cool evenings, Ecuador produces flowers with brighter contrasting colors than, for example, neighboring Colombia.  I’m told Ecuadorian flowers sell at a premium.

When we were there, however, they were almost giving them away. Hurricane Irma had closed the Miami airport, the entry for these flowers to shops throughout the United States. Not surprisingly, many of the large industrial scale floriculture operations are Dutch owned, such as De Ruiter.

On our way back to Quito. For a brief moment, I thought we were in Star Valley.

I like this picture taken in the country side on the way back. It’s one I think my father and Grandfather would like too.

Ecuador was a great trip. We were lucky to be able to travel with Dic and Jennifer Johnson. Dic is an interim ALC and we will miss them when they leave in a few months.