POTATO FAIR

WEEKEND ADVENTURES-Caral, horseback riding, bicycling, and trip to Callao and the fort!

     We work hard during the week and then take time on our preparation day to explore Lima and other areas of Peru.  We have been invited by other senior missionaries on some great experiences!  We love to share this time with our new friends and hope you enjoy these, as well.

OUR TRIP UP NORTH TO SEE THE PRE-INCA RUINS AT CARAL!

We traveled three hours and saw many fields of beautiful flowers, crops, trees, and new mountain formations.  Most mountains in this region are rock, sand, and no vegetation.  The valleys are lush and green next to the rivers.

Caral is the oldest known civilization in the Americas, dating back even before the Pyramids of Egypt.

You can see the contrast between the bare rocky mountains and the lush valleys. 

This is the village that welcomes visitors to the famous Caral ruins.  These villagers greeted us warmly with smiles, waves, and pointed to the road we should follow!  

Along the road, we saw how they dried their red peppers before selling them to the markets.

As we crossed over the dry river bed, we saw these great little horses that are available for those not able to walk the mile to the ruins!

We were delighted to find this lovely bathroom facility, which was clean and had toilet paper and soap!

We were all surprised by this native oasis out in the middle of nowhere.

The local villagers prepared food and drinks for the visitors today.

There were five huge main pyramids that were discovered in this area with cooking pots, tools, and other artifacts.  Below is an overview of of each one.

We hiked up to the flag of Peru to see these amazing ruins in the distance.

We traveled with our new friends from the CCM!

This was our guide through the ruins who pointed out the various pyramids, the living areas surrounding them, and their methods of cooking and water storage, and the grand entrances.

Grand entrance to this immense temple-like structure. 

I was really fascinated by these structures and tried to imagine what life was like for the pre-Inca inhabitants.

This tent covers a site of a home that is being excavated and preserved.

Rocks lined all the pathways to keep us away from the ruins.

This was a method of diverting water from this building site.

We all enjoyed this vast historical discovery and ended our visit to Caral in this cute horse drawn cart!

OUR NEXT ADVENTURE WAS HORSEBACK RIDING ON THE BEACH!

Back in the saddle again!

We are excited to be able to ride, again.  It's been a long time!

 Lavor and Marilyn Cardon are the CCM Presidents and she is the horse woman that brought us out here to ride these awesome Peruvian Passo horses that have a smooth prance, instead of a trot.

This is the hacienda of this ranch and Kris and Bob Bloomer joined us, too!

We are heading out to the beach and will travel through marches, streams, jump over ditches, and ride under a bridge to get there.

We rode along this beautiful beach for 2 hours and loved every minute!

On the way home,  we stopped at a local flower market and each sister was given a bouquet from their husbands!  How romantic!

A fruit vendor drove up to sell his wares and you see this all over Peru!

The flowers are so lovely and add so much color and texture to life.

President Cardon with flowers for Marilyn.

These boys were playing a game with bottle caps, while their moms work in the flower shops.


BACK TO THE BEACH AND BICYCLING!

We went back to the beach at Miraflores to ride bikes.  There is a four mile stretch of bike trails along the cliffs of the ocean and it is a beautiful view.  We saw para-sailers, rollerbladers, lots of families with children, skate boarders, etc.

 Jody and Marilyn hit the road and follow Lovar!

We watched the para-gliders that were lifted out over the cliffs.  There were six or more soaring at one time.  What an amazing feat and no crashes that day!  The men have plans to try it, soon!

 

It's quite the drop and the pilots really have to read the air currents well and watch out for the other shoots.

You can barely see the restaurant on the spit and we plan to have lunch there at our next visit.

Bruce Packard writes "I love Jody" with white rocks!

Jody's in the middle and grinning from ear to ear!

This was a great place to ride bikes.

 We found a bike track next to the skate board and all had a fun ride on my little bike!

Steve is going on the course.  Too bad Bo and Rex aren't here to give grandpa some pointers!

Yeah, he made it through the course!

OUR SATURDAY AT CALLAO AND THE REAL FELIPE FORT AND PUNTO

Our friends wanted to find the artist who had sculpted some of our nativity statues that we bought at the Inca market and wanted him to sign them.   He lived in Callao and worked in a very humble small shop, yet he created beautiful statues.  His brother is better known, but we like his painting better.  We were able to see some of his other work and we all ordered another statue from him.

Steve really liked this statue and we ordered one for us.  As you can see,  open paint cans, brushes, and unfinished nativity pieces were everywhere.

We loved this miniature nativity scene.

Notice the llamas that he uses.

The lizard on top of this pile is not alive!

This is Richard Chavez, the younger brother of the more famous artist.  It is a family business giving many in the family great jobs!

We were able to see many statues in different stages of completion.  Enjoy!

He is training his nephew and niece to copy his work to keep up with orders.

I love this llama carrying the gourds!

Julie and Derrall Adams have this same statue as we do.

This is Richards older brother who is more famous, but we all liked his painting better.

This stairway leads up to Richards house and his little girl.

This is the large kiln where he stacks pieces on top of each other!

We bought this piece

Richards' neighborhood!

This is his studio and his home.

We traveled on to Punto and the Spanish Fort called Real Felipe.

     The Spanish conquerors built this fort to hide the gold they had stolen from the Incas.  Pirates knew this and so this fort was a target for taking some gold and bounty.

View of fort grounds and shipyard!

Cannons ready for combat.

Looking on fort grounds and boats moored in the harbor.

What a cute couple!

Beautiful lilies lined the entrance!

  

The beach was loaded with people laying on rounded rocks.

Check out the rocks!

We had a great lunch with shrimp and avocados and overlooked the beach below.

What a pretty view!

We then walked along the beach trail and enjoyed the sea, birds, and people!

Our last adventure was a Potato Fair!  It was near one of the museums we visit and we all had a great time!  This was some delicious pork that was grilled!

And here come all the varieties of potatos in Peru!  Many had on native costumes!

These farmers are from Cajamarca, Peru.

 Elder Garner is a potato farmer from Washington and really enjoyed the many varieties at the fair!

Look at all the different native costumes!

 

We then attended a museum that had a mock earthquake room!  Sure hope a big one like that never happens here!

Loads of varieties of honey and health foods.

 

This is a Quinua display with over 80 varieties of flavors.  We use it on cereal, salads, casseroles, etc.

We checked out these new tractors and the Garners said these were very small compared to their tractors!

They all laughed that the tire was taller than me!