MISSION TRIP TO CAJAMARCA AND CHICLAYO

     We were invited, along with Bruce and Jody Packard to give three health presentations for the Chiclayo mission.  We were so happy to see President and Sister Risso, again, and had a wonderful four days traveling with them.  We flew in to beautiful Cajamarca which is located high in the Andeas at 9,000 feet.  It is green valley with lots of pastures and surrounded by mountains.  The population is around 200,000 and growing, due to a large gold mine and a large silver mine nearby.  First home to various pre-Inca civilizations and conquered in 1465 by the Incas.  Then the Spanish conquest of the region happened in 1534.  Cajamarca is one of the finest colonial cities in Peru.

This was our hotel for one night and it was close to the main town plaza.  The streets were very narrow and the Spanish architecture was everywhere!

We spent our first day visiting this clinic that helps the missionaries with their health applications and health problems.  The brother on the far right is a counselor in the stake presidency, the clinic administrator and a family doctor.  This clinic has not been charging the missionaries any fees for this service and Steve informed them that the church Humana Salud would pay for such work.  They were happy to hear that news!  The brother on the far left is the stake president.  The sister in the middle is a mid-wife.  This clinic was very clean and well organized. 

There were four beds in this clinic and two for maternity. 

Every city has a main Plaza De Arms with lovely old cathedrals.  This one is a museum now.

You can see our elders leaving the plaza to join us.

We then hiked up to the top of this hill, with Bruce and Jody, to the small white catholic church.  From there we could see all of Cajamarca.  On the way up the hill we stopped at several vendors.

It was a very beautiful first day here.  All up and down this hill were craft markets and people to meet and find out where they are from.  Mostly tourists are up early to sight see and a most vendors were open.

Were getting closer!

This last section was half-rounded stairs with Inca rock carvings!

These boys were playing with water balloons!

This ledged garden was towards the top of the steps.

We finally made it to the church and could look out over this beautiful view.  Straight ahead and over these mountains are the gold and silver mines.  You can see how green the mountains are and covered with patches of trees, due to rainfall.  The temperature stays much cooler than Lima.  

When we got to the church, we discovered we could go even higher to the top of the hill.

This was a very small church.

This little boy was watching people while his mother sold crafts!  Yes, I bought something from her.

This is the native dress for this area.  The great hats are a cross between a cowboy hat and a farmers hat.  The skirts are just below the knee and made of bright and many colors.  The women carry babies and everything else wrapped in their long shawls.

This path took us up through more gardens to the top.

We had a wonderful first day in Cajarmarca.

Opposite the museum cathedral is this other one.  I'm sorry I didn't get the whole church!

Following are more native hats and clothing!

Most hermanas wear their hair in one or two braids.

That night we walked around and got some nice pictures of this beautiful cathedral.

The next day we put on our health presentation with the Packards to about 50 elders and hermanas that serve here.

President and Sister Risso are wonderful to their missionaries.  We really enjoyed our visit to their mission and appreciated spending four days with them.  We really love the many new friends we have met on our mission and the bonds that our formed as we serve together.  I hope my family and friends will have the same opportunity and blessing.

After the zone conference the Risso's wanted to show us the famous Inca Square and Baths.

Here we saw more of the Cajamarca native dress and hats.  Each area was very distinctive in their dress.

I love this picture of this grandmother with her nietos (grandson)!

This is the entrance to the Inca Baths and is located on about 20 acres just out side the city.

These are boiling thermal pools, like in Yellowstone.  You do not swim or wade in these!!!

Hot!!!

 

This lovely painting is found in a large bathhouse with over 30 hot tubs for family and individual use.  You pay by the hour to enjoy a nice dip in warm water.

Out side the Inca baths we saw many vendors in native costume.

We then traveled with the Risso's in their car for five hours through the beautiful Andean Mountains.  It was quite the spectacular views, as you can imagine!  This time of year everything was a deep green.  The roads were very good, but only two-way traffic and lots of hairpin turns, and many herds of cows, goats, and sheep as we came around blind corners.  This was the only road between Cajamarca and Chiclayo and we had to share it with huge trucks, as well.  We loved this journey, but were grateful we survived the trip!

I almost got the whole cow!

The local market was the gathering place in the small villages we passed through.

She was running to keep up with her herd of goats.

You can almost see the pattern of fields that spotted many of the mountains.

In each village, you would see people gathered together just to talk and watch those of us traveling thru their area.

Another grocery store and typical home in the many villages we passed.

We arrived to Chiclayo just in time for dinner at our hotel.  The next day we met with two different zone conferences and had a great experience.  These sweet sisters translated for us.

We met in the lovely Institute building in Chiclayo and had a great time visiting with the missionaries and many of them we had seen at the CCM.

The Latino hermanas and hermanos are truly a beautiful people!

The missionaries always want to talk with Steve after our sessions and take photos with them.

See, I am not the shortest one!

We love these happy missionaries!

This is the Institute Building.  Most of the church buildings are the nicest ones in the cities and the grounds are also well maintained.

After the zone conferences, we navigated our way through the traffic, to visit the main clinic that takes care of our missionaries.  The administrator is an inactive member of the church and it turned out to be a valuable meeting, since Pres. and Sister Risso had never met him before.  Now there is a working relationship between them and he agreed to always contact them when there were serious problems with the missionaries.   Maybe they will invite him to return to church!

Then we traveled with the Risso's stake president who wanted to show us his day job as administrator for this college.  It is new and still has many buildings under construction, but it will be the most modern and well run university in the region.  He was very proud of everyones contributions to this project.

We were given a tour of the facility.

We traveled to the famous Chiclayo beaches and parked by this lovely park at the entrance.

Here, life's a beach!

 We stopped to see these crafts and enjoyed talking to this family.  We did buy a few pieces of jewelry!

We stopped to have a nice lunch overlooking the beach.

We returned to the Risso's apartment for a light dinner, before heading out to the airport.  We have been so blessed on our mission and so grateful to Heavenly Father for these experiences!