Santiago Sunday

We rode a lot of buses in Chile. This kid was a pro by Sunday!

We got out of the hotel in time to catch a couple buses, and headed to church in the area where Mike served 6 months.  We all went to our Relief Society and Priesthood classes first (luckily, church did start at 10, when Rosa said it would, and not at 9 when the Internet page said it would).  In priesthood, there were two teachers (the Elders serving in the ward), and our family of men.  In Relief Society, there were 8-10 women.  Sunday school was a little larger, as we accumulated a few more students of the gospel.  In both classes, we were able to follow along with conference talks and Sunday school manuals in English (our wi-fi hooked right up, just like it does in Utah).  I only answered one question in class, and I think I may have misheard the question anyway, because I got a few giggles.  In sacrament meeting, they had one assigned talk, and filled the rest of the meeting with testimonies, assigned by the bishop.  Mike got to go first.  He thought maybe he would get called up, and he did :)  It was an emotional message and testimony for those in attendance, including me.  Then, 4 Relief Society sisters who had gone on a temple trip, 2 of them for the very 1st time, shared their testimonies.

Afterward, we spoke with a few members, then followed Sister Rosa Perez home.  I hope we all remember the feelings we felt there.  Her husband has worked so hard, his whole life, carrying produce up a hill to be delivered from trucks, and now, at age 60, is tired and also unable to retire because he needs to continue supporting his family, including his son and 2 grand kids, who all live there.  It was mentioned by them, and others in Chile that their home may be small, but the heart is big, which was certainly true.  She fed us pop, cookies, and chips, while they drank water.  They offered us lunch, even though they had so little to give.  This was the visit for me, that humbled me the very most and had me counting my blessings, in ways I hadn't counted before.  So many of the sisters were a great example to me, of serving and attending church so faithfully, even though so many of their husbands were not there with them.  Their faith was amazing.

Martinez Family

We walked all around the ward, and also visited with the Mathews, who Mike had lived with for several months, the Mendizabals, who had been a diligent bishop for nearly 20 years, including the time Mike was a missionary, and the Martinez family.  We were definitely made out to be very special guests in each of their homes.  We are thankful for all their dear kindness!

Luis, Mom, Michael. Not pictured, was the 16 year old grandson who had eyes for Adelyn

The Mathews family, and Mikes home for 4.5 months

The Mendizabal Family in the beautiful home they built for themselves

The way home was definitely a view into a different world than the visits we had just made.  Near the bus station, there were some big, over-the-top Christmas celebrations and shows around.  One was a kids' show, doing a Christmas special, and with costumes of animated characters for kids.  Once we got off the bus stop (which stopped way earlier than we had expected, and in a different part of town than we had hoped), there was another big parade/event that had just finished up.  Kids were all spoiled, going home with all sorts of county-fair type balloons and stuffed animals.  There were families everywhere, with white flakes in their hair.  The white flakes were EVERYWHERE on the streets too.  Probably, at least a mile, where a machine had shot paper snow on families everywhere.  The street sweepers who followed, were mostly workers with small push brooms and dust pans.  It seriously appeared impossible to do the work that needed to be done, but I'm sure the event was one of the city's biggest events of the year.

Santiago on Saturday

We headed out to go to a Chilean flea market, BioBio. We had really tried to follow a few general guidelines for food, but ended up breaking every one, besides drinking Peruvian water.  This morning was fruit cups from a street vendor.  We saw some fun wares, bought a few fun things, even though they were all things with English writing on them.  Mike had a line on two Lambrettas for cheap... if only there were an easier and cheaper way to get them home.

flea market stores

We then headed to the BBQ in the South Eastern part of town.  Cristian hosted us. His mom, Puri was one of the moms that Mike had a chance to teach, baptize and befriend.  She has 9 children, 6 of whom Mike knew on his mission, as young kids and youth.  3 of them we had the opportunity to meet as we BBQ'ed with them all day.  They were so generous in every sense of the word.  They had purchased the best eats and it looked like 18 times the amount a group that size could eat.  We had several courses, started with some crackers and queso fresco, some chorizo sausages with fresh Chilean bread, toasted, and topped with fresh pico do gallo.  Our dinner included delicious lettuce, Chilean salad, meat, corn with mayo, potato salad with carrots and cilantro and mayo, chicken leg quarters, delicious beef, pineapple soda, and good ol' Coca Cola (one of the drinks we consumed much more liberally than at other times in our lives, to perhaps, eat the bugs our tummies weren't used to).  They finished us off later in the evening with ice cream, and fun ice cream novelties.  The conversations lasted late into the evening, and as we gather our supplies to go, we had accumulated so many dear gifts.  Soccer jerseys for Dad and Mike, a hat for Mike and me, peacock earrings for Mom and I, from some peacocks that live down the street, a Chile basketball for Michael, and T-shirts for both boys.  We hadn't brought much to gift them, but some American candy, like Hot Tamales, which they all made grimacing faces with, especially Raul, the oldest.  There isn't a way to describe the feelings that day, but their love for my husband, and their mutual acts of caring for one another, long ago, definitely shaped who my family is today.  It was a wonderful chance for Mike to share testimony once again to these blessed families.  Some of the other things we were able to do with them that day: the park to play games (the kids played a country game with a soccer ball, luckily, they only had to yell out the names of different countries in the world, and they mostly all sound the same in English), a walk to see the peacocks, fuseball (Parowan Market vs. Wal-Mart), lots of translate apps being used, seeing the sweet 6 week old baby, the boys playing video games (no communication gap there!), and watching movies in English with Spanish subtitles.

the twins had to step on chairs to get in the picture with Dad and Mike :)

Puri and Raul with us

Sebastian and Cristian

fuseball, and in Chile, Taca Taca

One of our many courses of food at the BBQ

The whole group

Mike, with the 3 boys he spent so much time with on his mission

We arrived to our next visit a little later.  Ana Maria was a kind host, and a lady who has overcome great odds to be in her own beautiful home.  As we chatted, we realized we didn't have  away to get home of the metro, as it was late, and closed, and we didn't want to have to separate so late in the night into different taxis.  After some trail and error, and a little time and stress, we were able to get an Uber XL that took us all the way home.  Only learning, in the middle of the drive, as he veered off the path to avoid police, that Uber is actually illegal in the country.  Whoops!  Sounds like it is fairly unmonitred, as we saw a huge Uber billboard in Valparaiso later.  But he drove us home, and kept us hostage until the taxi drivers ahead of us had  anew fare, and we fell asleep in the hotel that night, so well fed, and feeling loved.

One side note: our hotel was in a millennial-type zone, with a young hip crowd.  We had to walk a little way off to find a place open late at night for some water, and walked the kids through a more hippie zone.  We hardly left any type of people out, by the time our travels were over.  The hotel was bustling with noise, people, glasses, and other restaurant noises every night until about 2 am, and it was nearly impossible to sleep with the windows closed because of the summer air.  Crazy times!

Santiago on Friday

As we got into Chile, Mike went to find a Chilean cell phone plan so we could have wi-fi, and communicate if we were ever separated from my parents.  The first food he grabbed off the streets was a peach/puffed barley sweet drink, Mote Con Huesillo.

Santiago Temple

Based on the family hours at the temple baptistery, we decided to go right away.  Luckily, thanks to Mike's location planning expertise, the metro was only a block from our hotel, and the temple was only a few stops away from that.  We had brought our own family names, and Mike performed the ordinances in Spanish.  It was the first place where we were all greeted with super kind people, and kisses, with many more to come :)

Joey and Dad walked around the temple, watching and talking with the missionaries on their last day at the Chilean MTC, as it is being closed.

We really tried to find a tasty Chilean restaurant on our way home, but ended up at a Chilean Chinese place.  The food and dinner were eventful, but less favorable than our other trip experiences.  But, it was great to meet our Venezuelan waiter.  Really, the people made this trip what it was.

Chinese Food in Chile!

Favorite Soda in Chile, PAP! (Not Bilz)

Cusco

We really didn't have a lot of experiences in Cusco. Our collectivo driver was willing to help us find our hotel and luggage that we'd left at a hostel after he dropped everyone else off at the central plaza.  When we pulled up into the neighborhood we were staying, I thought it was a joke.  For sure, I thought it was a joke.  It was dark, the streets were narrow, the windows were barred.  We called the apartment we had rented, and a sweet Peruvian girl came out to greet us.  We pulled our luggage out, and she opened a big iron gate for us to come inside.  It wasn't until we stepped in her house that I decided it really wasn't a joke.  Her place was brand new, and the cleanest of anywhere we ever stayed the whole time.  It was immaculate.  She had tea ready for us, helped us order out some pizza and chicken, and had a wonderful breakfast brought to us the next morning.  It was beef (I assume) empanadas, some rolls with jam, some delicious oranges (we think), and some herbal teas.

This is us, walking out of the neighborhood in which we stayed in Cusco.

We hailed two taxis (the first time we had ever separated our group), and made it to the airport to drop off our luggage, and then spent a couple hours in the artisan's area down the way for some shopping.  After an annoying experience with the driver who took us to the street market, and told us we ripped him off, we took the bus all the way back to the airport, at the cost of less than 1 sol each.  But it was pretty packed!  The pic shows us on the bus, after enough people had gotten off that I could get to my camera.

Chinchero

We made a quick stop on our way from the Cusco airport, to Ollantaytambo and stopped in Chincero.  It was  a little more rural area, and we saw a cute little tourist farm where they showed us some of the natural materials that were used to clean and dye the alpaca wool.  It was really interesting.  I think our favorite part, was the bugs, that live on cactus, that turn a beautiful red when you squish them.  Our Peruvian guide smashed some live bugs and but the juice on her lips to show us her fade-proof, kiss-proof lipstick.  They had a couple llamas, and guinea pigs on display, as well us some of their beautiful yarn work!

Our van driver knew we needed to grab some food, so he calculated in 3.5 minutes for us to grab some food.  This was probably the first stop where we broke our self-imposed/government advised rules of eating in Peru, and had corn and cheese from some random cart of the side of the road.  The kernels on the corn were as big as mini marshmallows!  The ladies made us a rush order, and we had our food in no time, and kept on with our travels along sweet farm roads of Peru.

I didn't take a picture, so I used this one from http://prettyconnected.com/2015/07/cochineal-insect-lipstick/

Machu Picchu

After an incredible amount of travel, we were able to experience the thrill of a lifetime. The experience of getting there, made what we saw, so inspiring! How did they get there? How did they manage the work? The design? The elements? What inspired them? What drove them?

The top of the main city ruins

So many walls, right along the edge of the cliffs

Adelyn makes every picture a postcard

Being nestled in those ginormous mountains, walking along rugged mountain peaks, along with the llamas, was indescribable, but I can write a few notes.

Ruins, with Wayna Picchu in the background.

We were super glad we took the bus up the switchbacks.  It looks like you can hike up to the top in less that a couple hours, but with the altitude change, and the 20,000 steps we took around the ruins, I was really glad we weren't already tired before we got there.  ESPECIALLY, after all our travel.

Top of the Sun Gate hike

We hike the Inka bridge, and to the sun gate, and toured the ruins of the city.  There's lots more to do and see, but we saw and felt the majority of what was there.

Inka Bridge

We took the bus home in time for some ice cream and lunch.  The kids are great eaters (on vacation) and tried fish, alpaca, and all sorts of sauces and dips that they had never tried before.  Maybe not as notable, but they also tried several different flavors of ice cream :)

On our way back, we may have been the only crew that got off the train in Ollanyaytambo, but it sure made our trip back to Cusco, very inexpensive!  There were lots of drivers, with nobody to take home.  We took a collectivo back, with several locals.

Aguas Calientes

Aguas Calientes is the the little town just down the mountain from Machu Picchu that we stayed in for a night.  The cute little train station stops here.  And we were glad to finally be there, after 30+ hours of travel.  Walking along the restaurant streets for dinner was as bad as walking into a car dealership (Parowan Auto, aside).  Lots of people want/need your business, and it was hard to choose. We walked out of one restaurant, after they gave us the "tourist" menu.  It was nice to eat a meal (we had a full-on meal, soups, entrees, and desserts). And got to bed, exhausted, by 8 or 9 pm.  We had a couple rooms and bathrooms for the seven of us, and a nice view from the window.  It was a little loud later into the evening, but I guess that just helped set the tone for the rest of the trip!  When the hotel found out we would be leaving by about 5:30am, they packed us a little sack breakfast, which included Peruvian granola bars. We smiled a little as we ate them; they tasted a little like bird seed. Maybe it was puffed quinoa?  Anyway. it really is a nice little home place for travelers to Machu Picchu.

Travel forever

Hey, we are taking a trip with our 3 oldest kids! And it's going to be a blast.  But first, travel...

How many modes of transportation can you fit in to 3 days?

Car to las vegas (2.5 hr)
Shuttle to airport
Airport Train to international flights
Escalators and elevators throughout
767 airplane to Miami (5 hr)
Metro rail in Miami (30 min)

Metro mover to downtown Miami eats (5 min)

The family at Bayside in Miami by the Banyan tree

767 to Lima, Peru (6 hr)
Airbus to Cusco (1 hr)
12 passenger van to Ollantaymbo and Chinchero (2 hr)
Train to Aguas Callientes (1.5 hr)
Bus to Macchu Picchu (30 min)
20,000 steps on our very own feet on Wednesday (5am-1pm)

And back to Cusco in a collectivo (2 hr)

Exhausting!