Fotos del Perú

We went with a group of former Northern Mexico LDS missionaries, spouses, friends, and family members, guided by my former mission president Marlin Walker (and former Temple President in Lima), to Peru for an awesome tour of ruins and sights. We flew from Vegas to Miami to Lima. Our base in Lima was the Golf Los Incas Hotel in the Miraflores part of Lima (obviously near a golf course). It is built on the side of a stone mountain.

Gayle and I at dawn in front of the hotel.

Our first room at the hotel (we came back here at the end of our trip) was on the 8th floor. Here's a shot from the balcony of that room. Lima is mostly overcast this time of year (spring in the southern hemisphere) and it almost never rains there. It is a desert. Of course they get water from rivers (from the Andes).

Here's a collage of some of our hotel settings. Click on it to enlarge, and remember to scroll right. Upper left is from the inside of our hotel at Iquitos (a city in the Amazon); upper right is of me swimming in that pool; bottom left is looking up the mountainside from the hotel Golf Los Incas in Lima (the mountains have very little vegetation, they're mostly rock in Lima); bottom right is looking down that same mountainside at the landscaping next to the hotel.

We were able to attend church in Urubamba (in the sacred valley). It was a moving experience. Several of the children are orphans and their caregiver is a lady in the branch there.

Upper left - Spencer (yes, that's both his name and his father's name). Note his CTR (Choose the Right) tie. He was one of those who bore their testimonies that Fast Sunday. Upper right - several of the orphan girls. Gayle and I sat on the same little bench with them during the service. Bottom left - two sisters and their grandmother, who speaks mainly just Quechua. Bottom right - Gayle and the young girl who sat between us at church. The girl was fascinated by my hairy arms and kept pulling at the hairs.

While in Iquitos we went out on the rivers (there are tributaries to the Amazon, and the Amazon itself, near Iquitos). We took this shot for our son, Adrian. "Don," by the way, is a Spanish title used before male Christian names (Don Diego, Don Juan, etc.).

Here's a collage of our trip near Iquitos to visit the Bora Indians.



There's an upscale mall near the hotel in Lima next to a racetrack. Hence its name, the Jockey Mall. We had some Peruvian food and then an Italian gelatto there. The two bottom corner shots are of us eating breakfast at the hotel. I have just cut open a "tuna." Tuna in Spanish is the word for prickly pear and has nothing to do with atún (tuna fish).

Our first full day in Lima started with a temple session. We loved it. Gayle even did it in Spanish. The upper shots show me talking with some of the elders and with Presidente Walker.

The colors in Perú are amazing.

The upper shots were taken near the sacred valley up in the Andes, at the Pisac indian market. The lower shots were of a market in Iquitos (jungle) near the Amazon River. The two regions are very distinct (jungle vs. high mountains). The eggs on display are turtle eggs.

Classic Peruvian dress. Several of the shots we're showing were taken by others in our group.

Top row: Lizard at Machu Picchu, llamas (I think) at MP, "prehistoric turtle in the "Amazona."
Middle row: Owl, pink dolphin, and jaguar in Amazona.
Bottom: Napoleon (our great host/guide) and parrot, monkey, sloth - in Amazona.

Some of the flora at various places --
Left column - top: at temple in Lima; bottom: near Iquitos (young pineapple)
Middle column - Machu Picchu (bottom is Peru's national flower)
Right - in or near Cusco