Platos Typicas

Food of the jungle(or pig) and fried banana are typical plates at this restaurant.  They also serve shrimp.  We think they are somewhat like the crawdads at home.  The orange juice is the best in the world, freshly squeezed from oranges in the field across the street.

Sightseeing

The owl wasn't bothered by our sight seeing and the long toothpick thorns are visible on this tree.

If you look close you can see the chicken wire used to hold the rocks in place for the banks of the river.  If you look really close, you still can't see water in the river.  We saw water in one river once, during the time it rains up in the sierras.

The cactus plants are scraped and the residue used in cosmetics.  The fences around fields are made of limbs from thorn trees.  The thorns are several inches long and we have seen them used for toothpicks.

The rich get richer

The landowners have the big houses.  This hacienda was owned by the church until they were expelled in the 1600's.

The workers live in small rooms on the hacienda.

This herd of goats, sheep and donkeys crossed in front of us.  We aren't sure what they find to graze on.

The cows also live on this hacienda.

They have a bit of everything.  Usually, haciendas are self sufficient and grow what they need.  This cotton field is harvested by hand.  In Ica where the fields are larger, they do use machines to harvest.  A pretty yellow blossom  before  the soft puff ball you see in the front.

Jesuit Church - 1500's

These tombs held the bodies until they decayed.

The bones were then deposited in the cellar or vault underneath, after the bodies decayed.

The stairs lead to the tombs.  We made lots of noise to scare any creatures away before we entered.

Funds are needed to restore some of these ancient buildings that are on an endangered list.

The artifacts and mummy were found in desert ruins.  The mummy had been left by grave robbers

Tree of life?

The Nazca Lines are a series of ancient geoglyphs dating 400-650 AD.  They are very fragile, made from brushing off the top layer of pebbles to expose the whitish ground underneath.  The dry, hot climate preserves these lines.

A family appears as the subject of this set of lines.

Maria Reich determined these lines to be an astrological map.  By using the lines and the sun, times to plant, when the rains would come and other important information was available.  The desert air preserves some of her original papers.

The ancient lines were found to have pointed to water in the desert.

After 9 months we finally see the Nazca Lines.  We found it safer to view from the towers, since there have been two plane crashes with 12 people dying in this 9 months. 

The mono or monkey was the most important figure.

The hummingbird is another of the figures.

Lines of Nazca

The spider is one of the figures Maria Reich studied in the desert.

Nuevo a Nazca

7 moto taxis appeared in Nazca last week.  Joni Joseph is the proud driver of one.  He suffered an allergic reaction to some medication that ate his skin, but has recovered and hopes to serve a mission.



Togetherness

   Elder Chacon finished his two years this week so we had a farewell supper on Pday.

Stairway to heaven?

We asked the neighbor if this staircase was for his dog to go up and down from the roof.  Actually, he builds them here and then takes them where they go.  Usually, he delivers things on the top of his car.  This might not fit.



Only in Nazca

If we came home to a house full of water in Idaho, we would have to get a pump and fans to take care of it.  Here, all we had to do was open the front door and sweep all the water out.  There was only about 3 inches.  It was like our own private wading pool!

Then we went to the church for meetings and when we came out President Tarque's car battery had been stolen.  He offered us a ride and when he started the car there was no power.  He opened the hood and there was no battery.  He said he couldn't leave the car there overnight or nothing would be left.  So he  borrowed a battery, started the car, took the battery out and drove home without one.

We found a young man the other day who was baptized in December and works all the time.  He wants  to serve a mission, and asked us to help him get prepared.  That makes two prospective missionaries we are working with.  Everyday never ceases to be amazing and we simply know we are where we are supposed to be and being taken care of.

We picked out our Christmas tree in July.  It's probably not going to reach 6 feet before December.

We looked out the window and what did we see this time?  A car in the middle of our flower garden!  Since it was 4 in the morning we didn't get a picture, but now have no garbage holder and little fence left.  The car was high centered on one of our rocks for a 1/2 hour.