Church at Central / Chan Chan Building and Casa Grande

We went back to church at the Central / Chan Chan building.  It was Fast Sunday since the election is next week and there will be no church.  The Opening Hymn was "God Be With You Til We Meet Again".  We get amused at their song choices down here.  One Sunday we sang "Rock of Ages" for the Sacrament Hymn. There was no cord to the electronic piano so I was not able to play the piano. They are used to singing without the piano but we aren't quite used to it yet.

This church was built in the Historic District of Trujillo which is downtown near the Plaza de Armas.
It had to blend in with the architecture so it was built behind a wall.

We refer to this as the "Sound of Music" church because of the large
door and stoop you have to step over.

We visited the Senior primary.  They sang for us.

Leading the singing.

Elder Cogollo from Columbia, Hermano Guerrero (a future missionary from the ward),
Elder Linares from Bolivia, Elder Dykstra from Sacramento, CA, Elder Babbel from Caldwell, ID,
Elder Price from Mesa, AZ and Bill.  This was Elder Price's last Sunday before going home.

Consuelo Avalos, from the temple.

Doris, 6 and Gabriel 3.

The Apolinario Family.
Cynthia and Antony, next to me are engaged to be married.
They both work in the temple.

This sweet baby was blessed on Sunday. 

More friends from the temple.

Hermano Zamora and his daughter.  She is the Primary President in the
Chan Chan ward.  She is married and has 4 daughters. 
They both work in the temple as well as his wife and her mother.

Elder Malhue from Chile, Elder Espinoza from Peru, Elder Parkinson from
Draper, Utah and Elder Quispe from Lima.

A street in the Historic District.

Monday was a fun day.  We rode the bus one hour north with the Hawses to Chicope to meet the Fackrells.  We then took another bus five or six miles further to Casa Grande.  

Bill liked this old truck we found on the way to the bus stop.

Patti and Bill walking to the bus.

Wayne and Jim waiting for the bus.

Boarding the bus.

Casa Grande was founded by the Germans in the late 1800's. Their main crop was sugar cane and it still is.  They were eventually asked to leave by the Peruvians even though the Germans treated them well and paid them fair wages.

One of the members in Casa Grande wanted to take us to see some ruins that are not government owned and we could explore to our heart's content.  My friend, Sandy Maxson, from Paradise, Utah would have been in heaven. She is my rock hound friend and explorer.

Casa Grande is a busy, quaint little town, larger than Chicope. 

  Lots of Moto Taxis.

Jan loves getting her picture taken.  Here she is with Patti waiting for
our guide.

This is our member guide, Alex Rodriguez, with Bill.
He and his family were so nice and gracious.

The Plaza de Armas.

This statue is in the middle of the Plaza and depicts harvesting the sugar cane.

This is one of the sugar cane factories that has been on strike for two months.

There are four or five streets in the town that still show the German influence.  The streets are brick and houses have sloping and tiled roofs.  Alex and his parents live in this part of the city.  I like the neatly trimmed trees in the center of the street.

Bill & Jim with Alex and his wife and parents.

They invited us into their home where Alex's wife had
made us this beautiful lemon meringue tart.

They have two children, a girl, 10. who was in school and this
cute little guy who is five.  His name is Denzel, named after
Denzel Washington, Alex's favorite actor.



Walking to the ruins.

This shows how tall the sugar cane can grow.

Turtle head rock.

Sugar cane was growing all around us.

This is what raw sugar cane looks like.  They chew on it.

You can see all the excavation holes.

A selfie in the Moto Taxi.

We rode out to the ruins in these motos and felt every bump.

Denzel found a little friend.

This strange fruit grows wild.  You don't eat it but it smells like a cucumber.  They use it to rub on the skin.

Jan holding Denzel's little friend.

Alex is rubbing the fruit on his skin.  He soon had those
seeds all over his face.

Our little group out at the excavation area.  Alex and his wife and son rode on the motorcycle.

Back in town to catch a taxi back to Chicope.
This sign says "Parking for Mototaxis".

This family got off the bus with their bags and two chickens.

Jan & Patti walking back to the Fackrells home where they made lunch for us.

Bill took the picture of these coconuts on the bus ride back to Trujillo


Tuesday after our shift at the temple we went with the Hawses to eat Chinese food.  Miguel from the temple drove us there in his Dad's taxi.  We had never been to this restaurant before.  The one we wanted to go to was closed so Miguel suggested this Chinese Buffet.  It tasted really good but we hoped it wouldn't make us sick.  So far, we're all good.

After we ate we looked outside and saw a Wong Supermercado.  This isn't the one we usually go to but it was right next to this beautiful apartment building.  It was a tiny version of the other Wong so we called it the "Wittle Wong".

We ran into this sister from the California Ward.  She was buying food
to make spaghetti for the Marlers.

We found some grapefruit which we don't always see in the stores.  The cat food, Ricocat, means delicious cat.  A Peruvian brand.

We saw this tiny dancer with her grandma.

There were lots of little children at the mall this week. They must have been having field trips. Some were in KFC and others were coming out of the theatre with balloons. Peruvian children are so cute.

Ashley Brasseux married Eduardo Chacon in the Nauvoo Temple on May 28th.  He is from Trujillo and they met last year when she was serving here on a Internship from Utah State.  
They will be living in Columbia, MO where her family lives.