We have arrived!!

We made it to Lima after about 9 hours on a plane (2.5 from Phoenix to Houston and 6.5 from Houston to Lima). We got in late, but found our taxi and made it to our hostel which was BEAUTIFUL!! It actually looked better than the pictures on the website (which is quite a change from our last experience with hotels on the internet...). We have plenty of pictures and will post them once we're back home.

We spent Saturday in Lima taking in the main sights. We saw the main plaza and the governmental palace. Then we went in the catacombs under this old church. Over 75,000 people are buried there because it existed before the first cemetery in Lima. We went down in them and saw all of the bones. In some places they had been moved to make more space for new bodies and placed in geometric designs...kind of creepy!! Despite this fact, it was actually quite peaceful down there. After that we went to a museum that showed the torture methods and prison cells used during the Spanish Inquisition. That was also quite scary, but interesting. We wandered around Lima the rest of the day and had our first Peruvian food which was great!

On Sunday we travelled to Chiclayo, which is where Shane served his mission. As soon as we arrived, we got on a "convi" which is like a VW bus packed with about 5 rows of seats to Tuman which is where Shane spent 8.5 months of his mission. We visited the woman whose house he lived in for that time. She was so excited to see him!! We had called her the day before to let her know we were coming and she told us that we had been an answer to her prayers because she had been sad because her children had all moved away and she was feeling lonely. She made us some very authentic soup and a dish I've come to be very comfortable with, Lomo Saltado.

Next, we headed to the home of the Sandoval family, who Shane converted while he was here. They had 4 daughters when he left, now they have a son (who is named Shane, no joke) and another daughter. We happened to arrive about an hour before they were leaving to baptize their daughter and invited us along. We traveled to another town where there is a chapel with a font and then we had to wait about an hour for the person with the key to show up. Shane explained that it was in Peru that he really learned patience!! Once it all started, it was beautiful. There was another couple getting baptized and another girl. After the baptisms, they asked me and Shane to bear our testimonies. That was quite difficult considering I never really learned those words! After the baptism, the Sandovals came back to Chiclayo with us and we bought them a pizza from Pizza Hut, their first pizza ever!! And they loved it. They said that had wanted to try it, but were afraid to buy it because they would be wasting their money if they didn't like it. Then they bought us some ice cream and walked with us all the way back to our hotel. We had a great day and are so glad we happened to visit at that time!

Today (Monday) we went up to Sipan, which is the site of two large temples (like pyramids) of the Moche people, who were a pre-Incan tribe. They are excavating the burial sites all around there and have found some crazy things! They've found tons of copper, gold, and silver ornaments and clothing and a ton of pottery. It's crazy to see skeletons just lying in the ground, but it's interesting to see the customs that they had.

This afternoon we visited two other families around Chiclayo that Shane knew while he was here. We spent quite a while with them. They were all very excited to see Shane and everyone remembers him. I was worried before that he would be disappointed if the families didn't remember him, but apparently that's not a problem! We had a great day and were sad to leave them, but we don't have much time here.

That's the update so far. We're heading back to Tuman tomorrow to eat cuy (which is guinea pig by the way) and visit a few more families. On a side note, I'm starting to wish I would've heeded Shane's advice and dyed my hair brown before we came. We can't go anywhere without everyone staring, children following us, and men whistling! At the baptism, this one girl took about 20 pictures of me and Shane!! It's just strange getting so much attention when I look so average in the US. Also, I'm realizing how much I do understand spanish, and how hard it is to understand natives! Shane lets them know that I can understand if they speak slowly, and they try for a few minutes and then speed back up, but I can generally get the gist of the conversation.

Well, that's really all for now. We'll update again soon!!