Glimpses of Cuzco

We are home in Cape Town, South Africa, after a

very special month in Peru.  It took us so long to get home that Josh grew another inch somewhere in there!  (He's 6'5" and I'm 5'6" so we're complimentary.)  We didn't have our Yellow Fever Certificates, only copies of them, so the airlines wouldn't let us on our scheduled flight from Sao Paolo, Brazil, to Johannesburg, South Africa.  Instead we had to hang out an extra 5 1/2 hours, wondering if we'd get out on the next flight, which we finally did.  We didn't have a Brazilian visa so we had to stay in the airport.

We missed our flight from Jo'burg to Cape Town, and we had to buy new tickets.  That was rough on our frugal selves, but we were aching to be home in our own beds and a two day bus ride had no appeal. 

Our first few mornings were jet-lag fuzzy for me.  Paul preached and drew in the Delft community that first Sunday morning, and I worried about disgracing us by falling asleep and falling with a thud onto the church floor.  He didn't seem to have any trouble with sleepiness. 

So we're far from Peru, but still want to share a few memories.  Our times in Cuzco never were singled out for attention, so here we go:

 We slept in this Baptist Church in San Sabastian.  In some ways Cuzco was the most difficult as it was at the highest altitude, more than 2 miles high, and we'd be gasping for breath after climbing the stairs.  We weren't very well prepared for the cold either, but the church came equipped with mounds of blankets--probably 50 of them, so that was good.
Paul's great height posed a few problems with the irregular doors and ceilings as he kept whacking his head. 

 There's always something to celebrate in Cuzco.  Firecrackers go off a lot!  We tangled with a celebration when we went downtown to get our Macchu Picchu tickets. 

 The bank was on the opposite side of the street, and we had to go weaving right among the dancers to get back and forth. 

 Missionary Eric Pardine was a helping us with this, as well as scheduling and translating for Paul.  We enjoyed a nice chunk of time with him, and his family, as well as their church family.  May God bless him and his family!

                                               Not your typical street people. 

 This monastery was intriguing to me, but we didn't have time to really check it out. 

 Cuzco has many markets and MANY kinds of potatoes!  Potatoes are supposed to have originated in Peru and Bolivia, and they have more potato varieties and more potato recipes than anyone else I know.  Hot, cold, frozen, spicy, and of course, Josh's favorite, deep fried. 

Purple corn is another Peruvian specialty, and the purple drink Chicha is made from the purple corn.  It can be either alcoholic or non-alcoholic, like a punch. 

 At night from our third floor room in the church, we could see these fireworks going off in the plaza de armas (the big square in front of the church.)

The Spaniards built Cathedral de San Sebastian up close before the fire works.

The contrast of light and darkness got me looking for verses with those words in them.  Romans 13:12 says "The night is far spent, the day is at hand:  let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light."

Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife an denvying. 

But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof. "

Yeah!