06 December 2016
Most of our things were picked up by truck on Friday 25
November and taken to our casa la hacienda in Curahuasi. We followed to arrive over a week later.
On Tuesday 29 November we took delivery (later than the
dealer had committed) of our new family vehicle. It’s a Foton K1 16 seat minibus which is a
Chinese replica of the Toyota Hiace Commuter minibus like we had in Australia and
sold to our Lifesource Church upon leaving for Peru. We used all
those funds to buy the Foton. We chose this option due to the excessively high
cost of both new and second had Japanese minibuses in Peru.
For those that appreciate the mechanical details, it has a UK
made Cummins 2.8 litre industrial diesel motor which should ensure the vehicle is
essentially reliable (the Chinese cars don’t have the best reputation). Having a diesel motor will ensure it works
well at high altitude unlike petrol which loses power with low oxygen (some of
the roads we travel will be over 4 km above sea level).
 |
| Chris with our new Chinese Foton K1 minibus |
We left Arequipa the following day after a house clean up
and final packing and saying good bye to our landlord family who lived on the
floor beneath us and so we got to know well.
They just could not get enough of our baby Stacey (it’s a Peruvian cultural
thing too). And also doing a last dinner
with some very special ABC Español language school teachers and worship music
mentor for Sam – Litos and Pao.
 |
| Dinner with Litos and Pao – this kids loved Litos’ smartphone "face morphing" app |
 |
| Saying farewell to our Arequipa landlord family |
Furthermore it took 2 hours just to drive out of Arequipa
due to major roadworks and traffic jams.
The authorities diverted the 4 lane highway traffic through single lane rural
backstreets in peak hour – crazy! It
took us a total of 14 hours to get to Yucay – about 70 km the other side of city
of Cusco (the main base for tourists accessing Machu Picchu).
 |
| Traffic gridlock in Arequipa taking us 2 hours to leave town |
We learnt the hard way that the longer distance main highway
route is a much quicker & better route than the physically shortest way our
GPS took us. This ended up being on winding
dirt roads over 4.8km mountain ranges! L.
Our new Foton performed flawlessly as we travelled over the
mountains up as high as 4.8km above sea level, we encountered all conditions;
bitumen, gravel and dirt roads, dry weather and raining, still and windy, hot
and cold. Although an exhausting trip,
we were carried along by prayer and amazement of the beauty and diversity of
the Peru countryside. The kids did
amazing for such a long tiring journey.
Here is a brief photo montage of some of the scenes we
passed by;
 |
| A view of the outskirts of Arequipa |
 |
A typical mining
operation in Peru – a key source of government revenue
|
 |
One of the many
rivers we passed over with amazing rock formations
|
 |
| Our lunch stop at a remote rural sheep and lama herding outpost |
 |
| A typical rural Peruvian village we passed through |
 |
| A recent bus incident – we are surprised we did not see more of this given the way the Peru tour buses drive at high speed and overtaking on blind corners. It’s quite insane on the roads here! |
 |
| Our front seat photographer! |
 |
| A farmer’s house with coral in a rocky region somewhat off the main highway |
 |
| Passing Laguna Pomacanchi in the Cusco region 3.66km above sea level |
Why did we go to Yucay and not directly to Curahuasi? As the timing had it, Diospi Suyana met on
Friday to Sunday for their annual retreat. So it made sense to attend this on the way
with a couple of days respite beforehand after a demanding time in Arequipa at
language school. What a great way to
meet all the missionaries in a non-work setting. It was a wonderful time in a beautiful place
before we hit the ground running in Curahuasi with an intensive schedule for
the media centre and settling into a new place with a lot to do to make it
habitable (e.g. the casa la hacienda is without an inside kitchen or hot water
on tap).
 |
| Yucay in the Secret Valley of the Incas – an amazing oasis for the family to recover before Curahuasi |
We were treated by Santa “Klaus” whilst at the Yucay retreat
– the faces of all the missionary kids said it all as Dr Klaus John played the
part so well. There were activities in the day for the whole family and an
excellent husband and wife speaker from Columbia (we were told, as it was all
in Spanish and we did not understand as much as we would have liked! J). They shared a powerful testimony on their
relationship being restored by the Holy Spirit.
 |
| Santa “Klaus” at the Yucay Diospi Suyana missionaries retreat |
We finally arrived at Curahuasi on Sunday evening 4
December, to be greeted by two of our waiting landlords to introduce us to our
new abode.
 |
| Our family with landlords Melvin and Herly (centre and back left) plus the local house helper Rosita, her son Luis (front left in blue jumpers) plus the local farmer’s wife Jesusa (front right) |
Thank you for your travel prayers and help getting us to
this stage.
Bendiciones, Chris & Sandi
No comments:
Post a Comment