Back to the future

Elder and Sister Record have been our mentors since we arrived in Lima.  He is the Executive Secretary to the Area Presidency.   We work in the same general area in the office building, and they have really taken it upon themselves to introduce us to life in Peru.  They taught us about money, taxis, and going out to eat.  They have included us in many things and we are really in their debt.
On Saturday, October 7, they decided that we needed to see some of the ancient ruins here in Lima. The sites upon which the ruins sit are called "huacas" which is pronounced "wacas".  There are 100 of them around the city and most of them have been discovered and excavated since 1980.  The biggest one that is right in the center of the city is called "Pucllana"  which is pronounced "pookaianna".  It is what remains from 3 different civilizations that date back to 600 years after Christ, the Lima, the Wari, and the Yschi.  They built their Temple, as you can see, according to the bookshelf brick construction, which is having the bricks stand on end.  This was supposedly more stable during earthquakes.  I hope we don't find out!

Sea worshipers (notice the bookshelf bricks)

Offerings

Making bricks

Courtyard

Contrast with modern buildings

As you can see from the pictures it is a great big mound of dirt.  The dirt is a very sandy, dry soil that gets all over everything.  Hand made bricks made of the dirt and sea shells form the walls and the sides of this temple site.  It is interesting to see the contrast with the Peruvian skyscrapers in the background. The hole in the ground with the two lumps in it is actually the burial place of two people who were wrapped in cloth in a sitting position and then buried.  There are different layers of bricks and as the civilizations grew, they added more layers until it became a huge pyramid.

Cactus-- yum yum?

Lunch (guinea pigs-still eaten today- Cuy)

3000 varieties of potatoes

Here they have a reminder of what life was like for the people then.  They grew over 3000 varieties of potatoes and ate lots of cactus.  They grew different varieties of quinoa and beans.  The llama was domesticated and the guinea pigs were eaten.  We were humbled at the poor circumstances in which they lived, amazed at the hard work that they did, and grateful that we didn't live back then.

Records from California

After we finished at the Huaca, we took a taxi to the beach.  There is a really modern mall built into the side of the cliffs that overlook the Pacific Ocean.  It is called Larco Mar.  There were lots of families and young people there and it was a real contrast from Pucllana.  There were Nike and Adidas stores and lots of North American shops.  That part of Lima is called Miraflores.  There are some very ritzy homes and a huge Marriott Hotel.  We saw people hang gliding off the beach, there were surfers and people out in boats.  We just stood and shivered because it was so cold!  We did catch supper at Chili's Restaurant and that was fun!  We could see out across the bay where there was a big cross that was all lit up once it got dark.

It was really interesting to see the two different parts of Lima today.  We felt like we had truly gone "back to the future."