Trujillo, Peru

The Open Chapel is starting to branch out to the other missions in the Area and we were invited to go north of Lima to a city called Trujillo.  We had to fly there and it took about an hour and a half in a little plane that was sponsored by the flight company, LATAM.  The taxi picked us up at 4:00 am and we were in the beautiful Trujillo Temple for the 8:30 am session.

 

Laurie has a missionary companion from Trujillo that served with her in Chile.  We looked her up and her husband, a medical doctor, picked us up from the Temple and took us to their new home.  It turned out to be a very modest, humble 3rd story couple of rooms that they built on top of his parents' home.  There they fed us a great lunch of ceviche, raw fish, and rice with chicken.  It was delicious and was a very expensive gift to us from them.  They have 3 children, a boy 8 named Abinadi, a girl 5 named Emily, and a girl 2 named Claudia.  They insisted on taking us to the beach and so all 7 of us jumped into a taxi and headed to Huanchaco.

On the boardwalk

Hilda, Alex and kids (Vasquez family)

The beach at Huanchaco

Up the stairs to their home with Abinadi who was just baptized a couple months ago

Their kitchen dining room

We returned to the Temple and got some initiatory work and another session in before we spent the night at the Temple hostel.  The next morning we went to the mission office of the Trujillo North Mission and trained two North American couples who will serve as coordinators for the Open Chapel in those two missions.  They were great people, and we are glad to see the program expanding.

Sister Marble in the middle and the Bentleys from Trujillo North Mission

Trujillo from the airport as we are leaving

At the temple hostel we ran into Eduardo who is a missionary who is from the ward we attend when we don't have an Open Chapel.  He will be a great missionary and it is our blessing to have met him!

We consider it a real blessing to have spent a couple of fun,productive and different days in Trujillo.  The highlight of course was our visit to the beautiful Temple.  It is big and spacious and full of dark wood and lovely murals.  We are also excited to see the Open Chapel expanding further into the South America Northwest Area.

Lima by train

The traffic in Lima is congested, frightening, and fast!  Our friends, the Records, suggested that we take a tour of the city, and we were skeptical to say the least until they told us it would be by train!

Escalator down

Big spacious ticket area

It was a Saturday, so we missed the work crowd.  The card to ride cost 5 soles, a dollar and a half.  The fare on the card was another 5 soles.

Here is the train.  It was clean and comfortable and by the end of the trip, very crowded.

They were very polite and gave seats to the old people.

We got to see Lima from the far south limits of the city to the far north limits.  We stayed on the train until we got to the end of the line both ways.

Skyscrapers and modern buildings down town.

Concrete construction, hmm...

There were lots of contrasts on the trip.  The rich and well-to-do and the poor.

This is Gamarra.  A part of the city you don't want to know.  There is much crime and evil. But everyone says you can buy anything you want real cheap at the outdoor stands!

This is a water-less villa, dirty and obviously very poor.

It was air-conditioned inside the train, but these poor people have no doors or windows or water.

We walked around after the train ride and this street, Javier Prado, is one of the longest busiest in Lima.Today doesn't show the amount of usual traffic.  It is extremely light here.  There are usually 5 or 6 lanes bumper to bumper on weekdays! 

This is the modern, National Theater, which is near the train station.  We enjoyed a concert one night with other senior couples.

This was a good way to see much of Lima.