The LDS Temple in Trujillo Peru

Last weekend due to Women's Conference our Lima Temple was closed Saturday afternoon so we flew north, for less than a one hour flight, to Trujillo. We have been wanting to visit this part of Peru for some time. Prior or our leaving, and while making preparations in Utah for our mission, we were advised by several Peruvian friends to wait until the Trujillo Temple is done because the weather is better there and the food too. We found both to be the case. The food exceeded expectations and weather most pleasant. Its climate is referred to as being 'primavera eterna' or eternal spring. 

Currently a very ugly and tall red metal fence surrounds the Temple site.

ASPERSUD is the acronym of the legal name of the Church in Peru. 

Before the fence went up it was a farmer's field on what was originally the

Chimor city of Chan Chan. 

The architect's rendering of the Trujillo Temple. It is expected to be completed
in 2014. It will be a little larger than the Templo de Lima but with two
larger ordinance rooms rather than the smaller four room arrangement of Lima. 

In addition, there are some outstanding archaeological sites close by. In fact, the site of the Trujillo Temple and the surrounding businesses and development sits on the pre-Inca and Colombian site known as Chan Chan. Peru is a land of 10,000 temples and now there will be two Templos de Mormones.  We and our Peruvian member friends are all very happy.  Chan Chan is recognized as the largest of all Pre-Colombian cities in the Americas with a population ranging between 30,000 on the low end to as high as 60,000 by some accounts. Our very well educated guide believes that number to have been closer to 35,000.  According to the archaeological investigations,  it was common that areas of a city be devoted to a particular craft, skill or goods to be exchanged or sold.  That practice has carried through and is the norm in Peru today except where the modern shopping centers based on US designs have sprung up in recent years. Gamara is an example of that as is La Parada, where we have shopped respectively for clothes and fabrics, fresh fruits and vegetables. So much of Lima and the other cities are organized in this way with streets of specializing in one product or service. You can find a street with nothing but muffler and tailpipe shops. Another street will have exclusively furniture such as chairs, tables, and dressers. Not far from us in La Molina is a street with light fixtures and crystal chandeliers. The merchants seem to prefer this arrangement as it is carried on from their early history and we had this explained to us while touring the ruins of Chan Chan. Archaeologists have determined different parts of this very large city were dedicated to specific tasks, functions, and enterprise, as we find in modern day Lima, Trujillo and the other cities here.

Portions of Chan have been restored by archaeologists. Sifting through the

debris they have determined specific functions and activities in individual 

neighborhoods. 

The rains brought by El Niño and the flooding of the river damaged 

much of the  adobe ruins of Chan Chan. 

Within Chan Chan are numerous religious sites known as huacas. These
are oriented and laid out like the streets of Salt Lake City and the orientation
of most Mormon Temples.  Brother Nibley wrote to the Brethren complaining
the Provo Temple was not oriented to the cardinal directions of the compass
when its foundations were being poured. 

Additionally, we visited several other sites close by to Trujillo from an earlier civilization known as the Moche or Mochica. They flourished in the northern regions of Peru from 100 CE to 800 CE. We have been impressed with the ceramics and art of this culture from our earlier visits to what has become our favorite museum in Lima, the Museo de Larco. The ceramics of the Mochica are the most lifelike and illustrate facial hair which does not seem to be as common in other portrayals among the indigenous of Peru. Their language too seems to have been unique and resists classification with other Amerindian types, but shares something in common with the Turkic and Altaic languages, that of using ablative suffixes. The Mochican language died out in its entirety early in the 20th Century. Perhaps it is not surprising that Asian DNA was discovered in bones from a tomb found in this area of Northern Peru. This DNA was identified that of the Ainu of Northern Japan, whose origins seem to be from present day Mongolia. The rise of sophisticated ceramics known as Valdivia in South America seems to correspond with the time period and style of Japanese pottery known as Jomon. I recall reading a Scientific American journal article in college about the likelihood of a Japanese settlement in present day Ecuador.

A very good example of Moche ceramic pot or vase.
Maybe it was used for storing and pouring chi cha the
fresh or fermented purple corn drink. The Mochica are
known for the very much life like features of their
ceramics. Pots like this were formed from two part molds,
a number of which have survived and are still used by
craftsmen to create replicas of which we bought one. 

We want to return to Trujillo and venture further north to Chiclayo where awaits the royal tomb of the Señor de Sipan or the Lord of Sipan. It remains the most valuable of any tomb discovered in the Americas.

A mannequin dressed in the gold finery found around

the mummy of the Lord of Sipan. 

With the new Trujillo Temple functioning so many members of the Church will no longer have to endure tedious and relatively expensive bus trips to Lima that take between 10 and 16 hours from the north of the country. A new hospedaje or housing building  is expected to be completed early next year on the Lima Temple grounds accommodating these weary and faithful travelers.

Exterior of the new hospedaje.

RA and the Presidente tour the apartments for the temple missionaries. 

There is more to write about our trip to Trujillo and the sites of El Brujo, Huaca del Sol y Luna but they must wait for another time. We continue to be fascinated with the history and people of this incredible land.

Cebiche de Pato and 52 Weeks in Peru.

This past week we noted the anniversary of our arrival to "Peru" at the MTC in Provo. Our grandson CP, three years old at the time, knew we were leaving home for our mission to Peru.  As we exited the freeway, his dad Kyle driving, he asked, "Are we in Peru yet?" Without a doubt the most difficult part of being a missionary this past year is missing our grandkids. They are growing, learning, and developing so quickly and we are so far away. The best I can do is order Thomas the Tank Engine components from Amazon and send them to Indiana or other things to Salt Lake and Centerville. We miss our friends in Utah, California, the NCAC of 2011, and our house of course, tucked away in the redwood forest.

CP and his grandparents at the Provo MTC, September 2010

When we can we like to visit a number of Peru's fascinating archaeological sites.
This photo is from the Cechin Bajo site near Casma on one of our trips where we
first experienced cebiche de pato with our friend C.

In honor of our one year anniversary we enjoyed several events. First of all, our friend C. came over last Monday and cooked us cebiche de pollo. He originally intended to prepare cebiche de pato, but C. was unsure about the age of any ducks in the market, therefore he substituted chicken. Pato is duck in Spanish. Unlike traditional cebiche with fish, the pato or pollo dishes are cooked thoroughly. The common denominator being the use of lemon in the marinade.

Preparing the red onions for the cebiche marinade

The washed papas ready for cooking. Once cooked some of the skin or eyes 

were removed. 

In addition to the pollo, he prepared yucca and a new variety of papa or potatoes that we had not tried before. It is similar to huayro papas, but a little different. They are sold in La Parada and we agreed we will go back there again with him to shop for several more varieties of potatoes.

Mixing the marinade in with the pollo. 

After several hours of preparation and cooking the plates are being loaded.

Cebiche de Pollo, papas, and yucca. It was very very good as C. is a great cook.

Next, we enjoyed a very surprising football game between the Utes and Cougars. Who would have thought the game would be so completely lopsided and dominated by Utah? It was in their house too.  A local BYU diehard even gave me six points on the game so we are planning an evening out at our favorite restaurant. We'll likely go to El Hornero as their steaks are very good. Somehow eating "dead meat" is appropriate to honor Coach Bronco and his team's failure to execute.

QB Jake Heaps coughing up one of numerous fumbles against Utah last week.

This weekend we are flying to Trujillo where the new Temple groundbreaking occurred last week. The Lima Temple is closed for the Women's Conference.  We would like to visit the construction site, learn if bicycles can be ridden in that part of Peru, and tour several archaeological sites close by.

Artist's drawing of the new Trujillo Temple. Likely, it will be 9700 square feet

with two endowment rooms making it a little larger the Lima Temple

The largest pre-Colombian city in the Americas is close to Trujillo. It is known as Chan Chan and was built by a pre-Inca people known as the Chimor. Estimates range upwards of 30,000 inhabitants. Marine motifs and engravings of reed boats suggest a seafaring ability.  The Chimor were the descendents of an earlier seafaring culture known as the Moche.  Somewhere among the time period of these two cultures the spread of the Peruvian sweet potato or camote to Polynesia occurred.

The Chimor prospered in their city of Chan Chan for nearly 600 years prior

to the arrival of conquering Incan arnies.

We will have photos and another post from our visit to Chan Chan, Trujillo, and several nearby sites.  We have recommendations for a couple restaurants in the area and the food, according to most travel guides and our Peruvian friends, is better than what we find in Lima, except for our friend C. and Brother and Sister Ramos. The weather is more agreeable too. Among Peruvians Trujillo is recognized as having a perpetual spring or 'primavera eterna' in Spanish.

***Update/Flash:  While we were in Trujillo we received an email from Alice with the news that CP, our four year old grandson, had scored his first goal as a soccer player.  He has grown a lot in a year and has benefited from older brothers teaching him his sweet soccer skills. A parent of a player on the other team observed, "That little red headed boy is the best player on their team."  We will be on the sidelines for 5 year old soccer next season.

CP in the "zone" racing with the ball toward the goal.

Potato Tales from Peru, with Love...

This week has been very enjoyable for us as we were able to meet and work with the new missionaries  assigned to the Lima Temple from the USA.  We shared a little time in training and then had a pleasant lunch and conversation on Sunday. RA and I contributed a dish served cold or at room temperature called 'papas a la huancaina.' Literally it means 'potatoes from Huancayo,' which is a city and district in Peru to the east of Lima in the central highlands.  The original inhabitants, or Huancas as they were known, aside from developing this wonderful recipe for cheesy potatoes supported the Spanish Conquistadores against the Inca. They assumed the Europeans would be better overlords than the Inca.  In hindsight, three hundred years of slavery, and working the Spanish silver mines proved that decision to have been uninformed.

Papas a la Huancaina, courtesy of Wiki.  We did not take any

photos. 

The potato or papas section in our local grocery store, increíble 

We have found this dish is not often served in Peruvian restaurants as it is easily made at home.  I have included the link to the recipe we used.  The ingredients would not be the same stateside as in Peru but some improvising and substituting is possible.

Huayro potatoes are maybe mi favorita. They have purple skins and streaks
within making them popular with local chip manufacturers. Too good to
waste in chips in my opinion.

Since coming to Peru we have experienced several varieties of potatoes or 'papas' as they are known in the Quechua language. We are coming to appreciate the subtleties of their flavor and texture. Potatoes will never ever be the same again for us as they are so superior to anything from Idaho or east of the Cascades in Washington or Oregon.

Cuy with Can Chan Papas. This type absorbs the flavor of meat or

stews in which they are cooked, excellent.  This dish was prepared by

our friends the Ramos. 

The Andean camote or sweet potato from which Polynesian potatoes are
genetically linked.

Potatoes, like other things we enjoy, originated in the Andean region of South America including, beans, peppers, ground cherries, tomatoes, cotton, several varieties of corn, and peanuts. The earliest potatoes according to several accounts were first cultivated 7 to 10,000 years ago. The first Peruanos or human inhabitants arrived here some 12,000 years ago. One of their first habitations is known as Guitarrero Cave. A human mandible was found there along with remnants of many meals of corn, beans, and peppers. A fire stick, as seen on reruns of TV's Survivorman, was also recovered from the site. I was never successful making fires with one of these as a Boy Scout.

Guitarrero Cave not far from Casma.  These people were likely the ancestors 

of the Chavin long before the Inca but possessed sweet metal working and 

soldering skills. 

The fire stick recovered from Guiterrero Cave

Of potatoes, there are more than 3500 varieties in Peru. Genetically, the Polynesian sweet potato's home was in the Andean altiplano to the south of Peru near Lake Titicacca. The oldest sweet potato discovered, so far in Peru, was found in another cave called the Tres Ventanillas and carbon dated 10,000 years ago in the Chilca Canyon of Huancayo Region.  I wonder how long the Huancas have been cooking papas and with their cheesy pepper potato sauce.  So far, I have not found any information on radio carbon dated Huancaina sauce.

One theory for the spread of the Andean sweet potato discounts the seafaring ability of either early Peruvians or Polynesians and suggests the non European transmission of the sweet potato from Peru to Hawaii and the other islands of the Pacific was accomplished by seeds floating on the surf or carried aloft in the guts of the plover birds.  The problem with this theory of diffusion is  the Peruvian and Polynesian sweet potato must be started from cuttings from a vine.

Sweet Potato vines of Polynesia and Peru

The Nazca culture of early Peru have been suggested as the sailors responsible for these trans Pacific crossings. These are the people who created the giant and strange geoglyphs or Nazca Lines of Southern Peru. They flourished from approximately 300 BCE to 800 CE. A number of marine animals have been caricatured in their pottery and art, giving rise to the belief they were familiar with the sea and were possibly a seagoing people.  Another mysterious geoglyph is above the entrance to Pisco Bay in Paracas. It can be seen about 12 miles out to sea. No one presently knows why it was constructed or what it symblizes. Theories range from it being a symbol for the Andean God Viracocha to a Masonic symbol.  Carbon dating of pottery shards found near it place it during the era of the Paracas Culture of 200 BCE, predating that of the Nazca.

The Candelabra as it is called, taken from the boat on our way to the

Ballestas Islands during our August vacation.

Radio Carbon Dating and DNA studies on residues from the Cook Islands and other island locations disclose the Andean sweet potato arrived there between 1000 and 1100 CE and in Hawaii by 1290-1430 CE. Furthermore, Quechua and Maori I have been told by several of my educated Peruvian friends, share a few language cognates. This information may have come from work in the 1920's by an Italian/Argentine linguist. For example, the word for 'water' in Cusco Quechua is 'unu' while in Maori and Easter Island "unu" is to drink water. A fighting platform in Maori is called a 'puuhara' while in Quechua a 'pukhara' is a fortress.

The Candelabra with better shadowing taken from the Web

Very early on in the expansion of the Inca Empire a technique was developed to freeze dry several varieties of potatoes and fully preserve their nutritional value for extended periods of time.  The process took all of five days from start to finish. This was accomplished without vacuum chambers and liquid nitrogen cryogenic temperatures. This type of dried potatoes is called 'chuño' or 'papas secas.' We are wanting to try them too at some point. The potatoes are laid out at night in the subzero temperatures of the Andes and then exposed to direct sunlight during the day.  They were also flattened several times in the process by the feet of the indigenous Quechua. Once freeze dried they could be stored indefinitely. Carried on the backs of Inca warriors they provided the energy and fueled the expansion of the greatest empire in pre-Colombian Americas.

An Inca mummy in the fetal position.  This type 

of preservation was reserved for the the nobles 

and ruling elites. It was accomplished in the same

manner of freeze drying potatoes. Internal organs 

were first removed and then the drying and freezing 

could begin. 

This extensive variety of Peruvian potatoes has made it possible to keep crops safe worldwide in our era. This potato diversity has been necessary in preventing anything like The Great Irish Potato Famine of 1845-1852. It was the narrowness of so few cultivars or species brought back by the Europeans in the 16th and 17th centuries that allowed a blight to infect and destroy harvests in Ireland.  More than a million Irish died of starvation and another million migrated.  The entire population of Ireland was reduced by 25%. Among the emigres were Patrick and Bridget Murphy Kennedy whose grandson Joseph P. would be appointed and return to the British Isles as the Ambassador to the Court of St. James by FDR. He was the founder and Patriarch of the Kennedy dynasty in America.

Patriarch and Ambassador Joe Kennedy Sr. 

The rest, as they say, is history. Among Irishmen the saying goes that "God sent the blight, but the British caused the famine."  Ireland's pastoral countryside was highly desired and taken over by the English because of their taste for beef following the spread of wealth of the industrial revolution.  Reduced to smaller and smaller parcels of growable land, the Irish poor turned to the potato and it became their main food source. Without diversity and with no resistance to blight the Irish potato crops were destroyed. Nowhere else in Europe were the consequences so dire or a people more dependent on the potato for survival than in Ireland.

The face of Irish famine, a mother and her children.

The lowly Peruvian potato or papa has played a much larger role in the story of things, more than being a food source for ten thousand some odd years here in Peru. Life for the potato farmer in Peru is probably not a lot better than his Irish counterparts were in the mid 19th Century. The potato growing regions are among the poorest in the country and local residents struggle to buy their daily bread due to the increases in cost of wheat and transportation.  The government is encouraging its residents to eat more of their own product and also bread made with potato flour. All the while they search for markets abroad for the almost infinite variety and subtlety of colors, textures, shapes and flavors of the Peruvian potato.

Steep slopes and lack of available capital insure traditional back breaking

planting of la papas del Peru

We will continue shopping and cooking this most edible and wonderful tuber. We have had only a half dozen varieties to date, a few thousand more to savor and enjoy. Time will limit this endeavor and also our diets from over indulging. The next time you order fries with your burger consider the potato and appreciate a little more of its history and the influence it has had in these many millennia throughout the world. And yes, lest anyone forget, "La Papa es Peruana."

Further reading and photos of Peruvian papas can be found on a site hosted by Limaeasy.com.

Our Missionary Friends in Peru

We were very sad to learn that our friends the Brashers had to return home to Salt Lake City.  We had planned on calling them last week for an evening of pleasant conversation and the delivery of a pint of strawberry jam RA had made. They had been away traveling in Colombia doing what they do, helping missionaries. There was and is a significant need for the work they did and the good they accomplished. I am sure the mission presidents are feeling the loss of this great couple and servants of the Lord.

They have had the responsibility for the mental health and psychological wellbeing of maybe 2,000 missionaries in the Northwest South America Area. They traveled throughout Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia , Peru, and Venezuela. This has been a challenging and rewarding assignment for them. It was not an easy one as the language presented some challenges in traveling. Both of them have worked harder than anyone I know to stay in the missionfield battling ailments and health related issues. We admire them so much for their service and desire to fulfill their missions. They have been examples to us all for their faith, dedication, and endurance.

We miss them as our friends.  They wanted to meet our kids who were traveling to Peru early in August but they needed to be in Colombia.  We look forward to that evening of conversation and dinner when we return home.

Here's to you our friends and fellow missionaries! We miss you and our prayers remain with you.

With them at the Larco Museum here in Lima

The Lima Temple closes for two weeks -- Vacation time

The Lima Temple was closed for the first two weeks of August. This occurs every six months to allow for maintenance and upkeep.  We used the vacation time to travel to several destinations in Peru.  Not bad for a full time mission. Where else can you have four weeks of vacation plus Christmas and New Years? Several of our family including a grandson came to visit for a week. We made our second visit to Cusco and Machu Picchu. This time we were a little better prepared having had six months to brush up on Inca history, lore, and astronomical alignments.

The Angel Moroni is getting cleaned and additional gold leaf

Our first trip was to the Casma valley, about three hours north of Lima, where we visited the oldest solar observatory in the Americas. It is known as Chanquillo. A currently unknown culture built the observatory and fortress about 400 BC. It has been determined the fortress was not for defensive purposes but ceremonial in nature.

Thirteen stone towers line the hilltop as seen from the fortress.
This solar observatory allowed the local inhabitants to tell
within a day or so the date of the year. 

We next traveled south of Lima to a coastal location called Paracas. It is home to the Islas de Ballestas or the Ballestas Islands.  They are known as the little Galapagos Islands of Peru and were not a long boat ride from the Hotel Libertador where we stayed. We circled the islands with our daughter and grandson and saw thousands of birds, sea  lions, dolphins, and even a few penguins. We toured the National Reserve of Paracas, which is one of the dryest regions on the planet and yet its western boundary is the Pacific Ocean.  The Humboldt Current keeps any rain from falling. Our guide explained that in a year not more than a centimeter of rain falls.

The hotel pool and reflection pond at the Libertador in Paracas

Fabulous food, even Josh enjoyed it

A penguin and sea lions on the Ballestas Islands

In addition to the Andes Mountain chain, the largest in the world, the cliffs along the seacoast just south of Paracas and the Islas de Ballestas were formed from the upthrust of the Pacific Plate subducting under the South American Plate. This thrust, including some volcanic activity, has brought both basalt and porphyry granite to the surface.  This distinctive red granite is some several billion years old and among the oldest rocks on the planet.  A red beach exists because of the action of water and wind on the red granite cliffs.

Playa Rojo or the Red Beach at Paracas

Josh enjoyed the deserts in Peru including lucuma ice cream

Next we journeyed, six of us, to Cusco and a return trip to Machu Picchu for RA and I. Our flight was delayed four hours, so our time to tour the great fortress Sacsayhuaman above Cusco was limited. We wanted to see the cathedral where the painting hangs done by Quechua native artists showing Christ and the Twelve enjoying cuy or guinea pig on a platter for the Last Supper. Time did not permit a visit but we found a photo on the web to share. Among other things a number of holidays observed by the Inca/Quechua people were taken over by the Spanish and became Christian traditions and observances. The practice of melding together distinct cultures is known as syncretism.  The cuy for the Last Supper is a wonderful example of this.

It is a guinea pig or cuy on the platter. Unlikely that one average sized cuy even miraculously could feed the Lord and the Twelve. They are small, though efforts are underway here in Lima to breed larger cuy.

This was the most important temple in the Incan Empire. Known as Inti Qancha,  Qori Qancha or the Temple of the Sun. It was lined with solid sheets of gold both floors and walls. The gold was removed to pay for the ransom of the last Emperor Atahualpa. Mostly, it was destroyed to build the Dominican Monastery that occupies the site presently.

All of us at Sacsayhuaman. The stone work was classical Inca and beautiful.

The Inca understood seismic loadings better than anyone for more than 500 years to the present day.
This lintel has withstood massive earthquakes through the centuries and even the Spanish conquistadores.

We made several stops along the way in the Sacred Valley between Cusco and Machu Picchu including the fascinating Incan ruins of Ollantaytambo. Locals in the village still live in stone houses and structures dating to the mid 15th Century. They have the claim of being the oldest continuous lived in dwellings in the western hemisphere, or the world for that matter. Ollantaytambo was built by the Incan Emperor Pachacuti.  There are interestings carvings in stone on a mountain side including the Incan God Viracocha and an Incan Emperor, presumably Pachacuti.

The Winter Solstice at sunrise would illuminate the carved face of the Sapa Inca

bringing the promise of longer days and another growing season to the Andes.

Viracocha carved in the face of the cliff.  Universally worshiped in

pre Spanish Peru as the great creator god.  During the reign of Pachacuti the

Sun God became preeminent in the theology of the Inca as an effort to bring 

unity and consolidate control by this emperor of the Incas. His claim was that

he descended from the sun. 

Mary with a baby llama in the Sacred Valley near Cusco

Celestial alignments for solar and star gazing were essential parts of the religious life of the Inca and the earlier people of the Andes. Fortunately, for Peru and the world, the conquistadores never came to Machu Picchu or it would have been destroyed, as was nearly every other location where they visited. Buildings were literally ripped apart as the conquistadores were looking for hidden stashes of gold between the stones. Machu Picchu remains a place that in every way is as breathtaking as its 8,000 feet of elevation.  In the words of National Geographic explorer and archaeologist Johann Reinhard, it is one place where "reality exceeds expectation."

Adam and Natalie with Huayna Picchu in the background

Looking toward the Temple of the Sun and the Intihuatana Stone

We climbed to the Sun Gate above Machu Picchu, about a two hour roundtrip hike on Inca Trail. Over this mountain peak the rising solstice sun would illuminate the Intihuatana Stone and most importantly the Torreon or The Temple of the Sun.

The Sun Gate in the distance and the trail on the right leading to it.

From the Sun Gate looking toward the Intihuatana Stone

Mary at the Sun Gate

Some tired tourists at Machu Picchu

Our favorite restaurant in Lima on our last night with the family.  It is owned and operated by a family from Arequipa Peru. The ribs, chicken, cuy and papas fritas are the best. It is called "A La Leña.: