Peru Morningstar Pictures are Up and Available for Download

You may have to wait until morning before all the pics make it up. There are a few thousand total pics I am uploading.

Here is the link: http://gallery.me.com/coombiyah

You will see multiple galleries. You can click on a gallery and download the entire group, or click on a single pic and download selected pictures. You can also upload pictures or email them to people you know.

Let me know if you have any problems.

MC

Day 14 - Ballestras Islands and Sand Boarding and Last Performance

As with many other mornings, this one came early. We had to be checked out of our hotel and on the bus by 6:00 am in order to fit in all that we had planned for today. Even though Canete is in the middle of a desert, it is near the coast, so morning dew covered everything. This made the tile covered florrs and stairs very slick. McKinley went down hard as she was bringing her luggage down the stairs. She was lucky she didn't break an arm. Due to our early and quick departure, the hotel had prepared a box breakfast which consisted of grilled ham and cheese sandwich - not a popular offering for most. Oh well.

We were on our way to Ballestas Islands part of the Paracas National Reserve which is a group of islands off the central coast of Peru. The islands are home to thousands of birds, many sea lions and penguins. There are so many birds in fact that every eight years the government collects the guano (bird poop) from the rock islands (2-3 feet on some places), places it in sacks and processes it as fertilizer. The boats we were in were open hull with rows of seat making it very easy to see the sights and easy targets for the many, many birds flying over head. McKinley was the only casualty. Her day was not going well so far. The coolest ritual we saw play out in front of us was watching a rock covered with thousands of peruvian seagulls take flight in one continuous wave off the rock, enter the water for a morning bath by agitating the water with their wings for about 60 seconds, take flight again and create a straight line following the birds in front of them forming a line over 10 miles long. The birds were flying just above the water as they fished by diving into the water and then taking flight again. I have never seen anything like it before.

After spending 30-40 minutes boating around the preserve, we headed back towards shore, stopping to view a huge candelabra geoglyph carved into gradual sandstone slope approx. 500-700 feet tall. The geoglyph was massive and even more impressive when we learned its lines were carved 15 feet into the rock, helping it last well over a 1000 years and be viewable from any point, line of sight to the mountain.

Once back on shore, we loaded the bus and headed for the Huacachina oasis. Think geographic size of Pismo beach, but dune heights of Sand Mountain near Fallon, Nevada. The oasis was literally in a bowl at the base of huge steep mountains of sand. There was a hotel, swimming pool, restaurant and support buildings all camouflaged by lush green foliage. The contrast of the green against the sand dunes was like something out of a movie.

We transitioned from the large bus we were traveling in to large dune buggies that could hold about 8 people. We motored up the hills to the edge of a medium sized dune and our dune guides pulled out snowboards customized for use in the sand. Everyone grabbed a board and headed down the hill in a different way. Some laid down on their stomachs face first, others sat on the boards feet first and a few braved the hill standing up. Even the experienced snow boarders had a tough time adjusting to the new surface, but everyone had a blast. After about 30-40 minutes at this location, we were taken to a larger, steeper hill and were only allowed to go on their stomachs, head first, legs trailing to balance the board. Once people got started, they flew like bullets down the sand until they reach the bottom. After we all took a turn, we loaded back on the buggies and the guides took us on a short but hair-raising ride over the dune peaks and valleys. We returned back to the Oasis where we were served a great lunch including a fresh combination salad of avocado, asparagus, tomatoes and cucumbers. The main course was fish and chips. THe group wasn't wild about eating anything breaded, but it was still better than other lunches we have had.

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We were on a tight schedule, so we quickly loaded the bus after lunch and headed straight for Lima - a 4 and 1/2 hour drive north to make our last show of the tour. This gave all of us a chance to rest, catch up with tour journals and for Kieri to deliver an excellent devotional on "Courage to Make Hard Decisions".

Once in Lima, we headed for the Estaca Olivos LDS Stake Center. Even though we had made masterful transitions, our safe bus driver drove way to slow for us to arrive with time to set up and rehearse on a small stage. So we did the best we could to be ready by showtime. The show went great. The stake center was packed and full of energy. The crowd rewarded the group with laughter, applause and encouragement which was incredible for the performers for their last show. The solos were excellent. Jamie made her lift with Reed, Reed Swing went well, Brandon hit his high notes, etc.

After the show the crowd hung around and wanted to get to know everyone. The stake provided Papa Murphys pizza for everyone. Needless to say the kids were all very happy and made the pizzas disappear quickly. We were very grateful to our new friends.

We headed back to HQ Villa for our last night and even though it was midnight, we decided to hold our end of tour devotional, a PGY testimonial meeting of sorts, tonight rather than tomorrow morning to make sure we could fit it in. The group expressed their appreciation for PGY, the tour, Kieri, each other, the chaperones and Peru - essentially a big group hug. Everyone had a good feeling at the end of the meeting feeling gratitude for the experience we have all shared. Thank you all for entrusting us with your kids. They made us proud, they worked hard. We loved everything each person added to this last two weeks.

See you all tomorrow.

Day 13th - Nazca Lines

Jim Stark blogging here again. Today (Monday) was a fun day for the kids. We got up rather early and had breakfast at 6:00, then boarded the bus by 6:30 for a 4.5 hour ride south down the panamerican highway to the town of Nazca, were the Nazca lines are located. The bus was mostly quiet until around 10:00 when we made a bathroom break in a little town called Palpa, which was next to the little bit bigger town of Sacramento. Both of these towns took all of 3 minutes to drive through. But at least there were restrooms and a small bodega (store) across the street where the kids had fun buying cookies and crackers and alfajores (a really delicious pastry made with a type of pie crust but denser, molded and baked in small rounds, and then made into a cookie by spreading dulce de leche on one and putting another one on top like an oreo cookie). Most of the kids bought at least one.

Our bus driver is very careful and safe, so it has been good to have him as the driver for the rest of our trip here. Not that the other drivers have been bad, mind you, but we are now on a big bus and it takes a skilled driver to negotiate the roads in Peru.

We arrived at the Nasca lines airport at around 1:00, and started the paperwork necessary to board the plane. It turns out we needed our passports (go figure), which Dagny had left back at the hotel. With a little bit of persuasion, we were allowed to still take the tour. We had to split into groups of 8 or 10 or 12, because the planes are not that big and we also had to calculate our weights so they could make sure we didn't overload the planes. Good to see they practice safe aviation here. The planes were very new and well maintained, so none of us had any qualms about getting on and flying over the Nasca lines. And, only 3 of the group lost their cookies (so to speak). We'll let you guess at who they might be.

The Nasca lines were pretty cool! We saw only a small portion of the figures (monkey, parrot, condor, spider, spaceman, alcatraz, tree, and my personal favorite - the hummingbird). There are literally over a thousand lines, and there are many theories as to why they are there. The group had fun inventing reasons for the Nascas putting them there - the favorite seemed to be aliens, but I'm thinking there was a more practical reason - Kieri's theory was that during the dry seasons they were always so bored that there would be an annual festival and art contest to see who could come up with the best geoglyph.; I say it was a penal colony. In any case, the lines were fun to see from the air.

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The lines cover large areas of the desert and form pictures or outlines of animals, geometric figures, or organic items. These lines date back to over 2100 years ago. There is nothing to explain for sure what these lines were created for, but there any many theories. These range from explaining the characters as an astronomical calendar to marking or connecting ritualistic locations to creating anthropologically significant figures that could be used for both religious worship or cultural development.

Though the locals have known about the lines since they were created. But the first major archaeological research was completed in 1926 by Toribio Mejia Xesspe. Later in 1939, an American researcher Paul Kosok flew over the lines in 1941. He announced to the world his discovery. 1946 he was joined by German mathematician Maria Reiche. Maria tried to prove a connection between the lines and the constellations. She is still considered the matron of the Nazca lines even though many of her theories have been disproven.

Located on what is called the San Jose Plains between the towns of Nasca and Palpa 4 hour drive south of Lima.

They were made by the etching of furrows between 20 centimeters and 1 meter deep or by removing stones from the desert's surface and then placing them along edges of the furrows to form the design. Miraculously in both cases the designs were not erased over time because the wind prevented the furrows from being filled with sand.

We were done and back on the bus at 4:00, so we went to the Nasca aqueducts to eat our box lunches. The aqueducts are another mystery dating from the Nasca era, but seem to have been built to bring water from the source in the mountains to the crops on the desert floor. They are underground ducts, and have air holes every so often that lead down into them.

We just got back on the bus, and now I am typing this. We are on our way back to the hotel in Canete (about 4 hours away), and so Kieri is playing a game with the kids that is kind of like 20 questions, but with their seat partner. She is making them rotate seats around, so they get to know each other better. Kieri is so wonderful with the kids - she would make a great seminary teacher.

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Day 12 - Church and our Canete Performances

Today is Sunday. We stayed the night in Los Arcos de Imperial, which is part of the Nuevo Imperial district of Canete. This is one of the best hotels in the area and we are appreciative. The rooms are clean, the food is relatively decent, and the showers have hot water. Yeah! This morning we got to sleep in a bit - up by 7:30, breakfast at 8:00, and caught the bus at 8:30 to go to Sacrament meeting. I had called the district president on Friday to arrange the fireside for tonight, so the branch was aware we were coming. Between us and the regular members attending, we pretty much filled up the small chapel.

The talks were good, but I'm afraid Jim and Leslie Stark were about the only ones to really understand them. The first one was on the atonement of Christ, the second one was on the how Christ used the scriptures to face life's challenges, and the last one was on Christ as the Mediator. Good stuff.

Because we are staying in an area of Peru where you find people living in the humblest of circumstances, the people in this area work 6 or 7 days a week trying to sustain their families. Although it is very rare for Morning Star to do a performance on Sunday, because of these facts Kieri decided to make an exception and allow the group to perform. After sacrament meeting, we returned to the hotel and got ready to go to the location of the performance.

Jim and I decided to go check out the location before hand so we would be prepared for whatever we needed. We tried to flag a cab from our hotel for a while. When that didn't work, we hopped on a community bus the size of a VW Vanagon. We barely fit into the remaining seats sitting next to people half our size. In fact they started joking that we should have been charged twice as much as we we took up twice the space. When we arrived at the plaza center of the town. Jim and I exchanged puzzled glances as the square was all dirt and curbing. Not much else. No power, no platform or cement area. We hopped back in another bus heading the opposite direction picking up people along the way. One passenger got on with a large back of vegetables or oranges and laid down next to my feet. The next sensation I felt was something nibbling on my toes. I look down and quieted a squeal as the bag of oranges was actually a bag of guinea pigs who were trying to get out. I was glad to exit that bus when we arrived back at our hotel.

We needed to be there at 1:00 to set up and get ready for the show at 3:00. The stage was a large concrete slab (approximately 75 ft by 150 ft) surrounded by a brick wall. They had set up a stage for us, but there was only one set of stairs leading up to the platform and they were pretty narrow. Plus, the stage itself was about 6 feet in the air. So we decided to set up and perform at the end of the concrete slab.

There was only one electrical connection in the place. The electrical connection led to the lights for the field - one breaker, no plugs ins. A trip to the hardware store to purchase a plug-in plus the rod used for Rachel's dance number resulted in success after having the hunt down the hardware store proprietor and persuade him to open his store so we could buy what we needed. With a borrowed screwdriver, and a lot of care, we disconnected the wires leading to the lights and connected wires leading to our plug-in. Now we had power - joy and rejoicing!

The kids started the show at around 3:15pm with only a handful of spectators, but as the show progressed more and more trickled in until there were a few hundred by our estimate. We had to cut the show a bit short to accommodate a father's day celebration scheduled for later that night (and tear down and reconnect the lights), but the kids came through like professionals and were able to switch up in mid-steam and take everything in stride. It made me proud to see how they adapted to the situation.

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After the official show, Canete was setting up for another celebration. I think they used our appearance as a reason to throw a big party. So as we, the tech guys were cleaning up, music played and the the performers danced with adults and kids alike to launch the after show party. It was an great exchange.

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We loaded up the clothes and equipment and everything and were headed back to Canete by around 6:00pm. We had enough time to drop into the hotel (since we were driving right past it), change clothes and get ready for the Sunday night fireside in the Canete branch. We arrived at the chapel with a few minutes to spare.

Dagny played the keyboard normally stashed under the branch president's desk (since no one in the branch plays the piano), and the kids put on a fireside to a packed chapel (keep in mind, chapels in these rural areas of Peru seat probably no more than75 or so - still, it was a good number of people who attended). Everyone had practiced their lines, so the spanish was very understandable. Plus Kieri had made copies of the translation that we passed out to the members, so they were able to read along as the kids delivered their lines. It is amazing to me how music can be a conduit for the spirit. There were several instances were it was apparent that the spirit was touching hearts. Afterwards the branch president gave us a heartfelt thanks for coming and sharing the fireside message, and told me that this was something his youth needed to hear, and that it was good for his youth to to see other youth being faithful and strong. That alone makes all of the effort worthwhile.

With the fireside over at around 8:00, and all of us back to the hotel by 9:00, we sat down to a dinner of soup (yumm

y beef noodle) and a main dish consisting of thin beef steak, french fries, steamed vegetables, a fried egg and of course some rice.

All in all, it was a wonderful day. The kids hit the pillows around 10:00, and it was completely silent by 10:30.

Day 11 - From Lima to Canete - Hygiene Kits delivered

Today we got up to head 2 and 1/2 hours south to a small rural city called Canete. We left the hostel by 9:00. Canete is definitely a different part of Peru than Lima. In Lima, we have been staying in a section of the city called Miraflores, which is pretty upscale. So going from the best area to one of the poorest is definitely a change of scenery.

We arrived around noon and got checked in. In the afternoon, we went out to the middle of the farming section of this part of Peru to deliver hygiene kits put together as a LDS Young Women's project by Kasha and McKinley.

We made three stops and handed out approximately 100 kits, plus additional toothbrushes if the family had more than 4 in their family (which is the quantity in each kit). The first place we stopped looked abandoned with only a Nacho Libre motorcycle cart and the old man riding it through the town in sight. You could barely call it a town. Many of the buildings were being rebuilt slowly since they were damaged from a recent earthquake. Once we got off the bus with a local Dentist and staff, people started appearing from nowhere and gathering in the middle of one of the dirt streets of the town. Before long they had formed 3 sides of a square with their own chairs and waited to receive what we had for them. It was both a humbling and wonderful experience. At each stop we explained what we were doing in Peru, and also performed a single number in order to entertain them and inform them of our performance the next day.

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We were done by about 4:00 and back at the hotel for an afternoon of relaxation. This place was our first hotel to have a pool. Of course, the swimming pool beckoned. Some of the boys were the first to venture in, followed by Matt and myself. Since it is winter time down here, needless to say the pool temperature was barely bearable. But that didn't hinder the kids from eventually getting into the pool, some against their will. After an hour or so of play time around the pool, we had dinner and then talked the hotel into turning on the discotec floor and karaoke machine. No karaoke was sung, but the kids had a very good time dancing and interacting.