November 2012

We were in Talara and went by the port to show Katelyn the boats.  And there we saw your boat mom!  It doesn't look too sea worthy right now!  I love these boats.

Here is a little marina I guess you'd call it.  We were looking right into the sun but you can see there are hundreds of these little wooden fishing boats.

 Elders Castro, Boyd & Chub returning home, what great missionaries.  They will be missed!

 And here is our latest group of new missionaries.  They are so excited to be here and we are so excited to have them.  My camera was back on its weird pink setting, too bad.

 

 This week we had a luncheon with the sister missionaries here in Piura.  We had such a good time with them.  They are such good young women and such good missionaries, I enjoy being with them.

Here are 28 of our Sister Missionaries.  We are missing the 4 sisters in Tumbes and the 4 sisters in Talara. 

Punta Sal - November 2012

We took a little detour on our way to Stake Conference in Tumbes last week.  We found a little paradise on the coast and enjoyed a few quiet moments with Katelyn.  It really was beautiful.  We arrived late in the evening when it was already dark and so this is the view that greeted us in the morning from our front door.

 It really felt like we had the beach to ourselves.  What a view!

 Chad is always on the lookout for whales, apparently he was two months too late.  I guess we will have to come back next September.

 Katelyn, checking out the ocean and discovered all kinds of little critters crawling around, it kind of creeped her out.

 All over the beach there were little aranas del mar or sea crabs.  They were crawling everywhere, it was a good thing they were scared of us.  Whenever you would get close they would spin into their little holes.  Chad had great fun chasing them around.

 We were so amazed we could get so close to this one until we discovered he was dead.  He looks a little alien. (and creepy)

 Here is a little fishing raft.  You just hop on, with a box, use the big piece of wood for a paddle and off you go to fish.  We need to learn more about this another time.  It looked like hard work to me.

Here are the neighbors, it is quite a contrast.

 A view from the beach of our room.

 Peace and quiet

We gave miniature golf a try.  We are pretty sure no one has played in months (or longer)  They had a hard time rounding up balls and clubs.  The holes were plugged with leaves.  You needed a different strategy to play on cement with bent clubs.  It was quite entertaining and we had a good time.

 Ripples on the beach

 I have to at least have one flower in this post!

 Coconut trees by the pool

Hard to beat sunsets over the ocean

 

 Lest you think we only sunned and played, here is Chad in his office.  I think this is the best office he has ever had.

Cute little seahorse in our room wearing Chad's Ecuador hat. 

Punta Sal, we had a great time and hope to be able to come back some day

One last post from Ecuador

A little bit more from Quito.  On our sight seeing day we crammed alot in.  Late afternoon took us up to the mountains above Quito.  Quito is up in the top of the Andes mountains and I definitely felt  the difference in altitude.  It is aproximately 10,000 feet above sea level.  As we went higher up, I was glad for a jacket.  By late afternoon the clouds rolled in and we had a little rain.  It was a memorable day. 

 Elder & Hermana Pino, Hermana & Pdte. Zorilla at our lunch table.

 Overlooking the city of Quito

 On a mountain top with a beautiful crater/valley behind us.  We had to wait for the clouds to blow by to take this picture.

Cool little rock formation.  Don't know what it all means but I liked it.

 A yummy drink we had at lunch, a mora berry (like raspberry) slush with a white fruit(I don't know what it was) slush

 A little llama love

 A tour of Quito at night.  There is some beautiful architecture here.

 Through the bus window

There was not only rain in the afternoon but in the higher elevations we found a snowy hail, Chad had to make a snow ball.

 This is actually how we spent most of our time in Quito, it's just not that exciting to photograph.  At our Seminar we were taught by our Area Presidency, Elder Uceda, Elder Pino and Elder Waddell along with Brother Steve Allen with the Missionary Dept.  We learned alot and now the trick is to remember it all and how to implement it.

Lima Peru Temple November 2, 2012

First let me apologize for the pictures here.  My camera was on a weird setting which I didn't realize and so everything has this odd pink tint, sorry!  As we finished up our Seminar in Ecuador we flew back to Lima where we met Katelyn.  Her flight and ours arrived within minutes of each other so we met each other in customs with a million other people.  It was so good to see her!  She is getting married next month and so we arranged for her to receive her Temple Endowments here in Peru where we could be with her.   It was a great day at the temple.  And the sun was even shining for a few hours, a miracle!

 Katelyn and her dad

 Mom & Katelyn

 Katelyn, Lima Temple November 2, 2012

 

After the Temple we had time to go have lunch before our flight back to Piura.  We went to a beautiful area right on the coast.  There is a mall and restaurants, we found a Tony Roma's and sat by the window overlooking the ocean and watched hang gliders out our window.  Lots of good food and great company.

 Overlooking the ocean

The city of Lima behind us.

 

 Welcome to Northern Peru, life is a little slower here and that's okay with us.