Christmas in Lima was very different from Christmas at home. Besides being early summer, we also missed the Christmas Eve traditional fondue dinner with the family, but we joined with the FHE group for dinner before the Christmas Eve music and readings from the scriptures, a special program for the missionaries in the MTC/CCM. After the program we ate the traditional Panetone and drank mildly spiced hot cocoa, a Peruvian tradition. On Christmas Day we joined the CCM missionaries for a trip to the Parque de Leyendas where there were many ruins and a very well maintained zoo. We also visited Costa Verde, a beach in Mireflores, because the Bolivians have never seen the ocean. Watching their reactions was worth the day. Later in the week, actually New Years Eve and New Years Day, our friends, Jack and Kay Beals, and we drove four hours south to Pisco which was leveled by an 8.2 earthquake in May 2008. The purpose of the trip was to train stake leaders how to use the online missionary applications. We also had two private sight seeing tours to the Paracas National Reserve and to Islas Ballestas, billed as a mini Galapagos Islands. The following pictures, I hope, are a record of that trip.
The week before Christmas we went to the Parque de Aguas, a beautiful, new park in Lima, where there are a dozen unique fountains, one a dancing waters fountain with colored laser lights and projected pictures and others of varying shapes and sizes. There are a few pictures of the fountains.
Happy New Year to all.