Day One: Arequipa, Prepare Yourselves.

Here is a picture of what Danny and I looked like when we arrived in Arequipa this morning after an 16-hour bus ride through the Andes:


Haha! That's not actually us. What you are looking at is two Peruvian dogs, who are revered for their high body temperatures and used therapeutically to treat arthritis and other joint problems. People who have those kinds of health issues will sleep with the dogs either in the bed and/or hugged close to their chests - to let their body heat penetrate and heal their joints.

But they sure aren't lookers.

Here are some better-looking people:


That's us in Lima yesterday at Huaca Pucllacna, a pre-Incan site that was basically the "town center" of the Lima people. You can see a lot of the skyline of the city behind us.

We arrived in Lima Sunday morning at 2 AM, but got ourselves out of bed at 7:30 to go see the city. Huaca Pucllacna was where we spent the majority of our day, but we also went to el Parque Kennedy, the central park in Miraflores, the neighborhood where we were staying.

Our favorite part of the Parque Kennedy was these signs:


I tried to find an angle that would allow me to take a picture of that sign while ALSO showing you the dozens of stray cats that were running around, but to no avail. Danny wanted to pet the cats, but I implored him not to contract rabies on our first day in Peru.

Lima was awesome, though, and I loved looking out from the window of our hostel and seeing the ocean (filled with surfers)! I am really looking forward to spending more time there before we come back to the States.

Then, at 5:30 last night, we hopped on our "bus-cama" - the bed bus - which would take us to Arequipa. The bus-cama was excellent. The seats were leather, extremely large, and reclined a full 180 degrees. That's not to say that we had the BEST sleep last night, but it wasn't bad.

I had hoped that riding the bus-cama would allow us to see more of the landscape, but unfortunately, those dreams were crushed quickly, since driving along the Pan-American highway is the equivalent of looking at a dirt wall for 16 hours. That was basically the view from my window - so lesson learned.

So now we are settled in in our beautiful three-bedroom apartment, which is much nicer than our place in DC or Charlottesville. Pictures to come soon. Craig and Sue, the TEAM missionaries who have been here the longest and have been our primary contacts, were incredibly hospitable and helpful in getting us settled today. They had us over for lunch, took us on a mini tour of the city and took us grocery shopping - all very necessary.

Tomorrow we go to our first meeting at the church and meet the rest of the team. Please be praying for us and the rest of the church team as we learn how we can serve them during our time here!

Love from Arequipa,
Anne