HGBC 2014 Peru Mission Trip : Chivay

Pecunia; image from the internet

I have this cool app on my phone called 'GPS Status.' It displays GPS coordinates, compass bearings, pitch and roll and some things that I don't understand. It includes altitude. Arequipa sits at an altitude of around 7,700 feet, Pedregal is in that range, maybe a little lower, I couldn't get a clear reading there. On Sunday afternoon we left Pedregal, made a quick stop for lunch and to repack in Arequipa, and then headed into the mountains to a beautiful city called Chivay, elevation 12,000 feet. While Pedregal is desert, and Arequipa is on the edge of the desert, as we made our way up to Chivay the terrain was arid. Ok, what's the distinction? Remember that along the road to Pedregal there was not a lichen, or tumbleweed, or even a cactus, well on the way to Chivay there were cactus, and dormant shrubby plants. They were just waiting for a little rain or snow to bring them to life again. We also saw herds of alpacas, and a few pecunias (alpaca-like animals). We saw them at a distance, they are barely visible in our pictures. I asked Catherine about them, and although they seemed to be left to themselves, she was sure they were domesticated. She indicated that their wool is highly desirable.

The Catholic Church in Chivay with a cross shaved into the hillside behind.

By its architecture, Chivay must be two to three centuries old, and the city leaders keep that charm alive for a very good reason--tourism. There are statues and wall paintings along the walkways that commemorate historical events and personalities. There is a quaint city square that is manicured and has park benches around it. One side of the square is the front entrance to the Catholic church.

Our best accommodations of the trip were here. Pastor Pablo said we would stay a three-star hotel. After a shower with consistently warm water, we all agreed, what a treat. The beds were softest of the trip, and covered with warm comforters. Air temperatures were on the cool side of comfortable day and night.

We traveled here to minister to some senior citizens in a home. Two years ago the college group, lead by David Millsaps, ministered to these people, but we didn't get there last year. By David's description, these people had been dropped here to live out their days. So our plan was to take them quilts made by the HGBC quilting ministry and serve communion to them. Unfortunately, in recent months they had been moved to Arequipa. Since the trip was planned we went ahead to Chivay, and thought we would catch up with the people when we got back to Arequipa. Again we missed them, because they were not there when we were. We left the quilts with Pastor Pablo so he could take them to the people. So our trip to Chivay was a nice overnight of fun and tourism, but the altitude took its toll on some members of the team.

Some team members got the chance to try new foods. We ate at a restaurant that catered to foreigners and vacationing Peruvians. Some of our team tried alpaca steaks and other Peruvian foods. My stomach was not doing well so I stuck to the familiar, pizza.

Judy and others posed with baby llamas and eagles and their handlers.

On Monday morning those of us who felt well enough for it boarded the bus to travel further into the mountains to an elevation around 18,000 feet to see condors. We drove a short distance to a village square. There were vendors selling alpaca sweaters, scarves, hats, ponchos, anything you can imagine. some ladies in tribal clothing came with animals to pose with tourists for pictures. Two had baby llamas, and two had full grown grey eagles (or large hawks). Several people posed with these the animals and their handlers for a couple Soles.

After a bit of shopping we traveled on for about an hour over dusty, rocky, roads that were often pared down to one lane by the steep slopes coming down from above and precipitous drops below. Hairpin turns in gullies and ridges made the ride a little unnerving. Concrete patches were made in the road so small streams of ice-runoff could cross. At one point we entered a tunnel. Now dust on an open road is carried away by the wind; in a tunnel it hangs in the air like light brown fog. In addition, this tunnel took several turns. As the entrance disappeared behind us the bus headlights reflected off of the sandy walls, ceiling and the dust in the darkness (no lights in this tunnel). We began to feel like an irritation in the bowels of the earth before the welcome sight of the light at the end of the tunnel around a corner, through the dusty air. What a relief!

In the valleys along the way were farm fields bordered by hand made terraces. Each one was no more than an acre in area, the downhill side held in place with stone walls. The stones were placed to hold the soil and limit erosion, but also to get them out of the way. Originally, these plots were most likely plowed with animal power, and the baseball to basketball sized stones hindered progress, as they were plowed up they were stacked along contour lines eventually forming walls two to three feet higher than the fields. I saw one plowed field that looked like it had been worked with a tractor. That is probably the norm these days.

Hand made rock walls (left of the golden grain stalks) separate fields.

Finally, we came to what we in the US would call a scenic overlook. Stone walkways with handrails lead to stone-paved viewing areas at the edge of a cliff. I had no way of measuring the depth of the valley, but I would guess it was at least a thousand feet to the bottom, and yet the mountain rose high above us as well. A large number of people from different countries were there for the same reason we were, to see condors. They are one of the world's largest flying birds-a distinction they seem to care little about; they just wish humans would mind their own business. And yet, we were there.

Enormous distances through fresh, thin air makes things look hazy.

Valley bottom, way down there.

For a few minutes we watched with no luck. Three swallows glided across in our view and I said, 'there they are!' A German girl standing next to me got the joke and chuckled. Like patient fishermen, we waited, but with cameras, not baited poles. The colors on the mountains across the valley were muted by the haze. There was no pollution or dust, just clean fresh air, but enough of it to diffuse the light and put a grey wash over the whites, golds, greens and violets. The distances across and down were incomprehensible. In shaded areas ice remained frozen. Suddenly below we saw the flash of a large black wing, out from the cliff, then back again. Soon a large bird was gliding down the valley so far below us that its 10 foot wing span looked like only an inch. In pictures I took with my cell phone the birds look like tiny specks against the deep valley with its cliffs. I thought I had completely missed getting the condors in my pictures until I zoomed in. These are really large birds, but they live in an enormous habitat that dwarfs their impressive size.

We made our way back to Chivay for lunch and headed back over the pass at 16,000 feet and down to Arequipa. David Kwon had to make his flight home that evening. The long trip was worth the chance to enjoy another aspect of God's great and diverse creation.