PERU

January/February 2016

* For stunning photos of the people and places of Peru, visit Addi's website, www.addisonwilliams.com *

We stayed in Arequipa, 

called the White City because most of its buildings were made out of white volcanic stone

This is the Cuadros' home, where we stayed.

Our room was on the far left, third story.

Arequipa is surrounded by three active volcanoes - Misti, Chachani and Pichu Pichu

River shrimp caught fresh and cooked for lunch 

A familiar favorite for breakfast

Claudia, the Cuadros' granddaughter - so cute!

Here we are with Michaell & Carly, Frank & Tonya, and Freddy Cuadros 

before walking to the meeting.

The extended Cuadros family all lives in sections of  the same home with a 

shared courtyard in the middle where they have their meals.

Mangos picked off of the tree

Cars parked in the garage and the living room

One afternoon, we had a big meal pachamanca style - 

meat, vegetables and tamales all cooked underground with hot stones

Michaell dancing with his grandmother, Chepa

Dancing in the courtyard

Dancing after the meeting ... there was a lot of spontaneous dancing :)

Uncle Lucho & Aunt Yola,
who took care of us during our whole stay

Addi playing with Claudia

Purple corn, boiled to make a drink called chicha

In Peru, as in Honduras, I'm not Stephanie ...

I'm "Estefani"

COLCA CANYON, CHIVAY

On our trip to the Colca Canyon, we had to drink herbal tea 

to help us acclimate to the high altitude

Ricardo and David, 8 and 10 years old,

watching their flock graze

We saw a lot of llamas and alpacas in the countryside,

but we also got to see rare vicunas, too

At the hot springs

Traditional music and dancing during dinner

Our hotel in Chivay was nice, but the city lost power in the evening, 

so we went to our rooms with candles

Sights seen on the way to the Canyon

Visitors to the Colca Canyon hope to see condors while there -

we got to see five!

After hiking at the Canyon, we got coffee at a nice little shop for tourists.

You could leave a note on their bulletin board ... can you guess which one's mine?

Back in Arequipa, where the ministry was awesome

Little Jurek at the meeting, practicing his preaching skills

Jaciel & Allison

Meetings for service were right in the territory

Sisters use umbrellas while preaching to keep the sun off.

Service was from 8-10 or 10:30 because after that, it was too hot!

The Kingdom Hall in Arequipa is really nice.

Four congregations meet there - including a Quechua congregation.

Preaching in the market

Michaell's cousin Diego and his wife Yulie live in the family home also.

About halfway through the trip, Carly started a Bible study with Yulie!

They're going to continue over Skype. 

Frank gave an excellent talk one Sunday about Jesus' sign of the last days

Later, Michaell gave the talk at the 6:00 meeting.

His whole family came to hear it! Most of them had never been to the Kingdom Hall before.

It was a great theme for visitors - Why Would A Loving God Allow Suffering?

Showing videos in the ministry

We met this family early in our trip and instantly got close to them - 

Abhel, 17, Ivonne, their aunt, Allison, the mother, Jaehl, 15, Victor, 14,

Jurek, 5, and Allison, 8.

(Jurek had just gotten in trouble for pushing his sister, hence the pout.)

Dancing like Michael :)

Janet, the super sweet pioneer sister who studied The Bible 

with Michaell and his sister, Ari

Lunch with the Cuadros' older daugther, Janie, and her family

We recognized two of our sisters doing public witnessing downtown 

Little cuties at the Hall

Street vendor reading The Watchtower

Lunch with friends.

The couple on the far right, Socrates and Elizabeth, are in Peru doing need greater work.

All the way home, he babbled and babbled animatedly in Spanish ...

Later, I found out he was telling me the story of The Boy Who Cried Wolf.

All I knew was that he just kept pointing and yelling, "El lobo, el lobo, el lobo!!" 

("The wolf, the wolf, the wolf!!")

Just part of the Zamarcola congregation - our family in Peru

MACHU PICCHU, CUSCO

We spent three days going to museums, markets, parks, 

and the trip's highlight: Machu Picchu

While resting on a bench at the ruins in Pisac, 

this little girl sat down next to me and asked for my phone.

Her name was Luz Meri.

She took this selfie,

and then watched four animated videos from jw.org!

There are a lot of interesting things to see at the Incan ruins at Ollentaytambo -

including this face in the mountain

MACHU PICCHU

I tried to take a selfie with this llama.

He was too busy eating.

Before we left Arequipa near the end of our trip,

we received letters and gifts from some of the friends in the congregation there.

LIMA

Touring the Bethel Branch

Our friends from Columbus, Michael and Jamie Davis, 

who were at the Lima branch after their assignment in Trujillo

Our last night in Peru, we stayed in an area called Larcomar, right on the coast.

It was beautiful!

We had dinner at Mango's restaurant, right on the cliff, and watched the sunset.

It was a great end to a wonderful trip!