We moved to the South.

Okay, so not Georgia but a bit further south to Lima, Peru.  But still in the Northwest.  It just depends on what continent you are referring to.

And if a picture is worth a thousand words this post may require five thousand.  My computer with all of my photos is not repairable in all of  Latin America.  I had planned on catching up since my life is way ahead of my blogging but alas that will have to wait.  I will repair my computer, I have two thumb drives with pictures I forgot I had and once I figure out my photo storage I will be good to go.

And what I know about living in Peru 'cause I have four weeks of expertise:

Lonny works.  Emily goes to school.  I stay home.

Lonny walks to work and home for lunch. Sometimes he stays to eat MTC food.  Emily's school has kindergarten through high school (1300 students total).  She has a ride to Seminary with a General Authority.  I have a maid three days a week.  I wish I had a cook.  I think I wished that a time or ten in my previous life.

Lonny wears a suit and a white shirt to work everyday.  Everyday.  Emily's wears a navy skirt and a white polo shirt with the Roosevelt insignia and blue tights to school.  Everyday.  I wear what came out of my suitcase.

Lonny's office building is surrounded by a gated fence with security guards.  Emily's school has a 12 foot brick wall with an additional 3 feet of chain link fence above and more security then TSA.  Our house shares a wall with 3 other homes all enclosed in a larger neighborhood by a wall and  a security detail as if someone would like to break in.  So we feel pretty safe with the guards and police presence on every street corner, every store, even at church . . . . . except with so much security you don't have to hit us over the head that there is some threat.

 

Driving in Peru is a treat.  These people went to the driving school of  North American obnoxious drivers.  Change lanes whenever you want.  Form a new lane if you desire.  Cut in front or beside.  Stop signs are merely a suggestion.  Honk if you feel ignored.  Drive over the center divider if you need to. The really good times are the ovalos.  We have one we maneuver through lovingly referred to as the Circle of Death,  because once you enter you may be dead before you exit.  This particular ovalo is probably 5 to 6 lanes wide.  Theoretically you drive in and around until you prefer to exit.  I prefer driving straight in and straight out the other side. The beauty of driving in Peru is nobody is angry (except some North Americans).  So without a bit of sarcasm I admit I quite enjoy driving in Peru.  It's the Indy 500 without declaring a winner.

Update because so much has happened.  We are doing great after 6 weeks in Peru.  I still wake up and wonder where I am and how did I get here but that lasted about 10 years in OK.

We thought and people mentioned that Emily would see poverty in Peru and that it would be an eye opening experience for her.  She was quiet looking out the window on the drive from the airport to the house because that is a shocker (the view and her mumness)  but otherwise poverty is not what she has seen.  Her friends at school are from around the world and have big houses with pools and guards and chauffeurs and maids and nannies and have traveled the world.  We joke that a three day weekend is a good excuse to sail the Mediterranean.  We still have three years to take a very short drive to see poor. 

Pachacamac

Eric and I had one last adventure before he left South America.  Pachacamac are some ruins about 30 minutes south of Lima.  We passed through a toll booth and then were waved over by the police for not having the lights on.  Apparently the law is you must have the car lights on while driving on the freeway and it would have been nice to have just been told "turn your lights on" but no that is not what happened.  I still can't decide if it was fortunate that Eric could speak Spanish or not.  I think he would have just let me go when he realized I had not a clue what he was talking about.  Instead he made Eric get out of the car (he was the passenger) had a discussion and then asked him for a bribe.  I called the Area Office and they told the not so nice policemen no.

We then missed our exit and went the back way to the ruins.  When Eric yelled out "this is just like Mexico"  I locked the doors while Eric reminisced.  It was however the first time I had seen alpacas wandering around like squirrels.

 

So Pachacamac is a perfect example of why you should never neglect to dust.  It looks like a pile of dirt

 

but underneath the years and years of not dusting was this.

 

and this.  An entire ancient city.

 

  An Inca city and below the House of the Chosen Women.  Not sure why, when and where they were chosen but they had a house.

There was a beautiful view of the ocean from the top.