Day 3 & 4: Arequipa

Arequipa is located in southern Peru and it’s the second largest city after Lima.

Arequipa is in the Andes Mountains at an altitude of 7,661 ft above sea level. The below picture is the volcano El Misti which overlooks the city. This picture was taken upon exiting our airplane.

The main reason for visiting Arequipa before going to Puno (the town of mission work), was to prepare for the high altitude of Puno which is at 12,421 feet. To give you an idea of how high that is, Mt. Rainier has an altitude of 14,411 feet. Altitude sickness can begin around 8,000 feet, but serious symptoms can occur upon reaching 12,000 feet. After living at this altitude for seven years and continuing with yearly visits, Father has become accustomed to the altitude, so when he first started taking groups with him to Peru, the flight was scheduled to go straight from Lima to Puno. He told us every person in his group got altitude sickness. Since the most effective cure to altitude sickness is getting lower, the group was forced to return to a lower altitude. Slowly ascending the mountain will decrease altitude sickness dramatically, so Arequipa has since become a common stop for Father’s group to Peru especially since it is a beautiful mountain town. Arequipa was one of my favorite places we stayed, and the hotel we stayed at, the Mama Tila Hotel, was a winner!

The above picture was taken on the accessible roof, and the following pictures are of the surrounding view and other miscellaneous pictures :)

The mountain, El Misti, again

Nonna... note the shorts. Oh how I miss that weather!

our room from an above view

Father and Van at the breakfast table

Our guide, Jorge, wearing the popular "Peru" shirt

Not only was the hotel nice and clean but it was inexpensive and uniquely built. The Lindenau family had a huge room with six twin beds and a small living area with couches and chairs. We weren’t too high that it was freezing cold but it wasn’t too hot either: it was a glorious temperature with the sun shining the whole time! Even the town was cute... and walking through it was quite a joy. Later on, especially during our drive from Arequipa to Puno we saw some pretty disgusting towns (and bathrooms), some of the worst I've ever seen.

We enjoyed Arequipa for the afternoon and evening. We ate lunch at a nice restaurant on a balcony looking over the main town square with the cathedral of Arequipa within our view, also looking over the town square.

I tried alpaca meat which was in a sandwich and so delicious! It was nothing like the first restaurant we went to thankfully. Father said that at a high end restaurant like the one we were at, chicken soup with feet wouldn’t be served. Phew!

It was a little cold at the restaurant since we were seated outside, so look how cute... they gave us ponchos to keep us warm! :)

We walked around town some more... did some shopping, saw the inside of the cathedral and went out for dinner.

After a rested night’s sleep, I woke up, took a warm shower and had a delicious breakfast cooked and served upon my arrival at the table :) definitely a recipe for a good mood! We then met at 10:30 for mass and rosary making practice. Since we would be instructing the children how to make the rosaries when we began our mission work in Puno, it was necessary that we had time to help each other and practice.

A huge blessing during this trip was how much free time Father gave us to rest. Mostly allowing us to meet at 10am or 10:30 so we could sleep in, and giving us afternoon time as well to rest. A downside however (especially for me) was lack of breakfast and eating during normal, regular times. Sometimes we would eat lunch at 2pm after little or no breakfast and eating dinner at 10pm. Rarely was time specifically cut out for breakfast. This was a huge sacrifice for me because I was weak from lack of energy and couldn’t stop thinking about when we would eat next. It was always difficult for me to find snacks too since I’m not a huge fan of chips, granola bars, energy bars and the like – which are typical snack foods while traveling. Plus food in Peru is not the same as the United States so it was hard to find familiar American food in the stores.

After we made sandwiches and packed our things and other food, we began our afternoon bus ride to Puno!

Day 2: Lima

We arrived at the Daughters of Charity Motherhouse around 1am. Nonna and I roomed together at each place we stayed. Our room was in somewhat poor condition. We stayed for two days and both days our showers were cold :/ I think cold showers might be one of the hardest sacrifices. When you’re used to enjoying your shower and instead it’s directly the opposite, it’s not fun.

Our first day in Peru was packed and exciting. First, we took a tour of the convent of St. Dominic (Convento Santa Domingo), where St. Martin de Porres lived and worked as a Dominican brother. St. Martin wasn’t the typical Dominican. Rather than teaching, he cooked for the brothers and the homeless, cleaned and cared for the sick and homeless. He founded an orphanage and a children’s hospital. Like St. Francis, he loved animals. He’s typically pictured holding a broom with a cat, dog and mouse at his feet sharing a bowl of milk. He was the illegitimate son of a Spanish gentleman and a freed woman of black descent from Panama. After the birth of his sister, Martin’s father abandoned his family and Martin was raised in poverty. Many miracles are attributed to St. Martin, he was known to bilocate and was the first African-American to be admitted to the Dominican order.

We also visited the tomb of St. Rose of Lima who lived during St. Martin’s time. In fact, the two were friends. The saint’s real name was Isabel, but because she was such a beautiful baby, she was nicknamed Rose. Her mother even put a wreath of flowers on her head to show off her beauty to friends as she got older. Rose had no desire to be admired however since she had chosen to give her life to God. Her love for Jesus was so great that her face and eyes glowed with joy when she talked about Him. Many times she was afraid her beauty would be a temptation to others since they couldn’t take their eyes off her, so she cut off her hair and would sometimes rub her face with pepper until it turned red and even blistered. Rose always humbly obeyed her parents and worked hard for them since her family was very poor. She was adamant against them however when they desired her to marry. She absolutely refused. Rose was often tempted by the devil and felt a terrible distance between herself and God. She always offered her sufferings to him though and bore them humbly. Many miracles followed her death and she became the first Catholic in the Americas to become a canonized saint. source

From the tomb of St. Rose we visited the tomb of St. Martin and Father celebrated mass for us there. It was our first mass celebrated in Peru, and what a special place to have it!

The above picture is our group in the chapel :)

Then we went to lunch. This was an interesting experience. It was a fixed menu with appetizers such as chicken soup, salad, etc. then a main course. On the main course menu there were pretty normal food options such as pesto noodles, beef and rice plates, etc. Then the last option on the menu was tripe. Yes, tripe. Do you know what tripe is? It’s cow stomach. I was feeling adventurous so I decided to try it. “We eat every other part of the cow right? What could be so different about the cow stomach?” I thought. I decided to order a normal dish as the appetizer, just to be safe, so I ordered chicken soup.

Well, my chicken soup arrived and what a surprise my eyes beheld. It was not your ordinary chicken soup. They stuck key chicken parts in there… whole! Take a look:

Yep, that’s a chicken foot. And somewhere else in that bowl, is a chicken heart and gizzard. Since Peru is such a poor country, every-day restaurants can’t afford to throw away half the animal, so they utilize as much as possible. Father, on the other hand, wasn’t surprised at all. Having lived in Peru for seven years, he told us he would eat it. “What! People actually eat it!” I thought it was just for flavoring or something but apparently not. “Well, if it’s normal here, maybe it’s not so bad.” So I mustered up my courage to take a bite. It was hardly a bite, I was so disgusted. I took a tiny bite right off the foot then didn’t touch it after that. It was entirely too foreign to me. This got me thinking… “Shoot, I ordered tripe for my main course… they’re probably going to slab a whole cow stomach on my plate.” Thankfully, this wasn’t the case. Instead they were broken up into pieces mixed with rice, potatoes and a special kind of sauce. I tried it, but I didn’t like it. The thought and the texture was enough for me. My conclusion: there is a different name for the cow stomach because it’s not like the rest of the cow. I didn’t finish it.

After lunch we took about a half hour bus ride to the Daughters of Charity orphanage in Lima. On the bus ride over we saw a hill covered with houses that we were told was the middle class...

Goes to show how poor Peru is huh?


Take a look at this picture too...

Notice the tops of the buildings are not finished: no roofs on the top floor. These houses are all over Peru. Our guide, Jorge, told us families purposefully don't finish their houses, since the government can't demand taxes on incomplete homes.


The Lima orphanage cares for both boys and girls ages 5-12 and four nuns care for the children there. They had been sent out from the Motherhouse (where we were staying). For those of you who are not familiar with how religious life works in the Catholic Church, sisters (nuns) start out in “training” so to speak during their early years, at the Motherhouse in preparation to be sent out on mission. After a certain amount of time, they are prepared to serve elsewhere. They are always in contact with the Motherhouse and may return for a time before being sent somewhere else. They may also return for retreats or other events.

These sisters were so sweet! Since it’s summertime in South America during December and January, all the orphans were home for summer break or with other family members. At first it seemed odd to me that they had families to go home to, since I thought “orphan” meant both parents were deceased. Father told us that this can be the case but that many children were actually taken to the orphanage by one parent who cannot care for the child. While some children return to visit immediate family members such as siblings or a parent, others will visit grandparents or other extended family. Even though there were no children there at the time, the sisters showed us around the orphanage and told us about their daily life. They raise guinea pigs, rabbits and chickens and we were allowed to hold them.. except for the chickens.

We also visited the Church of the Nazarenas where the image of Our Lady of Miracles is located. It’s a famous image of Christ painted by an African slave from Angola.

On the wall of a small church, the painting hung casually from 1651 to 1655 until an earthquake leveled the entire area except the wall where the painting hung. The wall and painting went unnoticed for a time until a man walking through the rubble noticed it and felt compelled to care for the painting. He was ill however and asked the Lord through the painting to heal him. God answered his prayer and the man was healed: the first miracle attributed to the famous painting. Word spread and it became a revered image throughout Peru and the world. Despite another earthquake and attempts to destroy the image, it was miraculously protected and still remains today. On October 18^th every year, a procession is held through the streets of Lima and other festivities take place throughout the day. source

This visit to the Church of Our Lord of Miracles concluded our day in Lima and we returned to the Daughters of Charity Motherhouse in the evening.

Day 1: Plane Travel

After a red eye flight beginning at midnight, four hours of poor quality sleep on the airplane, 9 hour layover in Texas, 1 hour of sleep in the airport, and a 6 hour plane ride… we arrived in Lima, Peru! The most refreshing feeling after such a journey, was to exit the airport out into the night and feel the warm summer breeze… when we had just been in cold wintery Seattle!

Thankfully the long night (and day) of plane travel wasn’t a huge surprise considering I had pretty well mastered functioning on little sleep and lots of waiting, in Europe.

Before documenting my trip, I would like to introduce Marianna (Nonna) who shared almost every moment of every day of this trip with me :)