Peru- Part 1

This time a week ago we arrived home from Peru. After a busy and somewhat crazy week, I am finally getting around to blogging about our trip. It was a wonderful trip and we are so thankful that we had the opportunity to go. For those that don't know, we went with a group to lead a summer camp for children from 3 churches and an orphanage in Trujillo, Peru. We were working with the organization Peru Mission.

We have much to share about our trip so I plan to blog in installments. Here is part 1!
On January 2 we departed with a team of 26 people. It was a diverse team ranging from two thirteen year old girls all the way to a grandfather in his 60s. We knew several team members already, but for the most part it was a lot of new people to meet. We really enjoyed getting to know our team and the Lord really blessed us with unity and friendship!

After a long flight, we arrived in the Lima airport at about midnight. We were excited and grateful to find that all our luggage arrived safely! We were greeted at the airport by Pastor Eduardo, a pastor at one of the churches in Trujillo. We then took a bus and arrived at our hotel for the night. By the time we checked in it was about 3:30 am...needless to say we fell into bed!

We stayed at the Grand Hotel Betsy (gotta love the name!)

Our room

We then spent Saturday doing some sightseeing in Lima before departing that evening for Trujillo. We explored an Indian market where you could buy any and everything Peru, ate at a fun restaurant right on the coast, and just took in the sights of Lima. Lima is a huge city and very different from anyplace I have been. Here are some pics:

at the market

all things Peru

The Pacific Ocean

Where we ate our first taste of authentic Peruvian food. We even tried the ceviche, lemon marinated raw fish. The texture was a bit strange but the taste was pretty good!

A side view of Mangos...speaking of Mangos, the mangos in Peru were amazing! Like none I have ever had. So sweet and juicy! I don't know if i can go back to the tart ones in the grocery stores here.

Always playing soccer

More to come soon!