Our Trip to San Pedro de Cajas

We left Tarma at 7:30 am and headed through the high Andes mountains to attend church in San Pedro de Cajas (altitude 13,300 ft.). This is rich farmland, and the Peruvians try to use every square inch possible, right up the sides of the mountains and down into the valleys:

The narrow and bumpy dirt road followed the agricultural valley and then did a series of cutbacks up the side of the steep mountain:

When we didn't stop to think about how close the road was to the edge of the cliff, we enjoyed vistas like this one:

At the top of the mountain, the terrain leveled off somewhat, leaving a patchwork of more farms. The purple-flowered plants shown here are potatoes:

As we approached San Pedro de Cajas, we saw the small farms of the village:

The branch of the church in San Pedro de Cajas is part of the Tarma District. There is a nice chapel (which stayed a not-so-nice 45 degrees during the entire meetings). In Sacrament Meeting, Beverly bore her testimony and Scott gave a 20-minute talk. Here are a few of the members: the branch president is 4th from the left on the back row and the two full-time missionaries, Elders Bird and Costo, are front and center:

This is a picture of one of the little Primary girls:

After church, we walked along this street to attend a social at a church member's home:

This woman is one of the church members who attended the party.

Several of the sisters of the branch posed for this picture:

The hostess of the ward social was happy to have Scott take her picture:

The food at the social was "pachamanca," a favorite here in the high Andes. It is like a "Dutch oven" dinner, but instead of an oven, they use a hole in the ground, lined with leaves. The hole is filled with potatoes, meat, husk-wrapped bananas with raisins, etc., and the whole thing is covered with red-hot stones:

Today was another amazing adventure for us here in Peru!