Bertoch Arequipa Peru Mission: CHIVAY!

Welcome to Our Blog

As an introduction to our blog, we thought it would be helpful to provide some background on what lies ahead for us over the next 18 months. On July 4, 2023, we received a letter from the leader of our church (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) to serve as missionaries in the Peru Arequipa mission. We will be serving in Arequipa for 18 months and have the opportunity to meet local church members as well as those who are not familiar with our faith and invite all to come unto Jesus Christ. We will start our mission by spending two weeks in Provo, Utah where we will receive some training and then we will travel to Arequipa on February 5th. The Peru Arequipa mission consists of approximately 146 missionaries from all parts of the world. Most of the missionaries are young single men and women (typically 18-21 years old). Jalene and I will be one of three married couples serving in the mission. We will be speaking Spanish (I am relearning the language and Jalene is learning for the first time). We are excited to have this opportunity at this time in our lives and grateful for your interest and support. Hopefully, this blog will give you some feel for what we are experiencing.

Wednesday, April 10, 2024

CHIVAY!

This post will be mostly photos. As way of introduction, the Chipman's niece, Claire, was in town and they invited us to be tourists and go to Chivay with them. Claire is a birder, so there will be some birds in these photos. Let me just say it was AMAZING!

We saw lots of Alpacas and Llamas

And this little guy. This is a viscacha.

A village we drove through

This "witch" was erected at the summit (16,000 feet). People leave sacrifices such as the TV.

Driving down into Chivay

Some Good Friday celebrating in the town plaza of Chivay:

Souvenir shopping in Chivay

Tim with his new souvenir hat made of alpaca

View from hotel - smoking volcano

Hotel Room

On the road to see the condors:

Watching for Condors

Back on the Road:

Wild Flamingos:

Not just driving, but also hiking:

President making friends with the locals

Quinoa

Inca Ruins. The wildflowers were beautiful:

More hiking:

Catacombs below the bridge:

Sacrament Meeting at the Chivay Branch

Some furry friends joined sacrament meeting

This was taken before the meeting started. Those chairs filled up.

There is no air conditioning, so they keep the doors open and the stray dogs walk in and join us.

Some of the members of the branch

The dogs even photo bomb

Saying goodbye to Chivay:

Back to the summit. At the lookout you can see several volcanos.

19,767 feet

19,619 feet

20,341 feet

19,872 feet

19,101 feet

This is a better view of Misti. This can be seen in photos of the Arequipa temple.

Better view of Chachani. This can also be seen from Arequipa

And finally a vicuña:

"Whenever I hear the song of a bird

Or look at the blue, blue sky,

Whenever I feel the rain on my face

Or the wind as it rushes by,

Whenever I touch a velvet rose

Or walk by our lilac tree,

I’m glad that I live in this beautiful world

Heav’nly Father created for me.

He gave me my eyes that I might see

The color of butterfly wings.

He gave me my ears that I might hear

The magical sound of things.

He gave me my life, my mind, my heart:

I thank him rev’rently

For all his creations, of which I’m a part.

Yes, I know Heav’nly Father loves me."

My Heavenly Father Loves Me, Children's Songbook #288

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