I went to church in a boat

We left the hotel by boat at 7:30.  It only took us 20 minutes to get there and church was at 9:00  but we wanted to make sure we didn't miss it.  It was a great experience and a birthday I will always remember.  All the women wanted to shake our hand and kiss our cheeks.  Almost every member wanted to greet us and wish us well and thank us for coming.  They speak 3 different languages so trying to understand anything was really hard.  When they spoke spanish I could understand a little. The meeting started with the branch president blessing his baby and I cried through the whole thing, the spirit was very strong even though I only understood some of it.  Tom bore his testimony in spanish which was really nice.  We even did a little missionary work by asking our tour guide to come with us "just in case" we needed translation.
We are off to the main downtown area for lunch and there is a festival going on and there is suppose to be some dancers.

Uros on Lake Titicaca

Today we had our tour of the Floating Islands on Lake Titicaca also knows as Uros. (click on the word Uros for more information)  We started in the Puno Port and got on a tour boat, while waiting for the tour to leave we were entertained by a local musician then we went out to a floating island.  The people let tourists come because of course we pay to go see them and their home and islands.  Each Islands is home to 3-5 families and about 20 people.  The residents rotate whose island the tourists go visit so that they can take turns getting the money that we pay to have this experience.  I figured its about $100 each time a tourboat comes to their island.  We got to actually get out of our tour boat and walk around their island and see inside their huts.  They give a brief description of how they live, make their islands, cook, barter, and their activities like making handicrafts.  Its a bit commercialized (they of course want to sell you their handicrafts) but its one of the ways they make their living.  When I realized we would be this close I wanted to come here to go to church on my birthday.  Several years ago I had seen a sort of documentary that the church did about the branch that meets on the floating islands.  It was really cool and I thought at the time how fun it would be to attend church there.  So, here we are in South America and only a 1 hour flight and 1 hour bus ride from the Lake.
Carol Waddell had given me the Mission Presidents phone number to track down the information.  We called at least 10 times and never got an answer so Chris called for us and we found out church was at 9 AM.  He also got a name and phone number for a brother who would possibly be able to pick us up and take us to church.  We called him several times, we even had our tour guide try from his phone.  We have never gotten a hold of him.  I was starting to be really sad thinking we were so close but wouldn't find out where the floating island was that the branch met on.  We asked a taxi driver, he had never heard of the Mormons, we asked a different tour guide she had never heard of the Mormons.  So,  we are on our tour and sitting on the floating island watching the presentation by a man in about his mid thirties and as he is talking I think to myself, this guy acts sort of like he's a mormon.  I don't really know why I thought it but I didn't give much more thought to it.  After visiting their island you can "pay" for a ride on their Kontiki boat, which they have made out of reeds.  So we get on the boat for our ride and the man who made the presentation is rowing the boat.  Three little girls are singing, it was hilarious.  The oldest was 9 and the youngest was probably 3 and then other somewhere in the middle.  The oldest was obviously the leader and they all sit down and she says Quechua, and they sing a song in that language.  They she says English and they sing Row Row Row your boat, then French and they sing alouette. Then Spanish and Amara.  Tom says to them sing something in Japanese and they bust out in a Japanese song.  Our tour group happened to have had 2 Japanese girls so they loved it.  Anyway, Becky says its like they are in Primary.  So I remember my thought that the leader of their island seemed like he was Mormon to me, so I tell Tom go ask the leader if he has ever heard of the Mormon church here on the Uros.  You should have seen the guys face, he looks stunned and says to Tom I am a Mormon. Everyone on the island we visited was Mormon. We couldn't believe it, well we can a tender mercy from Heavenly Father.  So, we get all the information about church and Becky and I start asking the girls if they go to Primary.  We asked them to sing us a song and I don't think they understood us so Becky and I sang I am a Child of God to see if they recognized it.  They didn't know it but asked us to sing another one.  So we sang Give Said the Little Stream and they knew that one.  It was so cool.

Wayna Picchu

Pronounced Why-na  Picchu

It took us 1 1/2 Hours to get to the top and and hour to get back down. The pictures of the land are great, the ones of us aren't so great, and I am really afraid vacation food has killed my weight loss plan but here they are nonetheless.

The windy road you can see in the background behind us in the picture below is the road you ride a bus from the town to get to the entrance to the ruins.

Machu Picchu

 The mountain behind the hut is what we climbed.  Wayna Picchu

One of the biggest highlights of the trip!!

Alpaca Farm

I have always been in love with alpaca, it is the softest thing in the world.  Well, not the animal but their  fur or wool or whatever.  I have wanted an alpaca rug forever, and i finally got one but its a very small one, more like a door mat size because they are very expensive.  We visited this alpaca farm and they of course have a store.  Yippee for me.

Pictures

I have been dying to share pictures because we saw so many amazing things.  We bought a small internet package on the ship but they block gmail and blogspot I am sure because people transmit too much data.  We are at the hotel now.  So I am hoping this will work.  I think if you click on them the pictures will enlarge so you can see them better.  

Galapagos Fly Catcher

 Marine Iguana

Yellow Crowned Night Heron

 Sally Lightfoot Crab

Flamingo

 Baby Seal Lion

 Sea Turtle going back to the ocean after laying 80 - 100 eggs

 Frigat Bird

 Land Iguana

 Blue-Footed Boobie

Magnificant Frigate (notice it is sitting on a baby bird) 

My Favorite Shot of the Trip.  So Cute!!

Pictures

Today was a city tour of Quito Ecuado, these are some of the things we saw.
Our tour guide

 Parrots

 Ecuador roses throughout the hotel

 Gardens

 Cute children

 Churches and monasteries

Equator