You Go Nate!

Don´t Worry.... We Didn´t

On Saturday Alana, our friend Juan Carlos and I took a two-hour bus ride to the town of Ollantaytambo where there are some extensive Inca ruins.

Actually it was two buses, the first was a fairly decent bus and I was able to even catch a nap, but the second bus was more of a van. They crammed as many people on that van as they possibly could, and when you thought they couldn{t cram any more, they would stop for someone on the side of the road who would suck it in and find a spot in the van. I felt like we could have been one of those shows where all the clowns get out of that little car. Luckily it was a fairly short ride.

It was also a beautiful ride with the Andes towering high above. We arrived at Ollantaytambo and Juan Carlos was able to get us an extra good deal getting into the ruins. They were quite impressive, built right into the steep mountainside with multiple terraces that were used for agriculture in Inca times. Many of the stones used in the construction of Ollantaytambo were not from anywhere nearby and it is presumed that they were dragged an enormous distance (they didn´t use the wheel mind you) through mountain passes to Ollantaytambo.

We walked around and took pictures and had a good time. Afterwords we ate at a little tourist cafe in the town. It was funny because they gave us a tourist menu (Spanish= ¨a la carte¨) where a single dish was about $5 or so (in Peruvian Sols of course) and then Juan Carlos asked for the ¨menu¨ which is the typical three-course daily special usually for locals. It was only 3 Sols which is about $1. So we had that and it was good.

I went to church on Sunday and led the singing and Alana accompanied. It kind of threw me off because I started conducting the opening song and I caught out of the corner of my eye a sister on the front row lifting her shirt up to nurse her daughter.... I think I might have missed a beat. It´s always fun going to church in another country because you have the same kind of people in every ward or branch. There are a few things that are different but the songs are the same, little kids still run up onto the stand with their mother running after them, we´re all studying the Old Testament in Sunday School and of course the Spirit is the same. It was a lot of Spanish though. I think I understood about 2%. We´ll see what I understand next week.