Of course I mean exploring in the safest meaning of the word We’ve been going on a lot of trips recently with the SST group here in Peru including a military museum/fort, the shanty-town of Pamplona, the national mint and this coming weekend Cuzco and Machu Pichu! Hopefully you’re able to check out all the photos from these places on Goshen’s site but if not here’s a bit of an update. Regarding my earlier concerns about being a tourist in poor areas of town… those fears were partially realized in the earlier visit to Callao, but the more recent trip to Pamplona was a much more positive experience. The children who came to the church sang and were so happy to just play with us even if we didn’t come bearing candy or gifts. It was also nice to be able to do a little work by putting up the shade and a lil “fencing.” The way the whole area was built was absolutely astounding. A sea of shacks and stone walls built to hold the mountain of sand in place.

As a complete reversal to our time in Pamplona, this Friday morning the group is catching a flight to Cuzco where we will be learning a bit more about Incan architecture and history. It seems that relatively few of our host families (or other Limeños) have actually been to Cuzco, let alone Machu Pichu because of the prohibitive costs. The area is very touristy and a bit remote to boot. However, regardless of the excessive tourism I’m quite excited to see the mountains of Peru! I’ll let you know it went when I return on Monday. Talk to you all later!