Where have I been?!

Ok, so I remembered that I have this thing called a blog... and realized that lately I haven't been too good and keeping it updated. Honestly, I knew it would happen. It always does. Any blog, journal, diary begins with the thought, "I'm going to write in it all the time! I will have such a nice record of what I did and what God is doing!" And that quickly turns into, "Well, I'll write in it once a week/month/quarter and that way I'll be able to summarize what's going on!" And then it comes time to write and you can't remember what you were doing that kept you so busy you didn't have time to write before, and the daunting task of trying to summarize all that has happened since the last time you wrote makes you procrastinate because you don't know where to start, ...aaaaand next thing you know it has been two years.

Come on, I know I'm not the only one who does this.

Part of my problem is that I always set really high standards for what I write. I want to craft these well-written insightful profound blog posts. Then things get busy and I don't have the luxury of sitting around thinking brilliant thoughts and coming up with witty wording so I default to not writing at all. Thus, I'm trying to be better about not putting that much pressure on my blog. It's supposed to be fun, after all!

So let's see...run down of the last month. As you are aware, we spent two weeks in Chile for meetings. We enjoyed the beautiful weather and meeting new friends and catching up with others. Right after we returned, a worker from Caracas, for whom we've been doing a project, flew down for a week to go over last details. That meant an intense week of me doing little but editing more of the some 1700 images I captured in Caracas and working on prayer slideshows, etc. Throw in hosting team dinner, teaching some photo lessons, and all the regular work and house work, and it was a pretty crazy week.

In the midst of that, I got a surprise message from a friend in the states asking to come visit. With her flying standby, we were able to work it out so that she could arrive the day we wrapped up the meetings for the Caracas project. I would have wished for more prep time so I could really play hostess, but Laura was great and understanding guest and we had a really good time catching up and exploring the city. Our pretty sunny weather has been mostly replaced by heavy fog and clouds again, but at least it's still warmer. I loved having an excuse to visit the parts of town I rarely do and hit up some shopping in the Inca Market of course! And exploring with Laura reminded me of how much I love Peru and its awesome culture. It was a lot of fun having a familiar face from home and getting to laugh about old stories and enjoy some new memories. Here are a few favorite photos from our explorations when Laura was here:

Touring the ruins of Pachacamac outside of Lima.

Cathedral in Parque Kennedy at night. 

A performer dances during a cultural festival in downtown Lima. 

Department of Justice lit at night.

Marshlands near Pachacamac in the middle of the desert. 

Summer flowers in a Miraflores park.

Cultural performers in downtown Lima. 

Tree silhouetted against Miraflores buildings in the fog. 

A woman walks by an abandoned building in the Chinatown district of Lima. 

And the winner is...

Cat Lovetro! That's right. She won. She was the first person to come visit me since I left the good ol' USA. She arrived at about the 5 1/2 month mark bearing all sorts of goodies from persons in the states as well as some early birthday presents. But of course, her visit was the best gift. If I haven't told you before, she's kind of awesome. She's also kind of ridiculous, which is probably why we are friends. It was wonderful having her in Lima, even though it was only for a few days. Unfortunately I almost killed her by walking her to death. We were both hurting pretty bad after a few days of nonstop walking. But, we did see a lot of Lima!

The nice thing about people coming to visit is that it gives you a reason to do all the touristy sight-seeing stuff that you'd like to do in your own town but never make time to do. We toured the Huaca Pucllana, centuries old ruins in the middle of Miraflores that I walk by all the time. We checked out the Magical Fountains water park, enjoyed sunshine on the cliffs, toured the catacombs, walked around downtown, visited the inquisition museum, found some llamas, and shopping until we dropped at the Inca Market. We also had some down time watching the Gator game, cooking, and just generally enjoying hanging out. Of course it's never enough time, but I loved having her here. Here's a few shots of what we did:  

The best pack llama! Cat brought lots of goodies from the States. 

Huaca Pucllana- the ruins in Miraflores

Old and new. 

Cat met a new friend. Paco the llama.

The Peruvian Hairless dog. Yes, it really is that ugly.

Walking along the cliffs.

Walking to Larcomar.

Gator girls!

Laser/fountain show at the fountain park.

Fountain park. 

Rainbow fountain!

Interactive fountain.

Cat at the cat church. She is forlorn because I was abandoning her there, despite the warning on the sign.

Oh hey. I'm riding a llama.

Skulls in the crypt at the cathedral.

Inside the cathedral.

Archbishop's house.

In the Museum of the Inquisition and Congress. Yes, they put those two things together, and no they don't sell these snazzy heretic hats in the gift store, much to our disappointment.