Kara Collo climb to the top last Friday

Friday 03 April, Bryam Sardon and I started hiking to the base of the hill, called in Aymara, Kara Collo. (I am unsure of any of the spellings of Aymara). We realized at some point that we had taken a wrong road, but I liked the view from there, so I took a picture looking mostly west, into the sun. It would have been better, photographically, to go in the morning, but that was not an option. I also wanted a picture of Sapa Collo that we climbed last month, and this seemed a good place to take it from.

This shot is looking southwest to the highest hill of the four surrounding Juli, which is called Pukara. There is a legend about Pukara that some prospectors started looking for gold that had been hidden in caves or tunnels by the ancients to hide it from the Spanish. The prospectors were met by "demons" who told them to stop looking for the gold, because it was theirs, and they would protect it. The thought came into my mind when I heard this legend: Perhaps this is the hill Cumorah, and those "demons" were actually angels protecting sacred records. :) Of course, that is purely fantasy on my part.

We went back and found the right road which took us to the base of the hill. We began the climb. About the time I looked over and saw that we were even with the top of Sapa Collo, I started getting a little dizzy, so I took a bit of a rest. I looked up and saw the moon above us, so I took a picture to show how close it seemed, but the picture turned out making it look far away.

When we got to the top, there was a shrine, so I took a couple of pictures of the inside.

It seemed a little bit in need of repairs.

It had a stone wall enclosure in front. The scenery was well worth the effort of the climb. This shot is looking north across Juli and Sapa Collo and Lake Titicaca.

This looking west.

And this one is east across Cerro San Bartolome and across Lake Titicaca to Bolivia.

And this is to the south across the lake to the towns of Yunguyo, Peru and Copacabana, Bolivia.

This is looking northeast across the Juli Harbor, with Pilcuyo across the bay.

I was trying to get the snow covered peaks across the lake in Bolivia to the southeast, but they don't seem to have been very cooperative in this shot.

Here is a shot of the front of the shrine with Pukara off to the southwest.

Then I had to get this of Bryam standing on the stone wall looking down on his hometown.

Then we left the shrine and went to the summit, which was about 50 yards (meters) distant and only about ten or twenty feet higher. I took this picture of the mountains to the south.

... and then off toward the southwest. Bryam told me his grandmother lives in those mountains.

We started down, heading towards Pukara, because it seemed less steep. We came across this rock construction. It looks like an oven, but there is no sign of it ever having been used for that purpose--no ashes or soot. Maybe it is just a place for shepherds to take shelter during a storm.

Here is another rock construction that I have no very good idea what it is for. It looks just big enough for a person to stand in.

And that is the end of the pictures. It was getting late and we just walked on down the hill to the road and went home. It was a wonderful adventure with a fascinating hiking companion.

Sapa Collo (Sleeping Lion) Hill

Yesterday I took Bryam Sardon up on a previous offer to accompany me and we climbed to the top of Sapa Collo hill. All during the climb up and down we talked of gospel things. He is a really deep thinker and loves to delve into scholarly gospel subjects. He is in the process of submitting his papers to serve a mission.

It was a hard climb for me, since the altitude is about 13,000 feet. I had to stop and pant a number of times, but Bryam was patient.

When we got to the top I took pictures and two videos that I want to share.

This is a picture of Sapa Collo taken from Collo Bartolo (St. Bartholomew Hill) that I took a month ago when we took a taxi to the top of that hill.

I took this of Sapa Collo from the city pier the same day

This shot of it is from our living room window.

This is from the top of the hill, looking east.

This is looking southeast over the north half of the city.

And this is looking southeast over the south half of the city.

This is northwest towards Ilave.

And this is looking north. Beyond Bryam, across the bay of the lake is the farming community of Pilcuyo, which is politically part of Ilave. If you enlarge, you can probably see the tin roofs of the farmhouses shining in the sun.

And heading back, this is the road at the base of the hill, looking towards another hill I want to climb--Cara Collo. But I will save that for another time.

Finally I took two videos panning from northwest to southeast...

... and then southeast to north.

Monday 12
We spent the morning working on the form letters. We both revised, and I translated.
Bishop Oscar Ribera, the handyman, told us about Juli and Yunguyu and Aymara.
President and Sister Davis arrived late. They were both sick with colds.
And they gave a policeman a ride, which meant they had to go the speed limit (90 kph/55 mph).
They traded cars and headed to Juliaca, but that car didn’t work right.
They came back and traded, but this car’s windshield wipers were worn out and rain is promised.
They canceled the trip and rested the rest of the afternoon and evening.
Jackie and I continued to revise form letters.
FHE—Jackie—Farkle.

Sunday 11
I read the priesthood manual, Lesson 25, on the internet.
I worked on putting my diary onto my blog, covering since we left home.
We walked to church. It was only a few blocks away, but required a lot of stair climbing.
We arrived in plenty of time, were warmly greeted, and enjoyed the meetings.
Sister Davis called twice about when they are coming home.
They will spend the night in Tacna and come home tomorrow morning.
We watched Music & the Spoken Word.
We are back to spotty reception, but it was still very good.

Saturday 10
We spent most of the day revising mission form letters per President Davis’ request.
We had lunch in the back yard patio and watched birds.

Friday 09
At 1430 we called the office elders to see if they needed us.
They came and got us with Panchito, the other mission driver.
Jackie copied their office form letters onto a memory stick to work on at home.
Panchito took me to get my hair cut.
I helped Elder Garcia figure out an Excel problem.
I helped his comp by calling moribund elders/sisters’ families and stake presidents.
Moribund means that their mission in Peru is almost over and they are about to cross over to the other side.

Thursday 08
President Davis assigned us to work in Juli on Lake Titicaca.
We go there in two weeks after we get our residence permits in Lima.
He and Sister Davis took us to the office en route to interviews in other cities.
Jackie and I installed their new photocopier and their new temple recommend scanner.
Mission driverr, Obispito, drove us to Franco (a grocery store) and to the mission home.
I had a long talk with Bishop Oscar, the gardener, during his lunch break.
When a missionary, he and his companion were taken by terrorists. Quite a hair raising tale!
We took a long nap.
We set up our laptops in the president’s office and caught up on diary entries, facebooks, etc.

Wednesday 07
President Davis interviewed us so he could make the decision of where to assign us.
Sister Davis drove us to the mission office, gave us a tour, then to her favorite grocery store.
We rested the rest of the day.
President was going to tell us our assignment, but he got home too late from his interviews.

Tuesday 06
We waited from 0930 to 1130 for Maya. Joao Basan got us, took us to Area HQ.
He and Maya took us to Interpol and got us fingerprinted and dentally examined for ID.
We came back too late to go to the temple, so we ate and napped.
Maya and Zara took us to the airport.
Maya walked us through all but the boarding procedures.
A very comfortable flight to Arequipa. Good entertainment and good book.
We were met by the whole mission staff (6 elders) and President and Sister Davis.
Sister Davis (suffering from a cold) prepared us a good stew and fruit.
We slept in the mission home's GA suite.

Monday 05
We got up at 0400, showered, cleaned the room. Helped the sister sisters with their luggage.
(The sister sisters are two widowed sisters [Miller & Richards] who are serving as companions on a mission to Czech Republic, where they were both born while their father was mission president.)
Flew to Atlanta. My seat was cramped, but I did all right.
We waited two hours in Atlanta. We met a sweet Swede girl volunteering to TESL in Peru.
We flew to Lima, same seat. Reading Fire in the Bones made the time pass very fast.
We were met in the airport by Maya Campian and Zarahemla.
They checked us into the Hotel Yeya’s.

Sunday 04
We enjoyed Sacrament meeting in a branch of FTMs learning English as a second language.
We had mission conference at 10:00-1230. For once, Jackie was cold and I was warm.
We took a two-hour nap before dinner at 1630.
During dinner I got whipped cream on my suit jacket. We almost got it out.
We got to enjoy the Departure Devotional. Again we will be traveling alone.
We enjoyed the Sunday evening fireside.
We packed.

Saturday 03
We did two more loads of laundry and got to teach other couples how it works.
Steve & OraLyn picked us up at 1145 and took us to a family get together.
Lora & Robert and family and Ed & Ann and family came for lunch and a fine fun time.
Jackie and I took a short nap while Ora Lyn and Steve got ready.
They took us to the temple. Sister Belnap, our trainer, was there.
Steve & OraLyn invited us to dinner at Los Hermanos and then brought us back to the MTC.

Friday 02
We learned to teach new members today. We got to meet the Monsens, who were our volunteers.
In the afternoon we learned about PEC, ward council, and got more training from Sisters Woloff & Faust.
We had our last Spanish lesson tonight.
It was followed by a testimony meeting of all foreign language senior missionaries.
I am feeling a little let down that this week’s training is over. Sigh!

Thursday 01 (Happy New Year)
We role played less active members. We played ourselves when I tried inactivity years ago.
I was particularly impressed with the other missionaries’ counsel.
Sister Sharp (widow) and Sister Turner (divorcee) counseled me to quit trying to find peace and happiness from my relationship with my wife, rather, it can only come from my relationship with my Heavenly Father.
(Book of Mormon Alma 26:22)
22 Yea, he that repenteth and exerciseth faith, and bringeth forth good works, and prayeth continually without ceasing—unto such it is given to know the mysteries of God; yea, unto such it shall be given to reveal things which never have been revealed; yea, and it shall be given unto such to bring thousands of souls to repentance, even as it has been given unto us to bring these our brethren to repentance.
We then counseled Sisters Burke and Elliot, who played her brother and his Catholic wife.
We worked an hour in the Referral Center, taking calls from TV ads. We each got one call.
I don’t know why, but it was scary until we got started. Then it was fun...For me.
We listened to two successful RSMs (Woloff & Faust) who served in Finlay, Australia
"Don’t tract. It causes more enemies than friends or converts. Do community service. Get involved."
Spanish tutoring: Two tutors, Jade Adams and Amy Alborne.
They closed their eyes and allowed us to direct them in Spanish around the building and up and down stairs.

Wednesday 31
I had a struggle with the adversary this am. I felt really grumpy until about 1100.
I tried to ignore it and think I succeeded pretty much so it didn’t affect anyone else.
When I came back from lunch (and what a lunch!) I felt much better.
The afternoon went marvelously.
Our volunteer was new and asked us to teach her both yesterdays and today’s lesson.
Jackie and the volunteer both shed tears when Jackie testified of Joseph Smith’s vision.
We went to our Spanish tutoring session with Jade Adams from Dominican Republic.
It was very good. I particularly enjoyed the activity of describing artwork in the main building.
We did our laundry until 2130 and met several groups of new FTMs being taught how to use it.

Tuesday 30
We learned (again) to teach the first lesson.
Our teacher was Ellie Belnap. She was a missionary that we met last year in Riga, Latvia.
At 1430 we taught our volunteer, Blayd, the first discussion.
Jackie became emotional (surprised her) when bearing testimony of Joseph Smith’s first vision.
It didn’t surprise me. I was praying for that blessing.
(Brother Blayd saw us later and told Jackie not to interrupt her lesson to apologize for emotion.)
We got typhoid fever shots.
We enjoyed the Tuesday evening devotional with Elder KW Pearson of the 70.
We returned to our room and finished our reading assignment in PMG.

Monday 29 (Happy Anniversary, Jackie.)
I put on another quilt and slept very well until 0612.
Dream: I learned to make a toy train that ran on faith. People in power felt threatened by it and dissected it to find out how it worked, but they couldn’t find its source of power.
Ora Lyn and Jonathan drove us to the MTC and helped us unload our luggage into our room.
Ora Lyn showed Johathan the foyer of the MTC while we began our registration.
We left them and finished our registration.
We enjoyed a good lunch in the cafeteria.
Our training session began at 1300 and went until about 1630.
We enjoyed meeting and helping several other couples as we left our door open for fresh air.
FHE—Me—We studied Preach My Gospel (PMG) and played farkle.

Sunday 28
Morans get up a lot later than we do. We got breakfast and went to church.
I met our former missionary friend from Argentina, Elder Harper’s, father.
After church, while Ora Lyn prepared dinner, we discussed our pet theories.
Jackie and Steve discussed genealogy and technology.
During dinner I shared my dream from this morning. Ora Lyn gave me little insight on it.
Dream: We were having our church meetings in a shack. It wobbled on its foundation, or lack thereof. I went and found a boulder to put under one corner to make it stable. While transporting the boulder to the shack we had to cross an inlet of the sea. A group of large Tongans brought us a thick extension power cable that extended from beyond the horizon. We placed the stone under the corner of the shack and it became stable.
After dinner they showed us Errand of Angels.
After supper they showed us The Nativity Story.
We did a lot of visiting in between and after and got to bed at about midnight.

Saturday 27
We arose at 0530 and barely got ready to leave on time.
Chuck came at 0745 and at 0830 he drove us to the Eugene airport.
We checked in and waited until the plane finally arrived and we took off at 1500.
We arrived SLC at 1715 and took the shuttle to Orem. Driver Steve was very entertaining.
We visited and helped make candy with the Morans.