Calgary to San Francisco, via Peru: Huaraz

Sitting on the bus, about 15 minutes from Huaraz and therefore 7 hours and 45 minutes from Lima. Off to the big city to pick up my sister ad cousin for the last leg of this Peruvian journey.
Yesterday was spent at Chavin de Huantar, visiting the ruins there of the Chavin people, a group of people with widespread influence over Peru from 1500BC to 500BC. In contrast with Macchu Picchu which is only dated just before Europeans arrived. Their leftover ruins consist of a large temple ground with a square plaza and some underground "galleries" where they worshipped their god Lozno (a combination of a couple different animals), scared non-believers into belief through a combination of flashing light off of precious minerals, the sound of rushing waters and the consumption of hallucinogenic herbs, a place for the priests to live and an area to hold prisoners captive. All very interesting. I feel my missionary work would have been more productive if I had the aid of hallucinogens.

Last night Eli and I attempted to have a conversation with 4 children who approached us as we sat in the town's plaza at 9pm. We soon learned that these kids spoke Quechua, not Spanish, so communication proved difficult. At a loss for words I turned to the universal game of rock-paper-scissors hoping to establish some common ground between us. It was a success. We had a great game for about 20 minutes, and every time they beat me they shouted 'pagar' or, to pay, as loud as they could. We also worked on counting to ten in English and Eli and I tried to do the same in Quechua. They were much quicker learners than we were. Before they left they of course asked for some money and I was stuck in the dilemma situation of being Christlike vs. supporting the continued practice of begging. A dilemma I have faced before and don't think I will ever have a good answer for.

About Peruvians. The majority obviously speak Spanish, but many other languages also exist. Quechua is the primary language of roughly 8-10 million South Americans and their are about 100 distinct languages spoken in South America. It is believed that when the Europeans arrived roughly 2000 languages existed. I feel a bit shabby for only knowing one language. More and more I think Americans are going to be the last people around who only speak one language.

The last pictures are of some of these great people and their town, Huaraz. The Quechua women have a very distinct dress- colorful tights, a dark skirt, a sweater and blanket tied around their shoulders that are both very colorful and also used for carrying items to the market or toting children around.