Cerrado - Another Walk

CERRADO

Closed for Cleaning

2/25/2020

The Arequipa temple is now closed for cleaning until 3/10/2020, the next two weeks.  We don't really have anything to do today, so we decided to go exploring.  We wanted to see where the blue bus goes, so we got on it, paid 2 soles each (about 60 cent) and rode it until it stopped.  Not exactly sure where we went but it was on the other side of the Chili River and on the other side of the bridge below the temple.  We saw a lot of the same scenes of homes, tiendas (little stores), and beautiful farm land.

When we stopped, we were up on a hill and we were able to see the temple.  It was really neat.  On our way back, we decided to get off the bus and walk.  The mall that has the Chili's Restaurant, seemed close and we wanted to get some lunch/dinner.  

We walked and walked and came to a really neat oval or round about.  There was a round walk way that was elevated above the road.  We walked around it and enjoyed the views of being above the streets.  It was pretty neat.   It was getting cloudy the more the afternoon went on.  it rained a little, we found a bus stop and sat under the covering until the rain stopped.  

Look at those clouds!!!

Looks like rain

Standing on the raised round about.

You can see the temple just to the left, top corner of the yellow sign. We are on the walk way above the big circle round about.

After we got off the walkway above the round about, we kept walking toward the mall with the Chili's  

Along our walk, we passed an interesting restaurant.  We decided we want to go back and eat there sometime.  It was called  Tradicion Arequipa Picanteria Turistica the address is Av. Dolores 111, Jose Luis Bustamante y Rivero 04002  phone 054-426467

As we walked by and looked inside the walls, there were beautiful gardens and it looked like a really nice place to eat.  

We saw this interesting display on our way.  Shrubs shaped like traditional people dancing. 

 It was pretty cool.  

We finally made it to the mall with the Chili's  

We had lunch and walked around the mall before we left to get back to our apartment.

We got on the bus that said Tottus and Ripley because we thought it would take us back downtown to the Tottus we shop at,  then we could get back to our apartment.  We ended up at this big new mall that had a big new Tottus and Ripleys.  Not where we thought were going. 

  

We walked in just to check out the Tottus and to see if we could find some Kraft Macaroni and Cheese.  They didn't have any.  I guess we got tricked by getting on the wrong bus, but we found a new mall and a Sodimac.  Not sure if we'd know how to get back to it though.  

This is a picture of the bus, not the one we actually rode.

We go on another bus that we thought would take us downtown,  By now it was raining pretty hard.  We rode the bus to where we knew we could catch the bus that goes up by the temple.  We had to walk in he rain to get to where we needed to be.  We got on the last bus with all of the other wet people and watched through the fogged up windows for the temple stop.  We got off in the rain and walked up the hill to the temple with the rain drenching us.  I had on my rain proof shoes and they were worth the $20.00 they cost.  When we got back to our apartment, we got dried off and I washed all the wet clothes.  It was quite an adventure.  We have decided sometimes we should just take a taxi, but then look at all the adventure we'd have missed.  

It took up our day and we were together which we enjoy the most.  Times like this we will always remember because were were together.  It's such a blessing to be serving in the temple even though we really haven't served there much yet.  We love where we are and are so blessed. 

Tomorrow afternoon while the Arequipa Temple is closed for cleaning, we are flying to Trujillo until March 4th to spend some time at the Trujillo Temple.  i

It will be nice to see some of our Trujillo friends and spend some time in a place that we both love so much. I think it will be a great trip. 

  

We are finally getting use to the altitude here at approximately 7,977 ft.  It has taken us almost 2 weeks to acclimate.  When we go to Trujillo tomorrow, the altitude is sea level.  It will be nice to have oxygen again, but then in a week when we get back to Arequipa, will we have to acclimate again?  We will see!