Full Phase Photography

We are home!

Hi Everyone!
We just wanted to let you all know that we have made it back to America safely. Thank you all for your prayers and support. We hope you enjoyed reading about our adventures as much as we enjoyed sharing them.

Stay tuned, as we have more projects coming up!

Botanical Gardens in Trujillo

Al’s Peru Weekly Blog Questions

Week 4:

• What were the best and worst meals you’ve had so far on the trip? Describe the location, menu, ambiance, fellow diners, etc. The best meal has been Pescado de Mero…bbq fish with rice and hot sauce. They show you the raw filet before it is cooked and it’s about 12” long. Very fresh and tasty!! All of the meals have been very good, to be honest we have only had one medium meal. It was mainly because we were mislead…we ordered tacos and nachos (the first and only place to offer them) and got cheesy wantons and mushy carne. Just mislead a tad.

• What have been your biggest challenges during your time in Peru and how have you overcome them? Our biggest challenge was the miscommunication of physical endurance. For example, we went on a hike to the Gocta Falls. We were told it was a mellow stroll to the water. However, we found out that this was an up hill trek, up hill both ways for three hours. It was rainy and sunny and windy and hot and cold and up hill!!!

• What sweet Peruvian dance moves have you learned? (i.e. the lawn mower, the Macarena, etc.) Please describe and demonstrate these dance moves for us. Note: If you haven’t learned any sweet Peruvian dance moves by this point, you must learn some new moves within the next five to seven days and report your findings in the next blog. We will report new moves in the next week.

• How can we be praying for you? Pray we learn some sweet dance moves! Just Kidding! Just keep us in your prayers for a successful print test (we go to print all the calendars and leaflets and need a translator!) tomorrow.

Al’s Peru Weekly Blog Questions

Week 3:

• What is the funniest thing that has happened this week? Jubilee lost her shoe on one of our treks.. we have explained this in full with pictures in the previous blog.

• Who do the students like more, Jubilee or Will? Do your students have special names for you? If so, what are they? Basically we are just known as the photographers, but we both have our own fan clubs…. (the little ones love us)

• Are most Peruvians religious? What role, if any, does religion play in Peruvian culture? Not necessarily but masses on Sundays have been a different experience, they have all been extremely child oriented.

• Has Jubilee purchased a Peruvian shoe rack? If so, what does it look like, and how many pairs of shoes does it hold? NO, she has only been able to buy one pair of shoes on our trip. We don’t have room in our bags and William told Jubilee she has to carry whatever she buys. Jubilee will be sticking to Amazon.com

• How have you felt God’s presence or seen God working during your trip? When we where in the mountains the uninhabited wilderness was extraordinarily beautiful

• How can we be praying for you? You can pray that we will continue to learn from this different way of life.

Jubilee Loses Her Shoe

Throughout our tour of the Kuelap ruins our guide spoke only in Spanish (even though we were promised a little explanation in English). Basically, we were on our own and took our own little mini tours throughout the ruins. We came up with much more interesting stories. Even though we made up our own stories the ones we are about to tell you are 100% true (see images that document the events)

We came to the highest part of the city ruins that overlooked the entire valley and beyond. While our guide was yakking, William made a wisecrack that this was the spot where the Incan king made his sacrifices for the entire tribe to witness. About two minutes later we found out this was in fact a true statement from one of the fellow tour people who spoke very little English. He then went on to tell us that the Incan King would make a sacrifice and the blood would drain through a small square hole at our feet towards the crowd below. This was to show them more proof of the sacrifice being made. Jubilee wanted a realistic re-enactment of this event and since William was the only one who could understand her he was the prop.

At another point in our tour we came up to the tribal housing. Once again the guide was yakking away in Spanish so we continued to entertain ourselves with our own stories. This time we did not even come close. It turns out that the large holes we found in every house were actually the place where the female would be put after she died. Now William wanted to re-enact this one and Jubilee was the prop. However, Jubilee refused to go down the 6ft. hole. So William said one leg would be fine. And Jubilee compromised with putting one leg over the hole.

After William got this shot there was a small complication. Jubilee lost her shoe down the grave hole.

Now because we were on our own mini tour we had to go find our guide and a creative way to explain how the shoe ended up in the grave hole. As we tried to explain what happened, our guide just jumped right in and rescued the shoe.

Jubilee got her shoe back and was excited that she did not have to trek back down the mountain with one shoe!

Ducks off a Cliff!

At one of our many bus stops we found a cute little flock of baby ducks and two random chicks. Jubilee thought they where so cute and wanted to hold one. We decided to corner them in order for her to catch one. Unfortunately we realized too late that we cornered them to the side of a cliff. They obviously don’t have much experience with cliffs as five of them fell over the edge. Luckily three got tangled in the overgrowth and did not fall to the bottom. William rescued the three ducks and Jubilee got to finally hold one. They did not want to have anything to do with us…

The two that fell to the bottom did live but where forever separated from the flock!

Al’s Peru Weekly Blog Questions

Week 2:

• Describe Peruvian hospitality. Are people friendly and inviting, cold and standoff-ish, or somewhere in between? We have noticed that people in the Northern mountain cities are a little less friendly. This is in comparison to the extremely laid back and mellow culture of the beach town, Huanchaco, where we have been living.

• Have you experienced Peruvian public transportation? What is this like? See our earlier blog for the taxi ride of a lifetime. We have also been using the public bus system. There are two different kinds of public buses, the big buses that seat 20 to 30 people and small vans that have been converted into bus like vehicles. The small vans will get you there twice as fast as the big bus but are extremely crowded. Overall we have been trying to use the busses because they only cost $0.50 as opposed to the $5 cab ride.

• Has the Spanish/ English language barrier been an issue so far? If so, how? How have you overcome this barrier? We have not had any major issues with the language barrier and have been picking it up very quickly. We can order from restaurants, give directions to the cab drivers, haggle prices (we do this frequently), and simple conversations. We have had the most difficulty dealing with the young children at SKIP. Disciplining kindergarten age children does not work if they do not understand the language.

• What aspects of American culture were you most surprised to find in Peru? (music, food, fashion, etc.) Pizza, 80’s pop music (in English), giant mall’s(we have only seen one so far), and all billboard advertisements are blond hair and fair skinned people.

• How can we be praying for you? Pray that we stay safe on our long distance bus rides and continue to have good health.

Gocta Falls

Full Phase is back!

On Tues. September 15th we hopped on a bus at 3pm from Trujillo and made our way to Chachapoyas. This began our Northern Peru Excursion...

We rode the bus all night and arrived at our destination at 5am the next morning (a total of 14 hours on the bus). We had to find a hostel to drop off all of our bags and equipment. Without even a moment of rest we found a driver to take us another hour and thirty minutes to the city below the falls (at a 9,000 foot elevation).

We got a guide and began our trek towards the falls (Gocta Falls is the 3rd largest waterfall in the world). Along the way we saw and learned a lot about how the mountain people live and work. These people live very simple lives with donkeys for transportation and run down structures to process sugar cane (sugar cane is a very lucrative crop for these people). We also learned about Incan civilization as there where many interesting ruins along the way.

Along the trail there where many breath taking views as well as many exotic creatures.

The base of the falls gave us a greater sense of their magnitude. William was brave enough to attempt to swim. However the guide restricted William from going any deeper than his knees for safety reasons.

As we rested at the falls the guide began to get nervous because it was getting late and the falls began to flow harder and faster. We could not stay long because the guide told us that nightfall would make our hike back treacherous.

We began the trek back and made it into the small town where we began just in time to see the sun set!

We finally have internet again!

Hello All,

So for the past 4 days we have been trekking through Northern Peru! We have made our way through the towns and sites of Chachapoyas, Gocta Falls, Kuelap, Cajamarca, and today we have arrived at The Baños del Inca (The Inca's Hot Baths). We have not posted the last few days as we have had no access to internet. Check back tomorrow for more photos from our adventures and enjoy this video showing a little bit of the mountainous scenery from our 14 hour bus ride!

As warned this bus ride was not for the faint of heart. There where many time when you looked out the window and could not see the edge of the dirt road.