It was a White Christmas!!

Sam and Mike, our 26- and 22-year-old sons flew in to Lima early Sunday morning, then took the bus up to Huancayo.  We attended the Christmas Devotional with the local Mission Zones on Monday, then mostly dinked around on Tuesday (though I wouldn't necessarily count renting and watching the last Harry Potter movie as dinking around), and got neglected chores taken care of.

So, it was Christmas morning, and you had to do SOMETHING!!

Huaytapallana is a beautiful, 18,000+ foot, snow-covered mountain some 25 km up the canyon behind Huancayo.  It looks like this on a clear day:

Unfortunately, it's "summer," which is the rainy season, and it wasn't a clear day.

 We started at about 14,300 feet, and began the climb.

 A local adopted us along the trail.

 Rest stops were fairly frequent as the steep trail and the altitude took their toll.

We finally reached the "saddle" at 15,055 feet, from where that first picture was taken, but arrived in the middle of the clouds.  A nice sign had gone up since we were last at this point, and a third had already been pried off and burned. 

 After adding to the height of the rock cairn,

 we descended through the clouds.

 Back down to the car, which surprisingly still had its mirrors and wheels.

Now it's time for naps and cooking for the missionaries, who can't wait to get more of Paula's turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, etc.  Even the Latinos appreciated Thanksgiving.
We hope you had a white Christmas, though we hope you didn't have to risk High Altitude Pulmonary Edema to do so.
Dave & Paula