Ok, I know you are all wondering about the Race we had in Lima! It was definitely the best race to date, thanks to Bob Cooley (the AIM missionary in Lima) and his great help.
Friday morning, we were dropped off at a park in an area of Lima with a list of 10 destinations and/or things to accomplish as a team. We headed first to an old delapitated church with a stone bust of a man in front. Our goal was to find out his name and how he died. He was a monk (and I can’t remember his name), but he died because one day as he was ringing the church bells at 4am, the bells fell and decapitated him. Eeee, yikes. Then we had to go to the lookout behind the building and take a photo.
From there, we snagged a taxi to Parque de Amor, found an inscription on the mosaic wall and had to take a photo there too.
By foot we headed down to the Pacific Ocean with instructions to swim to a buey and back. Since a couple of us don’t swim so well, Leah took two legs and Amy and James each took one. (only four have to compete). It was no simple task as the waves ranged from 2 to 6ft and the beach was rocky and super deep right away. The team did awesome though, even though they were worn out.
We ran, sopping wet back from the beach to an outdoor mall area to find a specific restaurant. We did run into a small problem there, as the guard standing at the stairs wouldn’t let us down wet, even though by then we were no longer dripping (we had been running for 10 minutes!!) We we finally worked our way to the food court we ordered our mandatory…. cow HEART!
I was quite surprised at the deliciousness of it! Much like a flavorful rare to mid rare steak. I would have enjoyed it more if I hadn’t had to eat in such a hurry, but it was good!
After our lunch we took a taxi to a monastary in town that is built over catacombs, where we had to find a deep well of arranged skulls and bones. I would have LOVED to spend more time walking through the catacombs, but again, we were running, and got our photo, then took off.
From the catacombs we ran to China Town, where by now, the crowds of people had seen several teams run by, and were literally cheering us on as we ran. It was so fun! We found the little shop and bought some steamed rolls with a sweet bean filling, took our picture, then took off running with food in hand.
We had to then take a carriage ride around the main square in that area, and enjoy the scenery for a while before we caught a taxi up to San Cristobal – the cross on the mountaintop.
ZEO was the 2nd team to reach the top, behind NESSA, but due to a minor technicality (NESSA got the monks name wrong), we actually won the race. We spent time at the top, over looking Lima and prayed together, all 48 of us racers. What a day!
Houses in Lima.
