Potatoes served at breakfast, At dinner served again; Potatoes served at supper, Forever and Amen!

Most interesting day.  Since we're 12 degrees South Latitude, the sun rises and sets pretty much the same most of the year, every 12 hours.  November 1st - tomorrow, the sun will rise at 5:35am and set at 6:08pm.  This all means we get up early and hit the pillow early as well.  Being a Monday, it's preparation day (P-day)  The day to take care of cloths, groceries and personal grooming like haircuts.  So we went shopping for groceries for the first time.  Having compañeros to show the way, we all trooped to the store.  We walked about two miles to start out the day, heading to the restaurant.

We celebrated the completion of the Stratton's mission which ends their two years on Friday.  They return to Provo after serving in Peru three different time for seven years total.  Everyone in our circle of gringos and natives was there.  This meal was held at a restaurant called Pardo's across from the Temple.

Dinner consisted of carnes mediano or tender steak, papas fritas and many vegetables.   Sister Lees had embroidered and framed a beautiful wall picture of the Temple.


Primero, the Costco of Peru is Makro.  Don't know the origin of that one unless Makro Polo is credited with it.  This place is for all the world a Costco.  Everything you could want or need.  With such a wide variety of foods here, from vegetables and fruits to exotic fish and meats.  We'll never go hungry.  Next we stopped at Wong, another great grocery etal.  Same high quality with smaller quantities.  When all is tallied up we spent enough to exist for another couple of weeks.  Up until now we've been guests of others work. 

I'm not so sure everyone would like the food in Peru unless you're an adventurously hungry conocedor de alimentos, (food connoisseur).  Take potatoes (patatas) for instance, there are amazingly Peru in origin. 
The potato was originally believed to have been domesticated independently in multiple locations,^[4] but later genetic testing of the wide variety of cultivars and wild species proved a single origin for potatoes in the area of present-day southern Peru (from a species in the Solanum brevicaule complex), where they were domesticated 7,000–10,000 years ago.^[5][6][7] Following centuries of selective breeding, there are now over a thousand different types of potatoes.^[6] Of these subspecies, a variety that at one point grew in the Chiloé Archipelago (the potato's south-central Chilean sub-center of origin) left its germplasm on over 99% of the cultivated potatoes worldwide.^[8][9]
 
Following the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire, the Spanish introduced the potato to Europe in the second half of the 16th century.  In 1845, a plant disease known as late blight, caused by the fungus-like oomycete Phytophthora infestans, spread rapidly through the poorer communities of western Ireland, resulting in the crop failures that led to the Great Irish Famine. Nonetheless, thousands of varieties persist in the Andes, where over 100 cultivars might be found in a single valley, and a dozen or more might be maintained by a single agricultural household.^[10]

Papa rellena

Peruvian cuisine naturally contains the potato as a primary ingredient in many dishes, as around 3,000 varieties of this tuber are grown here.^[99] Some of the more notable dishes include boiled potato as a base for several dishes or with ají-based sauces like in papa a la huancaina or ocopa, diced potato for its use in soups like in cau cau, or in Carapulca with dried potato (papa seca). Smashed condimented potato is used in causa Limeña and papa rellena. French-fried potatoes are a typical ingredient in Peruvian stir-fries, including the classic dish lomo saltado.
Chuño is a freeze-dried potato product traditionally made by Quechua and Aymara communities of Peru and Bolivia,^[100] and is known in various countries of South America, including Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, and Chile. In Chile's Chiloé Archipelago, potatoes are the main ingredient of many dishes, including milcaos, chapaleles, curanto and chochoca. In Ecuador, the potato, as well as being a staple with most dishes, is featured in the hearty locro de papas, a thick soup of potato, squash, and cheese.  Papas fritas or french fries are as popular here as anywhere, maybe more. 

Claudia with Luke in arms and Austin. 

Tonight is Halloween even in Peru.  We had about six little girls ring our door bell.  Good thing we had something sweet.  These kids are heavenly.  Next time out I'll take pictures. Two of our grand children are here, Luke and Austin.  These two are good pals.  We'll miss them tons but know the long term good is limitless.  Thank goodness for Skype so they don't forget us.  Thanks to Mike and Jill along with their family for mowing our grass on Saturday.  We are ever thankful for all our children and their love for us.