I'm late in getting this posted today.  We won't have our own internet connection for a couple of weeks but have been able to "borrow" access which isn't always accessible.  Thanks to the owner -- whoever it is -- for the service we are able to get.

Many, many boxes have been unpacked but we haven't yet reached the end.  John is installing shelves in the garage and that's a huge help in clearing the garage floor.  One of these days the car will be parked in there again.  And speaking of help, our daughter's family visited on the weekend and they were a big help in many ways.  They moved our timetable up by a week! at least.

And back to Peru -- the top photo is the shaman who prepared an offering and did a cleansing.  The offering started with coca leaves which are very important in the Peruvian culture.  Each home does a daily coca ritual, thanking the sun (inti), mountains (apus) and earth (Pachamama) and some of the coca is returned to the earth.  I had coca tea every breakfast and found it to be much like other green tea without too much of a boost.  We had many opportunities to chew the leaves but I didn't find that appealing and never tried it.  There was also coca candy available in the markets.  BUT we were told repeatedly to not take anything home that had to do with coca.  It's illegal in the US because it's the source of cocaine.

The shaman had little packages of a variety of things for the offering, all things that Mother Earth enjoyed.  There was a seashell, grains, sweets (lots of sweets!) a candle, some type of fiber, cookies, a flower, string and things I can't remember.  It was placed on a clean piece of paper and when complete, folded up and tied with a string.  The shaman then went to the woods to burn the offering to offer it back to Mother Earth (we didn't see that part).  It's not only the shaman who can do an offering, our guide said he did one with his family weekly.