Six students from Peru had been visiting Snoqualmie for less than a week, but were quickly embracing Washington culture.

As a pair of wooden condor wings, painted that morning in bright colors, sat drying on the floor, host mom Renee Gieseke observed the prominent Seahawks blue and green.

“I think we’re influencing them already,” she said with a laugh.

The students, three boys and three girls from Snoqualmie’s sister city of Chaclacayo Peru, may have just gone for the brightest hues, though, during the Saturday painting session of the sculptures. The condor’s accompanying sculpture, a Thunderbird, was also painted that morning, and sported lots of color.

Both statues were carved by North Bend artists Bob and Laura Antone, in a marathon week of hand-carving that started on Monday, Feb. 2. They were on hand Saturday to help with the final assembly of the statue, but the students, along with some boys from a neighboring tribe, did most of the painting.

“They’re doing this part,” said Bob. “Everybody’s picking their own colors and symbols… you can see an elk, and the Valley on this one.”

The sculptures, erected Sunday outside the Snoqualmie Valley Chamber of Commerce building at the George Swenson memorial, are part of the city’s cultural exchange with the Peruvian sister city.

The condor is a sacred bird in Peru, said Antone, much as the thunderbird is in Snoqualmie lore.

The Chaclacayo students arrived in Snoqualmie on Saturday, Jan. 31. In addition to attending school, the students met with Snoqualmie officials and exchanged gifts Thursday, Feb. 5, pictured at right, and helped paint the totems Saturday. They will return to Peru February 22.

Rich Gieseke, right, a host parent, steadies a condor wing as sculptor Bob Antone wedges it into place.

Jaren Reed works on a multi-colored thunderbird, a key figure in tribal legends.