I have just finished my first week at Parque Ambue Ari. It has been a challenging but very rewarding one.
Every day wake up call is at 6:30. We all roll out of our bunks and start our daily and weekly tasks- things like setting up for breakfast, cleaning out the aviaries, cleaning bathrooms, feeding the piglet, or prepping food for the animals. My weekly task was to help feed Rudolpho the Deer and Herbie the Tapir, so I would go chop veggies and banana leaves, then put on my mud boots and head into the jungle to feed and water them (and give Herbie some love. He is such a sweetie that people used to take turns sleeping in his enclosure at night so he wouldn´t get lonely). At 8:00 we all have breakfast together (two rolls, tea and coffee, and a hard-boiled egg) and then get ready for our morning cats.
I take care of Katie the jaguar in the mornings. She is a lovely girl- I´m really lucky to have gotten her. She was raised as a house cat in a family that actually treated her fairly well, so she doesn´t have any of the issues with people or terrible health problems that so many of the cats have as a result of the abuse they endured when they were little and fuzzy and adorable. Unfortunately, she isn´t able to go outside of her enclosure right now, as there is a wild male jaguar prowling around-we see his tracks around her cage every morning. Therefore, my partner and I grab her food and water and head out to hang out in her enclosure. We bring toys and try to get her to play, though most of the time she just lazes around and occasionally rolls over for belly rubs. She does love to play with the Nalgene she stole from me on my first day, though! We hang out in her cage for a few hours, then wrap her meat up inside banana leaves and stick them in tricky places so she has to hunt for them.
After that we muck through the mud back to camp, then have lunch. Lunch is the best meal of the day- often meat or pasta with rice, salad, and some form of potato (of course). After lunch we have a bit of free time, then change into a second set of wet, muddy clothes and head out to visit our afternoon cats (we can´t smell like our morning cats or the afternoon cats may get upset). My afternoon kittie is Vanesso, a male ocelot. I am on him by myself and walk him on trails through the jungle, and he is by far the most challenging part of my day, even though he is so much smaller than Katie. Vanesso can be a bit of a grump sometimes, and likes to growl and jump on you if you try to keep him walking longer than he´d like, if you get too close to his food, or if he has to get his paws wet. Which is all the time, as all of his trails are under a foot and a half of water. Yay, wet season. Things are getting better every day, though, because he´s learning to trust me and I´m learning not to be afraid of his jumps. The last two days I have been able to relax at times and enjoy watching him stalk through the banana leaves or curl up and take a nap. He has also started giving me a tiny bit of affection sometimes- friendly head bumps on the knees and such.
After I´ve walked Vanesso for a few hours (actually, he walks me) I give him his food and water, then head back for my glorious cold shower and dinner. Human dinner usually consists of a lentil or veggie soup. It´s usually dark by the time we finish eating, so a lot of people walk a mile down the road to ¨the shop¨, an open-air shack that has munchies and refrigerated drinks. Luxury! The other night we had a clear sky, and I saw the milky way more clearly than I ever had before as we walked back. Most people are usually passed out by 10 pm or so.
So that is our life for 6.5 days a week! Saturday (today) we do a big camp clean up in the morning, then just go into the jungle and feed our cats so we can have the afternoon off to hand wash our laundry or take the 45 minute busride to Guarayos to use the internet.
The 40 volunteers we have are absolutely amazing. It´s hard to describe the atmosphere that this lifestyle creates. Everyone here suffers through mosquitos that swarm and bite through three layers of pants, being wet and stinky and covered in mud all the time, and living without the slightest bit of privacy or comfort without a single word of complaint. Painful foot fungus is rampant as everyone is wearing wet boots all day, as are stomach issues and cuts and bites from all sorts of critters. Yet everyone is so obviously thrilled to be there, doing what they are doing. It´s unlike anything I´ve ever seen- very, very cool.
Next Friday we are celebrating Carnaval by having a dress-up party and an auction. I´m not sure how dressing up for Carnaval works when you can´t expose a single centimeter of skin without losing it to mosquitos, but we will see! The auction will be to raise money for emergency repairs on one of the cats´enclosures, and should be a lot of fun. Apparently, at the last one, volunteers sold opportunities to shave their heads or watch them mud-wrestle in the compost pit. Should be fun!
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Puno, Peru, to Cochabamba, Bolivia
While all the touristy amenities (and kind people we met) in Cusco were lovely, we were happy to move on to Puno and away from the crazily inflated prices.
We arrived in Puno, a fairly small, scruffy city, just towards the end of their ¨Virgen del Candelaria¨ festival. The entire city celebrates the Holy Virgin by getting decked out in outlandish costumes, dancing, marching around with brass bands, eating lots of Jell-o, and drinking from 11 a.m. on. Unfortunately we seemed to have missed the biggest parts of the festival, but we were still lucky enough to hang out one afternoon with hordes of dancers and revellers in one of the squares. The people were incredibly friendly there- we were just standing around feeling like gringos and taking pictures, when all of a sudden an old guy dressed in drag with a mask invited me to dance, then Ace. I was also offered to share innumerable plastic cups of beer, and we spent a while talking and passing around bottles of Cusqueño with a group of artisans with the most amazing hand-made costumes- all fiberglass skeletons and horns and animal skins. Some of the women were in a rather disturbing combination of the quaint local dress- think felt bowler hats and braids and long sleeved, brightly colored embroidered blouses with puffed shoulders and vests- worn over skirts so short you could see their butts and stilettos.
Anyway, we had a lot of fun taking pictures and talking to locals. One night we were lucky enough to be able to meet up with Raphael and Tereza, our friends from Macchu Picchu, and introduce them to our favorite café. We also took a day trip out to the floating islands (the Uros), where we got to see how the communities live on their 70 man-made islands they have been building and re-building for hundreds of years from floating totora reed roots. It´s pretty touristy at this point, but still fascinating. We also went to Taquile, one of the natural islands of Lake Titicaca, which also has a really interesting, unique cultura of it´s own. It´s famous for the incredible weaving and crocheting culture- the men even crochet their own hats for their wedding, which they wear from then on. The way that government officials distinguish themselves is by wearing those brightly-colored wool caps with the ear flaps and tassels, which I find awesome.
After our three nights in Puno, we headed into Bolivia for a few days of relaxation in La Paz before Ace had to fly out. My sweet parents offered to pay Ace´s entrance into Bolivia so he didn´t have to go back to Lima. The trip was fairly short and uneventful up until we reached Copacabana, the main town in Bolivia on our route. From there, we were supposed to change buses and continue on to La Paz. However, five hours later, our bus was still not there. The group ended up basically camping out in some random hostel´s common area all day, pestering the poor bus company guy who was supposed to be in charge and clearly wanted to be drinking a beer somewhere instead of dealing with us. Apparently the bus that was on the way to pick us up fell off the little raft that was ferrying it across a stretch of Lake Titicaca- oops. Somehow, supposedly, they had to dredge it up and send a new bus all the way from La Paz again. Anyways, in spite of the excitement, we made it to La Paz that night.
Our time in La Paz was lovely- we just relaxed, shopped, explored, and ate well. On Valentine´s day we did a bit of souvenier shopping, ate the best pizza we´ve had yet in S.America , went to a theater and watched ¨Red¨, and met up with our friend Claire-Marie for a drink when she arrived in town. A lovely last day together. Yesterday I dropped Ace off at the airport (sniffle) and hopped on my bus to Cochabamba. It feels really, really weird to be traveling alone! It´s amazing how little I talk to anyone during my day- just the cab driver and the receptionist at the hostel, maybe a little chitchat with the waitress. I am now in Cochabamba, very impatient to get to the animal refuge and start making myself useful, but stuck for today due to a transportation strike. Hopefully the buses will be running tomorrow and I will be on Inti Waru Wassi by tomorrow night!
We arrived in Puno, a fairly small, scruffy city, just towards the end of their ¨Virgen del Candelaria¨ festival. The entire city celebrates the Holy Virgin by getting decked out in outlandish costumes, dancing, marching around with brass bands, eating lots of Jell-o, and drinking from 11 a.m. on. Unfortunately we seemed to have missed the biggest parts of the festival, but we were still lucky enough to hang out one afternoon with hordes of dancers and revellers in one of the squares. The people were incredibly friendly there- we were just standing around feeling like gringos and taking pictures, when all of a sudden an old guy dressed in drag with a mask invited me to dance, then Ace. I was also offered to share innumerable plastic cups of beer, and we spent a while talking and passing around bottles of Cusqueño with a group of artisans with the most amazing hand-made costumes- all fiberglass skeletons and horns and animal skins. Some of the women were in a rather disturbing combination of the quaint local dress- think felt bowler hats and braids and long sleeved, brightly colored embroidered blouses with puffed shoulders and vests- worn over skirts so short you could see their butts and stilettos.
Anyway, we had a lot of fun taking pictures and talking to locals. One night we were lucky enough to be able to meet up with Raphael and Tereza, our friends from Macchu Picchu, and introduce them to our favorite café. We also took a day trip out to the floating islands (the Uros), where we got to see how the communities live on their 70 man-made islands they have been building and re-building for hundreds of years from floating totora reed roots. It´s pretty touristy at this point, but still fascinating. We also went to Taquile, one of the natural islands of Lake Titicaca, which also has a really interesting, unique cultura of it´s own. It´s famous for the incredible weaving and crocheting culture- the men even crochet their own hats for their wedding, which they wear from then on. The way that government officials distinguish themselves is by wearing those brightly-colored wool caps with the ear flaps and tassels, which I find awesome.
After our three nights in Puno, we headed into Bolivia for a few days of relaxation in La Paz before Ace had to fly out. My sweet parents offered to pay Ace´s entrance into Bolivia so he didn´t have to go back to Lima. The trip was fairly short and uneventful up until we reached Copacabana, the main town in Bolivia on our route. From there, we were supposed to change buses and continue on to La Paz. However, five hours later, our bus was still not there. The group ended up basically camping out in some random hostel´s common area all day, pestering the poor bus company guy who was supposed to be in charge and clearly wanted to be drinking a beer somewhere instead of dealing with us. Apparently the bus that was on the way to pick us up fell off the little raft that was ferrying it across a stretch of Lake Titicaca- oops. Somehow, supposedly, they had to dredge it up and send a new bus all the way from La Paz again. Anyways, in spite of the excitement, we made it to La Paz that night.
Our time in La Paz was lovely- we just relaxed, shopped, explored, and ate well. On Valentine´s day we did a bit of souvenier shopping, ate the best pizza we´ve had yet in S.America , went to a theater and watched ¨Red¨, and met up with our friend Claire-Marie for a drink when she arrived in town. A lovely last day together. Yesterday I dropped Ace off at the airport (sniffle) and hopped on my bus to Cochabamba. It feels really, really weird to be traveling alone! It´s amazing how little I talk to anyone during my day- just the cab driver and the receptionist at the hostel, maybe a little chitchat with the waitress. I am now in Cochabamba, very impatient to get to the animal refuge and start making myself useful, but stuck for today due to a transportation strike. Hopefully the buses will be running tomorrow and I will be on Inti Waru Wassi by tomorrow night!
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Huanchaco to Machu Picchu
To leave beautiful Huanchaco, we decided to take an overnight bus to Huaraz, which was about 9 hours. So we had to simply get on the bus in the evening, fall asleep, and then wake up and *poof!* we would have arrived in Huaraz, home to all kinds of fun tourist activities. Sounds like an easy trip, right? Well, in the end, it was definitely the most difficult trip I have ever had to take… First of all, Kait was feeling a bit ill a few hours before our bus left, and I felt really bad for her since we were about to make such a big trip. However, once we got on the bus and started moving, I started to feel more and more nauseous after about 30 minutes.
Shortly after, I made my first trip to the bathroom to relieve myself of my lunch and dinner, a trip I would soon get used to. Luckily, our seats were very close to the bathroom. I had only to get up out of my seat and open two close doors in order to reach the bathroom. Unluckily, the bathroom was occupied during two of my trips. (In total, I had about 8-10 trips to the bathroom!) Since it was occupied, I had to relieve myself in the hall just outside of the bathroom. Once I reached the locked bathroom door, the scene sounded something like this:
Me: *KNOCK KNOCK!* *KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK!* *BLEH!* (on the floor…)
I was glad that there were no seats anywhere near the bathroom that weren’t at least separated by a door. I did regret, however, the bus attendant, upon finally noticing how violently ill I was, helping me clean up my mess on the floor. She ended up giving me a small plastic bag to use for the next time.
Once we arrived at the bus station, we were to meet a friend from couchsurfing. (We call all of the people we have never met from couchsurfing friends because, well, they’re some of the nicest people we have ever met, and that’s how they act towards us.) We were both so weak that we could barely stand up, let alone carry our backpacks by ourselves. Apparently our faces were pretty ashen as well. So our friend hefted our bags and aided us to a taxi which took us to a hostel run by one of his family members. (They gave us a nice discount on the rate and some tea to help our stomachs.) It was at this point, however, that we realized that our ailments were far from finished.
Both Kait and I had to make many trips to the bathroom – for a different reason than when we were on the bus. I knew that I had to keep drinking water, especially since I noticed I was a bit sicker than Kait, but after about three or four hours of this, I realized that the water was simply not staying in my body long enough. In this moment – about noon that day – that I decided we should take a trip to the hospital.
It seems that normally when people think about hospitals in foreign countries, they think of inadequate, dirty conditions that don’t hold a candle to North American or Western European hospitals. However, this one was really very good. Sure, there were a few things that weren’t perfect about it, such as having porous concrete floors or lacking soap or TP in the bathroom, but for the equivalent of $30 USD to get four IV bags to hydrate my and to rest on an emergency-room bed for about four hours, I’d say I had very little to complain about. All in all, after our time in the hospital, Kait and I felt much better, albeit still far from completely healthy. Upon emerging, we feebly made our way to a restaurant where we ordered the simplest soup we could find on the menu. (We continued this process for the next five or six meals.) Then we rested for the next two or three days by sleeping a lot in our hostel and watching some dubbed TV, like The Simpsons or Terminator 2.
Needless to say, we didn’t end up doing much in Huaraz. We did a little shopping, but then we made our way to Lima, but this time, it was via a day bus… I still wasn’t ready to take on another overnight adventure like the last one. Anyways, after making the trip easily without incident, we found our way to a nice backpacker’s hostel. We wanted to do some adventure tourism here, but we found that it was way over-priced, especially since the original prices we saw were from a guidebook that was three years old. It really is amazing how quickly the prices go up for various activities. So Lima was a nice place to relax, enjoy the warm weather, and catch a movie at the local theater.
Then began our next overnight bus trip to Cusco. This time, the trip was 23 hours, and I was prepared with some sleeping pills that I had purchased at the local pharmacy. (Unlike Kait, I lack the ability to fall asleep, cat-like, in almost any circumstances.) So we embarked in the late afternoon, and by about midnight, I decided to go ahead and take one pill because I was not feeling sleepy at all. The effect was fairly immediate; within what seemed like thirty minutes or less, I was completely knocked out and happily asleep for the entire night. However, a problem arose the next morning when Kait started trying to wake me up. The scene went something like this:
Kait: Hey sweety, we are almost at the station. Can you get everything ready?
Me: Mumble mumble mumble mumble mumble mumble.
Kait: What sweety? Hey, can you get up for me?
Me: Mumble mumble mumble mumble mumble. Snore.
Apparently, the pill I took was really, really strong, and I was unable to become fully conscious. Once the bus stopped, I forced my body to walk outside and grab my stuff, but I was pretty dizzy and had a strong desire to sit down (and sleep). I don’t remember how we got to the center of the city, but once there, we tried a hostel that tried to charge us twice the normal rate of a room with a double bed. (This is the norm in Cusco since it is so close to the famed Machu Picchu.) Kait, realizing that I would be the opposite of helpful in trying to find a new hostel, asked the owner if she could “leave my husband here” while she looked for a new hostel. The owner, a sweet old grandma, had no objection. In fact, seeing my discomfort, she ended up giving me some tea, which I thought was really nice of her.
Eventually, Kait came back, and took me to our hostel. Immediately, I crashed on the bed and fell asleep, which I did off and on for the remainder of the day. Kait came back at one point and woke me up, at which time I remarked, “I didn’t realize I fell asleep!” even though I had been sleeping for probably three hours. In the end, I pretty much lost an entire day due to sleep, and then I slept some more during that night, which I didn’t feel I really needed, but I did it anyways.
Our next trip was from Cusco to Aguas Calientes, the pueblo that abuts Machu Picchu. Aside from the shockingly overpriced everything, we had a good time perusing the town before going to bed early in preparation for waking up stupidly early to catch the first bus up to Machu Picchu the next morning.
MACHU PICCHU!
We woke up at 3:50am, grabbed our pre-packed breakfast, and waited at the bus station for about an hour and a half before the first bus was scheduled to leave – and we were still by no means the first people there. The bus ride to the top was windy but thankfully pretty short, and once there, we joined another line to the entrance. Once inside the gates, we hiked along, photographed a bunch of llamas, and continued along the trail. At about the time we saw the llamas, we saw some structures, but it was so foggy that we could not see past them. Apparently, that was where Machu Picchu was! But, being the over achievers that we are, we hiked well past that point up the MOUNTAIN of Machu Picchu, which is completely different than the city/ruins under the same name. Being with a crowd of other people, though, we had no idea.
Eventually, some Japanese tourists figured it out and started to descend, but after we met some savvy travelers named Raphael and Tereza, we decided to continue ascending with them. We hiked along some awesome stone stairs and passed through the sun gate, and after much effort (my legs are still sore; I am not allowed to even touch Kait’s calves…), we made it to the top. However, our view was completely obscured by clouds; even the top of the mountain was covered in a cloud, so we decided to wait for a while in order for things to clear up. That was okay, though, because this gave us a chance to get to know the other travelers. After a couple of hours, we were afforded some really great views of the site, even if it was still partially cloud-covered. We took way too many photos here and hung around for a while longer waiting for the intermittent views of the ruins.
We decided to descend once we had had our fill, and made our way to the ruins which were no longer covered in fog. We didn’t mind that we had accidentally missed the ruins the first time because it was so shrouded at the ground level, and once we returned, we had great fun in taking way too many photos once more.
Before arriving at Machu Picchu, I had been developing the impression that the site in general was overblown, especially compared to some of the other ruins we saw – like Kuelap – that were grandiose and impressive in and of themselves. However, being at Machu Picchu made me realize that it really was a special place. The geography and the quality of the ruins combined even with bad weather provided us a breath-taking view that left us feeling very lucky that we had the opportunity to make it.
Plans for the near future:
We will travel from here to Puno, which is next to Lake Titicaca, and we will relax there for a few days. My flight home leaves from La Paz on the 15th of February, but I recently realized that there is a $135 fee just to enter Bolivia! So I might end up back-tracking all the way to Lima where I have a connecting flight and then just catch that for cheaper than it would be to enter Bolivia. In any case, I will be home on the morning of the 16th, and after that, I will start looking for a job either as a temporary teacher or a substitute, depending on what I can find. Wish me luck!
Shortly after, I made my first trip to the bathroom to relieve myself of my lunch and dinner, a trip I would soon get used to. Luckily, our seats were very close to the bathroom. I had only to get up out of my seat and open two close doors in order to reach the bathroom. Unluckily, the bathroom was occupied during two of my trips. (In total, I had about 8-10 trips to the bathroom!) Since it was occupied, I had to relieve myself in the hall just outside of the bathroom. Once I reached the locked bathroom door, the scene sounded something like this:
Me: *KNOCK KNOCK!* *KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK!* *BLEH!* (on the floor…)
I was glad that there were no seats anywhere near the bathroom that weren’t at least separated by a door. I did regret, however, the bus attendant, upon finally noticing how violently ill I was, helping me clean up my mess on the floor. She ended up giving me a small plastic bag to use for the next time.
Once we arrived at the bus station, we were to meet a friend from couchsurfing. (We call all of the people we have never met from couchsurfing friends because, well, they’re some of the nicest people we have ever met, and that’s how they act towards us.) We were both so weak that we could barely stand up, let alone carry our backpacks by ourselves. Apparently our faces were pretty ashen as well. So our friend hefted our bags and aided us to a taxi which took us to a hostel run by one of his family members. (They gave us a nice discount on the rate and some tea to help our stomachs.) It was at this point, however, that we realized that our ailments were far from finished.
Both Kait and I had to make many trips to the bathroom – for a different reason than when we were on the bus. I knew that I had to keep drinking water, especially since I noticed I was a bit sicker than Kait, but after about three or four hours of this, I realized that the water was simply not staying in my body long enough. In this moment – about noon that day – that I decided we should take a trip to the hospital.
It seems that normally when people think about hospitals in foreign countries, they think of inadequate, dirty conditions that don’t hold a candle to North American or Western European hospitals. However, this one was really very good. Sure, there were a few things that weren’t perfect about it, such as having porous concrete floors or lacking soap or TP in the bathroom, but for the equivalent of $30 USD to get four IV bags to hydrate my and to rest on an emergency-room bed for about four hours, I’d say I had very little to complain about. All in all, after our time in the hospital, Kait and I felt much better, albeit still far from completely healthy. Upon emerging, we feebly made our way to a restaurant where we ordered the simplest soup we could find on the menu. (We continued this process for the next five or six meals.) Then we rested for the next two or three days by sleeping a lot in our hostel and watching some dubbed TV, like The Simpsons or Terminator 2.
Needless to say, we didn’t end up doing much in Huaraz. We did a little shopping, but then we made our way to Lima, but this time, it was via a day bus… I still wasn’t ready to take on another overnight adventure like the last one. Anyways, after making the trip easily without incident, we found our way to a nice backpacker’s hostel. We wanted to do some adventure tourism here, but we found that it was way over-priced, especially since the original prices we saw were from a guidebook that was three years old. It really is amazing how quickly the prices go up for various activities. So Lima was a nice place to relax, enjoy the warm weather, and catch a movie at the local theater.
Then began our next overnight bus trip to Cusco. This time, the trip was 23 hours, and I was prepared with some sleeping pills that I had purchased at the local pharmacy. (Unlike Kait, I lack the ability to fall asleep, cat-like, in almost any circumstances.) So we embarked in the late afternoon, and by about midnight, I decided to go ahead and take one pill because I was not feeling sleepy at all. The effect was fairly immediate; within what seemed like thirty minutes or less, I was completely knocked out and happily asleep for the entire night. However, a problem arose the next morning when Kait started trying to wake me up. The scene went something like this:
Kait: Hey sweety, we are almost at the station. Can you get everything ready?
Me: Mumble mumble mumble mumble mumble mumble.
Kait: What sweety? Hey, can you get up for me?
Me: Mumble mumble mumble mumble mumble. Snore.
Apparently, the pill I took was really, really strong, and I was unable to become fully conscious. Once the bus stopped, I forced my body to walk outside and grab my stuff, but I was pretty dizzy and had a strong desire to sit down (and sleep). I don’t remember how we got to the center of the city, but once there, we tried a hostel that tried to charge us twice the normal rate of a room with a double bed. (This is the norm in Cusco since it is so close to the famed Machu Picchu.) Kait, realizing that I would be the opposite of helpful in trying to find a new hostel, asked the owner if she could “leave my husband here” while she looked for a new hostel. The owner, a sweet old grandma, had no objection. In fact, seeing my discomfort, she ended up giving me some tea, which I thought was really nice of her.
Eventually, Kait came back, and took me to our hostel. Immediately, I crashed on the bed and fell asleep, which I did off and on for the remainder of the day. Kait came back at one point and woke me up, at which time I remarked, “I didn’t realize I fell asleep!” even though I had been sleeping for probably three hours. In the end, I pretty much lost an entire day due to sleep, and then I slept some more during that night, which I didn’t feel I really needed, but I did it anyways.
Our next trip was from Cusco to Aguas Calientes, the pueblo that abuts Machu Picchu. Aside from the shockingly overpriced everything, we had a good time perusing the town before going to bed early in preparation for waking up stupidly early to catch the first bus up to Machu Picchu the next morning.
MACHU PICCHU!
We woke up at 3:50am, grabbed our pre-packed breakfast, and waited at the bus station for about an hour and a half before the first bus was scheduled to leave – and we were still by no means the first people there. The bus ride to the top was windy but thankfully pretty short, and once there, we joined another line to the entrance. Once inside the gates, we hiked along, photographed a bunch of llamas, and continued along the trail. At about the time we saw the llamas, we saw some structures, but it was so foggy that we could not see past them. Apparently, that was where Machu Picchu was! But, being the over achievers that we are, we hiked well past that point up the MOUNTAIN of Machu Picchu, which is completely different than the city/ruins under the same name. Being with a crowd of other people, though, we had no idea.
Eventually, some Japanese tourists figured it out and started to descend, but after we met some savvy travelers named Raphael and Tereza, we decided to continue ascending with them. We hiked along some awesome stone stairs and passed through the sun gate, and after much effort (my legs are still sore; I am not allowed to even touch Kait’s calves…), we made it to the top. However, our view was completely obscured by clouds; even the top of the mountain was covered in a cloud, so we decided to wait for a while in order for things to clear up. That was okay, though, because this gave us a chance to get to know the other travelers. After a couple of hours, we were afforded some really great views of the site, even if it was still partially cloud-covered. We took way too many photos here and hung around for a while longer waiting for the intermittent views of the ruins.
We decided to descend once we had had our fill, and made our way to the ruins which were no longer covered in fog. We didn’t mind that we had accidentally missed the ruins the first time because it was so shrouded at the ground level, and once we returned, we had great fun in taking way too many photos once more.
Before arriving at Machu Picchu, I had been developing the impression that the site in general was overblown, especially compared to some of the other ruins we saw – like Kuelap – that were grandiose and impressive in and of themselves. However, being at Machu Picchu made me realize that it really was a special place. The geography and the quality of the ruins combined even with bad weather provided us a breath-taking view that left us feeling very lucky that we had the opportunity to make it.
Plans for the near future:
We will travel from here to Puno, which is next to Lake Titicaca, and we will relax there for a few days. My flight home leaves from La Paz on the 15th of February, but I recently realized that there is a $135 fee just to enter Bolivia! So I might end up back-tracking all the way to Lima where I have a connecting flight and then just catch that for cheaper than it would be to enter Bolivia. In any case, I will be home on the morning of the 16th, and after that, I will start looking for a job either as a temporary teacher or a substitute, depending on what I can find. Wish me luck!
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Iquitos to Huanchaco
Our second trip back along the river was similar to the first time, though a bit more claustrophobic. Lots of rain caused everyone that would normally be spread out all over the boat to crowd into covered areas- once again, Ace and I were really glad that we had paid the extra for our own little cabin. At least we had 3 square feet of space to ourselves. Along the way, we met an extremely inspiring 70-something year old Irish backpacker- this guy has been travelling since he retired, mostly by boat, and is the youngest 70 year old I have ever met, physically and mentally! He was a lot of fun to talk to .
When we reached our port after 3 days, we retraced our path back to Pedro Ruiz. As each city passed by, we were thankful to get deeper into the mountains and farther away from the humidity and mosquitoes! We loved the jungle, but know now that we are definitely meant to be mountain dwellers. Or just not tropical jungle dwellers.
From Pedro Ruiz, we took a half-day bus ride into new territory- Chachapoyas. This is an interesting mountain town surrounded by heaps of Incan and pre-Incan ruins. We rested up here, delighting in the vegetarian restaurant in town and splurging on a $8 room (with hot water and cable TV! Glorious!). We had both been feeling icky for a few days, probably from a combination of the extraordinarily windy roads and the malaria pills we still had to take. Nonetheless, we braved two more hours of death-defying single lane dirt roads to visit Karajia, a site where you can observe some interesting Incan burial statues set into a steep cliff face.
From Chachapoyas, we headed south to see Kuelap. Kuelap is a massive adobe city left over from pre-Incan times. It was inhabited by the Chachas, who lived there happily and peacefully for hundreds of years until taken over by the Incans. They had 70 years under the Incans before the Spanish arrived. It’s a really interesting site, set in gorgeous mountains and with lots of fascinating ruins. It’s known as “the Macchu Picchu of the North”. The combi (van that goes to whatever destination when it’s filled with customers) the tourist office told us that would leave at 5 a.m. didn’t exist, so we ended up sulking in the central square from 5 a.m. until 8:30 a.m. until the first tour left. We ended up being glad we’d gone with the tour, though, as our guide was great and transport to and from might have been pretty hard to find on our own.
After visiting the site, everyone headed back to Chachapoyas except for us- we were ready to move on. The bus left us on the “highway” passing through the village of Tingo so we could catch transportation heading south. Our driver assured us that we shouldn’t have to wait more than 30 or 40 minutes before another combi came along. An hour and a half later, as dusk fell, we were still in Tingo, so we went about finding a room for the night. This pretty much set the tone for the 5 days or so of travel towards Cajamarca- the routes we travelled were so out-of-the way, and the villages so sleepy, that schedules were pretty much out of the question. We rose early and waited around until transportation decided to show up and took the first thing available, as who knows when the next would be! We really enjoyed seeing lovely little villages fairly untouched by tourism, and the roads winding through the mountains were stunning, though harder to appreciate when you’re fighting back nausea.
We finally arrived in Cajamarca 4 or 5 nights ago, and were met at the bus station by two guys I’d contacted through Couchsurfing. They cheerfully grabbed our bags and took us to a non-profit organization that happens to rent rooms, introduced us to the two sweet foreign volunteers living there, and then took us out for chicken and to a bizarre speakeasy. We had a great night with them and the volunteers, playing drinking games in Spanish. Our first full day in Cajamarcas was thus spent nursing our hangovers, but the next day we got to explore. We went to “Los Baños del Inca” a natural hot spring enjoyed by Incan kings. It now looks like every other hot springs in South America- a swimming pool filled with murky, brownish-greenish hot water- but we thoroughly enjoyed the soak nonetheless. We also checked out some catacombs in one of the beautiful cathedrals and had dinner with our Couchsurfing buddies again.
Yesterday we moved on to Huanchaco, the beach town outside of Trujillo. We intended to explore Trujillo from this more pleasant base, but now I’m wondering why we would ever want to leave Huanchaco in the first place. The weather here is perfect, and we are loving hearing and smelling the ocean all day while enjoying the perks of being back on the Gringo Trail (i.e. more touristy areas). We are reveling in the hot showers, book exchanges, and international food found here, as well as the kitchen and loungy hammocks in our hostel. We have spent most of today just walking around, reading, and buying fruits and veggies here, but tomorrow we will meet up with the two volunteers we met in Cajamarca to visit some of the ruins that make this place famous.
Lots of love!
When we reached our port after 3 days, we retraced our path back to Pedro Ruiz. As each city passed by, we were thankful to get deeper into the mountains and farther away from the humidity and mosquitoes! We loved the jungle, but know now that we are definitely meant to be mountain dwellers. Or just not tropical jungle dwellers.
From Pedro Ruiz, we took a half-day bus ride into new territory- Chachapoyas. This is an interesting mountain town surrounded by heaps of Incan and pre-Incan ruins. We rested up here, delighting in the vegetarian restaurant in town and splurging on a $8 room (with hot water and cable TV! Glorious!). We had both been feeling icky for a few days, probably from a combination of the extraordinarily windy roads and the malaria pills we still had to take. Nonetheless, we braved two more hours of death-defying single lane dirt roads to visit Karajia, a site where you can observe some interesting Incan burial statues set into a steep cliff face.
From Chachapoyas, we headed south to see Kuelap. Kuelap is a massive adobe city left over from pre-Incan times. It was inhabited by the Chachas, who lived there happily and peacefully for hundreds of years until taken over by the Incans. They had 70 years under the Incans before the Spanish arrived. It’s a really interesting site, set in gorgeous mountains and with lots of fascinating ruins. It’s known as “the Macchu Picchu of the North”. The combi (van that goes to whatever destination when it’s filled with customers) the tourist office told us that would leave at 5 a.m. didn’t exist, so we ended up sulking in the central square from 5 a.m. until 8:30 a.m. until the first tour left. We ended up being glad we’d gone with the tour, though, as our guide was great and transport to and from might have been pretty hard to find on our own.
After visiting the site, everyone headed back to Chachapoyas except for us- we were ready to move on. The bus left us on the “highway” passing through the village of Tingo so we could catch transportation heading south. Our driver assured us that we shouldn’t have to wait more than 30 or 40 minutes before another combi came along. An hour and a half later, as dusk fell, we were still in Tingo, so we went about finding a room for the night. This pretty much set the tone for the 5 days or so of travel towards Cajamarca- the routes we travelled were so out-of-the way, and the villages so sleepy, that schedules were pretty much out of the question. We rose early and waited around until transportation decided to show up and took the first thing available, as who knows when the next would be! We really enjoyed seeing lovely little villages fairly untouched by tourism, and the roads winding through the mountains were stunning, though harder to appreciate when you’re fighting back nausea.
We finally arrived in Cajamarca 4 or 5 nights ago, and were met at the bus station by two guys I’d contacted through Couchsurfing. They cheerfully grabbed our bags and took us to a non-profit organization that happens to rent rooms, introduced us to the two sweet foreign volunteers living there, and then took us out for chicken and to a bizarre speakeasy. We had a great night with them and the volunteers, playing drinking games in Spanish. Our first full day in Cajamarcas was thus spent nursing our hangovers, but the next day we got to explore. We went to “Los Baños del Inca” a natural hot spring enjoyed by Incan kings. It now looks like every other hot springs in South America- a swimming pool filled with murky, brownish-greenish hot water- but we thoroughly enjoyed the soak nonetheless. We also checked out some catacombs in one of the beautiful cathedrals and had dinner with our Couchsurfing buddies again.
Yesterday we moved on to Huanchaco, the beach town outside of Trujillo. We intended to explore Trujillo from this more pleasant base, but now I’m wondering why we would ever want to leave Huanchaco in the first place. The weather here is perfect, and we are loving hearing and smelling the ocean all day while enjoying the perks of being back on the Gringo Trail (i.e. more touristy areas). We are reveling in the hot showers, book exchanges, and international food found here, as well as the kitchen and loungy hammocks in our hostel. We have spent most of today just walking around, reading, and buying fruits and veggies here, but tomorrow we will meet up with the two volunteers we met in Cajamarca to visit some of the ruins that make this place famous.
Lots of love!
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Arco Iris Community
Our experience at the Arco Iris community here in Peru was definitely an interesting one. We weren't entirely sure what to expect coming in, but we had heard good things from several people about the community and farm. First of all, we made our way from Iquitos by hopping on a bus with all of our gear and a fair amount of groceries for the group. After the bus let us off somewhere in between Nauta and Iquitos, we started down a path that went directly into the jungle and that did not seem to get cooler as we continued. With all of our gear (and all of the humidity/heat here) we (I especially) were getting very sweaty very quickly, and we knew it would be about 30 minutes or more before we reached the community. Before long, we reached the community and joined the group immeditately as they were just sitting down to eat some lunch.
There were a few things that we noticed when we entered: there were dispersed buildings in the forest that were built according to local styles (open-air wooden structures with leaf-thatched roofs); there was a small river running the length of the community; a few developed fields existed; and immediately when we sat down, there was nothing but completely whole, healthy foods available. Our original intention was to stay for two weeks, but we later decided to stay for a single week for one primary reason: the food. Although it was very good, and it felt good to eat so healthy for a while, Kait and I both discovered that we needed more calories in order to have the energy needed to be very useful on the farm, so perhaps our second day in, we recognized that two weeks might be a bit of a stretch.
Our stay was in the middle of the hot season, so productivity in the community was a little lower than it otherwise would have been throughout the year. Since this was tha case, Kait and I didn't quite feel that we had much of a solid job that we could do to really be helpful, but we did manage to help dig up some amber from the garden in order for the artisans in the community to transform it into crafts and jewelry. The amber was usually in small pieces and was a result of a fallen tree that had been partially buried in the ground. Kait and I also helped with some smaller tasks like cooking and collecting wood for the cookstove.
Cooking itself was actually something that took nearly half the day, so it was essentially a day's chore by itself. One would have to first prepare all of the food that they would need and build a fire in the stove to cook with. There were pots and most everything (that doesn't require electricity) you would find in a normal kitchen, but somehow building and maintaining the fire added quite a lot of time to the whole cooking process. (The heat from the fire also added tremendously to my level of sweat!)
We managed a few social activities during our stay there as well. We had a few gatherings at the fire circle, which is where/how we celebrated New Year's. One of the members, Krishna, had prepared chapati bread and chocolate as a treat for all of us. We played some music during this time and just sat and talked a bit as well. Seeing as how the night approaches seemingly faster in the jungle, Kait and I retired to bed pretty early. Another time, we had a drum circle where one of the members taught polyrhythmics/complementary drumbeats. We even had one night where some members managed to combine playing didjeridoo with guitar and a drum.
The rest of the time, we basically just hung out and got to know the eclectic mix of people that we had encountered there. One who stands out to me was a Serbian guy living there who showed us the land and explained how things worked. Our "bunkmates" were a mix of French, Italian, Swiss, German, and Chilean travelers, some who came and went quickly and others who are staying there still.
Since we just returned to the city today, we immediately checked into a hostel (with beds and a shower!) that will surely prove to be an improvement on our tent-on-wood-floor situation in the community. Plus being in the city, we will not be eaten alive by mosquitos and other small bugs that we don't know the name of that exist in abundance in the jungle. All in all, we are happy to be back and to have decently full stomachs! We will stay here for perhaps 2 nights total, and then we will take the boat trip back to Yurimaguas where we can continue south by bus.
There were a few things that we noticed when we entered: there were dispersed buildings in the forest that were built according to local styles (open-air wooden structures with leaf-thatched roofs); there was a small river running the length of the community; a few developed fields existed; and immediately when we sat down, there was nothing but completely whole, healthy foods available. Our original intention was to stay for two weeks, but we later decided to stay for a single week for one primary reason: the food. Although it was very good, and it felt good to eat so healthy for a while, Kait and I both discovered that we needed more calories in order to have the energy needed to be very useful on the farm, so perhaps our second day in, we recognized that two weeks might be a bit of a stretch.
Our stay was in the middle of the hot season, so productivity in the community was a little lower than it otherwise would have been throughout the year. Since this was tha case, Kait and I didn't quite feel that we had much of a solid job that we could do to really be helpful, but we did manage to help dig up some amber from the garden in order for the artisans in the community to transform it into crafts and jewelry. The amber was usually in small pieces and was a result of a fallen tree that had been partially buried in the ground. Kait and I also helped with some smaller tasks like cooking and collecting wood for the cookstove.
Cooking itself was actually something that took nearly half the day, so it was essentially a day's chore by itself. One would have to first prepare all of the food that they would need and build a fire in the stove to cook with. There were pots and most everything (that doesn't require electricity) you would find in a normal kitchen, but somehow building and maintaining the fire added quite a lot of time to the whole cooking process. (The heat from the fire also added tremendously to my level of sweat!)
We managed a few social activities during our stay there as well. We had a few gatherings at the fire circle, which is where/how we celebrated New Year's. One of the members, Krishna, had prepared chapati bread and chocolate as a treat for all of us. We played some music during this time and just sat and talked a bit as well. Seeing as how the night approaches seemingly faster in the jungle, Kait and I retired to bed pretty early. Another time, we had a drum circle where one of the members taught polyrhythmics/complementary drumbeats. We even had one night where some members managed to combine playing didjeridoo with guitar and a drum.
The rest of the time, we basically just hung out and got to know the eclectic mix of people that we had encountered there. One who stands out to me was a Serbian guy living there who showed us the land and explained how things worked. Our "bunkmates" were a mix of French, Italian, Swiss, German, and Chilean travelers, some who came and went quickly and others who are staying there still.
Since we just returned to the city today, we immediately checked into a hostel (with beds and a shower!) that will surely prove to be an improvement on our tent-on-wood-floor situation in the community. Plus being in the city, we will not be eaten alive by mosquitos and other small bugs that we don't know the name of that exist in abundance in the jungle. All in all, we are happy to be back and to have decently full stomachs! We will stay here for perhaps 2 nights total, and then we will take the boat trip back to Yurimaguas where we can continue south by bus.
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Christmas in the jungle
Since Ace last wrote, we´ve finally managed to get ourselves to leave Ecuador.
From Cuenca we made the 7 hour bus ride south to our lovely little Vilcabamba. We stayed there for two nights, stocking up on good books at the excellent book exchange and getting in a brief visit with Norie and Richard at Garden of Paradise. From there, we took an 8 hour bus ride south to the little-known border crossing at La Balsa, Peru. Every hour on the bus brought us into more humidity and higher temperatures. You could tell they don´t get many foreigners in those parts from the flocks of kids following us around and staring during the breaks the bus took! From the southernmost part of Ecuador I knew we would take a camioneta trip (a sort of shuttle bus) over the border. I apparently hadn´t read the info very well, as what I was expecting to be a 5 minute shuttle turned out to be an hour and a half on a wooden bench jolting over an extremely remote, extremely bumpy dirt road! My butt suffered grievously, but we eventually made it to the little bridge that led over the river that formed that section of the border. We found the crossing pretty hilarious- there was absolutely no security, and when we wandered into the little shack before the bridge looking for our stamps, the border guards seemed a little surprised to be disturbed from their dirty magazines and computer games. My first impressions of Peru were that it´s really hot, friendly, cheaper lodging and food, more expensive buses, more burros, more people littering. It´s hard to really compare though, as we didn´t go into the jungle at all in Ecuador, and that´s all that we´ve seen in Peru so far. Just for the kicks, I estimated our bus hours in Ecuador- 73 hours!
It had been a long day, but we still had a ways to go. No buses ran through that area, but we were lucky enough to find a driver that was going home to the next town for the night anyways and therefore didn´t brutally rip us off. Two and a half hours later we arrived in the first decent sized town, where we caught yet another car into Jaen. We got dropped off at a cheap hotel ($8 for the night) and collapsed.
The next day was a very long bus ride east (10 hours), but fortunately the bus was much comfier than any we´d ridden in Ecuador. We stayed in Tarapoto and prepped ourselves for one more long day of travelling by bus (7 hours over a bad dirt road) when we had a glorious surprise. We picked up a rather outdated copy of Lonely Planet at a book exchange, and apparently since the time they printed that nasty dirt road had been paved, cutting our trip down to a windy 2 and a half hours! Probably the first and only time that anything has ever taken less time than expected in Peru.
We arrived in Yurimaguas, quickly bought hammocks, water, and fruit, and rushed down to the dock, hoping to catch a boat bound for Iquitos that day. Unfortunately we discovered that the only boat leaving that day was so full of livestock that there was no room for people. However, a nice large boat was leaving the next day, so we reserved a cabin on the boat and settled into a hostel for the evening. When checking out the boat we got stuck in the first of many torrential downpours and impressive displays of lightning and thunder!
The next morning we went to the boat first thing, even though it wasn´t scheduled to leave until 2 (it actually left about 4). Good thing we did, as pretty much all the good hammock spaces were filled by 10. We staked out a good spot and got settled in with our books and snacks. The next two nights and three days were spent mostly swinging in our hammocks, reading our books, and making trips up to the top deck to watch the sunsets and enjoy the breeze. We met some other travelers on the boat and were very happy to have some friends to play cards with. The trip was much more comfortable than expected- there were showers, the food provided didn´t make us sick, and our little cabin was actually cool enough to sleep in comfortably at night. We were really glad we´d sprung the extra cash for the cabin, as the boat was really packed (absolutely zero personal space in the hammock area) and it would have been quite stressful to try to keep an eye on our stuff 24 hours a day.
We were thrilled that we arrived in Iquitos in the morning on Christmas Eve- the boat was pleasant, but I definitely didn´t want to celebrate Christmas on it. We found a hostel, took a nap, and explored the muggy, noisy jungle city that is Iquitos. We found a nice steak house restaurant and splurged on a nice Christmas Eve dinner with our friend from the boat, Benedict, then met up with the two British girls from the boat for drinks. The central square was absolutely packed with people buying snacks and fireworks, listening to music, and taking rides on the mototaxis rigged up to look like Santa´s sleigh. You couldn´t help but pity the poor Santas sweating through their red coats in the crazy humidity. The main celebration here is Christmas Eve- families hit the streets to party and count down the minutes until midnight, when they light off fireworks, New Year´s Eve- Style. On Christmas Day we booked a budget jungle tour, then took a boat to the nearby Butterfly Farm where we got to see gorgeous butterflies, a jaguar, an ocelot, monkeys, and the world´s most adorable baby sloth.
Sunday was the start of our jungle tour. We got up early and met our guide, Adrian, and our absolutely adorable fellow traveler, Noa. We road towards Nauta for about 2.5 hours, where we caught a boat for another 2.5 up the Amazon and to our remote little camp. We got settled into our room in a traditional little building built on stilts with a thatched roof. There was no electricity, but it had hammocks, mosquito nets over comfy beds, pit toilets and the river to bathe in- all we really need. We went on a short walk just outside of the house and saw birds, monkeys, and leaf-cutter ants in just a few minutes. After lunch and a nap in our hammocks, we hopped into the canoe and Adrian took us to a nearby area where the dolphins like to hang out. Lucky for us, they were there, and we got to watch pink and grey dolphins swim around us. We all hopped in the water for a swim, then headed back for dinner followed by a night walk in the jungle, where we spotted tree mice, tarantulas, snakes, and more. It was a bit spooky, but quite fun. While getting ready for bed, we heard a racket down by the dock, so Noa, Ace and I walked down to check it out. We found a poor little sardine who had jumped INTO the canoe and was flopping around unhappily. Ace put him back in the river and we felt proud of ourselves for saving the dumb little fish, until the next morning when Adrian told us they had filled half a bucket earlier that morning with more fish who had hopped into the boat. Yeah…there´s a lot of fish in that river. We spent Monday morning on a long walk through the jungle, where we spotted sloths, monkeys, iguanas, and lots more. The afternoon and evening were spent piranha fishing (using the unfortunate fish from that morning as bait). It was really fun, as we were getting bites every 30 seconds or so on our little branch-and fishing line fishing poles. We probably caught about 25 piranhas and 5 catfish between the 3 tourists and two guides. Night fell, and we headed back towards the camp to fry up our piranhas for dinner. About halfway back, I heard Noa scream and everyone turned around to see what had happened. By the light of our headlamps we saw a new piranha flopping around in the bottom of the canoe- it had hurled itself into the moving boat! By the time we made it back to camp, Ace had been pegged by another piranha and I by a catfish. I never knew fishing could be so easy!
Our last day, we went on one last jungle walk and saw some porcupines, among other things. On the long trip home the sky opened up and we got another good tropical thunderstorm show. We spent the rest of our day catching up our journals, itching our mosquito bites, and washing our disgustingly sweaty clothes.
Today we´ve been getting ready to head out to the Amazon Rainbow community. We´ll head out tomorrow and stay for two weeks. It should be exciting, as we don´t really have any idea what we´ll be doing. All I know is it´s a hippy community in the middle of the jungle where everyone cooks, gardens, and works together and lives off the land. We also found time today to visit a manatee rescue center, where I got to fulfill my lifelong dream of getting to hang out with manatees! I got to feed them and scratch their bristly little noses. Amazing. After that, we headed a little further up the highway to Cuistococha, a nature reserve where you can check out the zoo and swim in the lake. It was a lot of fun.
That´s it for now- stay tuned for what it´s like to live on a commune in the middle of the Amazon jungle! Lots of love!
From Cuenca we made the 7 hour bus ride south to our lovely little Vilcabamba. We stayed there for two nights, stocking up on good books at the excellent book exchange and getting in a brief visit with Norie and Richard at Garden of Paradise. From there, we took an 8 hour bus ride south to the little-known border crossing at La Balsa, Peru. Every hour on the bus brought us into more humidity and higher temperatures. You could tell they don´t get many foreigners in those parts from the flocks of kids following us around and staring during the breaks the bus took! From the southernmost part of Ecuador I knew we would take a camioneta trip (a sort of shuttle bus) over the border. I apparently hadn´t read the info very well, as what I was expecting to be a 5 minute shuttle turned out to be an hour and a half on a wooden bench jolting over an extremely remote, extremely bumpy dirt road! My butt suffered grievously, but we eventually made it to the little bridge that led over the river that formed that section of the border. We found the crossing pretty hilarious- there was absolutely no security, and when we wandered into the little shack before the bridge looking for our stamps, the border guards seemed a little surprised to be disturbed from their dirty magazines and computer games. My first impressions of Peru were that it´s really hot, friendly, cheaper lodging and food, more expensive buses, more burros, more people littering. It´s hard to really compare though, as we didn´t go into the jungle at all in Ecuador, and that´s all that we´ve seen in Peru so far. Just for the kicks, I estimated our bus hours in Ecuador- 73 hours!
It had been a long day, but we still had a ways to go. No buses ran through that area, but we were lucky enough to find a driver that was going home to the next town for the night anyways and therefore didn´t brutally rip us off. Two and a half hours later we arrived in the first decent sized town, where we caught yet another car into Jaen. We got dropped off at a cheap hotel ($8 for the night) and collapsed.
The next day was a very long bus ride east (10 hours), but fortunately the bus was much comfier than any we´d ridden in Ecuador. We stayed in Tarapoto and prepped ourselves for one more long day of travelling by bus (7 hours over a bad dirt road) when we had a glorious surprise. We picked up a rather outdated copy of Lonely Planet at a book exchange, and apparently since the time they printed that nasty dirt road had been paved, cutting our trip down to a windy 2 and a half hours! Probably the first and only time that anything has ever taken less time than expected in Peru.
We arrived in Yurimaguas, quickly bought hammocks, water, and fruit, and rushed down to the dock, hoping to catch a boat bound for Iquitos that day. Unfortunately we discovered that the only boat leaving that day was so full of livestock that there was no room for people. However, a nice large boat was leaving the next day, so we reserved a cabin on the boat and settled into a hostel for the evening. When checking out the boat we got stuck in the first of many torrential downpours and impressive displays of lightning and thunder!
The next morning we went to the boat first thing, even though it wasn´t scheduled to leave until 2 (it actually left about 4). Good thing we did, as pretty much all the good hammock spaces were filled by 10. We staked out a good spot and got settled in with our books and snacks. The next two nights and three days were spent mostly swinging in our hammocks, reading our books, and making trips up to the top deck to watch the sunsets and enjoy the breeze. We met some other travelers on the boat and were very happy to have some friends to play cards with. The trip was much more comfortable than expected- there were showers, the food provided didn´t make us sick, and our little cabin was actually cool enough to sleep in comfortably at night. We were really glad we´d sprung the extra cash for the cabin, as the boat was really packed (absolutely zero personal space in the hammock area) and it would have been quite stressful to try to keep an eye on our stuff 24 hours a day.
We were thrilled that we arrived in Iquitos in the morning on Christmas Eve- the boat was pleasant, but I definitely didn´t want to celebrate Christmas on it. We found a hostel, took a nap, and explored the muggy, noisy jungle city that is Iquitos. We found a nice steak house restaurant and splurged on a nice Christmas Eve dinner with our friend from the boat, Benedict, then met up with the two British girls from the boat for drinks. The central square was absolutely packed with people buying snacks and fireworks, listening to music, and taking rides on the mototaxis rigged up to look like Santa´s sleigh. You couldn´t help but pity the poor Santas sweating through their red coats in the crazy humidity. The main celebration here is Christmas Eve- families hit the streets to party and count down the minutes until midnight, when they light off fireworks, New Year´s Eve- Style. On Christmas Day we booked a budget jungle tour, then took a boat to the nearby Butterfly Farm where we got to see gorgeous butterflies, a jaguar, an ocelot, monkeys, and the world´s most adorable baby sloth.
Sunday was the start of our jungle tour. We got up early and met our guide, Adrian, and our absolutely adorable fellow traveler, Noa. We road towards Nauta for about 2.5 hours, where we caught a boat for another 2.5 up the Amazon and to our remote little camp. We got settled into our room in a traditional little building built on stilts with a thatched roof. There was no electricity, but it had hammocks, mosquito nets over comfy beds, pit toilets and the river to bathe in- all we really need. We went on a short walk just outside of the house and saw birds, monkeys, and leaf-cutter ants in just a few minutes. After lunch and a nap in our hammocks, we hopped into the canoe and Adrian took us to a nearby area where the dolphins like to hang out. Lucky for us, they were there, and we got to watch pink and grey dolphins swim around us. We all hopped in the water for a swim, then headed back for dinner followed by a night walk in the jungle, where we spotted tree mice, tarantulas, snakes, and more. It was a bit spooky, but quite fun. While getting ready for bed, we heard a racket down by the dock, so Noa, Ace and I walked down to check it out. We found a poor little sardine who had jumped INTO the canoe and was flopping around unhappily. Ace put him back in the river and we felt proud of ourselves for saving the dumb little fish, until the next morning when Adrian told us they had filled half a bucket earlier that morning with more fish who had hopped into the boat. Yeah…there´s a lot of fish in that river. We spent Monday morning on a long walk through the jungle, where we spotted sloths, monkeys, iguanas, and lots more. The afternoon and evening were spent piranha fishing (using the unfortunate fish from that morning as bait). It was really fun, as we were getting bites every 30 seconds or so on our little branch-and fishing line fishing poles. We probably caught about 25 piranhas and 5 catfish between the 3 tourists and two guides. Night fell, and we headed back towards the camp to fry up our piranhas for dinner. About halfway back, I heard Noa scream and everyone turned around to see what had happened. By the light of our headlamps we saw a new piranha flopping around in the bottom of the canoe- it had hurled itself into the moving boat! By the time we made it back to camp, Ace had been pegged by another piranha and I by a catfish. I never knew fishing could be so easy!
Our last day, we went on one last jungle walk and saw some porcupines, among other things. On the long trip home the sky opened up and we got another good tropical thunderstorm show. We spent the rest of our day catching up our journals, itching our mosquito bites, and washing our disgustingly sweaty clothes.
Today we´ve been getting ready to head out to the Amazon Rainbow community. We´ll head out tomorrow and stay for two weeks. It should be exciting, as we don´t really have any idea what we´ll be doing. All I know is it´s a hippy community in the middle of the jungle where everyone cooks, gardens, and works together and lives off the land. We also found time today to visit a manatee rescue center, where I got to fulfill my lifelong dream of getting to hang out with manatees! I got to feed them and scratch their bristly little noses. Amazing. After that, we headed a little further up the highway to Cuistococha, a nature reserve where you can check out the zoo and swim in the lake. It was a lot of fun.
That´s it for now- stay tuned for what it´s like to live on a commune in the middle of the Amazon jungle! Lots of love!
Christmas in the jungle
Since Ace last wrote, we´ve finally managed to get ourselves to leave Ecuador.
From Cuenca we made the 7 hour bus ride south to our lovely little Vilcabamba. We stayed there for two nights, stocking up on good books at the excellent book exchange and getting in a brief visit with Norie and Richard at Garden of Paradise. From there, we took an 8 hour bus ride south to the little-known border crossing at La Balsa, Peru. Every hour on the bus brought us into more humidity and higher temperatures. You could tell they don´t get many foreigners in those parts from the flocks of kids following us around and staring during the breaks the bus took! From the southernmost part of Ecuador I knew we would take a camioneta trip (a sort of shuttle bus) over the border. I apparently hadn´t read the info very well, as what I was expecting to be a 5 minute shuttle turned out to be an hour and a half on a wooden bench jolting over an extremely remote, extremely bumpy dirt road! My butt suffered grievously, but we eventually made it to the little bridge that led over the river that formed that section of the border. We found the crossing pretty hilarious- there was absolutely no security, and when we wandered into the little shack before the bridge looking for our stamps, the border guards seemed a little surprised to be disturbed from their dirty magazines and computer games. My first impressions of Peru were that it´s really hot, friendly, cheaper lodging and food, more expensive buses, more burros, more people littering. It´s hard to really compare though, as we didn´t go into the jungle at all in Ecuador, and that´s all that we´ve seen in Peru so far. Just for the kicks, I estimated our bus hours in Ecuador- 73 hours!
It had been a long day, but we still had a ways to go. No buses ran through that area, but we were lucky enough to find a driver that was going home to the next town for the night anyways and therefore didn´t brutally rip us off. Two and a half hours later we arrived in the first decent sized town, where we caught yet another car into Jaen. We got dropped off at a cheap hotel ($8 for the night) and collapsed.
The next day was a very long bus ride east (10 hours), but fortunately the bus was much comfier than any we´d ridden in Ecuador. We stayed in Tarapoto and prepped ourselves for one more long day of travelling by bus (7 hours over a bad dirt road) when we had a glorious surprise. We picked up a rather outdated copy of Lonely Planet at a book exchange, and apparently since the time they printed that nasty dirt road had been paved, cutting our trip down to a windy 2 and a half hours! Probably the first and only time that anything has ever taken less time than expected in Peru.
We arrived in Yurimaguas, quickly bought hammocks, water, and fruit, and rushed down to the dock, hoping to catch a boat bound for Iquitos that day. Unfortunately we discovered that the only boat leaving that day was so full of livestock that there was no room for people. However, a nice large boat was leaving the next day, so we reserved a cabin on the boat and settled into a hostel for the evening. When checking out the boat we got stuck in the first of many torrential downpours and impressive displays of lightning and thunder!
The next morning we went to the boat first thing, even though it wasn´t scheduled to leave until 2 (it actually left about 4). Good thing we did, as pretty much all the good hammock spaces were filled by 10. We staked out a good spot and got settled in with our books and snacks. The next two nights and three days were spent mostly swinging in our hammocks, reading our books, and making trips up to the top deck to watch the sunsets and enjoy the breeze. We met some other travelers on the boat and were very happy to have some friends to play cards with. The trip was much more comfortable than expected- there were showers, the food provided didn´t make us sick, and our little cabin was actually cool enough to sleep in comfortably at night. We were really glad we´d sprung the extra cash for the cabin, as the boat was really packed (absolutely zero personal space in the hammock area) and it would have been quite stressful to try to keep an eye on our stuff 24 hours a day.
We were thrilled that we arrived in Iquitos in the morning on Christmas Eve- the boat was pleasant, but I definitely didn´t want to celebrate Christmas on it. We found a hostel, took a nap, and explored the muggy, noisy jungle city that is Iquitos. We found a nice steak house restaurant and splurged on a nice Christmas Eve dinner with our friend from the boat, Benedict, then met up with the two British girls from the boat for drinks. The central square was absolutely packed with people buying snacks and fireworks, listening to music, and taking rides on the mototaxis rigged up to look like Santa´s sleigh. You couldn´t help but pity the poor Santas sweating through their red coats in the crazy humidity. The main celebration here is Christmas Eve- families hit the streets to party and count down the minutes until midnight, when they light off fireworks, New Year´s Eve- Style. On Christmas Day we booked a budget jungle tour, then took a boat to the nearby Butterfly Farm where we got to see gorgeous butterflies, a jaguar, an ocelot, monkeys, and the world´s most adorable baby sloth.
Sunday was the start of our jungle tour. We got up early and met our guide, Adrian, and our absolutely adorable fellow traveler, Noa. We road towards Nauta for about 2.5 hours, where we caught a boat for another 2.5 up the Amazon and to our remote little camp. We got settled into our room in a traditional little building built on stilts with a thatched roof. There was no electricity, but it had hammocks, mosquito nets over comfy beds, pit toilets and the river to bathe in- all we really need. We went on a short walk just outside of the house and saw birds, monkeys, and leaf-cutter ants in just a few minutes. After lunch and a nap in our hammocks, we hopped into the canoe and Adrian took us to a nearby area where the dolphins like to hang out. Lucky for us, they were there, and we got to watch pink and grey dolphins swim around us. We all hopped in the water for a swim, then headed back for dinner followed by a night walk in the jungle, where we spotted tree mice, tarantulas, snakes, and more. It was a bit spooky, but quite fun. While getting ready for bed, we heard a racket down by the dock, so Noa, Ace and I walked down to check it out. We found a poor little sardine who had jumped INTO the canoe and was flopping around unhappily. Ace put him back in the river and we felt proud of ourselves for saving the dumb little fish, until the next morning when Adrian told us they had filled half a bucket earlier that morning with more fish who had hopped into the boat. Yeah…there´s a lot of fish in that river. We spent Monday morning on a long walk through the jungle, where we spotted sloths, monkeys, iguanas, and lots more. The afternoon and evening were spent piranha fishing (using the unfortunate fish from that morning as bait). It was really fun, as we were getting bites every 30 seconds or so on our little branch-and fishing line fishing poles. We probably caught about 25 piranhas and 5 catfish between the 3 tourists and two guides. Night fell, and we headed back towards the camp to fry up our piranhas for dinner. About halfway back, I heard Noa scream and everyone turned around to see what had happened. By the light of our headlamps we saw a new piranha flopping around in the bottom of the canoe- it had hurled itself into the moving boat! By the time we made it back to camp, Ace had been pegged by another piranha and I by a catfish. I never knew fishing could be so easy!
Our last day, we went on one last jungle walk and saw some porcupines, among other things. On the long trip home the sky opened up and we got another good tropical thunderstorm show. We spent the rest of our day catching up our journals, itching our mosquito bites, and washing our disgustingly sweaty clothes.
Today we´ve been getting ready to head out to the Amazon Rainbow community. We´ll head out tomorrow and stay for two weeks. It should be exciting, as we don´t really have any idea what we´ll be doing. All I know is it´s a hippy community in the middle of the jungle where everyone cooks, gardens, and works together and lives off the land. We also found time today to visit a manatee rescue center, where I got to fulfill my lifelong dream of getting to hang out with manatees! I got to feed them and scratch there bristly little noses. Amazing. After that, we headed a little further up the highway to Cuistococha, a nature reserve where you can check out the zoo and swim in the lake. It was a lot of fun.
That´s it for now- stay tuned for what it´s like to live on a commune in the middle of the Amazon jungle! Lots of love!
From Cuenca we made the 7 hour bus ride south to our lovely little Vilcabamba. We stayed there for two nights, stocking up on good books at the excellent book exchange and getting in a brief visit with Norie and Richard at Garden of Paradise. From there, we took an 8 hour bus ride south to the little-known border crossing at La Balsa, Peru. Every hour on the bus brought us into more humidity and higher temperatures. You could tell they don´t get many foreigners in those parts from the flocks of kids following us around and staring during the breaks the bus took! From the southernmost part of Ecuador I knew we would take a camioneta trip (a sort of shuttle bus) over the border. I apparently hadn´t read the info very well, as what I was expecting to be a 5 minute shuttle turned out to be an hour and a half on a wooden bench jolting over an extremely remote, extremely bumpy dirt road! My butt suffered grievously, but we eventually made it to the little bridge that led over the river that formed that section of the border. We found the crossing pretty hilarious- there was absolutely no security, and when we wandered into the little shack before the bridge looking for our stamps, the border guards seemed a little surprised to be disturbed from their dirty magazines and computer games. My first impressions of Peru were that it´s really hot, friendly, cheaper lodging and food, more expensive buses, more burros, more people littering. It´s hard to really compare though, as we didn´t go into the jungle at all in Ecuador, and that´s all that we´ve seen in Peru so far. Just for the kicks, I estimated our bus hours in Ecuador- 73 hours!
It had been a long day, but we still had a ways to go. No buses ran through that area, but we were lucky enough to find a driver that was going home to the next town for the night anyways and therefore didn´t brutally rip us off. Two and a half hours later we arrived in the first decent sized town, where we caught yet another car into Jaen. We got dropped off at a cheap hotel ($8 for the night) and collapsed.
The next day was a very long bus ride east (10 hours), but fortunately the bus was much comfier than any we´d ridden in Ecuador. We stayed in Tarapoto and prepped ourselves for one more long day of travelling by bus (7 hours over a bad dirt road) when we had a glorious surprise. We picked up a rather outdated copy of Lonely Planet at a book exchange, and apparently since the time they printed that nasty dirt road had been paved, cutting our trip down to a windy 2 and a half hours! Probably the first and only time that anything has ever taken less time than expected in Peru.
We arrived in Yurimaguas, quickly bought hammocks, water, and fruit, and rushed down to the dock, hoping to catch a boat bound for Iquitos that day. Unfortunately we discovered that the only boat leaving that day was so full of livestock that there was no room for people. However, a nice large boat was leaving the next day, so we reserved a cabin on the boat and settled into a hostel for the evening. When checking out the boat we got stuck in the first of many torrential downpours and impressive displays of lightning and thunder!
The next morning we went to the boat first thing, even though it wasn´t scheduled to leave until 2 (it actually left about 4). Good thing we did, as pretty much all the good hammock spaces were filled by 10. We staked out a good spot and got settled in with our books and snacks. The next two nights and three days were spent mostly swinging in our hammocks, reading our books, and making trips up to the top deck to watch the sunsets and enjoy the breeze. We met some other travelers on the boat and were very happy to have some friends to play cards with. The trip was much more comfortable than expected- there were showers, the food provided didn´t make us sick, and our little cabin was actually cool enough to sleep in comfortably at night. We were really glad we´d sprung the extra cash for the cabin, as the boat was really packed (absolutely zero personal space in the hammock area) and it would have been quite stressful to try to keep an eye on our stuff 24 hours a day.
We were thrilled that we arrived in Iquitos in the morning on Christmas Eve- the boat was pleasant, but I definitely didn´t want to celebrate Christmas on it. We found a hostel, took a nap, and explored the muggy, noisy jungle city that is Iquitos. We found a nice steak house restaurant and splurged on a nice Christmas Eve dinner with our friend from the boat, Benedict, then met up with the two British girls from the boat for drinks. The central square was absolutely packed with people buying snacks and fireworks, listening to music, and taking rides on the mototaxis rigged up to look like Santa´s sleigh. You couldn´t help but pity the poor Santas sweating through their red coats in the crazy humidity. The main celebration here is Christmas Eve- families hit the streets to party and count down the minutes until midnight, when they light off fireworks, New Year´s Eve- Style. On Christmas Day we booked a budget jungle tour, then took a boat to the nearby Butterfly Farm where we got to see gorgeous butterflies, a jaguar, an ocelot, monkeys, and the world´s most adorable baby sloth.
Sunday was the start of our jungle tour. We got up early and met our guide, Adrian, and our absolutely adorable fellow traveler, Noa. We road towards Nauta for about 2.5 hours, where we caught a boat for another 2.5 up the Amazon and to our remote little camp. We got settled into our room in a traditional little building built on stilts with a thatched roof. There was no electricity, but it had hammocks, mosquito nets over comfy beds, pit toilets and the river to bathe in- all we really need. We went on a short walk just outside of the house and saw birds, monkeys, and leaf-cutter ants in just a few minutes. After lunch and a nap in our hammocks, we hopped into the canoe and Adrian took us to a nearby area where the dolphins like to hang out. Lucky for us, they were there, and we got to watch pink and grey dolphins swim around us. We all hopped in the water for a swim, then headed back for dinner followed by a night walk in the jungle, where we spotted tree mice, tarantulas, snakes, and more. It was a bit spooky, but quite fun. While getting ready for bed, we heard a racket down by the dock, so Noa, Ace and I walked down to check it out. We found a poor little sardine who had jumped INTO the canoe and was flopping around unhappily. Ace put him back in the river and we felt proud of ourselves for saving the dumb little fish, until the next morning when Adrian told us they had filled half a bucket earlier that morning with more fish who had hopped into the boat. Yeah…there´s a lot of fish in that river. We spent Monday morning on a long walk through the jungle, where we spotted sloths, monkeys, iguanas, and lots more. The afternoon and evening were spent piranha fishing (using the unfortunate fish from that morning as bait). It was really fun, as we were getting bites every 30 seconds or so on our little branch-and fishing line fishing poles. We probably caught about 25 piranhas and 5 catfish between the 3 tourists and two guides. Night fell, and we headed back towards the camp to fry up our piranhas for dinner. About halfway back, I heard Noa scream and everyone turned around to see what had happened. By the light of our headlamps we saw a new piranha flopping around in the bottom of the canoe- it had hurled itself into the moving boat! By the time we made it back to camp, Ace had been pegged by another piranha and I by a catfish. I never knew fishing could be so easy!
Our last day, we went on one last jungle walk and saw some porcupines, among other things. On the long trip home the sky opened up and we got another good tropical thunderstorm show. We spent the rest of our day catching up our journals, itching our mosquito bites, and washing our disgustingly sweaty clothes.
Today we´ve been getting ready to head out to the Amazon Rainbow community. We´ll head out tomorrow and stay for two weeks. It should be exciting, as we don´t really have any idea what we´ll be doing. All I know is it´s a hippy community in the middle of the jungle where everyone cooks, gardens, and works together and lives off the land. We also found time today to visit a manatee rescue center, where I got to fulfill my lifelong dream of getting to hang out with manatees! I got to feed them and scratch there bristly little noses. Amazing. After that, we headed a little further up the highway to Cuistococha, a nature reserve where you can check out the zoo and swim in the lake. It was a lot of fun.
That´s it for now- stay tuned for what it´s like to live on a commune in the middle of the Amazon jungle! Lots of love!
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