Monkey poop brings good luck, or does it?

As I mentioned in my last post, a monkey pooped on me when we were at Monkey Island. I was the only one who got pooped on and it was my birthday, so it has to be good luck, right? When I get home, I have to wash my backpack as it got a serious workout. Anyways, here's a picture of me with the monkey poop.

 

 

While we were walking in the jungle, the flowers were gorgeous. Beyond gorgeous, actually. Look how brilliant these colors are. This plant is called heliconia (according to one of the teachers in the trip).

 

Enjoy the pictures.

Right now, we're back in Lima. Our flight leaves in a few hours and then it's back to Boston. I missed posting a lot of pictures, so I'm going to tell some stories. It won't be in chronological order, but hopefully everyone will understand.

 

We're at a restaurant called Sofa cafe. It's our last dinner here in Peru. Once we finish up, it's off to the airport and back to Boston. We fly from Lima to Miami and then Miami to Boston. I so want to return to the school this summer and teacher English for a few weeks.

Until next time.....

 

Life in the Amazon

 

We all made it to Puerto Maldonado after a really short plane ride from Cuzco. It only took about 35 minutes or so. There was enough time for the flight attendants to hand out piece of candy, and then we were ready to land again. At the airport, the guide from our Eco lodge met us and brought us to a pace were we could leave our big luggage. We had to pack a small overnight bag because we traveled to the lodge by boat. The trip took about 1.5 hours and was just amazing. The river we went on is called " madre de Dios" which means ' mother of god.' When we got to the lodge, we went straight to lunch and then headed to our rooms. Instead of numbers, each lodge is named after an animal: jaguar, lobo, piraña, etc. Our lodge is named Carpentero. It's pretty rustic, but it works for me. We have electricity from 5:30 pm to 10 pm. The water for the showers is cold, but that really doesn't matter because it's about 90 degrees at any given moment.

 

 

 

After lunch, we went to Monkey Island which is located across the river from our lodge. While we were there, we saw four different kinds of monkeys. Victor, our guide, brought finger bananas to coax the monkeys down from the trees. It worked very well. Out of all of my pictures, I got one good one. Good, but not National Geographic good. While we were at Monkey Island, I felt something fall on me, but I didn't pay attention. When I was back on the boat, I realized that a monkey had pooped on me. Well, actually, the poop was just on my backpack. Everyone in the group was telling me that I must be lucky and that this will bring me good birthday luck. Only time will tell! When we got back from the island, I cleaned my backpack and got ready for dinner.Dinner was good and I cleaned my plate. Many of the folks on the trip don't have a great stomach, so there have been many full plates going back to the kitchen. Lucky for me ( knock on wood), I've been fine. I've even brushed my teeth with tap water during the whole trip ( a traveler's no-no). After dinner, the electricity went out, or so I thought! The group organized a HUGE birthday cake for me- how did they ever pull that one off. It was such a surprise.

 

 

Everyone sang Happy Birthday to me, and then I got to cut the cake. There was so much left over that we were able to share the cake with other travel groups staying at the lodge. I have to say that this will be the MOST memorable birthday ever. Maybe I should start a tradition of never being home on my birthday. But seriously, being in the Amazon jungle with monkey poop and birthday cake ( not together) is going to be hard to beat.The next day ( today) we got up early and and went on a jungle walk. Because there are so many of us, we separated into two teams of Amazonian explorers. Our guide was Alex, a guy who learned all he knows about the jungle from his father and grandfather. This guy was able to tell us all about the plants and their medicinal value. He knew so much!

 

 

We saw a whole bunch of things: leaf-cutter ants, fire ants, red howler monkeys, spider monkeys, jaguar paw prints, jaguar poop, jaguar vomit, jungle grapes, tarantulas, and many other things.While we were on our mini trek, the lodge mascot, a South American Coati followed us. This little guy is beyond cute. We had to cross a little stream, so I carried him across the water. When we got to the 'Tree of Justice', we learned all about fire ants.

 

 

My little friend, the Coati, decided to climb up the tree filled with fire ants and then jump on me. I ended up having about 12 fire ants on me, but, luckily, I didn't get any bites. People in the Amazon use the 'tree of justice' to punish people. If a husband or wife decides to have a relationship outside of marriage, the 'bad' person will be tied up to a tree so the fire ants can attack for about 10-15 minutes. A bite from a fire ant can cause pain for about 2 hours. I am very grateful that the fire ants didn't actually bite me.Time for lunch. Adios. Hasta luego.

Oh, I forgot to mention that I saw a tarantula on the nature walk. I even have proof.

 

 

 

Father and son

This father and son were on the Andean community we visited. Everyone was so warm and welcoming. All of the men wear these hats, so the boy is actually wearing his dad's hat. If I come back this summer, I'll definitely see them again. There is no word for 'good-bye' in the Quechua language!

 

Leaving to the Amazon

I'm at breakfast getting ready to take a flight from Cusco to Puerto Maldonado. When we get there, we'll stay at a lodge in the Amazon. It's going to be awesome. There are three distinct regions in Peru, so the weather changes a lot. We're heading to a hot and humid climate.

I'm having a hard time uploading pictures from here. I have to use a different application called Blogsy to put pictures on my blog, but if the internet is slow, the it doesn't work very well. I'm not sure how much access I'll have in the Amazon, so I might not be able to post until I get back to Lima.

I'm still thinking about amazing day I had at the school yesterday. I really hope I'll be able to go back there for a few weeks in the summer.

Until next time......

Internet is slow.

I'm back in Cuzco at a hotel, but the Internet is a little slow, so I can't download pictures, so I am going t call it a night pretty soon.

We are heading to the airport tomorrow and flying to the Amazon. Well spend a few days in the jungle and then fly back to Lima and then it's back to boston.

We spent the day back in the community we were in yesterday. Yesterday was spend harvesting potatoes and learning about textiles. This community does lots of weaving and they make their own yarn. I tried spinning the wool not yarn and found it really hard. After, we had a chance to do some weaving. It was also impossible to do.

Today we went back to the community and spent the morning in a classroom. After lunch, we went back to the school and dug up a huge field to make a soccer field and a volleyball court. My job was to dig holes for the soccer goal posts and for the volleyball net. We finished the whole job at about 5:30 this evening. It was a very satisfying day. I'll write more when I can post pictures because you know what they say, " a picture tells 1,000 words.

I am thinking about returning to tis small farming community to teach English for a few weeks. One of the teachers said I could stay with his family. Another teacher wants to come with me. This school is lacking in so many ways.....

Good night!

Day 1 with the community

The day started off with breakfast. I was able to post a quick blog, too. This is a picture of the bread that is all over Peru. It's plain, but I love it. By the way, I loved the cauliflower as did everyone in the tour with me!

 

Our hotels located on the back roads of Peru. We have had a great bus driver named Freddie. I'm convinced that he is the best bus driver in the world. Theme of the roads are so narrow, but he manages to get through them without hitting anything and he doesn't look stressed at all. How does he do it?! Can you see how close we are to the trees? Holy Moly!

 

 

We drove for a bit to go into the town so that we could get to the ATM. Wile same of us stopped at the AATM, others walked around the little town square. All of the towns we have visited are built around a town square. That isn't very common in the United States. It's so much fun to sit down on a bench and people watch. Do any of you enjoy people-watching? I do! What I noticed is that there are many tuk-tuks in these small motorized vehicle that is smaller than a taxi. It also seems that everyone takes a taxi, bus, or tuk-tuk to somewhere. After we got to the ATM and bought water, we headed out to the community. Its a small farming community way up in the Andes mountains.

 

 

We were headed to 13,000 feet, so we were told to bring a whole bunch of warm clothes and a rain jacket. I am so happy that I bought a rain poncho as it has gotten quite a workout. Three cheers for REI!

 

When we got to the community, all of the women who lived there were waiting for us. They greeted each of us with a beautiful necklace made out of yarn and flowers.

 

There were about 25 of us and 35 community women, so we each had our own person to greet us. All of the women in the community are weavers. After they gave each of us a necklace, the brought us to a village center. When we were at the "town green," we heard about how we were going to work on the farm. They showed us the various tools that we would be using, and then we loaded the donkeys us and all walked to the farm. Throughout the morning, the weather was warm, cold, rainy, windy, and then warm again! Below is a picture of Gary, our guide and expert while we spent the day in the community. His English was fantastic and he told a lot of joke, so we laughed a lot as well.

 

Our time on the potato field was awesome. First, we saw how the Peruvians love Panchama and have special rituals that involve giving offerings to the earth. Mid people are going to harvest the land, they need to gift a gift to Panchamama (mother earth). We all gave an offering to the earth before we started our hard work.

While we were giving offerings to the earth, some of the women started a small fire to cook potatoes while everyone was working. They started the fire using dirt and twigs. It's amazing how resourceful everyone is. By the way, I had one of the potatoes later in the day and it was so tasty. Also, I was reminded that are 2000 varieties of potatoes in Peru. The potato is a main staple in Peru. They eat everything in its pure form. There are potatoes everywhere, but I haven't seen any French fries. I did see a KFC in Cuzco. Come to think of it, I saw a huge KFC in Ghana.

The Internet is pooping out, so I guess that I'll end here. Hopefully I'll be able to continue My story from today. We're going back to the community tomorrow to visit tow schools. That's going to be fun. Then in two days, we're flying to the Amazon where we will be for two days.

That's it for now.

I forgot to post the picture of the ruin

Here it is. Sorry about that. Learn a lot today.