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.

 

 

Happy Birthday

Happy belated birthday to Gustavo and Claudia.

Our trip to Ollantaytambo

Here are a few pictures of our train ride from Machu Picchu to Ollantaytambo. At the train station, we saw the cutest little girl, someone of my travel mates gave her a little stuffed animal. She was both thrilled and confused.

 

 

The train left on time and we saw some beautiful views. The plan was to see ruins in another town.

 

 

Below is a picture of the ruins we saw. The ruins had both Pre-Inca and Inca style architecture. The Pre-Inca style is not as smooth. The stones seem to be smaller and the Inca style is much smoother. The incas put a lot of effort into the buildings that were either religious or for nobility.

I'm at breakfast now. It was delicious. We had eggs, fried cauliflower, fruit, and coffee. Oh, and there is a wonderful bread all over Peru. I'll take a picture and show it to you.

Are all of you getting ready for your vacation. Please check the blog even when you are home! I'll be sad if there are no comments!

Until next time.....

Wednesday in Peru

Hi Everyone,

I finally have some wifi that will allow me to post some pictures. Machu Picchu was so amazing. We hiked to the Sun Gate which took about 2 hours. We did take a lot of breaks, though. The weather was so strange. One minute it was clear and in a few minutes the most and clouds blew in and we couldn't see anything. Here is a picture of the walls the Incas built. The mountains were (and still are) so steep that the Incas had to terrace the land so they could do farming. All of these walls are over 500 years old. I find that amazing.

 

 

 

Here's a picture of me on Machu Picchu. This was during one of the rainy spells we had. I didn't mind the rain at all because it gave me a different view of the ruins. The Incas built all of Machu Picchu in about 100 years. 1000 people lived there, so it was a living community. There were three sectors of Machu Picchu. There was the religious sector, the agricultural sector, and the residential sector. The Incas were very spiritual. They believed in being reborn, so when they died, they were put in the fetal position facing the East. When they were buried, they would have things they needed for the afterlife. We saw the mausoleum of a princess who died and along with her were her servants and dog. All servants wanted to be sacrificed because it was such an honor to join the royalty to the afterlife. I was so astonished by how much technology the Incas had. It takes workers more than five years to work on a small bridge in Dedham. And we are the more sophisticated ones?! I'm not so sure!

Here we are walking around Machu . You can see the stairs that everyone is walking up. Those were built by the Incas sometime between 1430-1533. Wow!!!!

So here is another picture of me...yawn. Behind me is Machu Picchu. Pictures really don't tell the whole story of how incredible this place is. I ran into one young woman who was walking the Sun Gate barefoot. She wasn't wearing any shoes at all. I asked her if I could take her picture just so I could show all of you that there are some interesting people in the world. Look carefully and you will see that she has no shoes. Really?

 

So I am going to end here. It's time for bed. We are going to be up at 13,000 feet tomorrow doing community service in a small village. On Friday, we are going to visit another school. More about all of that later. Also, I tell you about my day today tomorrow after I have a chance to download my photos.

Have a great day. Learn a lot.

Tuesday in Machu Picchu

Hi Everyone,

I am in the worst wifi spot, so I won't be able to post pictures, and today we sent the whole day at Machu Picchu.

Before I start, I'll answer the questions. We brought stickers, books, pencils, laminated paper and expo markers, a football, jump ropes, paper, bubbles, sidewalk chalk, lessons, pens, erasers, pencil sharpeners , and things like that. The children who were jumping up in the air were all trying to catch a small football. They were all so excited to play outside with the new toys!

The bus in the back was the bus that we took the school. All of the kids have to walk to to school. One of the kids lives with a family because his family lives so far away. Unfortunately, many of the young kids don't even go to school because the families are too poor to go to school. They also have to help their parents with tasks, so there is no time for school.

Today we had an awesome day in Machu Picchu. We got there at about 9:00 am and did a long hike up to the SunTemple. The view was amazing, but I can't upload pictures. Once I get powerful wifi, I will post pictures. The views were amazing. There was no way to capture how high and steep the mountains were.

After the long hike, everyone went to lunch. And after lunch, we had an awesome tour around Machu Picchu. It was a city inhabited by about 1000 people. There were three sections: agriculture, religious, and residential. A lot of resortation is going on nowadays.

After Machu Picchu, we drove down the mountain and headed to dinner. That's where I am now. The food was delicious....beef, fish, pasta, chocolate mouse, and other yummy things.

We're leaving back to the "no wifi" hotel, so I probably won't be able to post much. Please keep on posting!

Sorry that there aren't any photos.

Be well,

Ms. Westfall

Our first school visit in the Sacred Valley.

Our first stop today was going to a small school in a small town called Orca. The school consisted of one classroom, one teacher, and students from grades 1-4. They speak a local language and are learning Spanish. All of the teachers on the trip donated supplies for the school. We also have more supplies for two other schools that we will be visiting later this week. This teacher was amazing. When we gave the students gifts, they were so excited. They were screaming with excitement when they received stickers.

 

If you look at the picture, you can see that the classroom is pretty empty. The teacher is standing in the back corner.

The students never used to come to school, but people from an organization came to the town and went from house to house to explain how important education is. One boy named Ramon didn't start school until this year. He is 9 years old and is in the first grade. His house was too far from the school, so another family 'adopted' him, so he lives with them and has a chance to get an education.

I'm waiting for more pictures to download, so now I will answer your questions.

1. Spider, I can't bring guinea pig back because the custom officials would be very angry.

2. Felix, I haven't seen much ketchup here.

3. The smell of the market was beyond intense. One teacher said that her nose was exhausted at the end of the day. All of the smells blended together, slit was kind of strange.

4. The Incas started building Machu Picchu in around1400. The Incas built Machu Picchu until the Spanish arrived in the early partof the 1500s. Then the Incan empire was wiped out. I've seen some of the ruins and it is amazing how all of the stones fit together beautifully. They used no mortar to keep the stones together. They also had no use the wheel. Amazing.

 

Yay, the picture downloaded. Here the kids are really enjoying their new supplies. We also brought them some games, so as you can see, they were having an awesome day. I had such joy seeing the smiles on their faces.

It was surprising to see such happy kids when they have very little. One of the teachers who went with us did a fundraiser at her school and collected $300 for this school. The teacher was thrilled since he gets very little money from the government. Maybe we could think of a way to raise funds for the school. Any ideas?

Well, I guess that's it for now.

Happy Tuesday. It's a short day for all of you.

 

Easter in Cuzco

 

The day started out wonderfully because we were able to catch up on our sleep. Everyone felt much better than they did yesterday. The strange thing is that in Boston, Easter is a pretty quiet day. Here in Cuzco, Peru, the town was hopping at 7:00 am. We had breakfast and then walked to the city square. We planned on going to the Mass at 9:00 am to see how Easter is celebrated here. We learned that it is fine to leave in the middle of a Mass. From what I know, that practice is frowned upon in the U.S. We got to the church and it was packed, packed, packed. There was hardly even any standing room. The Mass was in Spanish, so it was kind of hard to follow what was going on.After we left Mass, there was a huge flag ceremony happening in the town square. The town square is one happening place. There were two churches, some stores, and in the center, there was a fountain and a lot of benches. It was the place to be. It seemed like everyone in Cuzco was in the town square.

 

 

After our church experience, we went to the local market where they sold fruit, vegetables, chocolate, tea, prepared food, meat, cheese, flowers, gifts, clothing, etc. We had a chance to go there which was great. Our tour leader told us that many of the foods were for the Easter season.

 

This picture is of a woman selling Easter sweets. We tried some of the cookies and they were delicious. I bought some tea and chocolate at the market. I saw what chocolate looks like in its original state. It's a huge pod with all of these beans inside.

I also saw some, well, um, strange things. There were parts of the animal for sale that we never eat. I thought it was strange,must then I though how wonderful it was that Peruvians don't waste things. Life in American can be very wasteful. Just think about all of the food that's thrown out during lunch at school. That would never happen here.

 

The picture above is cow heads. People buy them and cook them up into a soup. Our tour guide said that lamb head soup is delicious. That may be true,must these heads were a little freaky for me to see!

 

Here is a picture of cow's legs. They were also for sale in the market. Basically, every part of the animal was for sale. Head, ears, heart, liver, stomach, etc. I didn't spend a lot of time here. Instead, I found some really cute finger puppets for the classroom.

After the market, we went for lunch. As I mentioned before, we decided to have guinea pig as it is a specialty here in Peru. Many people will eat guinea pig on Easter. It's kind of like how many people in the U.S. eat turkey on Thanksgiving. Our choice was "deep-fried guinea pig" or "roasted guinea pig.". Most of us opted for the roasted guinea pig.

When the dish arrived, I said to myself, "Yikes. This really is a guinea pig.". It was kind of hard to dig in and enjoy it. I had a few bites and thought it tasted like duck. It was extremely greasy and not so wonderful. The stray dog sitting under the table was one lucky dude because he got most of my lunch!

 

The picture above is the "deep-fried guinea pig."

 

This is a picture of the "roasted guinea pig." I think I have had enough guinea pig in this life time!

After lunch, we had an amazing time. We hiked up the Pisaq trail and saw old Incan ruins. Pisaq is the name of the town where the trail is located. Being surrounded by mountains was incredible. Walking near ruins from such along time ago was incredible.

 

Tomorrow we leave our hotel and head to the Sacred Valley. We'll visit a school tomorrow and then go to hot springs later that day. The school visit is 80% sure because the kids might still be on vacation.

I hope all of you had a great three-day weekend. Think of some questions to ask me. Our tour guide is amazing. She knows the answer to almost everything. Talk to you later :)

 

 

 

 

Saturday in Cuzco

My day in Cuzco was wonderful. We all had to wake up very early so we could get our day started. We got to the airport and aught the flight from Lima to Cuzco. The flight only took about one hour. The view from the plane was incredible.

We arrived in Cuzco and our guide wanted us to take it easy because we were going to have along day ahead of us. We are at 11,000 feet, so a few of the folks in our group had a bad reaction. They had to skip out on a few of the activities because of headaches and exhaustion.

We had time for a little nap and then regrouped at 12:45 for lunch. After lunch, we walked to the center of town and went into a few cathedrals. All of the churches are getting ready for the big Easter celebration tomorrow.

After that, we took a short bus ride and saw some ruins that were built by the Incas? I'm still amazed that the incas built all of these huge structures with no mortar an they are still in perfect condition.

While we were at the ruins, there was an old woman who was with an alpaca. This animal kind of looks like a llama. I think they are related. Once we paid the woman, we were able to take lots of pictures with her. I think we made her day. Here is the picture of the ruins. We spent a few hours walking around and we got to walk through a cave built by the Incas? It was a secret escape route just in case they were being attacked.

 

After the ruins, we went to a restaurant and had a typical Peruvian dinner. I had meat, vegetables, and rice. Others ordered spaghetti. Those were the two choices. We are going to have a very typical Easter lunch tomorrow. Can you guess what it is going to be. Read the menu below and you'll see. It's not a dish we eat in the United States. Someone here said that this animal tastes like chicken. I'll let you know tomorrow night.

 

It's time for bed. We don't have to wake up until 7 am tomorrow. Yay!

 

 

Made it to Lima

 

I'm in Lima! Our flight from Miami to Lima was less crowded than I thought it would be. We had three people waiting for us at the gate. Patty is going to be our main tour guide. On the way from the airport to our hotel, she gave us a little history lesson. It's about 11:30 pm and we have to get up at 5:00 am for our flight to Cusco. The altitude is about 11,000 above sea level,so it's going to be pretty taxing on our bodies. Some of the teachers are going to take altitude medication, but I'm just going to see what happens. I was at a really high altitude when I was in Tibet and nothing happened. We're going to take it easy for the first part of the day. Patty told us that we have to drink loads of water. If we do that, we'll feel much better.

 

The photo is a night view from our hotel room- room 503. There's no a/c which is fine, but there also isn't a screen in the window. Luckily, this isn't mosquito country! That's at the end of the trip.

At the airport

 

We all made it to the airport. Now I'm trying to figure out how to add photos to my blog entries. Big big learning curve.

But at least now I can add photos. We still have to wait for our flight to Miami. From Miami, we fly to Lima, Peru!

 

Ready to pack...

It took some time, but I finally got everything I need.  I went to REI and got some essentials.  I especially like my waterproof shoes.  They will come in handy.  I also got other rain gear, so I'll be ready for all of the rain.  All I have to do is pack.  Easier said than done.  The weather in Peru is going to be all over the place.  The temperature is going to range from being in the 40s up to the 80s.

I'm actually going to be in Machu Picchu in less than a week.  My camera is ready to work overtime.