Jungle Pictures!!!

Are almost here. But I’m so excited to finally have pictures up from my new camera that I don’t want to wait to tell the world. So, check out my multimedia link or… just click here. All the albums but one are already uploaded.

Chau!

Brian

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Off to the Jungle Pt 2

So, where I left off last time we were finally relaxing in Tarapoto. Ben had left us and Joe and I randomly bought a giant circular pool toy which has since been converted into a guest bed in my house. James randomly bought jewelry at 3:00 in the morning after leaving a club, we ate ant pizza for dinner, and finally we were ready and set to enter the real Peruvian jungle.

Our taxi left at 4:00 a.m. from Tarapoto and we were headed off to Yurimaguas to meet with our guide’s daughter Marivela who was going to feed us breakfast. We arrived to the port town around 6:00 a.m. and Marivela took us to her house where we tried to stay awake enough to enjoy the delicious breakfast of fresh fruit and sandwiches. Matt and I stayed at the house while the others went to the market to buy hammocks and we were told that the boat we were planning on taking for 20 soles was already full and so if we wanted to keep going we would have to take the speed boat which cost 100 soles. After some deliberation we decided that wasn’t worth losing a day over so we packed ourselves into the boat which almost immediately started sinking because it was back heavy. After a quick evacuation and a reevaluation of our seating positions, we began the five hour journey towards the small jungle town of Lagunas.

This part of the trip just felt good. While I was sure we were being ripped off, sitting on the front of a motorboat as we sped down one of the large tributaries of the Amazon river, I was completely happy (quite like right now as I’m listening to Bon Iver and drinking hot chocolate). For one, it was just nice being on a river again. Adding that to the sense of adventure I felt as we flew past small villages and the gneral lack of any pressure to do anything except enjoy my surroundings… it was nice.

Upon arriving in Lagunas we settled into our hostel and had lunch at our guide’s house, which consisted of roasted chicken and fried potatoes. Afterwards, we relaxed for a little bit and even had the chance to play a few soccer games with the locals (James, Matt, and I played). Matt hurt his foot early on which was too bad, but James and I won our first game but unfortunately lost our second. Then we had the most delicious coconut popcicles and went back to our hostel where we went to bed early.

We woke up bright and early the next day and after pushing our moto-taxis through the mud that was the road leading to the National Reserve Pacaya Samiria we finally arrived to the river where we would begin our expedition into the wild.

Well, sort of the wild. While these few days were definitely exciting it wasn’t quite as wild as I hoped. We didn’t see as much wildlife as I had expected we would, and I was especially disappointed about not getting to see the pink river dolphins. We did, however, get to see a few different species of monkeys, some sloths, various birds including a local eagle and parrots, a baby crocodile, termite mounds, large beehives, and some really cool trees. Basically, we were a bit unlucky. It rained while we were there which is a rarity during the month of July, and that dampened our prospects on seeing wildlife. Still, we did float down the river in traditional dug-out canoes and we had great guides. And, despite not seeing much wildlife, the scenery was still beautiful so I shouldn’t complain too much. While there, we slept at a local refuge and even got to run into other Peace Corps volunteers who were also in the area. I also went swimming and got attacked by a thousand little fish which was quite a surprise. I was told I could go swimming in a certain spot, which I could have, but nobody told me that there are lots of little sucker fish that nibble on you while you swim. So that was fun.

After a few days in the park, we returned to Lagunas where we spent the afternoon in hammocks preparing for two more days in hammocks. No complaints here, just relaxation. That evening we caught our boat to Iquitos, a slow moving passenger and freight boat that carried probably about 200 people along with few hundred or so chickens and some cattle. In this boat, there were no seats. Instead, everyone brought their own hammocks and strung them up in the passenger section of the boat where it was very crowded. Yet despite the closed quarters, everyone seemed to stay in good spirits and we had a very good time. We played lots of cards, mostly rummy and uno, and got to meet lots of interesting people including several hippies who were on their way to a Rainbow Gathering in Iquitos.

Finally, after almost 40 hours of river travel and some beautiful sunrises and sunsets, we arrived to our final destination, Iquitos. Our first order of business was finding a good hostel at which we succeeded beautifully. We found a cheap, clean, and comfortable hostel with a friendly owner and a laid back group of fellow travelers. We spent a lot of time here getting to know the other people and just hanging out.

Iquitos itself was just a fascinating city. It is the largest city in the world that cannot be reached by road (pop. 370,962), and it is filled with remnents of its opulent past, originally funded by rubber and then by natural gas. There are beautiful colonial buildings covered with tiles imported from Portugual, and there is even a building known as the Iron House that was designed by Gustave Eiffel. Now, Iquitos’ economy is centered mostly around the lumber industry, though production of oil, rum, and beer, as well as tourism, also keeps the city alive.

As we were tired from our traveling, we generally used the time here to relax, but there were some places and experiences there that definitely stood out. One of them was the Yellow Rose of Texas, a BBQ restaurant owned by a Texas ex-pat named Gerald Mayeaux who uses a a family secret 17  ingredient BBQ recipe to bring the south to the jungle. The food is fantastic and Gerald is soon opening up a new bar called Margaritaville which will be above the restaurant. He took us up to check it out and it looks incredible. The walls are covered with sports paraphernalia, there are plasma TVs always playing sports, a real billiards table, and an upstairs New Orleans themed area. We had a great time there.

Another great place we went to was the Pilpintuwasi Butterfly Farm where we were able to see, as you can imagine, a lot of butterflies, as well as some orphaned animals including monkeys, a giant anteater, a jaguar, a tapir, a crocodile, a manitee, and turtles. So we saw more here than in our jungle expedition which was nice, I was glad to see wildlife, and the butterflies were incredible.

Next, the morning before leaving Iquitos, Joe and I went piranha fishing. We had actually gone the night before but had no success, so this time we went down to the docks and told the men there we wanted to catch piranhas. We would pay 10 soles each if they took us out and 20 soles each if we were happy with what we caught. Needless to say they figured it out that time and Joe and I caught a whole string of piranhas which we brought to the market and told a lady we would buy her juice and rice if she cooked them up for us. It was a great meal, although truth be told I found the piranha pretty bland. I should mention though that Iquitos is a juice paradise, for less than a dollar you can get an entire pitcher of fresh squeezed juice made out of a variety of different fruits including the familiar such as bananas, papayas, and oranges, and the unfamiliar, such as the delicious and healthy camu camu which has more Vitamin C than any other fruit in the world.

Finally, we decided to go to a professional soccer game, where we saw the powerhouse team from Lima, La Universidad, play against CNI de Iquitos. We all took sides, Joe and I for ‘la U’ (my host sister in Lima was a big fan) and the others for CNI. It wasn’t a terribly exciting game, the score remained 0-0 until the last five minutes when CNI scored a surprise goal and earned a big upset (La U was ranked #1 and CNI #14). Still, we had a lot of fun dressing up and Joe and I made the probably stupid decision to watch the second half from the ‘barra’ of the U which is basically where all the crazy fans are. It was kind of like a mosh pit on concrete bleachers with singing, dancing, pushing, flag burning, and fireworks. I spent more time watching out for myself and Joe than I did watching the game though, so unless I’m with Peruvian friends I probably wouldn’t do that again. James also made out really well having gone for CNI and we actually lost him for the night as he ended up at a random club making friends and getting free drinks all night becuase of the CNI shirt he was wearing.

Finally, we had a pleasant flight back to Lima where we spent a day before returning to our sites.

Whew, so I made it through. I’ve been back at site a week and a half now, but I’m already off again to Lambayeque for Environment In-Service-Training (IST). I’m bringing my host-brother and my host-cousin and we’ll be spending a few days at a private reserve learning about tree nurseries and eco-tourism. It should be good, although I’m so exhausted from traveling that really I just want to stay in my site. I’m starting to find some of the motivation I’ll need to actually do projects (famous last words) so we’ll see how things go. I started computer classes again and it seems that some of the kids are really finally starting to get it. Others were asking when we were going to study English again so maybe I’ll give teaching English another chance (no one came to the classes before). I’m starting research into a government program that supplies books for communities wanting to start libraries and my health post and I have set Sept. 2 as our next attempt at getting the surveys really under way. We’ll see what happens…

Best,

Brian

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Off to the Jungle pt. 1

Sometimes an adventure you have is so involving that it is hard to talk about it when you first get back. I first experienced this on my return from Japan in 2006. People would ask me ‘How was Japan?’ Ehh… how am I supposed to answer that question? Good. Yeah it was good. Lots of Sushi.

So… how was the jungle? Good. Well okay, amazing. I already want to go back.

But, that’s not where this story begins. So in continuing with my inability to break the narrative style of this blog, here’s the trip from day one… more or less.

The trip started in Ancash of course with the visit of three friends from the States. Matt, a long-time friend from high school; Ben, another good friend and one of my fraternity brothers; and Marisa, a friend of Ben’s from studying abroad in Chile.

This part of the trip was one of my favorites. We had to rush around a little but we were all fresh into the journey and excited about seeing each other and that energy carried us a long way.

The first part of that experience was fairly local, for me. We took an easy hike to visit the ruins of Honkopampa that are near James’ site. Then, after walking through Pashpa (where James lives) we went to Collón where everyone got to meet my host family. This went very well and the newcomers got to try their hand at preparing and eating guinea pigs. We experienced every step in the process from pulling the live guinea pigs out of bags, to killing them, to cleaning and gutting them, to cooking them, and finally to eating them. It was quite a good time and it was really fun for me to see everything with ‘new eyes’ again. While everything at my site seems pretty much normal now to me, or if not normal at least expected, to my friends it was completely different. The language, the open-fire cooking, the latrine… everything was a new experience and it was fun watching and participating in that.

After this, we stayed the night at a friend’s lodge near Llanganuco. We cooked ourselves dinner and had a nice time of it, but we went to bed early to prepare for the next day which we spent hiking Lake 69. I was impressed with everyone’s ability to make it up there, it can be a pretty tough hike because of the altitude but we kept a good pace and stayed in good spirits.

Then, after my having to run back to my site to grab my passport which  I had forgotten, we left for Trujillo. There we had our first casualty as Marissa, who had already been sick while in Cusco before joining us, decided she ought to go back to Chile after falling sick again. Matt was sick too that day and so Ben and I wandered around Trujillo and did a tour of the ruins of Chan Chan. An impressive archeological site near the beach.

Next, was a quick stop in Cajamarca where we met up with the rest of our traveling group (Erica, James, and Joe). In an attractive colonial city known for its dairy we had great ice cream and also had the chance to visit local thermal baths which were fantastic (or maybe I was just excited to have my first hot bath in 10 months). We only spent the morning here though, as we had a lot of places to go with not much time, and we pressed on to Celendin where we spent the night visiting other volunteers and making new friends.

From Celendin we finally were making our approach into what is considered the jungle. We took a long but incredibly scenic bus ride to the small town of Tinga, from where we visited the overgrown ruins of Kuelap. An ancient fortress once ruled by the Chachapoyas (People of the Clouds). Kuelap was truly impressive to see, a giant wall surrounds the old village on the top of a hill, where only two narrow passages permit entrance making it extremely difficult to attack. The Incans had to seige the fortress for 8 months in order to defeat it, because they did not dare try to attack. Inside, many ruins of buildings still remain but as it is only recently being studied and excavated it is still overgrown.

After seeing Kuelap, we re-stationed ourselves in the city of Chachapoyas, the local regional capital, from where we visited the even more impressive Gocta Waterfall. This I think was my favorite part of the trip just for the sheer awesomeness of standing under a 771m (2,530 ft) waterfall.

After this, we went on to our next major destination which was Tarapoto. We didn’t do a lot there but we got a hotel by a pool and did some serious relaxation, which was well deserved after all the hard traveling we had done so far. It was also in Tarapoto where Ben had to leave us in order to get back to Santiago. Fortunately though, we picked up another Erica and so with sadness came joy.

Anyway, I need to get off the computer now but I will write about the rest of the jungle trip tomorrow (hopefully).

My best to you all, and pictures will be coming soon!

Brian

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