Giranamo!!!! (sp?)

What does one normally pack for a day of camping in the national reserves of Tumbes with four of their friends? I packed a jar of peanut butter, some bread, an apple, a mango, a spare pair of underwear and shorts and a sleeping bag. This equals me being unprepared. Last week one of my friends called me to see if I wanted to go camping for a night over the weekend. Since my diarrhea had subsided since taking a new antibiotic, I jumped at the idea of getting to know one of Peru´s national parks. The place we were going was called ¨Pozo Azul¨or ¨Blue Well¨ and is located in the Parque Nacional de Cerros de Amotape. It´s about an hour and a half drive from my house plus a two and a half hour hike. I, having signed on at the last minute, assumed we were all ready to go and so I only worried about getting myself to the meeting point early Sunday morning.

I wish I had the gift of foresight. Foresight to know a) we were going to a climate that´s as close as you can get to rainforest (a.k.a. it rains all night and most of the day), b) we were going to travel through a river the entire time, c) it gets cold and most importantly- d) no one brought a camping tent.Knowing these four factors, maybe I would have packed a little smarter or at least second-guessed my decision to go sans-tent.

After getting to our campsite with 20 other Peruvians that were apparently on our trip, we hiked to Pozo Azul to go swimming. This hike included some of the most beautiful sites I´ve ever seen- I don´t even know how to really describe them. We had to hike through a river for an hour, surrounded by trees called ¨ceibols¨that are hundreds of years old and that you would only find in a rainforest. The ecosystem we were in is referred to as ¨bosque seco¨or dry forest, which is where the rainforest meets the regular forest. So basically, it has awesome plants, freaky fruits and tarantulas (not kidding). At one point we were travelling through the river at 10 feet deep with two 25 ft. High walls on either side, which left us with 2 ft. of space to swim through. It was seriously incredible. We knew we reached our destination when we saw a 30 ft. waterfall falling into a giant natural pool of freshwater straight from Ecuador. People my age who watched Disney movies as a kid: picture ¨Fern Gully.¨ That was where we were I swear. It was GORGEOUS. I got to cliff jump into the pool and swing from vines like Tarzan (however, unlike Katey Scanlon, I did not break my foot in the process). We swam, played, jumped, and climbed rocks for close to two hours until it started to get dark and we needed to head back. We made it back in time to get a fire going which was a miracle because it had started to rain decently hard. This is when it became clear that the two mosquito nets we brought probably wouldn´t keep out rainforest-style rains. F. Being soaked, rained on, with no type of shelter is a pretty low situation to find yourself in when you´re five hours walking from civilization. I won´t bother you with details but just know that without the grace of some prepared and awesome Peruvians that let us a tent (albeit with holes that we covered with leaves), my sleeping bag would have probably never dried out. However, don´t worry- it still managed to be a pretty lousy night´s rest with an abundance of crickets in our tent that like hanging out in our sleeping bags and trying tofit five people into a thre person tent (one, poor Greg, ended up leaving and sleeping outside in the rain). Not to mention getting soaked. You would think being a Peace Corps kid now, I would have beenmore prepared. Haha- cést la vie.

The next day, waking up sore and cold, we breakfasted withthe awesome Peruvians who I learned live only ten minutes away from me in San Juan. We then went looking for monkeys for four hours, which turned out to be a bust but hey, it´s pretty neat to say we went monkey searching in the wild. Did anyone else do that last weekend?After the monkey search, we packed up, and hauled butt to catch the bus before it left us stranded in the rain for who knows how much longer. Overall, it was an adventure and what did I learn from all of this? Peruvians can rock at times and can be the most giving and hospitable people I´ve ever come across (not like I´m this amazing world traveler or anything).

Okay let´s see... other news. Carnaval traditions have started around ehre even though the actual fesival is Feb. 12th- 17th. These ¨traditions¨mean water balloon fights. I have narrowly avoided getting pegged with some while walking through Tumbes city (thank God because the kids use smelly, dirty water to fill them up), but yesterday Pol (brother-17), Prixi (sister-13), Artur (cousin-8) and Ihad a war. Pol and Ihave begun to understand eachother- we are both sarcastic and like to pick on Prixi.The war began when Prixi was wandering around the house with a giant water balloon in her hand and a shitty grin on her face. After she walked outside to go to the bathroom, Pol filled up two balloons and stood stationed behind the bathroom- waiting for Prixi to exit. Upon exiting, Prixi got doused. This encouraged her to throw her´s at Pol then grab a pitcher of water and chase Pol around the backyard with it. Not wanting to feel left out, I filled up some balloons and battled against my eight year old cousin Artur. I have terrible aim. His is great. I got hit square in the butt, which soaked my last pair of clean underwear. This encouraged retalliation on my part,which turned out successful until I tripped over a giant slab of concrete, slid across it and fell into our pile of ashes where we burn out trash. So much for washing that white tank top. After twenty minutes of this, Pol and I managed to corner Prixi in the shower and just went to town on her with balloons and buckets of water. There was not inch of dryness on her afterwards.

So yes, that was my last Sunday, Monday and Tuesday more or less. In my next blog, I can tell you about my uncle and aunt´s wedding that I went to last night or about how I finally started my community diagnostic! Keep warm everyone!