Almost One Month Later...

Sorry peeps, I started this blog three weeks ago I just haven’t been able to finish it- I have no idea why!!! I think it’s because I have so much I could write about

Que tal amigos! It has been foreverrrr I am well aware, but cut me some slack; life has been going at the same speed of an F5 tornado. So yes, in this blog I have decided to highlight certain random points of my life instead of writing one that could compete with War and Peace.
First off - my birthday. I have never had, nor do I think I could ever aspire to have, a birthday as great as I had on March 24th, 2010. It was phenomenal. And I don’t mean in the sense Joseph Gordon-Levitt got down on bended knee and proposed to me. (although, don’t get me wrong people, that would have been great). It was just that I had to hold back tears after being witness to the unlimited kindness of my family and friends. I woke up to see my mom and cousin shucking potatoes to make a special birthday lunch that took HOURS TO COOK. I sang karaoke with my entire health post that all got together to celebrate my first birthday away from home. I danced the Macarena and ate guacamole with the other volunteers that came over to hang out and had a two hour dance party sober in my living room with my cousins. But these descriptions still do not give the people justice that I was with. It was incredible how many people remembered, came by to give me a hug, and truly were happy to spend time with me. I received the most thoughtful presents from neighbors, family, friends and even my sister’s friend’s mother crocheted me the most beautiful skirt I have ever seen, and I have never even met the woman.

These Peruvians continue to surprise me (note: this is where you are supposed to pause and think about all of the goodness in your life).
Okay, now that that’s all done and briefly described, I will let you in on my adventure to the jungle of Peru.

Well, I guess I should start off by being politically correct and telling you that I didn’t actually go to the deeeeep selva of Peru and travel by boat or try any hallucinogenic cactus drinks. I went to the “ baja selva” or lower jungle. This means I was in between the “deep selva” and the really high sierra, or mountains of Peru. So it made for a perfect climate. Sans humidity, sans sunburn, plus all the adventure I needed in a four day period.

Plus I got to reunite with some of my best friends in training.

And all of the greatness started off with a bidet. Yep. You wouldn’t think that a Peace Corps girl like myself would ever find herself in a situation when she would be using a bidet in South America and while on a Peace Corps budget. That’s because it wasn’t the Peace Corps budget that allowed me to use the glorified fountain- it’s because I stopped by to say hello to my friend who was staying at the luxurious hotel with her mother in Miraflores, Lima (shout outs to you Babs and Mrs. Bab) who was visiting that week. And in addition to that perk, my friends Katie, Annie, Babs, and I watched MTV music videos for two hours before we hopped on our night bus to La Merced, Pasco.

Moving on…

So to let all of geography wizards know, I was in the department of Pasco- next door to Húanuco and Ucayali, which is as close as you can get to the middle point of Peru. While there, I traveled to the towns of Oxapampa and Pozuzo to explore and stay in the GERMAN colonies that were founded there back in the 1850s. It was incredible. After driving by combi for 5 hours along a terrain that was bordered by a 1,000 foot cliff and a mountain on either side, let along no sign of civilization whatsoever, we suddenly came upon a town that looked like it was out of Hansel and Gretel. It was incredible. At first I couldn’t decide whether it was creepy like M. Night Shamalan’s movie “The Village” or if it was a really cute, rustic antique town. After two days, I decided on the latter.

We stayed at a lodge owned by a German-Peruvian that fed us delicious breakfasts every morning and was furnished with the comfiest beds I have slept in since leaving the States. We hiked a lot, went to a 300 foot waterfall and swam around, traversed a bat cave, saw the famous Peruvian “Cocks of the Rock” in a bird sanctuary, I tried sugar cane alcohol for the first time, went to Easter mass in a German- built Catholic Church, had a very successful hostel party until four, and ate falafel and hummus (my favorite meal) while passing through Lima.

Overall, it was best vacation I could have had.

I mean, to describe how it felt to stand underneath a 300 foot waterfall was crazy!
But it came at a price. The combi trip alone getting to this far out colony was insane and made even more so by our decision to go in the rainy season. After our first thirty minutes on the the combi to go to Pozuzo, I asked the driver if any of the combis had driven off the road/ cliffs before and into the river anywhere between 50-1,000 feet below. He replied no, but then immediately supplemented that statement with “no one drives of the road, the mudslides are what carries them away.”

That was the longest three hour car ride of my life as we drove along the edges of mountains where parts of the road (that term is being used as loosely as possible) had been washed away completely by mud slides into the tumbling ravine below. I made sure the Peruvian I was sitting next to had unlocked the door and was ready to jump out if it looked like any air flying was in store for us. Aunt Carol and Uncle Doug- remember when you all said you took the scariest road ever to Kapalupa in Maui that one year? With all of the crosses lining the sides of the road? This was like that, I’m guessing, but with a lot more mud.

What I deemed the funniest part of the trip was when we went exploring a bat cave. Loaded with headlamps and flashlights- we climbed into a hole resembling the rabbit’s from Alice in Wonderland and found ourselves in the midst of a fruit bat hideout. Yeah, the bats were cool I guess, but the funniest part was exploring the guano-filled cave with fourteen of us, some lacking headlamps and others wearing only Chacos on their feet.

After getting stuck in a locker when I was thirteen years old (don’t ask), I definitely had some chlaustrophobic feelings as I climbed in between rocks and could only imagine how it would feel like if I got lost in there. But I didn’t so no harm done.

After leaving the bat cave, we all went out to get dinner. I managed to find a place where I could wash my hands thoroughly of the guano that was staining them brown and then anti-bacterialized the hell out of them afterwards. However, I cannot say the same for all of the people I was with.

My friends and I picked up some street food and went to eat in the park. My friend Annie bought a papa rellena, which required her to eat it with her hand or a plastic fork. The fork wasn’t really doing its job as Annie ended up eating most of it with her hands. Until I pointed out that her hands were still brown and she had residues of bat guano on her face.

Annie never washed her hands.

Annie’s hands were brown.

Annie was sticking her hands in her mouth.

Annie was essentially eating bat poop.

I am wondering if I had ever laughed harder in my life than I did in those 3 minutes.

Granted, Annie also pulled grenadillas (citrus fruit) out of a trashcan the next day and ate them because they still looked “good.” I will admit, I ate one of them, before throwing it away because I felt weird eating someone’s garbage from a Peruvian public trashcan. But hey, one person’s trash is another person’s treasure right?

So right now as I look at my computer screen, Microsoft Word tells me I’ve written three pages. I feel like that’s a pretty heavy blog and your eyes are all tired by now so I will stop. But thanks for reading all of this, I’m sorry I didn’t put it up sooner. Hopefully I can write another one this week detailing what I’ve been up to for the past eight days as I’ve been traveling northern Peru for my “early in-service training.” It wasn’t a vacation people, I will tell you that. Stay tuned!