Arequipa and the Colca Valley

After leaving the jungle, we were all exhausted and couldn’t imagine the rest of the trip living up to what we had just experienced. We flew from the jungle (Puerto Maldonado) to Cusco, where we had a layover before going on to Arequipa. Some of our friends from the jungle – a couple we met from England – was on our plane to Cusco and sat right near us so as we were getting off the plane, we were talking to them, rather than paying attention to our own belongings. About a half an hour after landing in Cusco, I was sitting with all of our stuff while my parents were window shopping. All of a sudden I see them run out of the store to a ticket counter for Lan Peru. I immediately looked at all of our stuff and realized what had happened – dad’s camera was still on the plane and on its way to Lima! The people who work for the airline radioed the plane to let them know what happened, but couldn’t confirm that the camera was still on the plane until it landed in Lima. Of course we were all nervous that someone had seen us walk off without it and was going to take it, but God must have been watching over us that day because it was still there! Dad was able to describe exactly where it was and what the bag it was in looked like and they agreed to fly it to Arequipa the next day! Thank God because what a disaster that would have been!

The plane we took to Arequipa passed through Juliaca (the airport at Lake Titicaca) and more passengers got on because after Arequipa, it went on to Lima. As we were getting off the plane in Arequipa, Dad says, “hey I know that guy!” – turns out it was some of their friends from California – Coby and Denise! My parents knew they were in Peru and visiting the jungle and Lake Titicaca as well, but we were still very surprised to see them! They were on their way home and got on in Juliaca to travel to Lima. What a small world!

It was beautiful flying into Arequipa because the sun was setting as we arrived – it was very dramatic with all of the mountains enveloping the city. Arequipa is the same elevation as Bambamarca (7500 ft.), but VERY different from what I expected. It is really dry and arid there so everything is brown, but it is surrounded by snow-capped mountains and a few active volcanoes - we saw a few from the plane and one was even smoking! Arequipa has one million people so it’s much more like Lima than Cajamarca, but more quaint than Lima (and the drivers aren’t nearly as crazy!). We met our new guide shortly after we landed and headed to our hotel. Our new guide was Raúl. He was very nice and extremely knowledgeable, but he was no Gerson. He’s been a tour guide for 18 years so to me it was more obvious that he saw this as a “job” not necessarily a passion like it was for Gerson since he’s still young and so fresh. We still had a great time with Raúl and learned a lot – he was like a walking encyclopedia of the region, as well as Peruvian politics, history, economics, etc. so dad loved it!

Arequipa is the link between the coast (1 ¾ hrs. away) and the highlands (1 ½ hrs. away). It is known as the intellectual capital of Peru with three universities – one public and two private – and it is also the alpaca capital. Arequipa does very well economically because of the alpaca and also from the copper mines. There are three copper mines near Arequipa (45 mins, 6 hrs and 8 hrs outside of the city) that bring a lot of people and money to the city. On top of that, even though the city is very arid and does not receive much rainfall, they have a very intricate irrigation system with terraced farming that allows the farmers in Arequipa city to have three harvests a YEAR of onions and garlic – not bad for such a dry place! Raúl also told us that most of Peru’s asparagus (their number one export) is grown only about an hour outside of the city!

The two Raúls (the driver’s name is also Raúl) dropped us off at the hotel to have a quiet night and catch up on some rest. The hotel is REALLY nice with internet so I was excited to finally look at my email. I felt so deprived for a whole week without it – I can’t imagine my friends, like Hana, who only get to check their email every 2-3 weeks! As soon as we got into our room, Dad ran to the bathroom to make sure there were two faucets in the shower – one for hot water of course. He was thrilled and I’m pretty sure was in the shower within two minutes of arriving! Hahahaha – good thing he doesn’t have to do this for two years (he told me at the end of their trip, “Kristen, there is a reason most Peace Corps volunteers are in their twenties!”). After dad had his shower, we went down the street to have some dinner. Dad ordered alpaca meat and absolutely loved it (he had lots more alpaca meat over the next few days and none of it tasted as good as that first night at the restaurant so he’s pretty convinced they served him beef at the restaurant and just called it alpaca – gotta love this country!). Mom and I both had some asparagus soup because we weren’t that hungry and it was absolutely delicious! I could have eaten about four bowls of it. For dessert we ordered this dessert called “queso helado” because it’s typical of the region. Queso helado literally means cheese ice cream or cold cheese so we were a little skeptical, but it turned out to be pretty good. It’s actually these little frozen tres leches (3 milks – condensed, evaporated, and regular) balls that were flavored with cinnamon and coconut.

After finally getting to talk to Giff (for the first time in a week!) and checking my email, I went to bed. I was hoping to sleep in a little the next morning since we’d been getting up at 4:30 everyday, but apparently dad had other plans for us. He woke up at 7 so I guess he thought we should all get up and opened the curtains to let in the bright sunlight – thanks, dad! Luckily I had a HOT shower to wake me up so it wasn’t so bad. After eating breakfast and dropping off 9 kilos of laundry (to actually be washed in a machine!) we were picked up by the two Raúls for a half day city tour. We were looking forward to resting in the afternoon, but we didn’t get home until 10 pm!

We started our city tour on the outskirts where we could see nice views of the three mountains (all over 18,000 ft.) surrounding the city – Chachani, Misti (volcano) and Pichu Pichu – and the terraced farming Raúl had told us about the night before. It was absolutely beautiful and really impressive! (I must admit, we had perfect weather our whole trip and a private tour the whole time that stopped whenever we wanted them to and really wonderful, knowledgeable guides, so we were really spoiled.) Raúl told us that in August there is a “crazy marathon” in Arequipa. It’s not really a marathon because it’s only 18 km, rather than 42, but the people RUN from the Plaza de Armas to the top of Misti! It takes place over two days – the first day they run to 16,000 ft. and camp out; the next day they summit and come back down! Good lord!

The rest of the tour was spent exploring the downtown area. We visited a couple of churches – La Companía de Jesus and the main Cathedral on the Plaza. Apparently there was a huge earthquake in 1970 that destroyed many buildings in the city so there has been a huge restoration project going on since then. Raúl said they are doing a nice job for the most part trying to restore everything to its original state, but the Cathedral is much more modern than it used to be and is very stuffy inside. La Companía church, on the other hand, was beautiful. It has a very Spanish feeling to it because of the architecture and a very impressive fresco we saw inside. The fresco has lots of flora and fauna painted in it, but it’s not flora and fauna you would find in Arequipa, but what you would find in the jungle because that is where the Spanish came from before arriving in Arequipa. The church also has many Incan influences – as they tied their traditions in the Catholic ones. We saw this trend all over the region both in architecture and local customs.

The Plaza de Armas in Arequipa is beautiful. It was bustling that day because they were celebrating Corpus Christi and setting up for a big party that night. There were also tons of students from local high schools in the streets making these huge “carpets” out of sawdust and flowers. We heard there is a contest of who can make the best carpet to recognize the day. They were so impressive – I had never seen anything like that before. Another thing that struck me about the Plaza in Arequipa was that there were tons of men sitting on benches surrounding the Plaza with typewriters. Raúl said they are there to type up oficios (official documents) for people who need to present them to the Municipality. It only costs one sol (30 cents) too – what a great idea!

One of the most famous landmarks in Arequipa is the Santa Catalina convent so that was the next stop on our tour. I didn’t think I would like it that much, but it turned out to be really interesting. It is HUGE – they call it the city within a city because it is 20,000 sq. meters! The convent dates back to the 16th century and is still being used today, but only a small part of it, the rest was opened to the public as a museum. Currently there are only 24 nuns living there and their life is not nearly as strict as it was in the past. Their vow of silence is only for three hours a day and they are allowed to leave more often.

When the convent first opened, it was a law that the second daughter in every family had to go live at the convent and become a nun. Their families had to pay a dowry and build them apartments or houses to live in. They could even have up to four servants! It is a cloister convent so the nuns had to take a vow of silence and could never leave. They weren’t allowed to look in mirrors or even see their own body naked because it was considered vain to look at yourself so they even had to wear tunics to bath (sponge bath only)! At the height of the convent there were 81 houses at Santa Catalina – all with beautiful furniture and china because they were from wealthy families. In 1871, the Pope made a new law that the nuns all had to start living together so houses were eliminated and common eating and sleeping areas were established. It was a huge change for the convent after more than 200 years of living separately. The servants were given the choice to leave, but some decided to stay and become nuns because their life was comfortable there and they were safe.

The convent used to have a boarding school as well where parents sent their daughters as early as age three to live there until they were 14 or 15 and ready for marriage. The nuns educated the girls as well as taught them how to cook, sew, and be a good wife. There was only one nun who chose to stay and become a nun, rather than leave and get married. Her family did not support her, but her brother understood so he paid her dowry and she stayed at the convent until she died at age 87. Her name is Sor Ana and she is beatified. They want to make her a saint, but they are waiting for one more miracle.

Arequipa has another very famous museum – the museum of the ice girl. I don’t know if you remember, but 12 years ago, a scientist named Johan, led an expedition up Ampato, one of the mountains outside of Arequipa city, and found an Incan girl from the 15th century buried in the ice! They call her “Juanita” after the scientist who found her.

At the museum we watched this really interesting video about the expedition and how they found her. During the Incan times, people really believed in the power of the mountains and worshipped them. Today we understand weather phenomenon like “El Niño,” but back then, people thought receiving a lot of rain or having a drought was a result of the mountains reacting to the people’s behaviors and punishing them. Therefore, the Incas would make treks up these 18,000 ft. mountains (in sandles!) to offer sacrifices to the Gods. The ultimate sacrifice was offering your child and some children, like Juanita, were raised in order to be sacrificed by their families (the children knew this). Since these weather patterns are cyclical, people usually saw changes in things after they sacrificed something, and therefore believed what they were doing worked.

All of it seemed a strange mix between Catholicism and Pagan religion. At the top of the mountain, the people who have elaborate ceremonies with potatoes, corn, and chica (an alcoholic drink made from fermented corn). The chica would help intoxicate the child to be offered and then they would kill the child with a spear-like tool. After they had killed the child, they would bury him or her with many ornamental things – dolls, fabrics, pottery, llama figurines, etc. – as more sacrifices to the Gods.

I found the tour really interesting, but at the end, we actually saw Juanita who is kept in a freezer at -20º C and that freaked me out a little bit. Here was this 12 year old girl from 500 years ago just sitting there – you could see her hair, flesh, and clothes – it was too much for me. They are able to keep her on display because her body was preserved really well from being buried on top of a glacier. The only reason they found her 12 years ago is because a nearby volcano was erupting and the ash from the volcano landed on the mountain where Juanita was buried. The ash melted the ice and caused her to roll down into a crater. The scientists happened to be on their expedition at the time and found her shortly thereafter. If they had come much later, they would not have been able to use her for research because she was exposed to the sun and starting to thaw. As it is, one side of her is better preserved because it was away from the sun. The museum was very interesting, but kind of weird and eerie in a way.

Our city tour ended after seeing Juanita and we had the rest of the afternoon free. Mom and I went and grabbed lunch while Dad went with Raúl to pick up his camera – what a relief to have it back in one piece! When he got it, it was completely wrapped in plastic (like saran warp) to protect it, but dad was really worried because he could see lots of water trapped between the plastic and his backpack inside. It turns out we forgot to empty his Camelbak (or turn the valve to “off”) before boarding the plane so when they wrapped it in plastic, the pressure caused all of the water to leak out, but it had nowhere to go. Well dad must have a magic backpack because the camera and all of his lenses inside were dry as a bone!

We spent the afternoon shopping for alpaca goods and chocolate because those are the two things Arequipa is known for. Raúl told us 87% of the alpaca products in Peru come from Arequipa even though they have the third largest population of alpacas. The big factories are located in Arequipa so the people in Cusco and Puno (with larger populations of alpacas) send their wool to Arequipa. I’m happy to report we were successful in both departments. We found the best dark chocolate any of us have ever had – I know that’s a bold statement, but it’s true. Unfortunately that particular chocolate was harder to find than we expected so we only had it twice – dad thinks a trip down there for chocolate should be tax deductible (hahaha – at least vacation day deductible in my opinion)!

We headed back to the hotel around 7:15 that evening (after mom and dad had their first experience of the inefficiency of Peruvian pharmacies) to meet Patricia, the travel agent who put our whole trip together. We felt like we owed her our lives for the amazing trip she planned for us. We were so happy to meet her and ranted and raved about the part in the jungle. She gave us a run down of the second half of the trip and promised us it would be just as great as the first half. We thought that was a pretty bold statement, but she was right!

We picked up our 9 kilos of CLEAN clothes from the laundry ladies and headed out for a bite to eat. Patricia suggested this placed called La Creperíe (run by a Swiss man who owns another very popular restaurant in town called Zig Zag). We had a little trouble finding it – and by trouble I mean we were standing outside of the door and asked a passerby where it was – hahahaha – but it turned out to be amazing! It was really small with a great atmosphere. All of the tables had a chess/checkers board painted on them and then had tons of games and magazines in the front that you could use at your table. There were only about 10 tables and a few couches and coffee tables upstairs in the loft. We sat in the loft, but at a regular table and shared two delicious crepes – curry chicken and apple cinnamon for dessert! Plus we all had a hot chocolate to wash it down since Peru has great hot chocolate. It was the perfect ending to a GREAT day with mom and dad! I wish they could stay for my last year….

I LOVED Arequipa and was ready to move there, but when I got back to Cajamarca, I realized it’s the place for me. I wouldn’t leave Cajamarca because I’d miss my friends too much – plus we have better hot chocolate there!

After our quick visit in Arequipa, we left the next morning at 9 am to drive to the Colca Valley. The valley is a huge agricultural area with over 20,000 hectares of terraced land for farming! The farming there dates back to the 7th century and I think Raúl told us is the biggest agricultural area in Peru (but I could be making that up). The Colca Valley is 600 years older than the Sacred Valley in Cusco, but the Sacred Valley is much more commonly known and visited. Also within the valley is the Colca Canyon – our reason for going and one of the deepest canyons in the world (deeper than the Grand Canyon)! The drive there was about 5 hours and absolutely beautiful. The landscape is really dry, but not desert. I was surprised, actually, at how much vegetation there is, and the best part is that you can always see snow-capped mountains in the distance. It was breath-taking!

The ride took us over a pass that was 16,000 ft. at the tallest point – the highest elevation any of the three of us have ever been! We also drove through the Reserva Nacional Salinas y Aguada Blanca (the second largest national reserve in Peru) that was created to protect the straw used for thatched roofs and the population of Vicuñas and Guanacos. These animals, along with the Alpaca and Llama, are all relatives of camels and were originally found in the Rocky Mountains over 40 million years ago! Apparently the reserve is doing its job because Raúl told us the population of vicuñas has grown from 100 to 3,000 over the past 20 years! However, on the other hand, there are only about 150 guanacos.

People use the wool of these animals (mostly Alpacas) to make scarves, sweaters, etc. and sell them commercially. The vicuña wool is much finer than that of Alpacas, and therefore, much more expensive. In order to sheer the vicuñas, they have to catch them by hand and only cut the short hair because their long hair protects their organs. Because this wool is in such high demand, you must have a certificate in order to sell goods made out of vicuña wool. There are two big markets for these products right now – in Japan and Italy – but lots of people try to sell them on the black market in Cusco. On the black market, you can get a scarf for $150 (dollars not soles) rather than $600, but it’s illegal because they don’t have a certificate!

It was really nice taking this long drive because we learned a lot about Peruvian history and politics from Raúl. He was telling us a lot about Fujimori and how much he did for the Peruvian “campo” (countryside). He built many schools and hospitals in the rural areas of Peru, which has considerably helped their standard of living. He also connected the Pan American highway in Peru with the rest of the continent. Right now they are building a highway from Brazil that will run through northern Bolivia and southern Peru (the jungle, Arequipa, etc.) in order to connect the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. There are obviously many advantages to this, but at the same time, many locals are very concerned how much it is going to change their lives and disrupt the habitats of all of the animals in the rainforest. I sympathize with the locals because as we were driving throughout the valley and admiring the beautiful landscape, it made me sad to think how much a 4-lane highway is going to tear up that place and take so much away from its intimate setting.

I think the same goes for tourism. Right now the Colca Valley is virtually unknown to the outside world, but little by little it is growing. There are currently five star hotels being built and I think it’s such a shame because that too will take away from, rather than compliment, the richness of the Colca valley and its peopel. What makes it so special today is how traditional life is there – you drive on dirt roads to get there and see locals walking their livestock down the road without any shoes on. There are both Quechua and Aymara people there who both dress in a distinct style, not for “show” for the tourists, but because that is their heritage. In some ways you want tourism to grow because it certainly contributes to their economic development, but in other ways, you want to preserve everything just the way it is because, unless it is done delicately and with the input of the local people, it will completely change their lives – they cannot walk their livestock down paved roads because it will burn their feet and the tourist vans will be whipping around every corner; nor will the people be dressing in their traditional clothes except for show for the tourists. It is definitely a delicate balance and I don’t have the answer as to the best way to do it, other than to keep the local people involved and listen to what they want.

Well now that I’ve put in my two cents about developing tourism in the valley, I will continue to describe what we did while we were there. One of the main reasons people go there (besides to hike in the canyon) is to watch the condors flying out of the canyon early in the morning. So the first morning we were there, we got up early to drive to the “Cruz del Condor” (Condor Cross) and watch for the condors. As you can imagine, I was not very excited about this given my feeling towards birds, but it ended up being really cool. They warned us that we might not see any since they are birds and we cannot predict their behavior, but going along with the great luck we’d had thus far on the trip, we lucked out again and saw at least 50 condors that morning! At the most, we saw 13 flying around at one time – even our guide was impressed by that! I’m not quite sure why I wasn’t scared since their wingspan is about 10 ft. and they were flying right over our heads, but I ended up getting just as excited about it as everyone else. It was really hard to take pictures because the sun was really strong and all I could see when I looked at my camera was my own reflection, but I guess when you take about 50 pictures, you’re bound to get a couple of good ones!

Besides seeing the condors, we also spent some time driving around the valley and learning about the local communities and terraced farming. At its height in the 16th century, the Colca Valley had 66,000 people and was the largest center in the West Andes. Today though, there are only about 32,000 people spread among 14 different communities. One of the towns we visited, Chivay (where Raúl lives), is about the size of Bambamarca, but seems to be doing much better than Bambamarca because it is the entrance to the canyon and therefore receives a lot of tourism. It was nice to see such a small town “thriving” in its own way. Bambamarca has a lot of great potential tourist destinations around it (ruins, caves, etc.), but unfortunately tourism is not valued by the people right now and therefore they do not see the need to develop it. Hopefully someday soon!

Another thing that really struck me was how much farming goes on for such a dry area. Raúl told us the water for the valley comes down from the glaciers on Mismi – a nearby mountain – but it did not look like it had much snow on it at all. Raúl was telling us that when he was a kid, all of the mountains in that area were covered in snow all year long, and now, very few even have snow! It is so scary to see global warming “in action” like that because it really makes you think about what a pressing issue it is for the entire world and how much it will change all of our lives if we don’t do something about it now.

Besides for all of the beautiful landscape and interesting information we heard, one of my favorite parts of the Colca Valley was the lodge we stayed at. We heard it was “rustic” but it was definitely luxury rustic! The rooms were really nice with big down comforters and a loft where I got to sleep. They also had HOT water so that right there takes it out of the “rustic” category. The best part though was that they had thermal baths in this beautiful location! Dad didn’t want to go the first day because he thought it was too cold, but I wasn’t about to miss out on that opportunity so mom and I went it and he just came to take our pictures. Man was it NICE! They are nestled in the valley amongst the mountains and the hot water just feels so great next to the cold air outside. That was definitely the best part of the valley in my opinion – sure the condors and terracing were impressive, but I’ll take the baths, thank you! Just kidding, it was all amazing!

Stay tuned for more about the trip!!!

And Now Some Pictures of the Rest of the Trip!

These are pictures from the drive to Colca Valley and the Colca Canyon. I already posted a few pictures from our day in Arequipa so I didn't post any here. I'm almost finished with the entry about that part of our trip so stay tuned!

A view from the car on the way to the Colca Canyon.

One of the MANY vicunas we saw in the National Reserve.


Some more glaciers we saw on our ride.

Mom and me just outside of Arequipa.

Dad and me with Chanchani in the background!

The three of us at 16,000 ft!

A beautiful view of the canyon.

Mom and me in the thermal baths at our lodge!

Looking good in our robes after the thermal bath.....it was wonderful!

A view of our lodge....it was luxury....if this is what Peace Corps would like I could easily make it two years!

Another incredible view!

Some typical landscape of the Colca Valley.

One of the many condors we saw at the Cruz del Condor.

Some more condors....

And another! Surprisingly, I wasn't even scared!

Mom and me (with a condor in the background) taking a break from picture taking. Do you know how hard it is to take a picture of FLYING birds???

Some of the MANY terraces (used for farming) that date back to the 7th century!

Awwww so cute!

What a setting! It doesn't get much better than this!

The gate leading into the town of Chivay (all of the towns in the Valley have these gates).

Having some tea in front of the Misti Volcano.

A picnic lunch on the way to Lampa.

Back to the Jungle

Well now that my trip with mom and dad is over, it’s time for me to attempt to recap it all and fill you in on the trip of a lifetime. For those of you who don’t want to read the details, I’ll just say that the trip was 1,000 times better than any of us could have imagined. At the end of it all we tried to think what we would have cut out, but we all agreed on nothing because everything was so incredible and special. We have no complaints – just wonderful memories and funny stories to walk away with – oh and about 3,000 pictures – we are the Cummings after all! (Hopefully we’ll be able to delete at least a third of them!)

I will split up the entries according to different legs of our trip as we all know I tend to get carried away and write novels about everything. I figure this way, you can read about the trip as you have time (or desire). I’m going to write the entries in the order we visited each place and post them as I get them done (with pictures too!). I hope you enjoy reading it as much as we enjoyed living it!

Now, back to the jungle. It already seems so long ago that we were there. It’s pretty amazing how quickly time flies by. My friends are all making fun of me for taking a month off of Peace Corps, which is essentially what I’ve done since I’ve borrowed vacation days through next year! One of my friends was joking with me that some volunteers are getting together to auction off vacation days because they’ve heard I could use some! Hahaha – I wish they could, but unfortunately that’s not allowed – I certainly have no complaints though! Oh and speaking of time flying, on Saturday, June 23rd my friends of Peru 7 and I celebrated ONE YEAR in Peru! Can you believe it? On a daily basis it sure doesn’t feel like time is flying back, but looking back on it, you wonder where all the time went. My parents treated me to a night at Costa del Sol (the nicest hotel in Cajamarca) to celebrate – I had a Jacuzzi bath before bed and a hot shower in the morning – now that might not seem that exciting to you, but ask my parents, bathing in hot water is pretty much heaven on earth! Thanks, mom and dad! You guys are the BEST!! I miss them so much already….

Well now that I’ve rambled on for three paragraphs, I will get back on task to writing about our trip. As I said in the last entry I wrote about the jungle, we had a BLAST there. It was absolutely beautiful and more fun than I ever imagined. Some parts of the jungle were very much how I expected it to be, swampy, wet, and muddy – on some trails we walked through mud up to our calves! (and therefore wore these knee high rubber boots every time we went on a hike). However, there were other parts that were much drier and not as muddy, it looked just like a forest you’d see anywhere (well, sort of). Over the week that we were there, we walked on a lot of different trails that took us all over the forest surrounding the lodge. Some trails were about 60 meters higher (in altitude) than others and we were surprised to see what a difference just 60 meters made in the vegetation we saw. Another thing that surprised me was how shady it seemed in the forest because of the canopy. Most of the time, I just thought it was a cool and cloudy day, but then we would emerge into a part without canopy covering and it was so HOT because the sun was beating down on us without protection.

Like I said earlier, Gerson really knew a lot about the animals and vegetation in the jungle and was always teaching us new things. There is this one type of tree in the jungle called a walking palm tree because its roots are exposed and supposedly they “walk” 10-15 cm a year to find the best sunlight! Gerson told us this story about a farmer who placed a machete in the middle of the roots to see if this was really true and over five years it had moved half a meter (1.5 feet)! We saw lots of different types of trees while we were there, but I’d say this is the most unique. I think Gerson told us most of the trees there are really young compared to the trees we see in North America (I could be making that up though). There are some trees that have tons of tiny little thorns on them so Gerson warned us that we shouldn’t touch or grab on to anything without looking at it first. One day we were walking and Gerson said, “don’t touch this tree.” Next thing we hear is mom saying “OWWWW” – hahahaha – apparently she didn’t hear him! Mom was always making us laugh. The first day we were there Gerson pointed out some cicada nests to us (those bugs that make TONS of noise). The nests stay in the ground for one year then emerge as these tall and skinny pink nests that the cicadas come out of – in North America, however, they stay in the ground for 17 years which is why we had an invasion of cicadas in DC a few years ago. Anyway, before Gerson told us what they were, mom kicked one over and then asked what it was – he told her she’s not supposed to kick them over – oopsie! She felt so bad that she kept asking him if she could go back and pick it up, but he told her it was okay. Hahaha, oh mom.

We also saw tons of different ants, who knew that there were so many. The most interesting ones were the leaf-carrying ants that travel up to 2 km away from their holes to get little pieces of leaves that they carry back to use as food. Before they can eat it though, they pee and spit on it to form the leaves into a fungus and then they eat the fungus – ewww. We kept joking that I could help them in their process since every time we went on a hike I had to pop a squat on the side of the trail (almost got poked by a lot of sticks!). These particular ants have a queen ant, like bees, that designates which tree they are going to climb to get their leaves – it’s really fascinating to watch. Gerson kept telling us not to step on them and mom thought that was hilarious because it was so hard to avoid them.

Another time we saw some termites climbing on this one tree and Gerson told us we had to eat them! He said farmers use the termites to feed their chickens and everyone has to try them so of course we listened to them and did. Later we found out that we were the only ones who ate them – apparently we’ll do anything the guide tells us! They were really small though and just tasted like dirt. It’s still pretty disgusting. After that we became more skeptical of what he told us! Another type of ant we saw was an army ant that travels in a long line (like soldiers marching) and has pinchers that local people use to heal their wounds. Gerson picked one up so we could see the pinchers and of course mom wanted a picture – it took her so long to take it though that the ant dug its pinchers into Gerson’s finger and he started bleeding! The last type of ant we saw were fire ants that live in this one type of tree. They have a symbiotic relationship with the tree and larvae that live inside the tree (and create tunnels for the ants). The ants protect the tree so that nothing grows around its base or up its trunk. If you knock on the tree, all of the ants come out because it means there is danger – crazy, huh?

When Gerson wasn’t explaining something to us, he and I usually spoke in Spanish and mom always tried to guess what we were talking about. The day we saw the fire ant tree (and before he explained anything to us), Gerson told me to touch the tree to “probar como pican” (see how the ants bite). Well mom heard his say “pican” and asked, “Oh is this a pecan tree?” Hahahahaha – we were laughing so hard since “pican” in Spanish means bite not pecan. You can always count on mom to keep things entertaining. It was equally entertaining when she tried to impersonate the calls Gerson made for monkeys or birds because of course she sounded nothing like him – not that I could do much better, but that’s why I didn’t try!

Some of the most exciting things we saw on our hikes were the monkeys. We saw five different types of monkeys while we were there – Spider, Saddleback Tamarin, Dusky Titi, Squirrel, and Howler! My favorite type was the spider monkey because they are so active and acrobatic. They swing through the trees like its nothing so they’re really fun to watch. The first time we saw them, Dad wasn’t with us because we had had a really strenuous walk in the morning and he wanted to rest in the afternoon. Gerson spotted them so far away, as usual, so we ran off the trail to get closer to them. [Sidenote: you wouldn’t believe how far away he can spot these animals – especially since I can’t even see them when we’re practically on top of them – or how he can identify the birds by the call they make! They all sound the same to me, especially when they’re flying!] We watched them for about 15 minutes and looked at them through his binoculars to get a better look. Mom couldn’t use the binoculars for too long though because her glasses kept fogging up because she was so hot! (Even though it wasn’t that hot in the jungle, we had to wear long sleeves and pants everywhere we went and most of what we had on was long-john material so it made us really hot.) After watching the monkeys for a while, we decided to keep going, but Gerson was lost since we were off the trail – luckily mom and I have a good sense of direction and we knew which way to go! Haha. The next day we saw spider monkeys again with dad so I was happy because I didn’t want him to miss out on seeing them. Sometimes it’s startling how far they can jump and you want to gasp, but you have to try to hold it in because it’s important to stay quiet while watching them. Dad got so excited though that he yelled, “WHOA – that one just fell 20 feet!” It was so funny because we were all whispering and then dad yells this out. Gerson thinks it just jumped, not fell, so after that we kept teasing dad that we saw monkeys fall about 100 feet!

The Saddleback Tamarin (the smallest monkey in the jungle) and the Dusky Titi monkeys were cute, but not as active as the spider monkeys, so we didn’t watch them for as long, but it’s still so cool to see them in their natural habitat. The first day at TRC we saw about five Howler monkeys in one tree. They are one of the biggest types of monkey in the jungle (along with the Spider money – fatter, but shorter) and are a reddish-brown color. They aren’t very active either, but what makes them interesting is the loud noise they make – it sounds like howling wind (hence their name) and is so LOUD – you can hear it up to 2 km away! They do it as a defense mechanism. It was fun to see them that first day because we had heard them earlier that morning at the clay lick, but dad didn’t get a good look at them so we kept hoping we’d get a better look at them. One day Gerson saw them after lunch, really close to the lodge, but didn’t come get us because he thought we were resting so we kept teasing him that we were really mad about it. Luckily we got a really good look at them after the clay lick on of our last mornings so he was off the hook!

Although we loved everything about the jungle – the clay lick, the hikes, the people we met – our favorite activity was probably kayaking. That’s right, kayaking. I’ve only been kayaking about four times – and I was the most experienced out of all of us so we were a little nervous, to say the least. Not to mention the fact that Gerson kept telling us what to do if we capsized so we were paranoid, but we all managed to do really well and LOVED it! We took the boat about 30 minutes up river to the border of the National Reserve and the National Park (where you need to have a permit to enter). Gerson wanted to take us further up river, but there was a big group of rafters arriving that day and if they saw us, they would have told on us so we couldn’t go further. It was absolutely beautiful where we got off because to the south you could see the snow-capped mountains of Puno off in the distance! Although we were nervous at the beginning – especially because of the strong current – we all did really well (mom called herself a “windmill” because of her good paddling skills). It was so fun and a lot easier than I expected it to be. It was so peaceful and relaxing. I wish we could have stayed out there all day. We paddled about 2 hours down river and then onto this small creek because Gerson had seen a whole family of river otters there the day before. We didn’t see the otters, but we did see a huge cayman on shore that we were able to get really close to and at least 50 squirrel monkeys playing and swinging through the trees right off shore. It was awesome. It all felt so surreal! I kept telling myself, I’m in the jungle in Peru! How cool is this?!?

Oh yeah, when the boat dropped us off to start kayaking, mom asked that they drop us off on a sandy strip instead of the rocky part of the beach because she and dad don’t have “Peruvian feet” (they think I’m Peruvian since I’ve lived here for a year now). Well they honored her wish, but little did she know what a terrible idea that would turn out to be. They called it the “playa” where we got dropped off, but it was really just six inches or so of silt on top of rocks so when you walked on it; you just sank right down to the rocks underneath. Mom and dad waited there in the sand while Gerson got the kayaks ready for us (I was on the river bank trying to pee of course before we left). Next thing mom knows, she looks down and her legs are COVERED in little green bugs. She said something and dad realized he was covered too. We didn’t really think anything of it, but later that day, we saw that they had been eaten alive! Of course mom made us count her bug bites – between her knee and her ankle she had approximately 85 bug bites on one leg and 80 on the other! Whereas mom had more bites (about 165 compared to dad’s 130ish), her bites didn’t bother her, but dad’s legs swelled up and were incredibly itchy! I felt so bad for him because on top of the bites, his legs were also sunburned so he was really uncomfortable. Luckily the next day was low activity. We went to the clay lick in the morning (the BEST morning we had with at least 5 types of parrots eating clay – felt like we were in a Natoinal Geographic show) and then just took the boat upriver to Refugio Amazonas to spend one last night before leaving for the airport the next day. Gerson offered to take us on an afternoon hike, but we opted out of it because we were all tired and dad’s legs and feet were really bothering him. He realized the next morning that one reason his feet hurt so badly was because he had been wearing MOM’S hiking boots! They both have a size 9, but mom’s are a women’s size 9 – oopsie! You can’t blame him though since we had been getting up at 4:30 everyday. It was still really funny though – Gerson laughed so hard that I think he started crying!

After kayaking all morning, Gerson gave us the afternoon off to rest and instead, we went on a night hike to see the jungle at night. It was sort of hard to “rest” though because a group of 11 rafters arrived that day after spending about a week on the river, rafting up to TRC from Puno! After their long trip they all wanted to celebrate so they started drinking around 2 pm. They made so much NOISE. We felt like they came in and invaded the place and acted like they were the only ones there. Mom was SO annoyed with them and called them the “loud mouths”. She even wants to write a letter to their leader to say how inconsiderate she thought they were of the other guests. I understand they wanted to celebrate, but they were really obnoxious. Here we were in this tree-house type lodge in the middle of the jungle and they’re smoking, drinking, and yelling. It completely changed the atmosphere of the place, but luckily we only had one night there with them so it could have been much worse. We thought the party would be going on until 5 am – Peruvian style – but by the time we got back from our walk around 10 pm, it had pretty much died down. I guess that’s what happens when you start drinking at 2 pm. Two people got so drunk they biffed it and passed out! Oh boy.

Since we couldn’t do much resting, we decided to use the time to do some more laundry and take showers – both of which we had perfected over the past few days. Laundry was done by hand of course since there is no electricity out there. We were told not to bring any cotton into the jungle because it would mold, so we only had a few articles of clothing each for the whole week (mom only had one pair of pants because she forgot her rain pants – in Walnut Creek we think. She reminded us at least eight times a day that she was wearing the only pair of pants she had – haha). Because of a lack of clothes, we did laundry just about every afternoon. Dad and I were quite the team at washing, but the problem was drying. Even though the clotheslines were in direct sunlight, it was so humid there that it took FOREVER for anything to dry. Even the pages of our books and notebooks wrinkled from the weather. We learned really fast that “quick-drying” does not apply to the climate in the jungle! We often had to put on wet clothes if we wanted to wear something clean.

Putting on wet clothes was always fun after a COLD shower. Even though I boil water at my site (because it’s so cold outside), I’ve taken cold showers on the coast so I knew what to expect, but mom and dad were a different story. I laughed so hard every time they showered because you could hear them gasping for air! It was always a big effort to take a shower and we would only do it immediately after we got back from a hike and were still hot, otherwise, you can forget about getting in that cold water. Believe it or not, it actually felt refreshing afterwards, even if you were covered in goose bumps! I got to the point where I didn’t mind it so much and even took a shower the last day without having gone for a hike first, but Dad couldn’t bring himself to do it knowing he would have a hot shower the next night! Haha.

Oh yeah, our night hike was awesome! Even though I kept joking that I wanted to camp out in the jungle, I thought it might be a little scary, but I wasn’t scared at all. I’m sure that was because Gerson was so calm and made us feel really relaxed. If I were alone, I probably would have peed my pants. We walked around for two hours looking for snakes, frogs, spiders, and whatever else we could find. Gerson really wanted us to see a spider, but dad is scared of snakes, so lucky for him we didn’t see any. We only had our headlamps and flashlights to see so I was amazed Gerson spoted anything at all – especially because so many of the insects are camouflaged. He asked me to help him spot a snake – yeah right that’s funny – I can’t even see anything in broad daylight! Even though we didn’t see a snake, we saw a lot of cool insects, spiders, and frogs. We also saw a pink-backed tarantula! It was really pretty, believe it or not. It was just sitting on this bamboo shoot and stayed there while we took pictures, but then crawled back inside. Gerson tried to provoke it to come out with a stick, but I guess it was done modeling for us because it didn’t return. I was really amazed how quiet the jungle is at night. During the day, as mom says, “there sure is a lot of raucous in the rainforest,” but at night it is remarkably quiet – besides for some owls and these big rats that make a lot of noise (thank god we didn’t see one of those)!

I think I mentioned in the last entry that our rooms were open to the jungle on one side. Well the first morning we woke up at TRC I saw something strange on one of our shelves in our room where I had a Ziploc bag of snacks and a plastic bag with two granadillas (a fruit with a hard shell that you peel off and eat the juice and seeds inside). As I approached I realized some rodent must have come in our room in the middle of the night because the bag had a hole in it and the shell of one of the granadillas was punctured. Apparently the rodent didn’t like the fruit too much though because it didn’t even finish the fruit and only ate the juice part – the seeds were spit all over the shelf and the other bag of snacks! Needless to say, I threw that stuff away. Luckily that was our only encounter with rodents entering our room (as far as we know), but I’m pretty sure there was a BAT flying around our room the last night when we were at Refugio. I was thrilled about that as you can imagine….of course my parents slept right through it!

Just to give you an idea of all of the flora and fauna in the jungle, here are a few facts Gerson told us:
-20 types of bananas in the area
-645 species of birds in the Tambopata region – approximately the same amount we have in ALL of North America!
-170+ species of mammals and over 60 of those are just bats!

By the way, in case I didn’t mention earlier, the food was AMAZING. It was so nice not to have to worry about food – every meal was provided and they certainly didn’t allow you to go hungry. It was all Peruvian food, but geared towards tourists so there was always meat and a salad. They also were really good about making me a vegetarian option whenever they served red meat. The guides sat with us at all of our meals and we sat with other people who were there on vacation too so we always had really interesting conversations. One of the macaw researchers usually sat with us too. There are two paid researchers who are more permanents and three volunteers who spend four months there. One of them from Mexico City told me I have a Peruvian accent when I speak Spanish so I was really flattered – better than a gringo accent! Their work is really fascinating and they are all around my age so I really enjoyed talking with them. Gerson asked me why I don’t apply to be a researcher, but I reminded him that I’m afraid of birds and would probably have a heart attack before the four months were over!

As you can see by this EXTREMELY long entry I’ve written, we had a WONDERFUL time in the jungle and we were all really sad to leave. One of our last nights, the three of us had a really nice talk with Gerson about how much we enjoyed having him as a guide and how special he made our trip for us. We’re sure it wouldn’t have been nearly as great with another guide. He expressed that he really enjoyed being our guide as well because we were open to anything – mom and dad were such TROOPERS – and we all had a great time. We clicked immediately with him and all just got along so well. We were so grateful to have been placed with him!

Speaking of mom and dad being troopers, we met this brother and sister from Lima whose mom didn’t go with them because she thought she couldn’t do it. Their mom is even a dancer and in pretty good shape and she still didn’t go! The kids asked to take a picture with mom and dad to show their mom that if my parents could do it, so could she!

I loved the jungle so much that I kept joking that I was going to become a guide there. I tried to practice spotting things for my job there and one time I spotted this bird called a Trumpeter. Gerson said they are the most sought after bird for bird watchers and very rare to see – obviously I’m a natural at this! We only saw one (it was walking), but he said they usually travel in groups. Since I thought I was so good at this, one afternoon when just mom and me went out walking, I told them I’d be on the lookout for wildlife while they were checking something out with mom’s camera or something. I told them I saw a Chestnut-bellied parrot, but apparently that doesn’t exist! There is a Chestnut-fronted parrot and a Red-bellied parrot, but no such thing as the hybrid that I invented, the Chestnut-bellied! Haha. We continued to joke about this the entire time though because we like to burry jokes into the ground. Another joke we liked was the white macaw because one morning at the clay lick we saw an egret fly by and Gerson told mom it was a white macaw. She got so excited and tried to take a picture, while Gerson almost fell over laughing because mom is so gullible (not that I’m much better) – white macaws don’t exist either. At least we were entertaining for Gerson, if nothing else. We might not have been the most in shape group of tourists he’s had, but we were always laughing together and having a great time! After all, that’s what counts the most, right?

One last thing, the stars in the jungle were incredible! Since we were 80 km away from civilization (about 10 hours downriver) it was really clear and it felt like you could reach out a touch the stars. We spotted the cruz del sur (the southern cross) the last night so every night after that we made it a point to look for it!

Our last day was spent taking the boat upriver – back to civilization so we could catch our plane to Arequipa. It felt so much hotter when we got back to the main office to claim the rest of our luggage (we had to leave whatever we weren’t going to use) because we were no longer protected from the sun by the canopy. From the office we went straight to the airport and said our goodbyes to Gerson. It was really sad for all of us – including Gerson, but we exchanged contact information, so maybe we’ll see each other again someday….

More Pictures from the Jungle!

Obviously I'm obsessed with the jungle since I can't stop posting pictures from our trip there! These are a few pictures that my dad took.

Taking a nap before we get on the boat (where I proceeded to fall asleep again)!

Lots of blue and gold macaws, with a few red and yellow and mealy parrots the first day at the Clay Lick (when Gerson snuck us closer!).

A few tayras (part of the wolf family) that came close to the lodge one afternoon.

Some of the chicos hanging out at the lodge - probably looking to steal some food!

Awww look how cute my mom is!

About four howler monkeys hanging out in the tree!

A huge spider we saw on the night walk.

Don't ask me how Gerson spotted this in the dark!

The pink-backed tarantula we saw hanging out on a bamboo shoot on our night hike.

A stick insect - I wonder how it got that name??

The last morning at the Clay Lick with TONS of parrots and a few macaws!

Another shot of the parrots as they started to fly away. Send these shots into National Geographic!

Send Me to the Jungle!

Well Mom and Dad finally arrived after I've been anticipating their trip for so many months and we've already had an amazing time together. We spent a night in Lima when they first arrived so we were able to visit my old host family in Santa Eulalia. They were as adorable as ever of course. I was SO happy to see them. My parents cried (surprise, surprise) because they just felt so grateful of how much Carmen and her family had welcomed me into their home and included me as part of their family (big change from what things are like now). My Abuelita made arroz con pollo for lunch – one of my favorites – and my parents loved it since she's such a great cook. Then we all sat around talking with them for about 3 hours. I played UNO with Fernando and Naomi while Mom tried to teach Carmen how to use this jewelry making thing we gave to Naomi. Turns out it's really complicated, but Carmen was really into it and is excited about using it! It was hilarious to watch Mom try to explain to Carmen how to use it since they don't speak the same language, but I have to give my mom credit, she does very well for herself with all her crazy hand motions and facial expressions!

Anyway, on to the good stuff. We flew from Lima to spend about a week in the jungle on the Tambopata river. Let me just say that is was absolutely INCREDIBLE!!! It far exceeded my expectations and I can't wait to go back (not that I can afford it, but it's nice to dream). I'm not really sure what I expected actually, but I never thought it would be as much fun as it was.

We were a little worried at first how the trip would pan out because when we arrived at the airport in Puerto Maldonado, no one was there to meet us. There were lots of other people from the company we were using, but no one was holding a sign with our name on it. They were very nice though and took us back to their office to figure out what happened – turns out they weren't expecting us until the next day so when we were arriving at the airport, our guide was at a restaurant eating lunch! We were originally supposed to arrive the next day so there was just some miscommunication somewhere along the way. Our guide showed up about 20 minutes after we got to the office and he was very apologetic. He seemed really nice and told us from the beginning that he promised to give us the best trip he could so we felt like we were in good hands. Plus mom had a crush on him right away. On the 45 minute bus ride to the port (on the river where we caught the boat to the lodge), she kept waving at him and telling me how cute he was! Hahaha.

I'll try to spare you all of the details of the trip since it's already 12:30 am and I need to get up early. I wanted to try and get some stuff written before we get into the next leg of our trip and I forget all of the funny stories I wanted to tell you. The first day we got there we took a 4 hour boat ride down river to the Refugio Amazonas lodge where we spent the night. It was a beautiful boat ride and reminded me of documentaries you see on National Geographic about the jungle. Along the way we saw lots of birds and even a cayman (crocodile)! It was really fun and made me excited for what was to come. When we finally arrived it was already dark so our guides lead us along the path to our lodge. When we emerged from the forest and saw this big beautiful lodge in front of us, I felt like I was in a movie! There is no electricity in the lodge so everything was illuminated by candlelight when we arrived, making it look even more dramatic. They really want you to feel like you're in the jungle so the rooms you stay in are really simple and only have three walls – the other is open to the forest so you don't miss a beat. The rooms are really cute though and all the beds have mosquito nets so you can sleep comfortably without worrying about being eaten alive. They also had a private bath with biodegradable soap and shampoo (I was really impressed). It was sort of like luxury camping!

Our first morning in the jungle, we got up at 5:00 am to go to the Canopy Tower and look for birds. (Little did we know, we actually were "sleeping in" that morning because every other morning we got up at 4:30 to do the same thing!) The tower is about 30 meters high (I think) with 156 stairs (of course mom counted them) and from the top you're about even with the canopy of the rainforest so you can watch for birds. It was really misty when we first arrived, but it cleared up and we actually saw lots of birds – even tucans and macaws (the really colorful parrots that a lot of people have for pets). I thought I wouldn't like it since I'm not really into birds, but it was actually really cool. Our guide brought a telescope so we could look at things closer and he also has a really nice pair of binoculars that he always let us use so we really felt like we saw the birds up close and personal.

We had a private guide for the three of us whose name was Gerson. He is 23 years old and from Puerto Maldonado. He has been working for this company for three and a half years and, in our opinion, is the best guide they have. He was AMAZING! He speaks English beautifully and he has a great sense of humor. We were always joking around and laughing with him, which made the trip that much better. On top of that, he was really knowledgeable of the area and was always telling us interesting facts about the flora and fauna. You would think we were just walking along and he wasn’t paying attention and all of a sudden he’d point out a little frog. I have no idea how he could even spot something like that as it usually took us about 5 minutes to find it even after he had pointed it out! One time when we saw a frog, Mom thought he was pointing out dew drops because she couldn’t see it! Hahahaha.

We were all really impressed by how many things he spotted and were so happy he was our guide. It was really nice for me to have him along too since he’s my age. We had a lot of fun talking and joking around together, plus I got to practice my Spanish because we spoke in Spanish most of the time when we were just talking together. He was also really patient with my parents and all of their picture taking. He even would help us get better shots and at the end of our trip burned a CD for us of all the pictures he had taken. He never made us feel like we were in a rush and had such a confidence in his work that we never felt unsafe for a minute – even while kayaking down the river and walking through the jungle at night! He told us the first day he met us that he would make the trip the best he could for us and he wasn’t kidding. It was better than any of us could have imagined and it was because of him. We liked a few of the other guides (Mom had a crush on one of them, William, and was sad when he left the lodge), but a lot of the other guides we met didn’t seem as fun or dynamic. Gerson had so much energy and enthusiasm and made us really excited about everything we did. I wish I had the money to go back because I would go back in a heartbeat. The chef at the lodge told me he’d pay for my ticket to come back….maybe I should take him up on it!

Anyway, back to the trip. After seeing the canopy tower, we got in a boat again to head further down river to the Tambopata Research Center (TRC). It’s the lodge furthest up river (about 80 km away from civilization) and is the best place to see wildlife. We weren’t supposed to go until the following day, but Gerson suggested we go as soon as possible since it’s a better forest than Refugio. The lodge there was quainter and more intimate, very comfortable. The first night there were only 5 guests there – us and one other couple from San Diego so it was very relaxing. There has been research going on at TRC since 1989 about macaws (the big colorful parrots that lots of people have as pets) and how to protect them because they are often stolen from their natural environment to be sold on the illegal pet market. We watched a video about them and they are incredibly smart birds. The researchers are hoping they can find a way to teach these birds to protect themselves, and in turn, they’ll be able to help lots of the wildlife in the rainforest. I was surprised at how interested I was in their work since I don’t even like birds. It was actually really fascinating though.

As part of their research, they go to this place called the Clay Lick every morning to observe the macaw activity. They have found that macaws go there to eat clay because they believe it supplements their diet. There are many factors that play into whether or not the birds will land – including the weather, potential predators, the time of year (which has to do with the mating season I think), etc. so in order to observe them, we have to arrive before sunrise as to not disrupt their decision to land or not. Therefore, we got up at 4:30 every morning so we could be on the boat by 5 and all set up at the clay lick by 5:15. As you can imagine I was not very excited about this the first day. First of all, I don’t even like birds, second, it was 5 am, and third, I had no idea what to expect. When you first get there, you just sit around on these little camping stools for about an hour, waiting for something to happen. Little by little, some macaws and parrots start arriving in the area to land on the trees nearby and scope out the area. After at least 30 minutes of this, if they have decided the conditions are okay to land, they will fly around doing what the researchers call a “dance” and then they’ll land on the clay lick and start eating the clay.

The first morning we were there, there were a lot of birds, but they kept making the alarm call, which the guides said was unusual. We waited for a while though and they finally decided to land on the right side of the clay lick. We sit facing the center of the lick so we couldn’t see them that well, but our guides broke the rules and took us much closer so we could see them. They set up their telescope and let us use the binoculars to get a good look. It was AWESOME! There were these beautiful blue and gold macaws just sitting there eating clay! We could only stay that close for about 10 minutes because if the researchers saw us, the guides would get in trouble. (Another example of how great Gerson was….other guides would not have brought us closer like that….he was always going out of his way to get us a better look.) They said it was really good activity that day for this time of year so we really lucked out because we weren’t even originally supposed to be there that morning!

As part of the research at TRC, they hand raised about 30 macaws in 1993, which they call the “chicos”. Each one has a tag around it’s foot so they’re easier to identify. Since they were raised by people, these birds are extremely friendly and often come to the lodge (to steal food!) and visit. The first morning we were at the clay lick one of them came and Gerson had it land on my shoulder! Since I’m SCARED of birds, I almost had a heart attack, but I tried to stay calm and just kept laughing! Haha.

The next mornings weren’t very exciting. I don’t even think they landed either of the days, but the last morning was INCREDIBLE! It was like out of a National Geographic special. There were tons of birds everywhere – mostly parrots that day (not many macaws) and it was out of this world. It was a really clear day so we were able to see their colors really well. We tried to get pictures and I even tried to take some video of it with my camera, but nothing comes close to seeing it in real life.

Well I have to leave in about 10 minutes for the rest of our trip and I haven’t even had breakfast yet so I have to stop writing. I’ll write more when I can, but I hope this gives you a good introduction.

Gerson's Pictures from Our Trip

These photos are one's that Gerson (our guide in case you haven't read the entry yet) took of our trip.

A cayman we saw from the boat on the first day.

Bananas ready to send to the city!

Some tucans we saw from the canopy tower.

Eating termites....GROSS!

A nice view of the river.

One of the chicos that kept following us...he probably wanted some food!

One of the many butterflies we saw.

Sitting at the clay lick, waiting for the birds to arrive (mom and I are laughing about something as usual).

Gerson, Aldo, and William - our three favorite guides (Mom had a crush on William)!

About to take a bite out of a mushroom....just kidding!

A spider monkey flying through the trees.

Another spider monkey.

And still some more....

Howler Monkeys....huge and make a REALLY loud noise!

Dad trying to get a shot of the howler monkeys...hahaha.

Ready to go kayaking!

And now in our boats praying we don't capsize.

Yeah, I'm a professional.

Mom being a "windmill" in her kayak....hahaha.

In action on a little creek.

Dad and me in our kayak.

Another cayman we saw while we were kayaking....look how close we got!

Lots of parrots on the clay lick the last day!

Mealy parrots (light green) and Red and Green Macaws (or Scarlet)....awesome, huh?

The butt of a Capybara (largest rodent) that we saw on the boat ride back to civilization.