Bienvenidos al Perú

Ah Peru! What a fantastic country. I am having an unbelievably wonderful experience. Since this is my first blog from abroad I should probably start from the very beginning to make sure my story is somewhat cohesive...

On Sunday March 21st, I boarded a flight to LAX with my mom. We had a few hours in the LA airport then hopped a plane to Lima. Three movies later, we arrived at the airport at 12:30 AM and tried to camp out at the airport. Since our flight to Iquitos was at 6 AM we didn´t think it was worth it to go into Lima for just a few hours. We could brave sleeping at the airport! There was a cafe with bench length chairs, padded to boot, where we ordered some food in an attempt to feel less guilty about crashing in their resturant. The waitress gave us a nodd of approval when I motioned sleeping on the bench, but about an hour later she shook our trying-to-sleep-heads with a request that we leave. This sent us to the lobby floor. Our belongings were piled up in a corner and we laid out a blanket that mom had comendered from the plane, but oh how mistaken we were in our hardcore-ness! Boarding a 6:30 flight to Iquitos, our heads hanging sleepily in a daze, we deeply regretted not having slept in a hotel.

Iquitos is located in north eastern Peru and termed the "gateway to the Amazon Rainforest." For six days we stayed at the Muyuna lodge, 45 km up the Amazon River by boat (about a 3 hr ride). The whole jungle trip was quite the adventure. The only other people at the lodge were a father son couple from Kentucky, with which we shared a guide, Moisis, our very own Amazonian prophet.

Moisis proved quickly on the first two hour, mosquit-clouded jungle walk that he is extremely knowledgable about every single thing pertaining to the Peruvian Amazon. This man knows his stuff. He rattled off facts about all the flora to the fauna, teaching us about medicinal, poisonous and edible plants, has an incredible eye for spotting even the most camoflauge animals from extremely far distances, and knows how to make dozens of bird calls. Mom and I could not stop giggling at how machete-happy he was. The machete is Moisis´s weapon of choice for exerting his matchoism. I´m not really sure what it was all about, but he was so excessive in his trail blazing, obliterating every branch, no matter how small, that was even the slightest bit in his way.

We were kept unbelievably busy while at Muyuna. Every day was packed with adventuring, our days often begining at 6am and ending at 9pm. The following is a list of some of our jungle activities:
-Hiking in the jungle to spot various animals, insects, and plants
-Taking a boat down the river, sometimes deep into the jungle
-Bird watching from a canoe
-Voyaging to a lake with giant lilypads - so cool!
-Grey and pink dolphin sighings
-Swimming in the Amazin River (with my mouth pursed tightly)
-Fishing, scaling, and eating phiranas
-Visiting the local village and trying to communicate with people about their lives
-Seeing a caiman, tarantuala, and huge, 1.5 inch wasps
-Touring a rum factory

and of course, the unofficial activity:
-Being eaten alive by mosquitoes

Back in Iquitos we spent an entire day working on logistics. Between planes, buses, trains, hotels, and machu picchu treks, we had and still have a lot to work out.

On the 28th, we took an evening flight back to Lima, but since our next flight was not leaving until 6 the next morning, and our previous airport overnight did not go so well, we jumped in a taxi and spend a few hours in comfy guesthouse beds. Then back to the airport for an Arequipa bound flight.

From the Arequipa airport we dropped our bags off at a great find called Hostal Solar and began our action-packed day of sightseeing. First was an incredibly informative tour of the city´s convent. The largest convent in the world and termed a "a city with in a city," this century old convent was the home to wealthy nuns who lived lavishly until the pope heard about their way of life and made them dismiss their slaves and get rid of their expensive belongings. Next was a museum about Inca human sacrifices in the Andes where we saw an actual ice mummy that was discovered about a decade ago. Dozens of these bodies have been found all over the country´s tallest mountains. Since the region is especially disaster prone, the Incas sacrificed young children as offerings to appease the angry gods. A fasinating history.

The highlight of the day was when we stumbled into a yarn store. Wall to wall, floor to ceiling was lined by shelvs of colorful spools of beautiful appaca wool yarn. I was in heaven and had to buy two balls of a magnificent coral colored baby alpaca lana. Now all I need are the knitting needles.

So now I am in Puno, after a six hour bus ride from Arequipa, typing away while rain pours outside. Puno is a large city right on Lake Titicaca. I´m loving the sight of the old women who live in the area wearing bowler hats, colorful blankets worn as shawls, and multi-layers of skirts. There is also such great shopping for alpaca everything: hats, gloves, scarves, blankets, and sweaters. Tomorrow we will visit the Floating Islands and do a homestay overnight, giving us enought time to explore this unique Peruvian sub-culture.

MUY FANTASTICO!