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Published: October 2nd 2006
Waterfall in the Selva
CoooooooooooooooooooooooolBuenos dias a todos! This past weekend, I went to "La Selva". The translation is "jungle" or "forrest", I think. I didn't refer to any sort of dictionary so feel free to correct me if I am wrong. At any rate, it was something else. It was probably the most dangerous thing that I have ever done. It is important though to add that I didn't enter the DEEP jungle. I guess you could say that I was in the "suburbs" of the jungle. The outer suburbs. The suburbs of the suburbs. Ok, back to the danger. It was very dangerous. I almost died or was seriously injured a handful of times. You see, it is very humid in the jungle, and all of the rocks are slippery. Also, if you slip or fall on the trail, there are usually welcoming, soft beds of spiny plants. Or if you decide to catch yourself on a tree, many of them are covered in 5-6 in. spines. Needless to say, I am still picking little things out of my fingers.
In all honesty though, I can't describe it in words, La Selva. I can show you my pictures and all that jazz,
but to be there and walk through it is an experience on its own. I am very fortunate to have been able to experience it. I would like to return to La Selva, but next time I want to actually go INTO the jungle and see monkeys, toucans, crocodiles wrestling with anacondas for a tasty meal of venison, or something common like that.
Back to reality. I went to the city of La Merced that is in the district of Chanchamayo (Quechua for "the dangerous river" or something like that). My two Hoosier buddies and I stayed in a hostal there that I think was nesting a family of geckos because by golley, there were some on the ceiling and on the staircases. So, we arrived at 6 am Friday morning, and ate breakfast. I ate an omelet with meat and peppers over rice, papaya juice, and coffee. When I say "omelet" don't think of Denny's or something like that. I wasn't really like that at all. After that we booked a tour and started out at 9:30 am. We visited an old bridge, two waterfalls (we got to swim near one of them, incredible), and an old tribe
called the Ashaninka (which was a bit suspicious because they seemed touristy). Then we ate dinner at a local restaurant where they serve dishes indigenous to that area. I ate fried Doncella (a local fish), fried yuca (kind of like potatoes), and fried plantains (like bananas). It was good. We then went to a place where they grind coffee, make coffee liquors, and jams. It was mediocre. We got to try all of their liquors which was fun, but they were all too sweet for me.
The next day, we set out on a trek through the Selva. We walked for 9 hours that day. It was super dangerous, but I only got away with minor injuries. We descended into a cave, walked a lot, tasted some local pineapples and plantains(unbelievable), visited a couple more waterfalls, ate dinner at a local home (rice, hen, beans, fried plantains, and chicha morada to drink). Chicha morada is found everywhere here. It is a drink made from a maroon colored corn called "chicha" and it is boiled with water, pineapples, and cinnamon. Then they mix lemon and sugar with it when it is ready to drink. It is very tasty. I returned
that night. That's pretty much it. Sometimes I would look around me and think, Wow. Nature is an awesome thing and there is a ton of it here. Take care all.
Jake
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Daniel Porter
non-member comment
yo mama
dude, good to here from you. sounds like peru is rockin awesome. when are you coming back? oh, did I tell you I think i'm gonna study in australia for a semester? the campus I'm looking at has wild kangaroos living in the quad. Dan