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Published: June 20th 2009
Sunday parade
Every Sunday is a government parade, to raise the Peruvian flag, in the Plaza de Armas. Marching bands, schoolkids, and police/etc. are involvedCan't find the accent mark on the keyboard for the title; it's too worn down in places.
Whew. Where to begin... Last weekend was excellent. Spent Saturday wandering the market for a bit, had a nap, went out for lunch with some people to a great spot overlooking the Rio Madre de Dios, and I had a local dish... can't remember the name of it offhand, but it was basically plantain stuffing with this half jerky half cooked meat pork thing, and absolutely amazing juice from some fruits that none of us had ever heard of. Back for a bit more internet, shopping, and watching part of a Bollywood film in Spanish (weird), and then to get pizza. SO good for something familiar to eat. I am sad to say that at this point I was like the waking dead, though (we did eat kind of late, but not that late...) and so missed out on going to the karaoke bar because I would have lasted 10 minutes. Lena and Robert and I walked back to the hotel and I just went to bed. (Sorry if any of this is anything I've written about, but I can't remember what I
View from cafe
Can't remember the name of this cafe, but it's one of my favorite spots in Puerto. Homemade ice creams, sandwiches, awesome juices, and pastries. said last week and the computer is too slow to go check.) Maybe next weekend. (This weekend we are headed to the Amazon Shelter as tourists, to see their release center and such. Two volunteers and a vet from the shelter came a few days ago- both women were from the US, and it was nice to talk to them; a lot of British volunteers are here, and I don't always know what they're talking about 😊 ).
Anyway. Had a nice breakfast of fresh bread and awesome coffee and really good fried plantains (way better here than in the Luther caf, not surprisingly), and sat a bit, watched the military parade on Sunday (as Isabel told me last night, every Sunday in every city in Peru they raise the flag and have a parade, although it varies from place to place. Apparently it used to be far more strict, with the national anthem after and before EVERYthing, and having to face the flag if you saw it, etc... but not as much any longer. She wasn't sure if it is because of the new president or not, but interesting)... lots of kids representing their schools, people playing instruments
Tarantula
Just for you, Dad. We caught it in a reptile trap... no touching for me, although Daniel offered. along with the military and police in the band, etc. I ate ceviche (Peruvian national dish- raw fish marinated in lemon, peppers, cilantro, etc. It was great, but 6 hours later I was sick... and now I associate it with that, so even though I really liked it, the thought of it makes my stomach do somersaults) had some cake at the best little cafe on the Plaza (can anyone tell I'm hungry? It is so incredibly nice to get to town and eat food besides variations on rice, potatoes, "meat", pasta, and heavy gravy), and went on a wild goose chase via tuk-tuk to try to find the particular supermarket we were looking for (4 rides later...), then back to the port and to Taricaya!
News from this past week isn't much different than the previous. It felt more settled in, and I am getting used to the downtime. More volunteers are arriving as the month progresses, mostly again from Britain, and mostly again 18 and on gap years. I am kind of the odd one out, doing this while IN college. And being American. One of the girls who arrived recently was previously on the Inca Project,
Candid at New Farm
Valerie, Alejandro, Daniel, Lucy where I will be going next, and she said there is a bit more spread there, so that will be interesting. Otherwise... my goal was to begin learning Spanish from one of the staff members, but I came down sick on Tuesday night and wasn't feeling up to it, really, the rest of the week. I will spare you the details, but I am better at last. 😊 Unfortunately this meant that I missed one assignment, going into town on a Wednesday, as well as sleeping on canopy... but next week, I think I will.
Activities this past week were mostly the same; birdwatching with Daniel, who is awesome at it and quite a lot of fun even though we have definite language barriers, trimming flower plants (which sounds easy, until you realize that many are at least a story tall, and it involves machetes... still, lots of fun, especially when you cut one down with one swipe), butterfly walks, feeding the animals (sadly, the spider monkey in my picture from the previous entry died this week, by an accident. Raul, the animal guy, was pretty ), birthday party for Isabel (which are really interesting here. The rec area
Feeding the monkey
Can't remember if this is Lilou or Maqui... but she's sweet. is a room with absolutely no charm by day, but by night it is great... probably because you can't see the cockroaches or dirt. 😊 Dance floor, great music - salsa, rock, some popular Spanish music, etc), and the like. And SUPER late nights. As in 4am. I have not made it that far.), listening to more talks (this one from Raul, about spider monkey rehabilitation and reintroduction, as they are locally extinct and the reserve hopes to remedy this as the monkeys are indicator species of the health of the forest, and required for the dispersal of some seeds) and preparing the turtle beach for the arrival of the Taricaya turtles in a month or two. Lastly, the source of the title, we went on a frog hunt last night; frogs are nocturnal, mostly, and like the humid nights. Unfortunately, we found only one on our walk, and that one fell directly into Gigo's boot. Lucky.
I think I'm off for now. We head out tonight for the Amazon Shelter and I will try to put up some pictures after lunch, but Planton and Raul are taking us to a traditional Peruvian restaurant for lunch soon and I
have some other things to wrap up, so that will have to wait. Happy Father's day to those of you to whom that applies, and hope you are all well! Miss you!
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Laurel
non-member comment
Hiiii! Still sounds amazing. Karl will laugh when I tell him about the ceviche. Or grimace in pity for you. Sounds like you got over whatever bug was in it pretty quickly though? It sounds like you're have a blast. Summer back in the states is fun....it finally got warm for good. And humid. How's the humidity there? lol. Tomorrow Karl's family is coming to our house for dinner....pressure! I'm making salmon. I hope it turns out well....eesh! I miss you!