Adios Amazon, Helloo Cusco

To catch up from where I left off:

We went to the local clinic, operated by Dr. Linea Smith, MD.  She is originally from Wisconsin and earned her medical degree in the States.  After visiting as a tourist, she felt that "if she never came back here, something inside her would shrivel up and die."  So she took a leave of absence for three months and that turned into a year and that turned into much more than a leave of absence.  We saw the clinic, which is very basic.  It has sn examining room, a lobby, a place for her assistants to stay the night, an office, etc.  She said they are about to get an ultrasound machine but she doesn't quite know how to use it yet.  She also said that she doesn't like doing obstetrics.  Funny thing is that that is exactly what I want to do (I think), so all I need to do is get an MD and become fluent in Spanish so that I can go work for her!  I hope she is still around by then.

We also visited the local library, which was extremely modest.  Because of the humidity, books with staples rust out and frogs and other animals get into the bookshelves.  To protect against that, they have a screen rolled down in front of the shelves and then glass doors protecting them.  Other than that, the library has very few supplies and is hardly decorated.

After that, we went on a boatride to see sloths!!  We saw three of them up in the trees.  We also passed lily pads that were huge - at least 4 feet in diameter!  We also saw white herons and tucans and other birds that were all black but with green tips on the edge of its wings and a bright orange beak and orange feet.  There was also this really cool tree whose branches grew parallel to the surface of the water and then straight down into the water, like supports.  It spread out over a large surface area, I couldn't see quite how far back though.

The next morning we went Piranah fishing!  Our fishing rods consisted of a stick with a string tied to it and a hook on the end.  We used beef as bait.  I caught the first fish in our boat but it actually turned out to be a catfish!  Later on, I caught a piranah.  They are much smaller than I had expected - only 6 inches in length with brilliant orange bellies and a blue back.  We ate them for lunch!  So yummy!

After that, we travelled by boat to the last lodge we stayed at, Ceiba Tops.  This is the "luxury lodge" and it was very nice compared to the other places we stayed.  It whad air conditioning, running water for hot showers, flush toilets, a swimming pool, concrete walkways and laundry services.  Even still, it was my least favorite place we stayed because there was such a disconnect between us and the jungle.  It felt so unnecessary to have all these things and almost shocking to be back to all the comodities we are so accustomed to.

That night after dinner, high school -aged kids came from the neighboring town of Indiana to perform dances for us.  One showed us about the harvesting of rice and one they danced with a live anaconda!  It was domesticated, though.  Then, we all danced the night away, which was so much fun!  It stormed, so some of us ran out into the night.  I ended up talking to this boy from Samford who told me that men should be the head of the household...yikes.  Then, I sat by the river and watched as lightning lit up the sky and the water.  It was so beautiful, I didn't want to go to sleep.  But I finally did, at 2:30 in the morning.  Then we woke up at 5:30 am to go see the sunrise.  It ended up being a little cloudy, but still beautiful over the Amazon nonetheless.

After that we toured the town of Indiana by motorcart.  Mine ran out of gas so we had to hop in another one, but that was ok.  After breakfast, we went to an animal sanctuary, which was incredibly fun!  When people are caught trying to transport endangered animals out of the country, they take the animals to this place, where they live until they choose to leave and return to the wild.  We saw an anaconda that had just eaten two chickens.  It was about 10 inches in diameter and at least 10 feet long.  Two of the men who work there picked it up and put it around my neck - man, that thing was heavy!  There was a smaller anaconda that we each got to hold on our own.  The monkeys were the most fun, because they climbed down off the tree into your hands and played around with us, jumping all around and trying to steal stuff from our bags.  One kept playing with my nose, which I thought was funny until I realized that he wanted my nose ring!  There was also a baby sloth that we could each hold, that little gal was so cute, always smiling and moved so slowly!  I also held a tucan on my arm but I've decided that I don't really like birds because a macaw attacked me at one of the lodges.  There were also these really strange-looking animals (I forget the name) but they look like racoons with a longer snout kind of like an anteater but not quite.  Oh, forgot to mention that at Ceiba tops, they had baby tapers walking around!

After lunch, it was time to bid farewell to the forest.  I almost cried.  I didn't want to go back to the city of Iquitos, I wanted to stay and run around barefoot in the rainforest!

But you can't stop time, and I soaked up the Amazon as much as I could and I truly believe that I will be back there someday.  So we spent the night in Iquitos at the same hotel as last time.  In the morning, we travelled to Cusco.  It is a very pretty city and the flight here provided beautiful aerial view of the Andes.  We had the afternoon free so we shopped!  So many, many things to buy.  Mostly jewelry and scarves and sweaters made from alpacas.

We wnt out last night to an Irish Pub called Paddy's.  I met a guy there who was from LA and boy, he talked my ear off.  Also, there was a very drunk overweight fellow from Italy who told me I was hot.  Thanks for the complement, man.  We left there and went to a ostel, which was super fun dancing!  They were having a toga party but none of us had togas on.  Oh well!

This morning we travelled to Chinchera (sp?) to learn more about Andean culture.  We watched and learned about wool from both sheep and alpaca, which is made into thread and then weaved into scarves, blankets, belts, hats, anything you can imagine!  One woman was making a hat and was using five knitting needles at the same time!  The other women used the backstrap method to make bigger things like table runners and such.  We learned about natural dyes and all dyed our hair red!  It was Dr. O's idea - she went first and dunked her whole head right in there!  Well, not quite her whole head because the liquid was just boiled to bring out the color so it was hot.  After that, we learned about some of the medicinal plants of the Andes.  There were so many of them, it wsa hard to keep track.  But we had gotten a lecture from Anna the night before, so we could recognize some of them.  After that, we ate a traditional Andean lunch, which included guinea pig!  Mmmmmm.

We came back to the hotel, then went out and did more shopping.  I actually bought things this time but many of them are presents!  Dad, you would be proud of me - I bargained with every person I bought from even though I don't know Spanish!

That's about all I have for now.  I am so exhausted!  We are at 11,200 feet and it is easy to tell that the air is thinner up here.  Taking deep breaths hardly satisfies your oxygen needs!  We are all adjusting though!

Until next time....