Hakuna mattata

But" Perú is so diverse, we have ocean, desert, sierra and jungle." Peruvians love to tell this to you. I dont know if its because im a foreigner or because everyone who talks to me is contracted my the ministry of tourism, either way Peruvians love to share this fact about their beloved Perú. In my time in Perú I have not had time to travel to the jungle.  I have spent more than my fair share of time in the desert, sand and everything the same color brown can only keep you stimulated for so long. I get it, it doesn't rain here! The parts of the sierra I have been to have been high and dry as well.

I guess 2015 is bringing new things with it, for me this is a green Perú. A green that stretches as far as you can see above, below, behind and in front of you (sometimes this is only 2 feet of visibility it is so thick). The only time the green takes a break is when the muddy, wide current of these valley's piercing rivers are delivering water into the Amazon river and out into the Atlantic. That itself is a sight to see and the brown in this case is a nice balance. 

The end of 2014 and start of 2015 began on the Laguna azul! To get to laguna azul from tarapoto is a 2 hr drive and a 5 minute ferry ride crossing a feeding river into the amazon. This is your ordinary ferry "all aboard". This is more like a blocks of wooden panels nailed together in a drunken manner with 2 janky motors. It floats doesn't it? Serves the same purpose, just wouldn't want to be on it on a bad day! Not only did they stuff a mountain of people on it, why not put semi trucks and other vehicles. A free for all. The name of the town was Sauce and it was saucy. The roads were only made of dirt and the jungle had this friendly energy to it. Maybe because everyone is scared of what lies outside the pueblo in the jungle! They believe that the devil lives in the jungle and people have their accounts of interactions with the devil. It is also widely believed in the town of sauce that a mermaid lives in the lake and takes 1 personas life per year. Turns out that on December 31 someone went missing, their body turned up in the beginning of January. Could it have been the mermaid? Myths are popularly held to be true around Perú.  Every town you go to and every different type of people/language/culture you interact with here in Perú has their local beliefs. It makes it a very mystical place. I would love to write a book of short stories going around Perú to these isolated villages and writing these locals beliefs, tales, accounts of these people and their stories. Firstly, because they are interesting and unique. It is amazing to see that within one countries borders so many beliefs can be held. Secondly,  so that these beliefs and cultures are not lost with increasing globalization.

Anywho, we spent a few days here kayaking around the lake, horseback riding through the jungle and then meeting the local Sauceinos. My favorite thing when traveling is to meet the locals and see their style of living. Here everyone was outside around the volleyball/fútbol field watching their neighbors play and run around. Everyone who was old enough (family discretion) worked on their chacra (land) tending to the rice, bananas, cacao, sugar cane and coffee. After interacting with the people and seeing the village we were leaving when a weathered man wearing a Yankees hat called us over. He called us beautiful and made us sit down and started telling us a million stories but didn't finish one! We all know someone like that :). In the middle of every story he would stop and say " ey amigo lindo, q lindo pelo tienes" (hey beautiful friend, how beautiful your hair is) haha it was hilarious. At first it was Kiki, him and myself and one by one two by two we were in the center of a big crowd of Sauceinos drinking local sugar cane alcohol, making jokes, laughing, singing and one crazy women was dancing. It was one of those moments that you never expected to happen, by going on a sunset walk, but one that was exactly where you wanted to be in.

After Sauce somehow the ferry was still functioning and we made it back to the city of Tarapoto. From here we didn't waste any time and next thing you know we were in the back of a motorbike on a dirt road avoiding all the potholes passing by "alternative therapy" centers (places people go to take ayawaksa). At the point where the potholes met dense forest the moto stopped and we were greeted by a group of men with machetes. One of these machete bearers, Carlos, was our new friend, roommate and guide for our 3 days and 2 nights in the jungle jungle. He grew up in Tarapoto and had been doing this since for the past 3 years (he's 17). He knew every plant and their uses for healing purposes for everything as well as every animal. Insects, birds, mammals, everything. Their noises, colors, if they were venomous, how they attack, habits. And he didn't learn this in school. It was amazing to see and be able to ask him any questions and get answers. Then again, I probably would have believed anything to be true.

Reading the book "Turn Right At Machu Picchu" made this experience more exhilarating as I felt like I was living a similar experience to the one I was reading about. Trekking through the jungle on what some might call a trail and others might call crazy. There was no such thing as flat as what people from the Midwest would call flat, even though he insisted some parts were. They lent us big water boots that fashionable people wear in the northwest but that we were wearing so we didn't get drenched as we had to cross the river 14 times on the way their. I was lucky I had been using the stairmaster at lifetime because a lot of the trek was a natural stairmaster made up of impressively large exposed roots and trees. Grabbing on to trunks and hanging tarzan veins to pull ourselves up. It was the stairway to heaven led zepplin might say, others might say the stairway to hell. However you had to be careful grabbing onto the branches because their are ants the size of your pinky that if they bite you they sting for 24 hrs. As we were walking along we saw a snake on the rocks. We stopped and looked at it from a safe distance, 2 feet. It was my first time seeing a wild snake and a very poisonous one at that Carlos told us. As we were standing their catching our breath and shitting our pants in fear the snake was in defense mode. With his head curled up and ready to strike. The snake had just recently killed somethibg and was swallowing it in his throat, good thing we didn't arrive a few minutes earlier. All of a sudden the snake struck forward a speed that caught me by surprise and I jumped forward and screeched to get away, prbly not the smartest thing, but my natural city boy reaction nonetheless. It was a strike to leave him alone and that's all I wanted to do. We got the hell out of there and after that I had to split my time enjoying the breathtaking scenery looking for things that could kill me. We crossed paths with all kinds of poisonous frogs but they were little and less intimidating intimidating to me than snakes. They were beautiful yellow, black and red. But apparently their beauty should be taken with caution bc yellow and black together = poisonous.

After 2-3 hours of up and down intense trekking we arrived at our modest home that made gold beach look like the Hilton. Here we stayed at the intersection of 2 rivers in a tent on the 2nd deck. We cooked food over a small flame. Food always seems to taste better after working out and especially when your camping. At night time the full moon light up the entire place like a spotlight it was amazing to see how bright that floating rock was. And to catch it on a full moon, perfect. At night the fun began, at least for the ones who lived in the jungle as they were having fun talking to each other across trees, branches, leafs and rocks.it was fun for us to tune into them and strangely relaxing as we fell into a deep jungle trance.

The next day we went on a 30 minute trek from our campsite to publicly private waterfalls. We had the whole place to ourselves and there was an amazing waterhole to splash around in and let the 40m dropping water to land on your head!
However upon arriving to the waterfalls we got caught up in jungle traffic, a snake! Carlos almost didn't see the snake and almost walked right on top of it. Yikes! As this one was more posionous than the previous one. We stopped for a few seconds, or hours, and the snake slithered away.

Later on that day after eating chicken made on the slow burning grill Kiki and I explored the upper river by ourselves. Originally we were supposed to go to this man's house named Orlando. Hes the only one who lives in the jungle.  He lives by himself and takes care/lives with the wild animals. Monkeys, birds, wild pigs among others. They help him cook food as well. After he chops up food they throw it in the pan for him! Hes a real monkey man! However,  sometimes the monkeys can be aggressive and earlier that day some volunteers were going to his house to deliver food and a monkey bite him and he had to walk back 2 hours through thw jungle with a bleeding heel to get to the hospital to clean his wound.  He advised us not to go bc the monkeys were being too aggressive. Although we saw one as it was coming to shoo him away. Anyways, we were walking up the river and I yelled at kiki to stop as she almost stepped on a snake. A big ol' snake that we showed Carlos a photo of and he said that it was one of the deadliest in that jungle.  He told us that some people come to the jungle just to see snakes and they dont see anything, we saw 3!

Our trek for the next day got cancelled bc it was raining all night and it was too dangerous to trek bc it would be a 2 hr climb to the top and 2 hr down. Mudslides and falling rocks/trees were a big concern. However, we still trekked back a different route and I could see how dangerous it would have been and came to terms with it. On the route back we saw wild pigs and eat fresh mangos, cacao and other fruits right off the branches! Yum! Carlos gave us a little fear as well before our last trek as we was telling us about some stories of his from the jungle seeing Bengals and other people getting bitten by snakes. The scariest of all was these wild boars that hang out in groups of 20-50 and the eat anything that gets in their way. One time he had to climb a tree with his dad and wait for 2 hrs for them to leave so they could keep their lives. Similar account to one in the book. 

Thanks for the amazing x-mas present! I used the filter and swung in the hammock in my new shirts in the jungle! All were in full use!

Lago Boobiepoopoo

No, not actually. But c'mon its funny! The legend goes that the titi side is Peru and the caca side is Bolivia. Bolivia's only body of water and close to its only attraction. For Peru, it is one of the many attractions of the country and only one of many bodies of water. Of course, my information and biases is coming from the "titi" side.

After missing my original overnight bus to Puno (the peruvian city on the coast of Titicaca) due to an unexpected party at my house making it hard for me to leave, especially right when the homemade Pisco Sours were ready, I caught the midnight bus to Juliaca ( a town 45 minutes from Puno where I would later take a shuttle bus to Puno).

Fast forward past sleeping on the hot, sweaty, cold, stinky bus and the shuttle ride to Puno and bam (lucky you can fast forward this part). I arrived in Puno at 7am and waited for Kiki until 9. Puno, for tourists is no more than a port town to catch a boat to the islands. Puno wasn't anything special and time should not be spent there, especially if you have limited time.

However, the islands, WOW! The islands! Not your typical islands for many reasons. Firstly, its a lake. Second, your up at 12,000 ft on an island (higher than Mt. Hood). Thirdly some of these islands are man made floating islands from aquatic plants named Reeds. Lastly, the culture is still in tact from hundreds of years ago. Pre-Incan and Incan. Some islands speak Aymara and are Aymara people while others speak Quecha. But all speak Spanish as well.

First stop, Los Uros (floating islands). There are 87 of these floating islands. Made from flaring reed roots with reeds stacked on top. New reeds are stacked on top at least every 16 days to keep them a float! The islands are staked into shallow parts of the lake as well so you are not swaying. But you better believe there's still a rock in your step! These islands exist because the Aymara people escaped from the main land to avoid conquest by the Incas. Originally they lived on reed boats with reed shelters on the boats. Floating around the lake. Eventually they built these islands and lived here surviving against the Incas, but not so much the Spanish. I was not told this but I assume so because there is a church on one of the floating islands. Church=Spanish.

These islanda were spectacular just to believe how inventive, creative and resourceful these people were. Incredible,  people from all cultures around the world continue to amaze me. Western, Eastern, Southern, Northern. Mountain people, City people, posh people, indigenous people. No importa!  Our thought of an educated people is skewed when referring to more indigenous people. They survived in this world for thousands of years before our technology filled, western run world ever existed. They might not have spent thousands of dollars on PHD's or other certifications. But damn, they are all engineers, doctors, farmers, traders and bi-lingual. I think they stand for themselves.

Going on, Los Uros was great and a necessary stop on the tour. We spent the night and got to enjoy the peace and tranquility of the lake and the floating island. Cutting down reeds and helping restore the island! Fishing with the locals and eating the local cuisine. It was great to spend the night to actually feel a different side then only spending an hour being a tourist.

In the morning we headed to Tequille island. Dios mio was this lo maximo or what? It was a mix between the Mediterranean, The Great Wall of China and Peru 500 years ago still in tact in 2014. Just spectacular!  Really. The Mediterranean because of the water color along the shoreline, the great wall because of these amazing stone paths that circulated the entire island and Peru 500 years ago because everyone speaks Quecha, the whole island is made up of andenes (Inca farming terraces) and the clothes are so colorful and traditional and everyone wears them. The population on the island is 2,000 people and they all know each other. They continue to only live by the 3 Incan laws: don't steal, don't cheat and don't be lazy. They are so friendly and you can feel the safety on the island. A women isn't beautiful if she is skinny and curvy, but if she has big calfs bc it means she can work hard! We spent the night here with a family and it was truly an incredible experience getting to be part of the family for a day. The place just took my breath away the entire time. A must see. A must spend the night.

Warning: bring sunscreen, hat, sunglasses and warm clothes. Temperature is severe. One minute boiling the next freezing. The sun is powerful! Be careful. The air is thin I have been living at 6,000 ft for about 3 months but I felt it everywhere I was!

My phone ran out of battery before I could snap shots of Tequille island. But Kiara has plenty I will put up later

Mt. Biking Volcano Chachani

2x Turkey (chicken) day

Just a border town

MoNiOf course I came down with a fever right when my friend was coming. The same thing happend with uncle osh when he came here I got sick half way through. Being sick sucks in general and it sucks 2 or 3 times more when you are travelling. Sharing dorms, not having your own space, someone yelling at you that its time to check out etc etc. And when you travel you don't want to be sick and lay around all day in a hostal, the point of travelling is to explore and see things so you must be in shape to do just that.

I was on the road to recovery and figured I  would rather suck it up and take advantage of my big weekend id been waiting for then to get better quicker but be stuck in my "standard" Arequipa life.

We hopped on the bus and were on the road, one of the places I now feel most comfortable and excited. 7 hrs later entering the dry Atacama desert we were in Arica, Chile (not Africa).

Funny/annoying side note the buses are always stopping here for people to get on to sell things, those minutes stack up and its quite annoying for the passengers, or at least the gringo ones. When your travelling on local buses and constantly stopping it worries you. Why your stopping where you are etc. Also you see entertaining things. Moms feeding babies fantasize from babymilk bottles. We decided if your not old enough to drink from the actual bottle you probably shouldn't be drinking soda to begin with. Soda here is Soooooo popular. You have to buy water bc you can't drink from the tap (maybe some people do) but soda is cheaper than water. So the obvious choice for these people is soda, more flavor, sugar, etc. All the good stuff. But surprisingly peoples teeth aren't rotting out of their heads. As im the one with soft teeth gripping my San Luis 2.5L water bottle tightly. Jokes on me? Well they prbly don't spend their money watching over their teeth. Also on the bus they play movies dubbed in spanish that are never became popular or have famous actors.  Did I mention they were dubbed and blasting throughout the bus?

We heard before that Arica was "just a border town" whatever the hell that means. We had no clue how to interpret it but we later made our own interpretation of that phrase. We stayed at a great hostal that I would recommend all stay at named Arica Unite. Owned by a French couple it sits 5 minutes walking distance from surfing or swimming with sea turtles, or a combination of the 2! Every morning they make you a surprise breakfast, as long as you wake up between 8:30-10. The first day was crepes. Second day pancakes. Third day waffles! All variations! They were delicious and came with a French artsy fruit platter. We explored the beaches during the day. A beach is a beach but what takes it to the next level? Tranquility or activities? From me its activities. And there were plenty of these. Surfing along the entire beaxh with great breaks and small to large waves. It was a pick what you want type of wave buffet. There was a little rock climbing wall on the beach,  zip line, beach soccer, paddle sports and swimmers. In the mornings if you woke up early enough and were lucky enough you could catch the sea lions, even surf with them. Throughout the day but more populated at dusk you could swim with the sea turtles and these sea turtles are enormous! The water isn't clear enough to see to the bottom but they are so curious that they pop there heads up like a submarine telescope. The whole time I was feeling like I was 8 years old at the grove looking at the impressive turtles. This was my childhood dream and I was swimming next to them! It was fantastic!

TBC!  Delay due to sleep!

Continue...

In our hostal a legend was living. We heard about him on the internet before leaving for the trip. His name, Yoyo. The surf bum of the town. But he's not a bum he's a schemer. He owns his own surf company where he takes you surfing and hangs out with you. Cooks for you, shows you the local spots etc. It was like paying for a friend and to me it seemed like an amazing job. Foreigners coming all the time who are happy bc they are travelling. Teaching them to surf and showing them around the cool spots, which there are a lot of. He is a 5th dimensional being. One of those people who is with you for one second and the next they are no where to be found only to reappear when you least expect it with a crazy story of where he's been or a past experience and then boom, gone again.

The next day we rented scooters and cruised to all the cool spots. I felt like I was in Asia again riding around on little quick motor bikes in a foreigner country with no traffic rules and crazy drivers. It was my first time driving since September so I made sure to take it easy bc the cement didn't look too soft! We went and explored caves outside the city. The caves were cool but the best part was the little empanada shack on the beach right next door. What I remember from Chile before was the seafood empanadas and this only made these feelings stronger. A shack with plastic chairs and palapas right in the sand close enough to the water to feel the impressive waves crash onto the rocks. Here we had seafood empanadas filled with crab, shrimp, fish and cheese. When they came out it looked like he was serving us a full on entree it was so massive! The dough by itself was so tasty let alone the fresh mariscos surrounded by delicious hot melty cheese. Hands down best empanadas of my life. So good we tried to order another but it was the last of the ingredients until the boats came back in the afternoon. One of those things that was better that way. 2 might have been too much.  But 1 was too perfect.

After cruising around to various spots such as world surfing tour spots and big Jesus's on top of hills we went to a hummingbird park our hostal owner told us about. How the hell is there a hummingbird park in the middle of this incredibly dry desert without any trees or flowers or water!?!?!? As we got outside of town, which isn't easy in south American traffic, it began to feel like israel. Dry desert with rows and rows and rows of olive trees in a fertile valley. It was amazing! After missing a turnoff, which doesn't matter when your in another country on scooters bc its all about the exploration, we found the hummingbird park down a narrow dusty road. Was this place where I felt Ken Kesey lived in at one point. In the middle of this desert that's rainfall is 0.08mm/year are all these amazing flowers and trees and cactuses where. I mean flowers in colors id never seen before in shapes I didn't know existed. Hummingbirds flying all over the place making you feel like your the weird one. Around small pathway corners were couches and around other corners were antique furniture and old record players and soda bottles. Around the next bend was the Shaqtus, the size of the Sears tower, in the cactus world. Wow was this place crazier and crazier what was going to pop out of the next corner?
Exotic birds is what. All kinds of colorful birds of all sizes, unfortunately in cages though. We crossed to the other side to find peacocks, chickens and ducks (go ducks!). This whole crazy time all we could think about was what kind of people lived in this place? People from where? What did they look like? Their backgrounds? Why they have this etc etc.

As we were leaving we saw an old women and and old man, could it be theirs? They seemed so normal t o have a place like this. Not Eugene, Oregon enough!

Overall, border towns are awesome if that's what they are all like!

P.S. first day there, went to a kind of sketch bar mid afternoon for a brew and ended up staying there for 5 hrs with a group of Chileans we met. Talking in Spanish and having a hell of a time. Turns out thwy are all the street vendors that sell things illegally on the street. They wanted me to carry things (toys, watches, etc) not drugs, across the border for them and work for them in Peru. This is what we discover a border town was. Schemers who find cheap things in yiur country and bring it to the one over. Entrepreneurs of the black market. But great ppl. The $ sounds good. Im thinking about it!

Love you!

Imagine me!

Finding your community

NuWhat is community? How do you become a part of it? By choice? By acceptance? By hobbies? Work? Friends? Random selection?

Finding your community is important for success and happiness. But how do we find those people who share mutual interests when you are in a new environment?

You talk to people, you ask questions, you read signs, you stop people who are wearing t-shirts or riding a bike, playing an instrument or kicking a soccer ball. You search. We all have interests and believe it or not your not alone. Everywhere you go to you can find somebody who shares the same interest, passions and hobbies. Even if it's in a different language or in a different contezt. Maybe you play on concrete instead of grass, play at night instead of the day or have to rent space versus using your own basement. Whatever the differences are the activities are more or less the same.

I finally found my soccer community after searching for a long time. I've been handing out my number asking everyone I meet and trying to send out all my signals and finally I got one back! This process sometimes all falls into place in one day or sometimes you have to keep trying to weeks. But its important to be persistent not get donw on yourself and most importantly never give up.

Find your community. Spend your free time doing things you enjoy. But very importantly try things you've never tried before. Meet people with different hobbies and try there's. Ask them if you can tag along. Because it could end up being your new hobby.

Also importantly be the person to invite people to do your hobbies with you if they've never done it before. Make people step outside of there normal hobbies and give yours a go. Don't just take, make sure to give as well.

Playing soccer at midnight under the moon and the lights only hearing our own footsteps hitting the concrete and the street dogs barking were the noises of me finding my soccer community here in Arequipa.  Splitting a celebratory coca cola afterwards between the 12 of us with only 3 Dixie cups being passes around was the cherry on top. As the time ticked and I knew I had to be up in a few hours to teach I said eff it. You have to risk it to st the biscuit!

Try new things, your never to old to start something new, because your ALIVE! Act like it!

Casa Chapi, Chivay

Wow! I'm sorry it took me this long to write about this magical weekend in Chivay, 3 hrs outside Arequipa in the Colca valley. Teaching Monday-Saturday made me hesitant to go and teach on Sunday. However, I knew that whatever I would be doing in Arequipa wouldn't equate to what I would be doing in Chivay (or so I thought). The weekend was free also, as they paid for our Ida y vuelta and they gave us a bed under a thatched roof in the mountains with Alpaca blankets to keep us warm and food to keep our bellies full. Warm Andean grain drink and alpaca meat is the norm in those parts and both make you feel like your in the Andes. Go where the locals go, do what the locals do and eat what the locals eat!

Arriving Saturday evening, a little consado from the long bus ride over and some sleepless nights trying to balance partying and waking up early (hint, they don't really balance) we arrived at casa chapi. The car illuminating the house as we entered was the sign the chickens needed to run out of the coop. It was a struggle to put my foot on the ground as I was afraid I would step on a kid there were so many! Instant love as every kid covered us in hugs and kisses. Smiles, laughs and love were all that was in the air as we ran around and got to know each other.

After playing with the kids and eating dinner the kids were off to bed and the teachers were off to star gaze. The stars and moon lit the sky as if it was full of diamonds, Lucy! One of the clearest sky's I had ever seen, with views of the milky way stretching overhead and star patterns that were clearly constellations, we just didn't know which ones. As we gazed in the unknown with curiosity, we swang on the swing set like little kids!

After such a warm greeting I didn't know they could get even better! We just had a blast all day long. They called me tio Mac (uncle Mac). I had my sunglasses and every single kid wanted to wear them and how could anyone resist (not my good pair!). It reminded me of the movie Big Daddy when he gives the kids glasses and he "disappears" so that he can go into situations where he is uncomfortable or scared. I would look around the playground as everyone was playing and see one kid off in the distance just sitting down wearing my glasses, thinking they were the coolest invisible kid on the playground. We played soccer and it was a lung burner at around 15,000ft!

Above everything what stuck out to me was how great this house was for the kids. A guy named Mike from the US opened up this school for the kids a few years ago. For kids ages 5-13 whose parents cant give them an education or take sufficient care of them so they send them to casa chapi. The parents come and visit every once in a while and I think the kids go to their houses every once in a while as well. While I was there one of the moms was there and she only spoke Quecha.  Most of the students understood Quecha but couldn't speak it. It was culturally enriching to be around people from such different backgrounds than me. At the school the kids eat, sleep, go to school, clean their own clothes, rooms, kitchen etc, play, garden, raise animals and have dentist and doctor checkups. Possibly even more than that. The facilities were simple but nice and it just put a smile on my face to see these kids getting opportunities and being a family together.

I was so surprised about how well behaved they were. NO kid was a brat NO kid was mean. While I ws s there to kids cried or fought. It was unbelievable. They just had fun and they all got along. The best parts of kids without having to deal with the worst parts!

Overall, it was one of my most rewarding experiences in Peru so far. Make sure to always push yourself, especially when it's easier not to. And help out. Were lucky, make others feel lucky.

On a side note, turns out their Ducks fans also!!! OOOOOOO!