Saturday 28, 2017
After waking up on Saturday and getting around, all of the students boarded the bus and headed to the first stop on our tour of Oxapampa. Before heading to Oxapampa, I was told that the area was known for its milk and cheese, making it no surprise to me that the first stop on the tour was a dairy farm.
Needless to say, I was a little less impressed by the dairy farm than the other exchange students, as a dairy farm is a normal part of my Indiana life. It was however, quite interesting to have things explained in Spanish. During the tour I got a cow to lick my tongue (which may sound weird), making the rest of my day (who doesn’t love a cow tongue?). The other exchange students also seemed impressed that I knew the types of cows at the dairy farm (S/o to my bestie Kiah for teaching me the names). For anyone wondering, the name of a Brown Swiss cow is the same in Spanish :)
After the tour, we all got to sample the different types of cheeses made there, and had an opportunity to buy them. While many of the cheeses were delicious, I ended up buying cream cheese, just to get a little taste of home (my mom cooks with cream cheese all the time). After the dairy tour, we headed to the next leg, a little talk about local coffee.
During the coffee length of the tour, we learned about the coffee beans grown, and got to sample some of the goods. We also had the opportunity to buy frozen coffee popsicles, which were not only delicious, but nice to have in the heat of the jungle (your northern girl can only take so much).
Popsicles in hand, we headed into the actual jungle. We went through some weeds, crossed a little creek, and ducked through some wire fencing. Once through our natural obstacle course, we stood in a little clearing. Some of the vegetation was explained before we gathered around a giant tree to hug it and chant something.
After the tree hugging, we all headed back out to where we started the tour, boarded the bus, and headed to our next destination, a small community of locals still practicing the ancient traditions. Here, we watched dances, participated in dances, ate lunch, had the opportunity to buy the handmade crafts, and learned how to shoot some “arrows”. One of the men living in the community, was from France (or lived in France, didn’t really catch it all) and was able to speak fluent French (a little shocker).
After our lunch of chicken and potato, we went to a place where liquor was crafted from sugarcane. The process did not spell that great, but it was nonetheless and interesting process. We even got to sample some of the liquor. The first drink was quite delicious, a good blend of fruit and alcohol. We also tried some honey before moving on to the main stuff, shots. Felix (a Rotarian) showed us all a little thing to do before taking shots, which I was the first to do as I was given the first shot. Don’t ask me why the unexperienced American was taking the first shot, but I gave it my all. The alcohol was very potent, and I know this wasn’t just because I’m a rookie, but because my European companions were also making some faces.
Next on the tour we all went to a sort of rodeo. This is when I thought I had truly returned back home. There were giant fields, cows, farm dogs, horses, and even American country music playing. The only distinct difference was the giant hills covered in trees of the rainforest. Here, the exchange students got to watch some games and participate in them as well. The first was a game that had Peruvians on horses. In their hands were darts that they were trying to use to penetrate ribbons hanging from an archway. In order to penetrate the ribbon, the horses had to be running very fast and the riders had to stand up a bit (an exciting combination).
The next game was a sign of strength. It was a classic teamwork to cut a log in half. Everyone took part in this games, as it was not only something you got to do with a friend, it was also a race. I ended up participating with Gracie (South Carolina) and we ended up winning. The next game was to lift a very heavy hammer and to nail a stake into the ground. I personally skipped on this game, as I knew that my little arms were not lifting that hammer. After we got the stake a little bit into the ground, we moved on to the next game, which was to pull a weight up using a polley. I tried to do this by myself, epically failed, and went back to do it with Gracie and Els (Netherlands).
During the entire time at the farm, I had been playing with a new found love, the cutest puppy ever. I was a little sad to leave my new friend, not going to lie. Nonetheless, eventually I had to say goodbye to my newfound love. We then boarded the buses and headed back to the hotel.
Sunday 29, 2017
The next morning we all woke up, ate breakfast, got our luggage around, and boarded the buses. The destination for the day was an exciting one, as we knew we were headed to go swim in some waterfalls. The drive was fairly uneventful, and we eventually arrived to some cold waterfalls and with a cloudy sky. The majority of us were already in our swimsuits, so upon arrival we all stripped and got into the water.
In all honesty, the water was fairly cold in the beginning, but after a few minutes, we all started to adjust to the icy water (or at least some of us did). We all swam around and took tons of photos, before all the exchange students had to get out so we could take group photos with our flags.
After the photos, a few students got back into swim, while the others (including myself), ventured back to go change and dry off. After we had all gotten dried off, we boarded the bus again and went back to the hotel. After arrival in the hotel, we were supposed to quickly grab our bags and then leave. However we ended up waiting and talking for a long time, not only delaying our return back to Lima, but meaning we all got several mosquito bites from the jungle (very fun).
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