Back into the Jungle!

February 9th, 2018

On Friday, we all loaded up the car with our overnight bags and set off towards the jungle. In the car was my host dad, Jeanne, Ana, Victor, and Gerardo (who laid with us all in the back). We set off on our over three-hour car ride. The drive took us down through the mountains, meaning it was quite winding. Jeanne, Ana, and I were are in the backseat, with Gerardo laying across our laps. Before long Gerardo had fallen asleep on our laps. Combining this with the winding road, Ana and I were forced to try and keep our little sleeping boy from bumping around too much. It was actually pretty comical, with us both grabbing the handle bars every 10 seconds. Eventually, we made it pretty far down the mountains and stopped for lunch. We all ate different things (I had ceviche with trout), before we took some photos of the beautiful city square and ate some ice cream. We eventually clambered back into the car and drove to the next town over. Here we stopped at a church upon a hill (and of course took some more photos).

After the church we completed the journey to our house in the jungle. By the time we arrived, it was fairly late. We drove in and had barely set our things in our rooms before Gerardo came and asked us to set up the pool. The whole way to the jungle he had told us about the pool we would have. Well, it turns out that the pool was definitely made for people Gerardo's height. With that said we all put our heads together and built the pool for little Gerardo. After we built the pool, we all left to walk around the city square and explore. While we were walking around, we stopped for dinner, before we all took moto-taxis back. Once back in the house, we all chilled and hung out before we eventually all went to bed to get ready for the next morning.

February 10th, 2018

We all woke up and quickly got around for the tour that our host mom and sister had went and booked earlier in the morning. After a quick breakfast and backing of backpacks, we all boarded a truck that came to get us and went on the first leg of the tour. It was a taste testing of various local crafted drinks. Personally, my favorite one was the drink infused with coffee. After we got our drinks, we waited until we found a tour bus with room for us. About thirty minutes later, we had set off for the next tour stop, a bridge that crossed the main river. We took some photos and explored a little bit before we boarded the bus again and headed to another lookout point...


After we took some photos we headed to a local community that still lives in the jungle of Perú. The members of the community don't speak Spanish, but their own native tongue. We learned a few of the native words before we all changed into clothing the natives wore and had our faces painted. After the transformation, we sat down with a member who spoke Spanish and talked about the community.  After the speech, we all got up to of course dance. We were all in a giant circle with a man completely costumed in the middle. Jeanne, Ana, and I could only hope that we were not pulled into the center. Well, we didn't hope enough, as being the only foreigners meant we had to get into the center. I was pulled in first, and while I tried to politely decline, I failed. After me went Jeanne, and soon after Ana. Victor didn't get pulled in (sadly) as he was a boy. After the dances, we were sent to the goods the villagers make.  We soon were put back in the bus, this time to go head to the restaurant  for lunch. On the way to the restaurant, we stopped at a coconut stand where they cut the top off of the coconut and stuck a straw in before giving it to you. The coconut water was nice and refreshing and we carried on to the restaurant with coconuts in hand. We ordered our food and then took a quick trip down the river while our food was being cooked. After our quick little boat ride, we returned, ate lunch, and then set off to what everyone was looking forward to, the waterfalls.

Once we arrived close to the waterfall, we all set off for a 5-10 minute hike. The walk was quite slippery, but we eventually made it and took some photos. After the photos, Ana and I ventured into the water to wade in the water. It was very relaxing, and much calmer than the waterfall in Chachapoyas. After we were done wading, we set back down the hike and walked to another waterfall, where we took a few more photos...

After the waterfalls, we headed back to our host family. We all relaxed and later went out to go dance.

February 11, 2018

We woke up waaaayyyyy later than intended and had a late start to the day. After we all got around, we headed to an Orange farm where I went orange picking for the first time. Orange picking was quite different from apple picking, as the yard was filled with bugs. We also had to use nets attached to long sticks so that we could reach the oranges. While we went around picking oranges, we kept cutting them open to eat them. Before long, our bags of oranges were full. Before we left however, my host mom had Victor jump for an orange on the tree. When he came down, he smashed a fallen orange with his foot, covering Camila (my host sister) with orange juice.

After Camila got cleaned up, we all went to enjoy lunch with my host father's friend. While our food was being made, we went with an employee through a walk into the jungle. He showed us how they farmed Youka, a type of root that is a stable in Peru's jungle. First, he chopped the tree of the Youka plant off. Then, with much strength, he pulled up enormous roots. After the demonstration, we walked back to eat lunch. With our bellies now full, we went to the nearby river bank to wade in the icy waters. We all waded around, took photos, and played in the sand before we left the restaurant to go back to our house. Once in the house, we quickly grabbed our swimsuits and went to a nearby hotel so that we could swim in the pool. After a few hours and lots of splashing, we returned home exhausted. We caught some sleep and then left the next morning.