Selva Chi Pictures

From top to bottom (Click to enlarge) : 1. The choza with the roof finished.

2. Me chiseling away with Selva Chi in the background.

3. The bee hive we cut out of a fallen tree

4. The Bully Bird (our name for him) Our morning entertainment was to put 2 or 3 bananas in a bird feeder and watch the local birds interact. There were probably a dozen regular species that would come by and eat every morning. It was all peaceful until this little guy showed up and stole the show. He was tiny, but incredibly quick. If he was around, no other birds were allowed to feed and we saw him keep about 8 birds at bay, some being around 3 times his size. The male Bully Bird would guard all the bananas until his mate showed up, ate a peaceful meal all to herself, and then the rest of the crowd was allowed to feed. It was a pretty entertaining show to watch at breakfast every day.

Selva Chi

It seems like high time to write a bit about Selva Chi, my second good WWOOF experience. Happy Thanksgiving!

Selva Chi is a permaculture and forest conservation project run by an Australian named Martin Couell. He owns over 50 hectares of land in the Esmeraldas province of northern Ecuador where he plans to start an outdoor education project for Ecuadorian children while conserving a beautiful and unique ecosystem. Due to the fact that this area of Ecuador is right where the rain forest meets the ocean, its home to many species of trees that can´t be found anywhere else in the world. Right now, it consists of a food forest, nursery, and the beginnings of an arboretum that will house about 500 different species of rainforest trees. Martin is in the process of finding all kinds of palms, tropical hardwoods, ferns, and every kind of banana you could imagine. I had a an eye-opening month there and learned quite a bit plant biology which was a nice addition to the permaculture experience.

A major part of the experience of Selva Chi for me was just the way we lived which was extremely simply. The only electricity in the pure wood house came from a couple little solar panels on the roof that powered two light bulbs that we used for 2 or 3 minutes a day. There was no running water, so we bathed in a river where Martin carved out some of the hard clay to make a kind of ¨spa bath¨. Although the path down to the river could get a bit slippery, the river was a refreshing way to end a day of work. There was a composting toilet, so everything you consume got reused. We did cook on a gas stove, so there was some energy use going on, but I don´t think I have used so little power for that long in my life.

The main crop that grew in Selva Chi was bananas, so I probably ate about 15-20 bananas per day. I´m not exaggerating with that estimate. We also ate pumpkin, onions, rice, soy beans, and oats. We mixed in some of the fruits that grew on the farm, like mamey, an amazingly delicious fruit that Martin introduced to me, but we ate basically the same thing every day. It sounds a bit boring, but its actually kind of nice to eat a diet that simple. Your blood sugar is always at an optimal level and its perfect for a day of work.

I did a variety of jobs at the farm such as planting trees, clearing space with a machete, and my personal favorite: carrying wood up slippery slopes. The days of work could be around 10 hours long and fairly strenuous. There were even a couple days where I threatened to go to my union rep about the hours I was working (haha). Overall though, it was a relaxed environment and there was always a good conversation to be had with Martin. The two jobs that stick out to me are helping build the choza, a second house that will house students and the epic adventure of harvesting a hive of native bees.

Building a structure a great experience for me. I was able to help build the frame for the second floor of the choza and put the roof on. Martin, our carpenter, an Ecuadorian named Isidro, and I worked on the choza. It took a bit longer than we had anticipated because we had to go collect wood with Isidro´s chainsaw, but he was in the process of building his own house so he was not available every day. Without power tools, aside from the chainsaw, it meant there were a lot of holes to be made with the ol´ hammer and chisel which I became pretty handy with by the end of my time there. The support for the roof was made of mainly made of bamboo and it was amazing to watch the skill of Isidro while he worked with it. Although its strong if used correctly, it can be very brittle in terms of holding nails. He knew all the strategies to working without power tools, making everything level using the ojímetro (eye meter), and distributing weight and force to its appropriate support. Its hard to explain how great it was to see this structure going up knowing it was coming purely from our man-power.

The bee hive story actually deserves its own post, so I´ll do it in the next day or two. Overall, my month at Selva was incredible. I got to spend a month in one of the most beautiful regions I have ever seen while learning a ton. Martin was really an inspiring example of how a person can live without having a negative impact on their environment.

Tungurahua Tea Room

Now that I´ve been gone from the Tunguahua tea room, it seems like time to reflect on my experience there. I am writing from Tongachigue, Ecuador, about an hour and a half from my new farm which is just outside of Tongorachí.

My month in Baños turned out pretty well. I was thinking it would be a bit more of a permaculture project that I was working on, but because the owner wasn´t sure how long she would be continuing the volunteer program, she didn´t want to really add anything on to what already existed in her garden. The tasks ended up being more along the lines of weeding and taking care of the vegetable garden. My boss, Mario, a lot of fun to work with and also cooked excellent lunches when it was his turn. It was a nice laid-back work atmosphere, and I made some friends that I hope to stay in touch with for a long time.

One of the people I met there was a man named Carlos. He is originally from San Antonio de Ibarra in northern Ecuador. It is a town famous for being the home of thousands of artists who work in all different mediums of art. Carlos is a wood sculptor whose parents are both indigenous Ecuadorians and much of his sculpture has a Native Ecuadorian flare to it. He happened to be at the farm working on a project for Carol, the owner of Tungurahua Tea Room. They had been friends for years and he had done numerous pieces in her house including a beautiful carving for her kitchen table and about 20 wooden statues of goddesses from cultures around the world which are hung from the outside of her house. Carlos was one of the more interesting people I´ve met on this trip so far and our conversations ranged from Ecuadorian politics, his numerous ideas for inventions for how the world was going to cope with the post-petroleum era, to who knows what. Talking with him was one of the best things I could do to improve my Spanish because we touched on such a wide variety of vocabulary. He also headed up a group that kept a large hydroelectric company from destroying El Pailo del Diablo, a beautiful waterfall a bit outside of Baños. This campaign resulted in threats on his life, but eventually he and a few other dedicated people were able to save this beautiful place. He left after my second week at the Tea Room, but we would meet up later.

Another friend was Jared, another American who graduated from college in 2009 too. If you are keeping up with the blog, he is the guy with 14 books. It was nice to have someone else my age to hang out with. We became pretty good friends quickly and ended up taking a couple weekend trips together and might meet up again in another country...who konws.

Our first trip was to Puyopungo, a tiny village in the Amazon jungle. We both thought it was going to be more of a town, but when we got there, we saw that it was no more than a few wooden houses and a dirt soccer field. It did have a bunch of Cabañas for us to stay in though. The hiking around the village was beautiful and we ended up skipping out on a day of work to stay a night longer.

Being in the Amazon made me think about how interconnected each aspect of nature is and how disconnected we seem to be from it. Observing the animal and plant interactions there is like watching evolution occur right before your eyes. Each tree stump, hole in the ground, or even a piece of bread you leave out (not even out, we left bread in a plastic bag hanging in the kitchen and it was a colony of ants the next morning) overnight is just teeming with life. The Amazon is nature at hyperspeed and as a person, although you see the beauty, you also feel like a bit of an invader.

After Puyopungo, it was my last week in the Tea Room. Four new volunteers came in the middle of the week and it got a bit crowded after I had grown accustomed to just Jared and me living there so I was happy to be on my way. That weekend Jarend and I went to visit Carlos in San Antonio de Ibarra. It turned out to be this awesome little town full of life and art. From there, Carlos took us to:
1. Otavalo Market, a must-see spot in Ecuador. This famous outdoor public market was kind of disappointing because it attracts so many tourists that its kind of killed the charm I´m sure it used to have. It was lot of booths repeating the same types of crafts, but it did have amazing food. I ate blood sausage and a plate of intestine looking things that was excellent.
2. Cotacachi, a little town known for its amazing leather work. There was shop after shop of beautiful handmade leather crafts: bags, coats, chairs, whatever you can think of they had it in leatherñ
3. Pimampiro, another little town, but still a place based almost solely on agriculture. I ate the be melcocha of my life there. Melcocha is like Ecuadorian salt water taffy, but its made from panela. Panela is basically cooked sugar cane (the real Sugar in the Raw). This melcocha was amazing because it was filled with peanuts and ended up tasting like a totally natural Snickers bar and its packaged in a dried banana leaf. I bought about a kilo and it was gone within 2 days. Pimampiro also has a market one day a year where no money is exchanged, just bartering. Too bad its in April.
Ibarra, the capital city in Ibarra province and home to the best ice cream I´ve ever had and one of the worst cover bands I´ve ever seen.

After San Antonio, I bid farewell to Jared who was returning to the Tea Room and Carlos and head off to Quito. Quito was beautiful and I spent a couple days hanging out with another friend I had met earlier in Ecuador and taking pictures.

All-in-all, a good September. Now I live an hour and a half away from internet and without electricity or running water in Tongorachí. Its awesome! I have been there for about a week and I´ll give a better description when I leave this new farm in about 3 weeks.

Intro to Ecuador

Well, I guess I should start off with my experience at the border. I tried to write this story twice, but its kind of complicated. A cab driver tried to rip me off at Peruvian customs and I wasn´t having it that day. I´m very glad my Spanish was up to speed for this exchange. He said it would be 5 soles initially and then it somehow changed to 25 once we were at customs. He thought that he was going to take me all the way to the border, but I only wanted his services up until customs because I could find a mototaxi for cheaper. We yelled at each other for a while and then he called a police officer over. We told our sides of the story and the police officer said I should pay him 10, but I had just exchanged my last 20 sol note for American dollars and only had 5. The police officer said fine, pay him the 5. So I did and the cab driver was furious. He called me a yanqui and a ladron and said that I couldn´t just come in his country and do whatever I wanted. I think he was just mad because his trick didn´t work on me so I smiled and left in my mototaxi.

Ecuador is vastly different from Ecuador. Since Dollarization in 2000 (their currency is the American dollar), people have been able to get credit lines, the government has been able to spend more, and it has completely changed the country over the last 10 years. It amounts to lots of personal cars, better infastructure, but also increased work hours to pay off debt and in smaller towns, many of the beautiful handmade crafts Ecuador in known for just aren´t worth the time anymore. A woman can´t spend a week making a hand-woven poncho when time is money. I have heard mixed reactions about it from Ecuadorians I´ve talked to.

Since I have been in Ecuador, I spent 5 days in Vilcabamba, which is a little mountain town that has sadly been overrun by American ex-pats. The culture has been destroyed, but the scenery is amazing. I was trying to set up a WWOOF farm, but in the mean time was just staying at a sleepy little hostel where I met a really interesting Greek woman who worked there. She was in her 40s I think and had been kind of traveling the world for who knows how many years. She saw that I was reading an Osho book which a friend in Piura gave me and recommended some other reading. I happened to be there at the same time as one of her friends who had spent the last 40 years translating ancient scriptures that were found in 1945 by two farmers in Egypt from Coptic to English. His web site is metalogs.org and its really interesting. He´s quite a fascinating guy. I am reading his translations of these lost texts off and on and they can be pretty eye-opening.

After Vilcabamba, with no successful WWOOF set up yet I went to Cuenca which didn´t leave much of a lasting impression. I was only there for a couple days, but wasn´t in the mood for a city and persued a farm that ended up being another failure. I left that farm ready to give up on WWOOF and went to Guayaquil to explore other options.

I ended up loving Guayaquil. Some people have told me that it used to be the armpit of Ecuador, but I thought it was great. Since the 90s they have made huge steps in beautify the city and it has tons of public art, mainly symbols Ecuadorian nationalism, a great malecón (riverwalk), and beautiful public parks that I would spend my days reading and writing in. One park in the middle of downtown is full of giant iguanas. Its amazing, they´re up in the trees, right by my feet, and sometimes theres a kid pulling on one´s tail. I even got to see a couple of Iguana fights. I stayed in Guayaquil for about a week and set up yet another WWOOF farm.

This one is great and where I am staying for the next few weeks. I have been here for a week already. Its outside of beautiful Baños Ecuador. The woman who owns it is Canadian, but has lived here for about 15 years. There is a mandarin and lemon grove which I have been working in, a vegetable garden, and tons of herbs for all kinds of interesting teas. The work has not been too grueling, but we´ll see how it goes in the next few weeks. I work from about 7 30 - 3 30 five days a week and have the rest of my time to explore surrounding areas or just read, write, and think in the beautiful garden. I have a book on permaculture and the other volunteer has 14 great books that I´m digging into as well. I feel excellent at this farm so it should be a nice month where I don´t have to be constantly moving.

Catch-up Part 2: Iquitos to Huancabamba

Ok, now we´re getting a bit more recent.

7/11-7/21 - My first day in Iquitos was a lot of fun. I´m sure it was partly because I was off of the lancha, but still in my journal I was going on and on about it. I decided to explore Belen market as my first activity and was blown away by what I found: First of all, there are huge black vultures all over the market eating whatever meat by-products fall onto the ground. You can also find turtle eggs, turtle meat, wild jungle pig (all technically illegal), all kinds of amazing fish, and stand after stand full of products fresh from the jungle. Some of the meat stands were pretty gruesome, but interesting if you´re into public markets, which I am.

Belen is a district of Iquitos that used to be the slum where all of the workers in the rubber plants live. Although I was there during the dry season, for about nince months out of the year, the neighborhood is all floating or on stilts. Its affectionately known as the Venice of Peru. The market is fairly safe, but venturing deeper into Belen can be a bit dangerous without a guide. Guides are not hard to come by and I found one who would give me a half hour tour for about 3 bucks. He took me out on a boat so I could see the whole neighborhood. Its still very much a slum. There was lots of trash, people bathing, washing clothes, and using the river as a toilet. He explained to me that every morning there are ferries that go into the jungle so the people can hunt, fish, or gather their goods for the day and bring them back to the market. This all happens before the average tourist even wakes up. Its obvious the people in the jungle work incredibly hard to make their living.

I was staying at a really cheap with not many people around, but the following day a group arrived who was attending the shamanistic conference that was in town that week. It was the right week to be in town because the conference brings a pretty interesting group of gringos to Iquitos. Talking with them really brought me back to my sophomore year of college when my friend Doug introduced me to some good literature about different research on hallucinogenic substances. If anyone is interested in a great read, I recommend Food of the Gods by Terrence McKenna. He is a hero to many of the people at the conference, and although he is dead, his brother was speaking there. He writes about the co-evolution of plants and humans and the use of hallucinogenic plants that occurred in throughout history in countless cultures and why it is frowned upon in Occidental society. It was pretty interesting stuff for someone who likes psychology and the type of book you probably won´t find in your average college course. Since Iquitos, my reading has shifted away from the more political things I had been reading for the last year or so back to spiritual, philosophical books.

Anyway, I had some great conversations with the people at my hostel even though I think they are getting a bit ripped off by the conference promoters and the shamans who attend them. Shamanism and business aren´t supposed to go hand in hand, but thats kind of how it goes today. Many people who claim to be shamans are just people who know how to prepare San Pedro or Ayahuasca with no more heightened spiritual awareness than your average Joe.

Iquitos was also the jumping off point for my first WWOOF experience. WWOOF is an organization that helps volunteers find farms to work and live on. I won´t dwell on this for long, but it was basically a bunch of young guys trying to start a rainbow community. A great idea but they were executing really poorly. They didn´t have much food and I immediately had stomach problems from the water, food, or a combo of both and left after three days. Afterwards, I found out from a friend that there were also darker things brewing there as well that might have given me stomach problems. There just was not good energy there and I was really happy and much healthier after I left.

7/21-8/6 - I spent my last couple days in Iquitos with James, a Scottish/Canadian. He was one of the people for the conference and gave me some good book recommendations and was fun to hang out with. From Iquitos, I hopped on another cargo boat, this time to Yurimaguas, to make my way to the Ecuadorian border. After about 5 minutes I knew this would be a better boat ride. There was more space, it was cooler, and it actually took off on time! I quickly befriended a German girl who was also a psychology graduate looking for something else to do with her life. She is in South America to study medicinal plants and has traveled all over the world. It was fun to have someone my age and with a similar background to chat with on the boat ride. I could actually enjoy the view as we went down the river toward Yurimaguas. Food on the Eduardo II ended up being 10x better than the Henry too.

Well, it turned out that my German friend was headed toward the Ecuadorian border too, so we decided to travel together. I had read about a city called Huancabamba which was deep the mountains of northern Peru and off the beaten path. It would be a bit of a journey to get there, but like Iquitos, its also a center for medicical plants and shamanism. We were both up for the challenge and started toward Huancabamba traveling by camioneta (pick-up truck) and camión (big truck). I have to say, this is the way to travel. Its cheap and you´re just out in the open air with whatever cargo the truckers happen to be taking.

I have to talk a bit about Huarmaca. Its a tiny district south east of Huancabamba. Now, the 99% or more of tourists go to Huancabamba from Piura, a major city to the west, but we were coming from the east and it seemed more logical not to go all the way to Piura just to backtrack to Huancabamba, so we took the alternate route. 2nd example of distance meaning nothing in terms of time. After a couple hops on camionetas, we were somewhat stranded in Huarmaca.

Well, we were the talk of the town in Huarmaca. We were 2 of 5 gringos that had been through that town in the last 5 years or so and people were fascinated by us. My friend is tall, blue-eyed, with long blonde dreadlocks and I have a beard and my hair is getting long, so its not like we were going to hide anywhere. Whereever we went, a crowd followed us, whispering, snickering, and it was just bizarre how they acted toward us. I felt like an animal on display. They would watch us eat like they had never seen people eat before. She had it worse because people all wanted to touch her dreadlocks and I think they just generally gave me more space because I was a man. One kid even threw a rock at her and everywhere kids and adults shouted GRINGO! Its probably the most uncomfortable I have ever felt in a town.

Although it was very uncomfortable, I was introduced to the greatest drink ever in Huarmaca, so I will always have one positive memory there. EMOLIENTE. Oh man, emoliente is a kind of herbal tea made with flax seed, aloe vera, and all kinds of other healthy natural ingredients found all over Peru. Each person who has an emoliente cart makes it a bit differently, but its always delicious. I can´t believe it took me 3 months to find it. I think its kind of like platform 9 3/4 in Harry Potter. You can´t see it until someone tells you about it, but now its the first thing I seek out in the morning I´m in a new city. They have it here in Ecuador too, but its called aguita de sabila (Aloe vera tea) and its generally not as good.

The next stop was Tunas where we stayed with an amazing Peruvian family. They were so generous toward us and everyone in this tiny town was polite, friendly, and intelligent. Mingas, the son of a farmer who had worked in the town since it was an hacienda owned by a Czech family cooked for us, took us on a hike, and let us stay in their house without asking anything from us. They also grow all natural coffee all over the region and I enjoyed the best cup of coffee I´ve ever had in my life there. I later visited him again in Piura where he works and goes to school.

After about 5 or 6 days and a marathon 7 hour ride on the back of a truck, we finally arrived in Huancabamba. It was well worth the wait. Beautiful scenery, friendly people, a beautiful market, and high quality emoliente. We also found a hostel for about 2 bucks a night. We were there 5 days and I ended up staying for free by trading a couple t shirts and my basketball shorts for my accommodation. It was a good way to make some space in my bag. I also bought my first real souvenier, a handmade wool poncho which I mainly use as a yoga mat. It hasn´t been cold enough yet to warrant a poncho. After that, she headed to the coast and I made my way to the border of Ecuador to avoid a big fine by overstaying my visa.

Well, I still haven´t covered my two weeks in Ecuador, but I´ll do that in a few days. I hope this isn´t too sloppy. I don´t really have time to edit it.

Catch-up Part 1: From Arequipa to Iquitos

Time to dust off the ol´blog for an update. Since I´m so far behind, I´m going to do this in 2-3 posts. Luckily I keep a detailed journal of my own so it should be pretty accurate. I´m currently in Guayaquil, Ecuador.

6/23-7/1 - After Arequipa, I made my way to Huaraz which is southern/central Peru. Its known for its picturesque mountain settings and great hiking. Basically everyone who came through the hostel I worked at recommended it, so I said my goodbyes to my Ariquipeñan crew and hit the road. My original plan was to do the Santa Cruz trek which is pretty touristy and not too challenging. Its about 3-4 days depending on how fast you want to go and I was feeling under the weather at the time, so it seemed like all I was up for on my own. Well, when you have no plans, they tend to change and Huaraz was no exception.

On my first full day in Huaraz, a Belgian (David) and another American (Cody) approached me at the hostel with an offer to go on a 9-day trek though the Huayhuash Cordillera. They were pretty cool guys. Both a bit older than me and turned out to be much better hikers. If you look for rankings of most beautiful hikes in the world, this is up there with the Himalayas. They had found an amazing deal to do the hike with a guide and an arriero (donkey man), but they needed a third person. I mulled it over for a bit and later that day told them I was in. I was sick, but it was one of those offers you can´t refuse.

We left the next day for a pueblito where the hike starts. The first day was a bit rocky because there had been a party the night before and all the arrieros in town were too hung over to work. We ended up leaving late and it cut a day off of our hike. For me, this hike had some of the most physically challenging days of my life. My month as a hostel bartender didn´t exactly leave me in the best shape and I didn´t give myself enough time to acclamate to the altitude so I was constantly the weak link. Plus, we were camping at such high altitudes that we woke up to ice on our tent every morning. On the 5th day, we hiked 22k and crossed two passes that were over 5,000 meters. The effort was all worth it when you got to the tops of the passes though. The
views even topped what I saw on the Inca trail.

Although being in the mountains for 8 days, away from civilization was visually stunning, physically rewarding, and mentally cleansing, it didn´t have the impact that on me that the hike to Machu Picchu did. Part of it was the lack of my friends being there, but Machu Picchu has a definite spiritual pull thats like nothing I´ve ever experienced. After the fresh air and physical activity I was ready for my journey Iquitos.

7/2-7/10 From Huaraz, I needed to get to Pucallpa, a small port city where you can catch a cargo boat to Iquitos (4-5 days). All the guide books suggest using Yurimaguas (3-4 days) en route to Iquitos. It is a shorter boat ride, but I was ¨closer¨ to Pucallpa so I decided I would go there. This was my first real experience with how little physical proximity and length of time it gets to get somewhere have to do with each other. I had to hop from small town to small town hoping to finally make it to Pucallpa. For the first time I was really off the gringo trail and got a lot of wide-eyed looks and ¨Whoa! Gringo!¨ from the campesinos. Finally I got to Pucallpa, bought a hammock which would be my bed for the next 6 days!

The boat ride ended up being somewhat of a nightmare. I got onto a boat on Sunday afternoon which was not scheduled to take off until Monday morning. The captain said I could sleep on the boat so I decided to save my spot, save money on a hostel, and get used to living on a boat and spent Sunday night on the Henry II. Well, the boat didn´t leave in the morning...or the afternoon...or at night. I spent my 4th of July on a boat with 100s of restless Peruvians and their crying babies sweating my ass off and thinking about why I didn´t listen to the guide book. Around 6 pm, they told us that there was contraband in the cargo which had suspended our departure for that day.

On Tuesday, we finally took off. The wind from the movement cooled it off a little, but when you´re packed into a cargo ship making your way in the Amazon its not too comfortable. When I say packed, I mean my knees were touching the guy next to me. Also, I can´t say enough about the crying babies and negligent parents. It was horrible.

It wasn´t all bad though. I made a couple buddies so my belongings were always safe and had ample time to read, write, and people watch. Out of maybe 200 people on the boat, I was the only one with a book! Literally, the only one. I talked about this with some of the older guys on the boat and they described to me the awful/non-existant state of the Peruvian public education system. Some of the responsibility of education has to fall on families though. Parents could use that time on the boat to read to their kids instead of letting them run wild. It really made me appreciate the teachers, family, and friends that always encouraged me to expand my mind through reading, travelling, turning off the TV, or whatever it takes to get your brain active. Yes, poor education can be blamed largely on economic/government problems, but I met people with much less money who were more educated than the people I came across on that boat ride and it was due to their family(I´ll get to them in part 2).

The craziest night on the boat was started when we ran aground. Since it was the dry season, the water was a bit low. It was about midnight and the boat lurched to a stop, people started screaming, and the lights came on. Everone had calmed down and when I heard, ¨PAPI!¨ from right behind me and a girl started having a seizure. Everyone gathered around and yelled advice like ¨Put keys in her mouth!¨ which sounded insane. Thankfully, there were no keys, but her family dealt with the situation and she was fine. After 45 minutes or so, the boat got moving again and we went to sleep.

Although the food that was included in the price of the ticket was pretty bad, there was a constant stream of people from each village that we would stop in that would come on board and sell their various products. Some of my favorites were:

Juanes - rice, egg, and chicken in a banana leaf
Humeda - really salty but delicious smoked fish
Aguaje - A fruit, but they take the juice and make it into a popsicle
Various homemade baked goods
Popcorn

After 6 grueling days on the boat, we arrived in Iquitos. I´ll pick up here tomorrow or maybe later today if I´m feeling ambitious.

ITS BEEN A MONTH ALREADY?!?!?

The time has really flown by in Arequipa. I can´t believe it, but I am leaving on Sunday. I had no idea I hadn´t posted anything in almost two weeks. I apologize to anyone who has been reading this.

The last week or so has been a bit hectic because my hours at the school totally changed my schedule. I should explain the teaching position a bit. A woman that I work with has a niece that goes to a school called British Columbia (The man who started it is Canadian) which is about a 40-minute bus ride from where I live. Its still technically Arequipa, but really shares none of the features. When you get out to the Colorado region of Arequipa, it is all dirt roads without a building over one story in sight. Its great to see that side of a city. I have never seen another gringo while I´m out there or on the bus to get there.

The teaching deal went more or less like this: Susie, the woman I work with, told me that I would be helping their current English teacher during class. I would ASSIST with things like pronunciation etc. because they have never been taught by a Native English speaker.

The reality, which was painfully obvious on the first day was that I was the teacher. I teach every grade throughout the week which is kids from ages 8 - 14. In some ways its been a valuable experience, but its been exhausting and showed me that I´m just not cut out to be a teacher. I don´t really like kids and have a lot of trouble controlling them. When I was having trouble getting certain kids attention, a little girl in the class pointed to a whip hanging from the wall, but I´m not really into the idea of beating kids. So its been a bit stressful.

Positive thoughts are that the kids who really do want to learn I think are getting a lot out of my being there. There are a handful that ask great questions, come to class with their homework done, and really make it worth my time and effort. Its also been awesome in terms of practicing my Spanish because I have to give all instructions in Spanish. I will hopefully finish out the week with them, but I have been sick so the last couple days I didn´t have the energy for them.

Overall, Arequipa has been great though. The people I work with are all really helpful with my Spanish and I´m going to miss them when I leave. My next major destination is Iquitos which is a city in the jungle in northern Peru. I´m really excited to start moving again.

My Mom was asking me about different foods I´ve eaten here so...

Anticuchos - These are grilled cow hearts that are absolutely delicious. they are served on a skewer with a salty marinade and potatoes. Definitely one of the highlights of the food here.

Capirina - Cow intestines, lungs, skin, and some unidentifiable thing. These are really greasy, but it makes my mouth water thinking about them. The cooks fry them all together in a wok with a slightly spicy, red mix of herbs and spices.

Ceviche - A specialty in Peru ended up being a horrible night for me. It was a giant plate of raw fish that tasted great, but ended with me groaning in bed all of last Saturday night. For about 12 hours (not exaggerating) I was back a forth from the bathroom. Another American guy who just got to the hostel today had the exact same experience.

Menu del Día or Local menu - There are tons of restaurants in Arequipa that serve a set menu which is usually a huge bowl of soup followed by a main course of meat (chicken, fish, pork, or beef depending on the day) and rice. It usually also comes with a drink. All for 3 soles, ONE DOLLAR! This is my favorite for lunch if I don´t feel like cooking.

Chicharron - This is a pork dish I get at the local market, but its also pretty common in restaurants. Chicharron is a bit ambiguous because I´ve seen it with other meats, but I like the pork. Its baked and comes with a tomato onion salad and corn.

Corn - There are so many different types here, but its pretty common to see something that looks like corn nuts either as an appetizer or with your meal. Its a bit less crispy, but delicious. Their fried corn is probably my favorite snack food. Another type of corn is choclo, which is a common street food. Its a much heartier, less sweet version of corn on the cob.

Chufa/Chifa - Peruvian and Chinese fusion is also nice if you want a cheap lunch. Just like anywhere else, there are the chain types and also high quality Chifa. Lomo Saltado is a common Chifa dish which is a beef, tomato, onion, pepper, and fried potato stir fry.

Cuy (Guinea Pig) - One of the funnier things I have eaten. Just a whole fried guinea pig on a plate complete with teeth, claws, heart, lungs, and livers. It just looks silly on the plate all sprawled out. The meat is excellent though. It has a bit of a salty, seafood flavor very similar to frogs legs.

My New Home...For a While

After Puno, we made our way to Arequipa, but we didn´t know what to expect from another big city in Peru. We came in at night and dealt with another crazy cab ride where I think we had at least three near accidents. I was starting to think it would be more of the same until we got the main part of the city where there is a stunning Plaza de Armas along with San Francisco Street which is remniscent of any main drag of bars and restaurants in European cities. As our guidebook said, it looks like a city right out of southern Spain (I´ve never been to Spain, but it sounded really good).

In the morning we started exploring the city and we all loved it. Its Spanish-style architecture reminded me a lot of the places that I like in New Orleans. The main Cathedral is made of a very light stone that makes it shine during the day. Every day is sunny and the city just lights up. On any afternoon you can find the main square full of people chatting, reading, writing, or just contemplating whatever people contemplate. Basically all aspects of the city just gave off extremely positive vibes.

Outside of the man-made beauty, Arequipa sits on the foothills of two snow-peaked mountains, Chochani and Misti. Misti is an active volcano and I have an amazing view of both from my hostel. While I was backpacking in Europe I got the feeling in a few cities that if I had the time I would love just stay there for a month and explore; I got that same feeling here and I had the time. So, when Daniel and Kacey left I asked the manager of my hostel if I could stay there and work for a month and he said yes. So, now I am the hostel bartender and token American guy. Living and working with the Peruvian staff also serves as free Spanish lessons. I wanted to improve before I started travelling on my own.

I also am going to start volunteering at a school for a couple hours a day teaching English. It sounds like fun and a good use of a few hours every afternoon.

While Daniel and Kacey were still here though we went on a fun day trip to Colca Canyon. Its about four hours outside of Arequipa and it is the deepest canyon in the world. It boasts that its depth is about twice that of the Grand Canyon. The most impressive aspect was a lookout point called Cruz del Condor where you can see Condors soaring above the canyon all day. In the hour or so we were there I think we saw about 15-20 condors. They have a wingspan of about 3 meters and actually get very close to you. They were extremely impressive to see up close and in the wild.

So, now I´m living here and planning the next leg of my trip. It was sad to see my travel buddies leave, but its also fun to be on my own.

Just a side note, we did see the Loquito on our way back to Puno and our cab driver just sped up and he jumped out of the way. No bread for him, but he got a sol out of us which is enough to buy bread in any town.

Puno

When you think of a city built on the shores of Lake Titicaca, you probably imagine crystal clear water, great views, and quaint little boats fishing or taking tourists to its many islands...or at least that what I thought. Its turns out that Puno is just a gross little city. The tour guide on our bus from Cusco told us that the majority of Puno´s economy comes from the black market. What this basically means is that instead of their markets being full of fresh food and handmade crafts, they have bootlegged DVDs and crappy electronics. One of the stores that we passed sold gag novelty teeth, fake designer perfumes, and dental insturments. It wasn´t all bad though. Our first night we splurged for an eight dollar filet mignon dinner.

We made the most of our stay in Puno by leaving on day trips. Our first and only full day we went to a tiny Peninsular village called Llachon. We wanted to take a boat there, but we were only offered tours that we didn´t want. No one wanted to give us a straight answer about how to get there by boat. Even when we went to the local docks, it was just people trying to sell us tours. Eventually we gave up on the boat ride and decided to see if we could rent a taxi for the day. This turned out to be the highlight of the trip to Puno for me.

The ride was about an hour and a half through beautiful landscapes. On part of the road where there was construction we just off-roaded for about 20 minutes. About two thirds of it was on a gravel road passing cattle farms. We also saw a couple hawks flying and swooping at something in the fields. We even met a real-life bridge troll or a loquito as our taxi driver called him.

When we were nearing Llachon, from out of nowhere a tiny, stooped man just jumped directly in front of our taxi. His eyes were pure madness as Daniel said and he demanded that we give him bread. He only speaks Quechua by the way, so I really didn´t know what was going on until our driver explained it to us. Our taxi driver had obviously dealt with him before and rolled his window down to give him a bit of money. He yelled that he couldn´t eat that so the cab driver promised that we would come back with bread from the village. The loquito let us pass, but our driver said that if you don´t give him anything he will throw rocks and try to damage your car.

Once in Llachon, we got climbed up to a lookout point that overlooks the lake and afterwards walked down to the beach to dip our feet in it. I think we were the first gringos that had been in Llachon for a while because even the sheep grazing in the pastures were looking at us sideways. The domininant language there was obviously Quechua and it seemed like a place where almost everyone made their living off the land. Its nice to get out of cities sometimes and see the rural side of a country.

The next day we went to the floating reed islands in Lake Titicaca. They were extremely touristy but still amazing. People have been living on this series of islands for 500 years. They were originally created to escape the Spanish conquistadors. The indigenous people learned how to tie together blocks of reed roots which float naturally. Once you have enough of these blocks, it can support an unbelievable amount of weight. Almost everything on the islands is made of dried reeds. On one of the larger islands there is even a school and hospital.

Those were pretty much the highlights of Puno.

The Inca Trail

This is going to be a long one so I hope you´re prepared. It took me a while to really digest the hike, but I think now I can give a decent description of what it was like. I think its important to begin by introducing the cast of characters.

The guides :

Mauro - Mauro was our primary guide. He has been leading hikes on the Inca Trail for about six years. It takes three years of training at a private school for tourism in Cusco and another year of English to become a guide, so he was extremely qualified. While the rest of us were panting for breath, he was barely breaking a sweat and throughout the walks he would provide interesting info about the history and religious significance of the various sites and agriculture. He had a hint of used-car salesman in his demeanor and his explanations could get lengthy at times, but overall he was an excellent guide.

Rosa - Rosa was our secondary guide but could have easily led a hike by herself. She provided great commentary on the flora and fauna, but also had an emotional attachment to the group. She understood that the hike to Machu Picchu meant a great deal to all of us and tried her best to make it an experience we would never forget. I think for a lot of us, she was one of the main highlights of the hike. As Patrick Sr. said, ¨Rosa is just a class act.¨ She might have been the only female guide on the trail, but she carried herself in a way that commanded respect.

The Gringos:

Three Irishmen - These guys were great. Patrick Sr (65), Patrick Jr(30s), and Ronin (late 20s). It was one of Patrick Sr´s dreams to hike the Inca trail and two of his sons came with him to make it a family trip. It was pretty cool to watch them have the experience as a family. Although Patrick Sr was 65, he basically outhiked everyone else in the group. It was kind of embarrassing for us able-bodied twenty-somethings, but the man was a machine so give us a break.

Francis and Hhhun - This Dutch couple was also in pretty impressive. They speed-skated, cycled, and were obviously experienced hikers. When a guide asked Hhhun if she was sure she could carry her large backpack, she scoffed and let him know that she would be alright. Later we found out that she speed-skated something like 200 k in a day so she could obviously hold her own.

Daniel, Kacey, and I - Three fresh-faced American kids at the beginning of the trip and grizzled hiking veterans by the end. We were definitely the babies of the group, but we provided people with good insights about living in New Orleans for the last five years. Its interesting to talk to people abroad about such a failure in American social policy when we experienced it first-hand. Overall, I think we repped well for American youth.

The Porters: Its hard to verbalize how amazing these guys were, but I´m going to try. For each hiking group, there are about 8-12 porters who ¨assist¨ the group. They are mostly farmers who are natives of the Andean highlands and speak Quechua. Although we carry our clothes and sleeping bags/pads, the porters do everything else. On their backs the porters have four days worth of food, all the tents for the group, a massive propane tank for the camping stove, the stove, emergency oxygen tanks, and anything else you could possibly imagine you would need on a 4-day hike. Supposedly, their packs are not supposed to exceed 20 kilos because of a recent regulation from the Peruvian government, but some of those packs had to be heavier. Some of the porters don´t even use packs, the simply throw everything in their bag and somehow tie it to themselves with a blanket. Keep in mind that the average height of a porter can´t be more than 5´3¨ and some opt to hike the trail in sandals instead of shoes.

Every day the porters are about an hour ahead of our group to set up the tent to cook us lunch and dinner. At about 5 am, they woke us up with hot tea to coax us out of bed and had breakfast on the table by 5 30. After we´re done they break everything down and are at the next site ahead of the group. The hikes during the day were pretty grueling, but these men were literally running ahead of us to get to the next site. I´ve never felt like more of a lazy gringo watching them work. The food they cooked was amazing too. We were all expecting bag lunches or something, but Hugo, the lead porter and chef, always had a fantastic meal prepared for us. Every lunch and dinner started with soup and then had a main course and we had tea time every day around 5.

From that description it sounds like we had a really easy time, but the hikes were extremely physically demanding. We all found out pretty quickly that when Mauro said there would be a gradual incline that it meant steep and when he said a steep incline, it just meant vertical. The trail consisted of thousands upon thousands of giant steps that just ripped your calves and knees apart. I thought I was in pretty good shape going into the hike. I had been running an extra few miles a week to get ready, but I have never been more sore at the end of a day than on the Inca Trail.

Out of the four days, day two was definitely the most grueling. It is a 13 k hike, but during the first 5 hours, you climb up 1,200 meters. We started the day at 3,000 meters and Dead Woman´s Pass (the highest point on the Inca Trail) is at about 4,200 meters. After reaching the high point, it is about another three hours down giant steps to get to camp. By the end of the day, the way down feels like nothing compared to the steep incline.

Our group woke up around five like everyday and ate a pretty hearty breakfast, but that is the only meal we had until three in the afternoon. The guides know that it isn´t a good idea to eat before trying to conquer the pass because it will just weigh you down. The last hour or so up to Dead Woman´s pass was one of the hardest tasks I´ve ever had to complete. At that height, getting oxygen to your lungs is impossible and the only thing keeping you going is knowing that at the top you can sit down. There was a point where it felt like I was stopping every 10 ft just to catch my breath. Once you´re at the top though, its all worth it. The view of the valley you just climbed out of is breathtaking even if there isn´t much breath for it to take.

The lack of food did cause some unrest in the group though. Hhhun and Francis, who seem to live a pretty regimented life in terms of exercise and eating schedule were very upset about it. Sometimes you just have to roll with the punches though. You have to be flexible and trust that the guides run the hike a certain way for a reason. There were a couple people who were too exhausted to even eat lunch, but I think after a little rest everyone was just happy that we had all accomplished our goal to get over the pass in one piece. I think we all learned something about how far we could push ourselves physically and mentally.

Day three was the longest of the 4 days, 17 k I think, but after day two it felt like a breeze. As our bodies adjusted to the altitude and constant walking, we could really look around and appreciate the beauty of what you were walking through. About 80% of the trail on day three is the original trail that the Incas used for their pilgrimage to Machu Picchu. The 500-year old stone path is still perfectly intact and you are walking the same path as only the most priveleged Inca had the oppurtunity to experience. The back-drop of the mountains while you slowly descend into jungle is more stunning than anything you´ve even seen. The best analogy we could think of was that it felt like you were walking through a scene in Lord of the Rings. Absolutely amazing.

On day four, you wake up at 3 30 am to be able to get to Machu Picchu by sunrise. As you walk in the twilight of the early morning, no matter what you believe in in terms of spiritual energy, there is something out of your control drawing you to Machu Picchu. Whether its your own body or an energy coming from one of the greatest religious sites in the world, you feel an incredible mental, emotional, and physical high.

The moss on the trees looked like it was glowing with phosphorescence as you walk through the forest, but there is one more obstacle before you get to see Machu Picchu: The Gringo Killer! This is a set of about fifty extremely steep, narrow steps that really wasn´t as hard as the name would suggest. It was damp that morning so the steps were slippery and if you fell, you would have to see Machu Picchu toothless or with something broken.

We got to Machu Picchu in time to see the sunrise but it was foggy! Although that was a bit disappointing, watching the fog roll away as the late morning sun heated up was just as impressive. Every few minutes, you could see more of the city and the incredible mountains that surrounded it. We got a lecture from Mauro that went on a little longer than necessary and also some great insight from Rosa on the most important temples around the city. We also took all the tourist pictures we could.

As the afternoon approaches, the city fills with tourists who arrive by bus or train and everyone who hikes the whole trail collectively scoffs and them. Machu Picchu is everything you´d expect, amazing ruins and beautiful views but its really the four days of discovering your new physical limits, conversing with old and new friends, and reflecting that make it an experience none of us will ever forget.

Cusco

I´m a little behind on where I wanted to be with writing this, but I´m going to try to fill in the last week or so with a couple of posts.

Daniel, Kacey, and I arrived in Cusco the morning of May 5th after over twenty hours of flying and sitting in airports. Everything went smoothly buut it was a pretty grueling day of traveling. We immediately went to the hostel we had booked hoping to check in early and get some sleep, but to our dismay we weren´t able to check in to our room for a few hours. It didn´t stop us from sleeping though, we went immediately to the common room and passed out in a few bean bag chairs until check-in time. We all wondered if the other people in the hostel referred to us as the sleepy Americans because we kind of shut down the common room for a few hours with our napping.

After some good sleep and against the advice of people familiar with the stomach problems of altitude sickness, we went out for a giant meal of traditional Peruvian food. The alpaca, lamb, kiwicha (a cous cous like grain) and papas a la Huancaina hit the spot after not having a real meal since the McDonalds we ate in the Lima airport.

As we walked around Cusco we kept seeing posters for a classic rock cover band playing at a bar called Siete Angelitos, and figured that it sounded like a good plan for the rest of the night. A set of the Doors, ACDC, Led Zeppelin, and other assorted bands would be fun no matter who was playing it. We didn´t know we were in store for one of the greatest rock performances of all time.

The bar reminded all of us of the dive bars we´ve enjoyed for the last few years in New Orleans and we got to try our first rounds of authentic Pisco sours. The stage looked like it could only fit a band the size of The White Stripes on it, but somehow they had a guitarist, bassist, lead singer, keyboardist, and full drum set. When the performance started, the lead singer, with hair down to his back and a shirt buttoned down to his navel belted out song after song of poorly pronounced classic rock hits. He couldn´t hit many high notes and obviously didn´t have a firm grasp of English, but what he lacked in talent he more than made up in charisma. With his stage presence and wicked guitar solos provided by the most talented musician of the group they had us and the rest of the crowd singing along with every song. The keyboardist, bassist, and drummer provided a solid We all agreed it was a supremely successful first night.

The next day we went on an all-day tour of various markets and Incan Ruin sites. The highlights were probably the Pisac Market and Ollantaytambo Ruins. I always love the outdoor markets in foreign countries. Pisac was a classic. It had locals selling beautiful hand-made crafts for outrageously low prices and tourists heckling to get them down even lower. Daniel pointed out that haggling was one of his favorite things to do in foreign countries since it is somewhat of a lost art in the U.S.

The Incan Ruin sites were all impressive in their magnitude and quality of work. ollantaytambo was my favorite because it had huge decorative terraces and Incan faces that were naturally formed in the mountain side that rose above the fortress. We also learned about the Incan Imperial style of building. This includes giant boulders cut perfectly like puzzle pieces to fit together without the need for mortar. Incans used this style for important religious buildings and the houses of Nobles. The tours of the sites were all interesting, but they were blown out of the water by the Inca Trail and Machu Picchu which I´ll get to later.

The next day we met up with a family friend of ours named Luz who took us out to a fabulous traditional lunch and gave us advice on various things to do around Cusco. We all had a great time and agreed to meet up later to see one of Luz´s favorite local bands at a bar on the Plaza de Armas. We didn´t think it could compare to our first live music experience in Peru, but they turned out to be even better. They had a flute and zampoña player that absolutely owned the stage. He would switch between multiple insturments during each song and hit notes that I didn´t know were possible. the band was Cusqueñan and played traditional music that was a nice change of pace from the classic rock a couple nights before.

That about sums up the most important highlights of Cusco, It is one of the most picturesque cities I have ever seen. Its set in a lush valley with little houses lining the hills and was a great city to introduce us to Peru. You can really see why the Incas chose it as their capital.

Many thanks to Luz for her hospitality and I´ll write about the Inca trail soon. Pictures will come soon, I can´t seem to get them to load on this computer.

Goodbye NOLA

Hi Family and Friends,
After experiencing one of the largest natural disasters, and now one of the biggest man-made disasters in U.S. history, I figured it was about time to leave New Orleans. It has been an incredible five years even though it was book-ended by awful events. I really don't think I could have picked a better place to spend such formative years. Anyone who has been here knows that it is a city you will never forget. It just gets in your blood. I know I will be back, but for now its on to the next step.
For me, that means moving to Peru to explore more of the world. I hope this blog serves as an interesting look into where my adventures take me. Bye New Orleans