Today was a great fun day. It was Alex´s last day in Peru and we hired one of the little wooden Barcos (boats) to go to a Island in the middle of the Amazon which has loads of monkeys on it.
The boat ride took about 1.5 hours and we saw some pink dolfins jump out of the water next to the boat. I am still feeling like the ground is shaking like a boat, sitting here in the internet cafe. (I guess the amounts of beer I am drinking alongside, doesn´t help).
Arriving at the Island it is exactly like you´d imagine a monkey island in the jungle. The monkeys are everywhere, jumping around and being not scared of us at all. They think my red-bean-earrings are some fruits to eat and climb up on me using my camera strap and hair as ladders. I have never seen monkeys in the wild and certainly never touched any. It is really funny to watch them.
We play with all kinds of different monkeys for a while and then go for a walk into the jungle with our guide. He takes a machete and shows us what its for- when you run out of water in the jungle you can cut some roots and drink from them. He cuts through arm thick wooden roots with the machete as if it was caramel and hands me a log. He indicates to hold of over my mouth, and really the pure water flows out of it, like a little well. The water tastes better than any I have had in Peru so far- it probably is very clean because it is filtered naturally. Amazing! Then we walk through a banana forest and come past a star-fruit-tree. Our guide climbs up the tree like a monkey and throws down some fruit for us.
I knew starfruit from european supermarkets and as decorations for cocktails, which doesn´t taste of anything. This fruit I am trying now is absolutely delicous, bright orange, juicy and very sweet and sour at the same time. I like it!
We pass some more mini white-beard monkeys that jump on my back and eat fruit from our hands, before we head back on the amazon.
On the way back we get to whitness an amazing amazon-sunset and I feel very grateful to be able to see all this.
More fun stories next weekend. I hope you are all well. Kisses from Jungle-Joa.
Sunday, July 27, 2008
10.) 27.07.08 fishing and washing
This morning we went fishing with the whole family. We borrowed a big net from the neighbours and walked through the jungle to a nearby pond. Angel throws some cooked rice and beans (leftover from the days before) into the water and starts lowering the net into the water.
Angel and Nilsa hold the net between them and start wading through the water towards the shore. The two girls Deisi and Rosa get in the water and walk at each end of the net to make the fish go into the middle of it. When they reach the shore they slowly start pulling the net up at the ends.
In the middle of the net are about 100 jumping silvery fish, the size of a hand, which look pretty tasty to me. I help picking out the big ones and filling them into a plastic bag. We end up with about 3 kilos of nice fish and throw the rest back.
The whole action took about 20 minutes and I am amazed at how easy it is to get food in this place.
On the way back we pick some platanos (the green bananas which are used like potatoes) and dig out some yukas (manjok root, again almost like potatoes) for lunch.
Nilsa asks me how I would like to prepare the fish - I don´t have a clue how to cook fish in the jungle so I tell her to just do it the way they usually would. She cooks a pretty tasy fish-soup with platano base and red peppers served with yuka. The little fishs are eaten whole, with head and tail. I prefer not to eat the head as it is really hard and not very yummy.
I learned today (and already had some hints the days before) that men in this society are pretty useless beings. All they do is sit on their arse the whole damn day- the women and girls in the family do all the work. They are being treated like kings, always get the best and the most food, never help with anything in the house and never ever say thank you.
The other night we had a thunder strom with very heavy rains, that destroyed one side of the roof. Who got up to fix it, climbing on the roof in the middle of the night in the pooring rain? Nilsa. And guess who stayed in his warm and dry bed. Yep, Angel. I helped Nilsa and we fixed it pretty quickly. Still that helped build my opinion on the men here. But I can see where it is coming from by the way they raise their kids. The sons- 13 year old Victor and 1 year old Perci are spoiled rotten and never have to move a little finger, while the two tiny girls Deisi and Rosa have to work hard all day, carrying the heavy water buckets through the jungle, looking after little perci, cleaning, washing etc. Apart from that they get the smallest portion of food and are served after eveybody else.
I made the big mistake in one of my first days to share some of my meat with the girls, because I had way too much. The rest of the family was not amused.
In the afternoon I went to wash some clothes the way the women do here - in the river, with a bowl and some soap. The family looked very amused when I walked off with my bowl on my head.
Angel and Nilsa hold the net between them and start wading through the water towards the shore. The two girls Deisi and Rosa get in the water and walk at each end of the net to make the fish go into the middle of it. When they reach the shore they slowly start pulling the net up at the ends.
In the middle of the net are about 100 jumping silvery fish, the size of a hand, which look pretty tasty to me. I help picking out the big ones and filling them into a plastic bag. We end up with about 3 kilos of nice fish and throw the rest back.
The whole action took about 20 minutes and I am amazed at how easy it is to get food in this place.
On the way back we pick some platanos (the green bananas which are used like potatoes) and dig out some yukas (manjok root, again almost like potatoes) for lunch.
Nilsa asks me how I would like to prepare the fish - I don´t have a clue how to cook fish in the jungle so I tell her to just do it the way they usually would. She cooks a pretty tasy fish-soup with platano base and red peppers served with yuka. The little fishs are eaten whole, with head and tail. I prefer not to eat the head as it is really hard and not very yummy.
I learned today (and already had some hints the days before) that men in this society are pretty useless beings. All they do is sit on their arse the whole damn day- the women and girls in the family do all the work. They are being treated like kings, always get the best and the most food, never help with anything in the house and never ever say thank you.
The other night we had a thunder strom with very heavy rains, that destroyed one side of the roof. Who got up to fix it, climbing on the roof in the middle of the night in the pooring rain? Nilsa. And guess who stayed in his warm and dry bed. Yep, Angel. I helped Nilsa and we fixed it pretty quickly. Still that helped build my opinion on the men here. But I can see where it is coming from by the way they raise their kids. The sons- 13 year old Victor and 1 year old Perci are spoiled rotten and never have to move a little finger, while the two tiny girls Deisi and Rosa have to work hard all day, carrying the heavy water buckets through the jungle, looking after little perci, cleaning, washing etc. Apart from that they get the smallest portion of food and are served after eveybody else.
I made the big mistake in one of my first days to share some of my meat with the girls, because I had way too much. The rest of the family was not amused.
In the afternoon I went to wash some clothes the way the women do here - in the river, with a bowl and some soap. The family looked very amused when I walked off with my bowl on my head.
9.) 26.07.08 Photoproject
We finally started with the Photography project. I handed out cameras to all the kids, after explaining the project to them (Eduardo translated again for me) - They are supposed to take pictures to a chosen topic like "my home", "my best friend", "my favorite animal" etc. And since they only have 24 exposures, I told them that they are only allowed to take 2 pictures per day, so that they think about what they want to take pictures of first.
So much for the theory. In reality it looked like on the second day most kids had already half finished their cameras and hadn´t given it one thought. Which is understandable, when this is the first camera you own- they just went mad and took pictures of everything and everyone.
One other phenomenon is that a lot of the parents took the cameras off their kids to shoot some family pictures, which again is pretty understandable if you consider that none of them has ever had the chance to do so. On the other hand I have to fight my disappointment and think about the whole thing. We try again the next day to tell them why they should not just shoot around like mad and what it could be for them (we planned an exhibition with the pictures after finishing the project and were thinking about other ways to market the images). Eduardo has to do a lot of talking with the parents to make them understand too. It is like that in the jungle: when something is for free you take it. And nobody really thanks you for it or considers anything else.
Law of the jungle. Whatever you leave lying around, you don´t need anymore..
I think next time I try something like this I would know better and talk to the parents first.
some of the kids seem to listen to me though and take it very seriously. They come to me all day long asking "can I take a picture of a butterfly?", "can I take a picture of a beetle?" "Can I take a picture of the tree?".. it is pretty cute.
I seem to be pretty popular since the photography started, because a lot of people show up at the house, pretending to visit by chance and then ask if they can have a camera after 5 minutes. I have given out all my 50 cameras and can only hope, that they take some other than family pictures with them..
So much for the theory. In reality it looked like on the second day most kids had already half finished their cameras and hadn´t given it one thought. Which is understandable, when this is the first camera you own- they just went mad and took pictures of everything and everyone.
One other phenomenon is that a lot of the parents took the cameras off their kids to shoot some family pictures, which again is pretty understandable if you consider that none of them has ever had the chance to do so. On the other hand I have to fight my disappointment and think about the whole thing. We try again the next day to tell them why they should not just shoot around like mad and what it could be for them (we planned an exhibition with the pictures after finishing the project and were thinking about other ways to market the images). Eduardo has to do a lot of talking with the parents to make them understand too. It is like that in the jungle: when something is for free you take it. And nobody really thanks you for it or considers anything else.
Law of the jungle. Whatever you leave lying around, you don´t need anymore..
I think next time I try something like this I would know better and talk to the parents first.
some of the kids seem to listen to me though and take it very seriously. They come to me all day long asking "can I take a picture of a butterfly?", "can I take a picture of a beetle?" "Can I take a picture of the tree?".. it is pretty cute.
I seem to be pretty popular since the photography started, because a lot of people show up at the house, pretending to visit by chance and then ask if they can have a camera after 5 minutes. I have given out all my 50 cameras and can only hope, that they take some other than family pictures with them..
8.) 25.07.08 Peruvian Independance Day
Today is a big fiesta in the community for the Peruvian independance day, which is on Monday. The kids will march down the main village path wearing red and white (peruvian national colors), there will be music, games and fun. It all starts at 10in the morning - the local wood-crafts man, who is already downing drinks with some budys offers me a cup of something home brewed which he calls "whiskacito" at about 9 am.
I give it a try out of politeness and decide that it´s best to have breakfast before drinking any more of that stuff. The wood-crafter called "Jorge" sits in a wheelchair but is always in the best of moods- not only when he´s drinking whiskey. He seems to have the job of the entertainer for todays event and they are setting up a ghettoblaster with a plastic microphone for him to talk. The kids start gathering around all wearing their school uniforms or red and white and waving little peruvian flags they made at school.
Slowly more people come around and when the whole communtiy is gathered around Jorges "porch" (which is decorated with red and white baloons) Jorge starts with a little introduction speech. Following him all the local celebrities (the head teacher, the community chief, and other important men) talk for a while into the plastic microphone about things that sound like
"Dear Mister Head teacher, dear comminity chief, dear family fathers, dear students and foreign visitors (meaning alex and me), I would like to welcome you all to our festivities for the Peruvian independance day. We are proud to be peruvians, blah blah blah."
Everybody seems to be saying more or less the same thing. I Feel that I have to say something too, as evertybody is addressing us especially and they even applaud us, when we are first introduced by Jorge.
Since Eduardo is there too, he can translate for me. I excuse myself for not being able to say everything in Spanish and tell them that we are very grateful to be here and thank them for their hospitality (blah blah). They all applaud and seem to take it well.
Then the kids do their little march, which is pretty rediculous: march music through a funky ghetto blaster (powered by a car battery) and about 15 kids with handmade flags marching down the muddy jungle path, past all the community members that sit on school chairs along the path. The literally walk for about 15 meters and thats it.
Great fun. I take some equally rediculous pictures. Anyway, everybody seems to be really enjoying themselves and after the "official" part is over they start giving out egg sandwiches and lemonade. The men all seem to be drinking something else, judging by their pretty funky way of walking by now.
Later in the afternoon we get to witness an almost fight of our 18 year old neighbour (who looks like 14) who is absolutely shitcanned and tries to box with Angel, my foster-dad. Angel is hardly able to walk at that point and the youngsters mum has to go between them to stop the fight.
Angel disapears in the evening with all the other men of the community, to the nearby village which has a bar.
Late at night we hear him coming home and Nilsa (his wife) goes down to tell him some very harsh sounding words. He is not allowed upstairs and has to spend the night in the hammock outside, lamenting and singing for about an hour before he finally falls asleep..
I give it a try out of politeness and decide that it´s best to have breakfast before drinking any more of that stuff. The wood-crafter called "Jorge" sits in a wheelchair but is always in the best of moods- not only when he´s drinking whiskey. He seems to have the job of the entertainer for todays event and they are setting up a ghettoblaster with a plastic microphone for him to talk. The kids start gathering around all wearing their school uniforms or red and white and waving little peruvian flags they made at school.
Slowly more people come around and when the whole communtiy is gathered around Jorges "porch" (which is decorated with red and white baloons) Jorge starts with a little introduction speech. Following him all the local celebrities (the head teacher, the community chief, and other important men) talk for a while into the plastic microphone about things that sound like
"Dear Mister Head teacher, dear comminity chief, dear family fathers, dear students and foreign visitors (meaning alex and me), I would like to welcome you all to our festivities for the Peruvian independance day. We are proud to be peruvians, blah blah blah."
Everybody seems to be saying more or less the same thing. I Feel that I have to say something too, as evertybody is addressing us especially and they even applaud us, when we are first introduced by Jorge.
Since Eduardo is there too, he can translate for me. I excuse myself for not being able to say everything in Spanish and tell them that we are very grateful to be here and thank them for their hospitality (blah blah). They all applaud and seem to take it well.
Then the kids do their little march, which is pretty rediculous: march music through a funky ghetto blaster (powered by a car battery) and about 15 kids with handmade flags marching down the muddy jungle path, past all the community members that sit on school chairs along the path. The literally walk for about 15 meters and thats it.
Great fun. I take some equally rediculous pictures. Anyway, everybody seems to be really enjoying themselves and after the "official" part is over they start giving out egg sandwiches and lemonade. The men all seem to be drinking something else, judging by their pretty funky way of walking by now.
Later in the afternoon we get to witness an almost fight of our 18 year old neighbour (who looks like 14) who is absolutely shitcanned and tries to box with Angel, my foster-dad. Angel is hardly able to walk at that point and the youngsters mum has to go between them to stop the fight.
Angel disapears in the evening with all the other men of the community, to the nearby village which has a bar.
Late at night we hear him coming home and Nilsa (his wife) goes down to tell him some very harsh sounding words. He is not allowed upstairs and has to spend the night in the hammock outside, lamenting and singing for about an hour before he finally falls asleep..
7.) 24.07.08 Rain in the Jungle
Today was a brilliant day. It rained in the jungle. When that happens it seems to be party time. It is not like any rain I have experienced before, it is as if the sky was a huge pool with a trapdoor that opens all at once and the whole content falls on the earth. And that for at least several hours.
Waterfalls as wide as a person form at the edges of buildings are pretty good massage showers.
I played some water-mud football with the kids in the field, which is great fun. You can also slide on your belly (like we europeans do in the snow) and do butt-bombs in puddles. So much fun. Half the village gathers at the school to watch the "loco" german run around in the rain like a mad chicken. I sometimes think I must seem like a wired zoo-animal to them.
The other great thing about the rain is that you can put out all the water buckets and gather fresh clean drinking water for at least 3 days within minutes, which you would have to carry two miles from the spring through the jungle otherwise.
When the rain stops the whole jungle seems to lie in a mist of steam. It is as if the plants are breathing out and it condesates in the air.. The green of the plants looks even greener and it smells amazing. All plants seem to give off some kind of odour and after the rain it is much stronger. The whole forest seems like it is reborn, rejuvenated. I go run down my favourite jungle path to smell and touch all the newborn green.
The bad thing after the rain is that strangely the mosquito populations seems to have quadrupled within minutes. They like the cool wet breeze and come out in hords to feast on you.
By now I pretty much look deseased (as Alex the english girl described herself) - and have just accepted that that is the price to pay.
Waterfalls as wide as a person form at the edges of buildings are pretty good massage showers.
I played some water-mud football with the kids in the field, which is great fun. You can also slide on your belly (like we europeans do in the snow) and do butt-bombs in puddles. So much fun. Half the village gathers at the school to watch the "loco" german run around in the rain like a mad chicken. I sometimes think I must seem like a wired zoo-animal to them.
The other great thing about the rain is that you can put out all the water buckets and gather fresh clean drinking water for at least 3 days within minutes, which you would have to carry two miles from the spring through the jungle otherwise.
When the rain stops the whole jungle seems to lie in a mist of steam. It is as if the plants are breathing out and it condesates in the air.. The green of the plants looks even greener and it smells amazing. All plants seem to give off some kind of odour and after the rain it is much stronger. The whole forest seems like it is reborn, rejuvenated. I go run down my favourite jungle path to smell and touch all the newborn green.
The bad thing after the rain is that strangely the mosquito populations seems to have quadrupled within minutes. They like the cool wet breeze and come out in hords to feast on you.
By now I pretty much look deseased (as Alex the english girl described herself) - and have just accepted that that is the price to pay.
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
6.) 22.07. sick in Iquitos
My first week in the jungle is over and I am back in the city for the weekend.
We always come back on Friday evening to get a proper shower and stock up on food and water.
This weekend I caught some kind of wired food bug, which gave me the worst 3 days of Diarrhoea I have ever had. It started with a fever breaking out in cold sweat and shivers and then my whole body was on fire. I felt like a torch, seriously. I had to crawl into the cold shower, because I think I would have burned up otherwise.
Then I my poo had the same consistency as my pee fpr three entire days, which I am sure everybody wanted to know.
It wasn´t fun. Today is the first day I am feeling better and have eaten something that stayed in.
My skirt keeps slipping over my hips, which means that I have probably lost some weight. I am sure my jungle family will take care of me putting that back on.
I knew this would happen to me, especially after eating meat for the first time in 17 years. But I am surprised it was caused by food I had in the city and not in the jungle.
Everything here is about bacteria. You can´t have long finger- or toenails, because you will breed bacteria under them, you can´t walk barefeet, because you will catch a parasite that goes through the skin. When you get a tiny scratch in the skin it will get infected and will heal very difficultly. It seems the hot humid climate breeds all kind of bacteria, fungi and parasites. I guess it will be hard to stay away from all of them, but maybe my stomach is strong now for new beasts ;)
Hopefully tomorrow I will go back to the jungle and finally start with the photography project. The kids are so excited to start with it. I am too..
More next weekend! Adios amigos!
We always come back on Friday evening to get a proper shower and stock up on food and water.
This weekend I caught some kind of wired food bug, which gave me the worst 3 days of Diarrhoea I have ever had. It started with a fever breaking out in cold sweat and shivers and then my whole body was on fire. I felt like a torch, seriously. I had to crawl into the cold shower, because I think I would have burned up otherwise.
Then I my poo had the same consistency as my pee fpr three entire days, which I am sure everybody wanted to know.
It wasn´t fun. Today is the first day I am feeling better and have eaten something that stayed in.
My skirt keeps slipping over my hips, which means that I have probably lost some weight. I am sure my jungle family will take care of me putting that back on.
I knew this would happen to me, especially after eating meat for the first time in 17 years. But I am surprised it was caused by food I had in the city and not in the jungle.
Everything here is about bacteria. You can´t have long finger- or toenails, because you will breed bacteria under them, you can´t walk barefeet, because you will catch a parasite that goes through the skin. When you get a tiny scratch in the skin it will get infected and will heal very difficultly. It seems the hot humid climate breeds all kind of bacteria, fungi and parasites. I guess it will be hard to stay away from all of them, but maybe my stomach is strong now for new beasts ;)
Hopefully tomorrow I will go back to the jungle and finally start with the photography project. The kids are so excited to start with it. I am too..
More next weekend! Adios amigos!
5.) 18.07. Santa Clara
After my first night in the jungle I feel pretty good. Everybody got up with the sun - i slept about an hour longer. The cocerels started shouting exactly with the sunrise. What a cool alarm clock! I love it! In the early mornings the jungle is covered in a thick wet mist, which makes everything very quiet and peaceful. It´s beautiful and so different to the noise dirty city.
When I get up everybody has left- Angel and Nilsa to work and the kids to school. Only Erika is in the kitchen and cleans the dishes. I try to help her. I have no idea how this family works, what time they eat, how they cook, how they shower - everything is completely different to anything i am used to. I will learn a lot in the next few weeks.
After cleaning i try to find out how to wash, as I am still totally sweaty from the day before. Erika hands me a bucket of water and points to a door in the ´dining- room´.
The door leads to the backyard and the toilet. The floor in front of the toilet is wet so I figure that this is the place they ´shower´. I try my first jungle shower which works pretty well.
Then I decide to make myself useful and try to find out where they get their drinking water. Erika explains that the spring next to the house where Alex lives is the only clean water they have. I take the container they use for water and make my way through the forest. The walk takes about 15 minutes. I fill up the bucket, which holds about 40 Litres and drink a coffee with Sebiño and Alex. I manage to carry the bucket back and get a lot of puzzled looks from people in their houses watching me march by. They are obviously not used to a white person carrying heavy things. Usually they send their kids to get water.
I have no idea how they do it...
After another afternoon of teaching i sit on the porch with the family trying to talk with them, which is still very hard, because of my limited Spanish. I can pick up a lot of what they are saying, but to say the things I want to say is much harder. Angel is very good with that, talking slowly and trying to use different expressions, when I don´t understand something.
They ask me whether I am married and how many kids I have. Eduardo warned me not to say that I was single or just had a boyfriend, because they would think of me as a slut. So I tell them I am married (estoy casada) and they all burst into laughter when I say that I don´t have any kids yet. Maybe one day (algun dia) I tell them and they look at me doubtingly.
The two girls Deisi and Rosa look at my hands and ask me why I don´t have a ring. The clever little things. Now I have to come up with an answer quickly as everybody is looking at me expectantly. I tell them that i took it off so that i wouldn´t loose it in the jungle. That seems to satisfy them.
The moon comes out - it is almost full and lights up the whole jungle. There are some beetles that have a greenish light in their back (I don´t know the english word. In German they are Gluehwuermchen) that look like stars in the trees and grass. The kids show me how to catch some ´luminacas´the glowing beetles and we play with them for a while. I take some pictures of the house in the moonlight and the two girls dancing in their dresses, which looks like two ghosts.
Angel sits on the porch smoking a cigarette listening to the cicadas and I decide that I like the jungle..
When I get up everybody has left- Angel and Nilsa to work and the kids to school. Only Erika is in the kitchen and cleans the dishes. I try to help her. I have no idea how this family works, what time they eat, how they cook, how they shower - everything is completely different to anything i am used to. I will learn a lot in the next few weeks.
After cleaning i try to find out how to wash, as I am still totally sweaty from the day before. Erika hands me a bucket of water and points to a door in the ´dining- room´.
The door leads to the backyard and the toilet. The floor in front of the toilet is wet so I figure that this is the place they ´shower´. I try my first jungle shower which works pretty well.
Then I decide to make myself useful and try to find out where they get their drinking water. Erika explains that the spring next to the house where Alex lives is the only clean water they have. I take the container they use for water and make my way through the forest. The walk takes about 15 minutes. I fill up the bucket, which holds about 40 Litres and drink a coffee with Sebiño and Alex. I manage to carry the bucket back and get a lot of puzzled looks from people in their houses watching me march by. They are obviously not used to a white person carrying heavy things. Usually they send their kids to get water.
I have no idea how they do it...
After another afternoon of teaching i sit on the porch with the family trying to talk with them, which is still very hard, because of my limited Spanish. I can pick up a lot of what they are saying, but to say the things I want to say is much harder. Angel is very good with that, talking slowly and trying to use different expressions, when I don´t understand something.
They ask me whether I am married and how many kids I have. Eduardo warned me not to say that I was single or just had a boyfriend, because they would think of me as a slut. So I tell them I am married (estoy casada) and they all burst into laughter when I say that I don´t have any kids yet. Maybe one day (algun dia) I tell them and they look at me doubtingly.
The two girls Deisi and Rosa look at my hands and ask me why I don´t have a ring. The clever little things. Now I have to come up with an answer quickly as everybody is looking at me expectantly. I tell them that i took it off so that i wouldn´t loose it in the jungle. That seems to satisfy them.
The moon comes out - it is almost full and lights up the whole jungle. There are some beetles that have a greenish light in their back (I don´t know the english word. In German they are Gluehwuermchen) that look like stars in the trees and grass. The kids show me how to catch some ´luminacas´the glowing beetles and we play with them for a while. I take some pictures of the house in the moonlight and the two girls dancing in their dresses, which looks like two ghosts.
Angel sits on the porch smoking a cigarette listening to the cicadas and I decide that I like the jungle..
4.) 17.07. Santa Clara
At last in the Jungle. It is exactly like I imagined from endless documentaries I have seen about jungle expeditions.. amazing! So many plants! And animals.. I am so excited to be here.
We got to the Santa Clara community, which will be my home for the next weeks taking a little barco (a wooden boat which looks a bit like a nutshell, with a tiny motor). The boat holds about 15 people and has a roof of palm leaves.
The ride on the Amazon river took about 40 minutes. The Amazon is a truly amazing river of huge dimensions. It looks more like the ocean than a river.
The boat stops several times to let people on or off. There are no piers or such like- the boat just pulls onto the muddy riverbank and the people hopp off. When we get to our stop it is the same. We have enought luggage for a whole expedition team: all my camera equipment, cameras for the kids, food and fresh water supplies for the whole week for me and the family I will be staying with and my clothes, which is the least of all.
The walk to the community takes about 20 minutes through thick greens and I am glad we find a local kid willing to help us carry our heavy gear. It is a constant 30 Degrees Celcius here with a felt humidity of 80 percent. Not sure what it really is, but it feels like you can drink the air and you sweat, even if you are not moving and in the shade. Imagine walking in that carrying the maximum you possibly can (in my case about 50 Kilos). We are soaked - and I mean completely dripping wet to the underwear within minutes. And I don´t sweat usually..
When we arrive at the ´village´which consists of about 15 houses that are spread out along a narrow path in the jungle, kids start coming out of the houses and following us. The adults step outside and wave and greet us. My family isn´t home when we get to their house so we decide to leave our luggage and visit Alex, who is an English girl living here aswell for two weeks.
Alex lives in a house which is further into the jungle and a bit away from the other houses. The workers who are currently building a fish pond for the community are using the house for their meals and siestas. Alex lives there with an old man called ´Sebiño´ and a bunch of chicken, dogs and cats. Sebino cooks us some lunch on the fireplace-a type of polenta roll with chicken, rice and vegetables. I am again amazed of the quality of the food even here in the jungle. It´s really yummy.
Alex tells us about her first week and how she has managed so far. She shows me her mosquito bites and the poor girl literally looks like she has a severe case of the measels! It is scary! She sits there in a longsleeve jumper, long trowsers and boots, which must be way too hot, but aparently keep the mosquitos off her a little.
After lunch we walk back to the village to meet my family. Angel is the dad and has just returned from work- for the local petrol company ´Petrol Peru´who has a ship on the other side of the Amazon where most men of the community work. Angel is 42 years old about a head shorter than me (like most people here), wears some old rubber boots, a t-shirt and shorts that seem to almost fall off him and has a huge grin on his face. He welcomes me and introduces the rest of the family to me: his wife Nilsa and their five kids Erika (17),Rolando (14), Deisi (12), Rosa (10) and Perci (1).
Erika is highly pregnant and at the beginning I don´t get it, that she is their daughter too. It takes me 2 days to figure that one out. At first I think it might be a second wife..
They show me the ´bedroom´where the whole family sleeps. It´s upstairs -most houses here are built on poles to have one partly closed room at the first floor and an open ground floor. the room is about 15 squaremeters big, had three beds one of which i will be sleeping in. Rolando, whose bed I am occupying is sleeping on the porch. Wife, husband and baby share one bed, the three girls share the other. The pregnant Erika is the only one apart from me who has a matrass, everyone else is sleeping on the wooden planks of the bed..
The family is lovely- especially the kids warm up very quickly and laugh their heads off, when I try to explain something in broken Spanish. They are very patient and say things over and over until i understand.
In the afternoon I visit the little village school where Alex is teaching English in the afternoon.
I join her for the two hours and we try a little combined class. The kids are from 6 to 13 years old. And Erika joins us too. She has never learnt any English and seems eager to learn.
The younger kids take it easy, laugh a lot and bring in all kinds of insects during class, we can study. Great fun.
In the evening, when Eduardo has returned to Iquitos I try to help Nilsa with the dinner, but she won´t let me. They serve me dinner in the ´dining room´which is the room next to the kitchen with a table and two benches as only furniture. The others are eating in the kitchen, which doesn´t have any furniture. I feel totally stupid and try to tell her that I don´t want any special treatment, and that we should all eat together. I realise that they do it out of respect, but i hope i can show them, that that is not necessary.
That might take some time..
Later we put up my mosquitero (mosquito net) for the bed and we all go to bed soon after the sun sets. I have a hard time going to sleep because of all the wired new sounds and sourroundings.
We got to the Santa Clara community, which will be my home for the next weeks taking a little barco (a wooden boat which looks a bit like a nutshell, with a tiny motor). The boat holds about 15 people and has a roof of palm leaves.
The ride on the Amazon river took about 40 minutes. The Amazon is a truly amazing river of huge dimensions. It looks more like the ocean than a river.
The boat stops several times to let people on or off. There are no piers or such like- the boat just pulls onto the muddy riverbank and the people hopp off. When we get to our stop it is the same. We have enought luggage for a whole expedition team: all my camera equipment, cameras for the kids, food and fresh water supplies for the whole week for me and the family I will be staying with and my clothes, which is the least of all.
The walk to the community takes about 20 minutes through thick greens and I am glad we find a local kid willing to help us carry our heavy gear. It is a constant 30 Degrees Celcius here with a felt humidity of 80 percent. Not sure what it really is, but it feels like you can drink the air and you sweat, even if you are not moving and in the shade. Imagine walking in that carrying the maximum you possibly can (in my case about 50 Kilos). We are soaked - and I mean completely dripping wet to the underwear within minutes. And I don´t sweat usually..
When we arrive at the ´village´which consists of about 15 houses that are spread out along a narrow path in the jungle, kids start coming out of the houses and following us. The adults step outside and wave and greet us. My family isn´t home when we get to their house so we decide to leave our luggage and visit Alex, who is an English girl living here aswell for two weeks.
Alex lives in a house which is further into the jungle and a bit away from the other houses. The workers who are currently building a fish pond for the community are using the house for their meals and siestas. Alex lives there with an old man called ´Sebiño´ and a bunch of chicken, dogs and cats. Sebino cooks us some lunch on the fireplace-a type of polenta roll with chicken, rice and vegetables. I am again amazed of the quality of the food even here in the jungle. It´s really yummy.
Alex tells us about her first week and how she has managed so far. She shows me her mosquito bites and the poor girl literally looks like she has a severe case of the measels! It is scary! She sits there in a longsleeve jumper, long trowsers and boots, which must be way too hot, but aparently keep the mosquitos off her a little.
After lunch we walk back to the village to meet my family. Angel is the dad and has just returned from work- for the local petrol company ´Petrol Peru´who has a ship on the other side of the Amazon where most men of the community work. Angel is 42 years old about a head shorter than me (like most people here), wears some old rubber boots, a t-shirt and shorts that seem to almost fall off him and has a huge grin on his face. He welcomes me and introduces the rest of the family to me: his wife Nilsa and their five kids Erika (17),Rolando (14), Deisi (12), Rosa (10) and Perci (1).
Erika is highly pregnant and at the beginning I don´t get it, that she is their daughter too. It takes me 2 days to figure that one out. At first I think it might be a second wife..
They show me the ´bedroom´where the whole family sleeps. It´s upstairs -most houses here are built on poles to have one partly closed room at the first floor and an open ground floor. the room is about 15 squaremeters big, had three beds one of which i will be sleeping in. Rolando, whose bed I am occupying is sleeping on the porch. Wife, husband and baby share one bed, the three girls share the other. The pregnant Erika is the only one apart from me who has a matrass, everyone else is sleeping on the wooden planks of the bed..
The family is lovely- especially the kids warm up very quickly and laugh their heads off, when I try to explain something in broken Spanish. They are very patient and say things over and over until i understand.
In the afternoon I visit the little village school where Alex is teaching English in the afternoon.
I join her for the two hours and we try a little combined class. The kids are from 6 to 13 years old. And Erika joins us too. She has never learnt any English and seems eager to learn.
The younger kids take it easy, laugh a lot and bring in all kinds of insects during class, we can study. Great fun.
In the evening, when Eduardo has returned to Iquitos I try to help Nilsa with the dinner, but she won´t let me. They serve me dinner in the ´dining room´which is the room next to the kitchen with a table and two benches as only furniture. The others are eating in the kitchen, which doesn´t have any furniture. I feel totally stupid and try to tell her that I don´t want any special treatment, and that we should all eat together. I realise that they do it out of respect, but i hope i can show them, that that is not necessary.
That might take some time..
Later we put up my mosquitero (mosquito net) for the bed and we all go to bed soon after the sun sets. I have a hard time going to sleep because of all the wired new sounds and sourroundings.
3.) 16.07.08 more Iquitos
Today we finally got my luggage from the airport. If you are a smarty like me you will have combined the facts correctly- I have been wearing the same clothes for almost 4 days. And yes, that means the same underwear too. And with the amounts you sweat in this hot and humid country you can not imagine how much fun it is to walk around like that. Anyway enought whining. It is not that bad, but I am really, really happy to see my luggage.
Eduardo suggests to go and see the local zoo to get an impression of the animals that i will encounter in the jungle. That is great fun: I get to see the giant Paice fish I ate last night and I can tell you the sight, when that ancient animals turns up at the surface of the water is breathtaking. I have never been impressed by a fish before. That one truly is magical.
Then we get to see a bunch of different monkeys, aligators, pumas, spiders, turtles and birds. Eduardo tells me that I will encounter most of these in the jungle. I hope I won´t run into too many pumas. I start believing him, when we see the same little white beard monkeys they had in the zoo on the way out, jumping from tree to tree.
One other amazing animal in the Amazon river is the sweet water dolphins. They have grey ones and pink ones here. Eduardo tells me that the locals make fun of the tourists, when they don´t believe in the pink dolphins and get to see one they tell them the story of the pink mosquitos: watch out for the pink mosquitos in the jungle, when they bite you, you will turn gay.´
Tomorrow we are going to the jungle by boat to meet the native communtiy I will be staying with. I can´t wait!
Eduardo suggests to go and see the local zoo to get an impression of the animals that i will encounter in the jungle. That is great fun: I get to see the giant Paice fish I ate last night and I can tell you the sight, when that ancient animals turns up at the surface of the water is breathtaking. I have never been impressed by a fish before. That one truly is magical.
Then we get to see a bunch of different monkeys, aligators, pumas, spiders, turtles and birds. Eduardo tells me that I will encounter most of these in the jungle. I hope I won´t run into too many pumas. I start believing him, when we see the same little white beard monkeys they had in the zoo on the way out, jumping from tree to tree.
One other amazing animal in the Amazon river is the sweet water dolphins. They have grey ones and pink ones here. Eduardo tells me that the locals make fun of the tourists, when they don´t believe in the pink dolphins and get to see one they tell them the story of the pink mosquitos: watch out for the pink mosquitos in the jungle, when they bite you, you will turn gay.´
Tomorrow we are going to the jungle by boat to meet the native communtiy I will be staying with. I can´t wait!
2.) Arriving in Iquitos
Finally in Iquitos after more than 40 hours of travelling.
I realised that I am really going to the jungle when we landed on a runway that is literally cut into the jungle. Lining the runway there are little bamboo huts which fit exactly one man, who stands there, guarding the runway, keeping the lions out or whatever. I don´t have the slightest idea.
The airport is a tiny building that looks like it´s been made from bits of a container ship. The luggage is dropped in the middle of the hall - unfortunately mine didn´t make it, with all the delays and flight changes.
When I walk out of the airport i get an idea of what superstars on the red carpet must feel like: there is a crowd of people there all waving and shouting at me. Taxi drivers, or Motokar drivers, as the three wheeled motor-bike-people-carriers are called here. I am glad as I spot Eduardos face in the crowd - he is as skinny as he looks in the pictures. He welcomes me very warmly and we take one of the noisy motokars to town.
Iquitos is like I imagined a booming Indian metropolis- unbelievably packed, loud and noisy. Hundreds of Motokars driving around and even more people in the streets. The only other place where I have seen similar amounts of people is in the center of Tokyo and in New Yorks time square. Its madness!
We are driving to a hostel where Eduardo has accommodated me for the night. The eldery reception lady sitting in an even more ancient reception hall, starts hectically shuffling around when we enter. She is trying to put my details into the hostel-book and reads my last name in my passport as ´Deutsch´´Johanna Deutsch´. I can make her understand, that that is my nationality and not my last name but when it comes to homeland and country of residence (Germany and Scotland) she looks at me with an air of panic.
The room is tiny, dark and dirty, but I am happy and would sleep standing upright tonight.
Eduardo takes me for a short walk downtown to get some dinner. I try one of the local specialities - Paice, which is a huge fish, which looks like it exists only in fairy tales: about 2-4 meters long, pure muscle with shining green to purple scales. It is absolutely delicious, served with green fried Bananas, rice and a hot sauce. All that goes down very well with my first local beer Íquitenia´. Good stuff.
I decide that it is finally time to seperate the clothes from my stinking body- which seem to be stuck together. Unfortunately my clothes are still in Lima so I will have to wear this sticky layer again tomorrow. Not too much fun. Anyway, I am glad to finally be in a bed - not even bothered about the bedbugs.
I realised that I am really going to the jungle when we landed on a runway that is literally cut into the jungle. Lining the runway there are little bamboo huts which fit exactly one man, who stands there, guarding the runway, keeping the lions out or whatever. I don´t have the slightest idea.
The airport is a tiny building that looks like it´s been made from bits of a container ship. The luggage is dropped in the middle of the hall - unfortunately mine didn´t make it, with all the delays and flight changes.
When I walk out of the airport i get an idea of what superstars on the red carpet must feel like: there is a crowd of people there all waving and shouting at me. Taxi drivers, or Motokar drivers, as the three wheeled motor-bike-people-carriers are called here. I am glad as I spot Eduardos face in the crowd - he is as skinny as he looks in the pictures. He welcomes me very warmly and we take one of the noisy motokars to town.
Iquitos is like I imagined a booming Indian metropolis- unbelievably packed, loud and noisy. Hundreds of Motokars driving around and even more people in the streets. The only other place where I have seen similar amounts of people is in the center of Tokyo and in New Yorks time square. Its madness!
We are driving to a hostel where Eduardo has accommodated me for the night. The eldery reception lady sitting in an even more ancient reception hall, starts hectically shuffling around when we enter. She is trying to put my details into the hostel-book and reads my last name in my passport as ´Deutsch´´Johanna Deutsch´. I can make her understand, that that is my nationality and not my last name but when it comes to homeland and country of residence (Germany and Scotland) she looks at me with an air of panic.
The room is tiny, dark and dirty, but I am happy and would sleep standing upright tonight.
Eduardo takes me for a short walk downtown to get some dinner. I try one of the local specialities - Paice, which is a huge fish, which looks like it exists only in fairy tales: about 2-4 meters long, pure muscle with shining green to purple scales. It is absolutely delicious, served with green fried Bananas, rice and a hot sauce. All that goes down very well with my first local beer Íquitenia´. Good stuff.
I decide that it is finally time to seperate the clothes from my stinking body- which seem to be stuck together. Unfortunately my clothes are still in Lima so I will have to wear this sticky layer again tomorrow. Not too much fun. Anyway, I am glad to finally be in a bed - not even bothered about the bedbugs.
1.) 14.07.08 Trip to Peru
..Lima, I am travelling since 31 hours. One more hour to wait till my last flight from Lima to Iquitos is leaving. Didn´t spend the night in a hostel as planned, because my first flight from Raleigh to Atlanta was delayed for 8 hours- ground stop because of bad weather in Atlanta. So I missed my connection flight and got on a late night flight to Lima. Slept for about 3 hours and had some time (another 8 hours) to ckeck out Lima.
That was way different to what I thought it would be- when you image search google for Lima it comes up with some amazing looking pictures of white beaches with palm trees and fancy looking colonial style houses. The reality is quite different. Lima is poor. Much poorer than I ever imagined. The cars and houses are falling apart, everything is covered in a thick black layer of dust (partly from the smog) which looks like ashes from a vulcano. The sky is so clouded with smoke, dust and fog that it always seems like dusk or dawn.
In a cab you really wonder whether all the parts, which are sometimes held in place by sticky tape or nails, will actually reach the destination. I am picturing those glued together wrecks to fall apart in the middle of the road an me and the cab driver sitting there like kids playing riding a car. - Fun.
Luckily that doesn´t happen and I reach the city center with lots of ´drive-by-images´: women sell homemade bakeries from baskets they carry around with baby bound to their bellies, dogs look more dead then alive, little boys cleaning shoes in the streets and shooting at people with paper bullets through blow guns, 3 or more cars driving in one lane (i didn´t think it was possible..).
Thwhole city stinks of the car fumes -pretty sure they are not using any filters here.women are absolutely stunning and sublime, men are not, houses are made from multiple materials, starting with concrete that´spatched up with corrugated sheets of metal and bits of wood and cardboard.
Looks like all the houses lost their 2nd or third floor in a hurricane, because they are missing the roofs and steel poles are sticking out of the concrete.
The black dust covers not only buildings and cars but also the people, who are all in a very good mood, smiling at me, laughin and waving. ´gringa, Rica, te quiro´are comments i get walking in the street - pretty wired when people stare at you and tell you they love you although you haven´t had a shower in 40 hours and hardly any sleep. I don´t feel too cute, but aparently I am different and some people stare at me as if they´ve never seen a white person. I feel the difference not only from my skin color, but also my clothes. I am wearing my scabbiest hiking clothes and still feel way posh. It doesn´t help that i am carrying a 10.000 Dollar camera around with me.
I still take pictures untill a police man stops me and says I can´t walk any further. ´Roba´-I will get robbed f I walk on. I consider ignoring him, because it looks pretty interesting and I like forbidden things, but he is very consistent and won´t let me walk ahead. I give in, not having the strenght to fight him or any burglars for that matter.
I return to the airport and am looking forward to finally meeting Eduardo (my contact from the organistation I will be working for) and seeing the jungle..
Please excuse any spelling or other mistakes, it is freakin hot in this internet joint and my brain is not working too well after 3 days of diarrhea. - read about that fun part of my trip soon..
That was way different to what I thought it would be- when you image search google for Lima it comes up with some amazing looking pictures of white beaches with palm trees and fancy looking colonial style houses. The reality is quite different. Lima is poor. Much poorer than I ever imagined. The cars and houses are falling apart, everything is covered in a thick black layer of dust (partly from the smog) which looks like ashes from a vulcano. The sky is so clouded with smoke, dust and fog that it always seems like dusk or dawn.
In a cab you really wonder whether all the parts, which are sometimes held in place by sticky tape or nails, will actually reach the destination. I am picturing those glued together wrecks to fall apart in the middle of the road an me and the cab driver sitting there like kids playing riding a car. - Fun.
Luckily that doesn´t happen and I reach the city center with lots of ´drive-by-images´: women sell homemade bakeries from baskets they carry around with baby bound to their bellies, dogs look more dead then alive, little boys cleaning shoes in the streets and shooting at people with paper bullets through blow guns, 3 or more cars driving in one lane (i didn´t think it was possible..).
Thwhole city stinks of the car fumes -pretty sure they are not using any filters here.women are absolutely stunning and sublime, men are not, houses are made from multiple materials, starting with concrete that´spatched up with corrugated sheets of metal and bits of wood and cardboard.
Looks like all the houses lost their 2nd or third floor in a hurricane, because they are missing the roofs and steel poles are sticking out of the concrete.
The black dust covers not only buildings and cars but also the people, who are all in a very good mood, smiling at me, laughin and waving. ´gringa, Rica, te quiro´are comments i get walking in the street - pretty wired when people stare at you and tell you they love you although you haven´t had a shower in 40 hours and hardly any sleep. I don´t feel too cute, but aparently I am different and some people stare at me as if they´ve never seen a white person. I feel the difference not only from my skin color, but also my clothes. I am wearing my scabbiest hiking clothes and still feel way posh. It doesn´t help that i am carrying a 10.000 Dollar camera around with me.
I still take pictures untill a police man stops me and says I can´t walk any further. ´Roba´-I will get robbed f I walk on. I consider ignoring him, because it looks pretty interesting and I like forbidden things, but he is very consistent and won´t let me walk ahead. I give in, not having the strenght to fight him or any burglars for that matter.
I return to the airport and am looking forward to finally meeting Eduardo (my contact from the organistation I will be working for) and seeing the jungle..
Please excuse any spelling or other mistakes, it is freakin hot in this internet joint and my brain is not working too well after 3 days of diarrhea. - read about that fun part of my trip soon..
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