La Selva

Ok, before I begin, I just want to set the scene of where I am. Tiny, bright yellow internet cafe right off the main drag. there are about 10 framed WarCraft posters on the wall, and Rammstein is just BLASTING....du....du hast...du hast meh. Oh my goodness, it´s making me smile just sitting here! Ok, on to business....
The Jungle! or, en español, la selva. My group traveled around in Manu National Park. It has the greatest diversity of species per area in the world! To give you an idea of just how many bugs there were, think of 200 different kinds of ants in 5 sq. ft. yeah. It was absolutely nuts.
So, our first day there, we arrived, after hauling 4 buckets of paint plus my pack for a 30 minute walk, at our little bungalow. The village has taken control of what tourism gets to them, and as such have seperated a house for visitors, along with a separate building for cooking and eating. We each had our own bed with a mosquito net, and a bathroom and two showers, serious jungle style though, about 20 feet from the bungalow. The village itself was not what I expected at all. There were about 40 families total, but they were all spread out throughout the jungle. It was about a 40 minute walk, according to our guide Andés, from the farthest family to another. All families were centered around the school and church. Both were stucco buildings with tin roofs, right next to the soccer field.
For the next 2 days, we helped paint the outside of the school and the chairs, played futbol regularly, and went on a few nature walks into the old growth with Andrés. I was pretty miserable sometimes...what with all the humidity and heat, but it was awesome playing soccer again. They all thought it was hilaroius that me and another girl, Carter, played soccer. There was one guy that laughed literally every time either of us even touched the ball. It was SO much fun though.
On Saturday, we got a chance to help (aka-watch helplessly) the village fish for the fiesta de primavera (spring) on Sunday. I thought, hey this will be cool! a chance to relax and do something that´s familiar....um...NO! For 100s of years, the Machigenga tribe has fished in the same way. There´s a certain root that grows in the jungle, called babasco, that contains an anesthetic when it´s shredded. The villagers (and us!) pounded the root between two rocks and ended up with huge piles of shredded roots. Then, they put them in a bag, and tied the bag to a log. Then, a member of the village would swim around the beaver-pond like part of the river, supported by the log, and distribute the poison in the water. The fish react to the poison by getting extremely confused and are basically stunned. As Will put it, they think everything is backwards. Down is up, shore is river, and rightside up is upside down. Which is totally true! These trout would swim to the surface, upside down, and then turn for shore! Then, it was just a matter of grabbing them and hitting them on the head to kill them.
After about 2 hours of this, we were all completely miserable. FOr all that it sounds exciting, it really wasn´t after about 20 minutes. and it was SO hot, as we were hanging out in a dry riverbed ,and there were So many sandflies. But, right as we were all begging Andés to go, the big fish started coming up....50-60 pound catfish swam up from the very bottom of the lake. HUGE catfish. To kill them, the men needed to swim out into the water with a machete, and them chop the fish and hope they died. One fish surfaced a total of 3 times before finally the men hit it right and it died. It was NUTS!! after returning to the village that afternoon, we all just hung out and caught up on some much needed R&R and were super excited when it started pouring down rain. Andrés then broke out a SWEET 80s pop mix, and we hung out and ate popcorn and listened to Girls Just Wanna Have Fun. Completely ridiculous.
Sunday, fiesta day, dawned with a light rain and mist, for which we were all grateful after all the heat. The fiesta basicallymeant that all of the village gathered at the school...and played futbol. The gringos beat the villagers! But we weren´t allowed to brag because girls beating grown men would´ve ruined tourist-village relations...Some people got to dance with the local men who were drunk on the alcohol the machigenga people drink, cheecha. It´s basically...alcoholic yogurt. It was nasty!
On Monday, it was time to adios. We rode in the boat for about 3 hours, then stopped at a hot springs that comes out of the andes. It was Incredible. Literally the most picturesque tropical paradise I´ve ever seen. Oh, and Kels and Court and Amy? I had like...a 8 star pee. Remind me to tell you about it later. Anyways, after we swam around for about an hour, we got back in the boat for another three, and then took the bus from atalaya to pilcopata.
On Tuesday, we left pilcopata for Cusco. Peru time is strange. When we were planning to leave pilcopata at 10, Andrés said, Oh, Yes, we will be there at nine. When we left pilcopata at noon, Andrés said, oh yes, we will be there at nine. Well, guess what! We arrived in Cusco at ¨910 PM. Weird.
For the next week, until Tuesday, we are attending a language school in San Blas neighborhood in Cusco, and each staying with out own host families. My family, an abuela, a mama, and her two kids, live about a 25 min walk from the school. Which is AWESOME! because I get to walk right through the Plaza de Armas, the largest plaza in cusco, and two markets every day! My family is very nice, and I´m able to speak fairly well with them. Ok, enough for now! Enjoy reading all of that!
Besos,
Kate