I arrived at Universidad Peruana Unión (UPeU) after a long 21 hour bus ride from Cusco. How I ended up here was through my good friend David Lopez who has a good contact here, Josue. So I got in contact with Josue and asked about volunteering opportunities. He said there was some opportunities and that I could stay with him. One of my favorite things I've done here is help out with the Conquistadores (Pathfinders). They had a campout on the Univerisity property and it was fun getting to know the kids. I think my Spanish improved a bit more as they all wanted to talk to me. The kids here definitely know how to make fires as that's how they cooked there meals. I remember how difficult it was for the Grace Point kids to make fires. I guess that shows the difference in life styles. The kids in the cities don't make fires, while the ones here probably do it quite often. It reminded me of how it was for me when I first started backpacking in Oregon years ago. Now I'm so spoiled with the backpacking stove.
UPeU
I taught the girls how to play "Slug-bug" ;)
Mariposa (Mi calor favorito)
One of my other volunteer tasks here was helping out at the Nuevo Tiempo (Hope Channel) radio station. They were sending out info to all the churches in Peru. So a lot of shuffling papers into envelopes. Factory work as I call it. But it was fun as I worked with a great group and the time went by. I'm glad that I could help out in this effort.
Muchas Gracias to Josue and his whole family. They all made me feel very welcomed and have been the best hosts I've had on my travels. His brother Benjamin has been an excellent cook and laughed when I forgot to put salt in some rice I cooked. He said, "don't worry Bryan, I will fix it." haha! Caleb, it was nice working with your team at the radio station and watching football and basketball games.
Watching the b-ball finals
The Karaoke group :)
It was not easy to leave and continue my travels. I hope to see you all again. :)
Cusco is such a special place. Its the base for doing all the treks and excursions in the area, of which Machu Picchu is the most well known. Llew and I spent the most time in this area of any place in the last 4 months. In total we've been here 3 weeks. In that time we've done volunteer work, visited parts of the Sacred Valley, trekked Salkantay to Machu Picchu, trekked Choquequirao, and visited the Manu jungle. (The last one I did without Llew as he flew to Mexico to be with his family.)
Plaza de Armas (One of the nicest plazas in S. America)
While here we discovered the South American Explorers Club (non-profit which has provided lots of information on treks as well as discounts. (http://www.saexplorers.org/) Its definitely worth getting the membership as it will pay for itself.
David Lopez at Maranatha put me in contact with Maria who works for Maranatha and lives in Cusco. She arranged for us to do 2 volunteer projects. We helped at a Catholic orphanage and the Adventist school. The orphange required some computers to be revived with Linux in their computer lab. We also ensured that network printing was working for all the computers. At the school we created new images for the 2 types of Dell laptops they have. Then we used Clonezilla to create the images and put them back down on other laptops.
Computer lab at the Orphange
The Orphange had some beautiful flowers
Working on laptops at the Adventist School
Llew loves being a PC Tech ;)
Maria also let us stay at her place in Urubamba so we could visit the surrounding area. We went to a very small Adventist church that is still a work in progress in Misminay. That afternoon we went for a walk around the hill and saw the Moray's from above, which I think is much better.
Beautiful views from Misminay
Misminay Church
Sabbath lunch
Perú has the best soups
Saturday afternoon nap :)
Moray
Maria
Life out in the villages...
Cutest burrow :)
We spent Sunday afternoon walking the ruins of Ollantaytambo. I think I enjoyed it a bit more than Llew who was struggling again with stomach problems. This ended up being the last time he got sick and he was very quick to start taking the pills so he didn't have to deal with to much discomfort.
And now for me to say some last words about Llew as he left me at the end of my stay in Cusco. It has been 4 great months of travel with him. I've enjoyed listening to him try to teach people how to say "Llewellyn". Es muy difícil! At least for most Spanish speaking people. Here's one of my classic pictures of the guy. I've seen him look like this many times from either getting some stomach bug or trying to dry off after a shower. (He left his towel at a hostel and was creative on drying off methods. haha!)
Llew I don't want you to forget how much you do love the food down here. I have proof...
Ah, but we both know which food reins supreme for us and how much we talked about having some. At least you'll have some good Indian food some time soon as you'll be in Toronto. I will have to be content with the amazing soups and fruits and vegies. :)
I will always remember the amazing treks we did here: Patagonia, Cochamó, Salkantay, and Choquequirao. We figured that we've done over 1000km (+600 miles) of walking in the 4 months. Both of our shoes are proof that our feet have been going places. :)
I'm glad we were able to do some volunteer work and make a difference. I know that was very important for both of us. I hope that you can continue to do that on your travels.
Till we meet again Llew, buen suerte y que Dios te bendiga mi hermano.
I decided that my trip to the jungle would be to Manú which is suppose to be full of amazing wildlife. (It's also a World Heritage Site) The SAE club arranges the trip through Fredy who grewup in the jungle near Manú and runs his own tour company. (http://greenlandperu.com/) Fredy proved to be well in-tuned to nature and was able to see birds everywhere as well as identify them all for us.
There were 6 of us total from the club that went with Fredy. They were a great bunch of people to share the jungle trip with. Iain and Steph are from Scotland and the UK and have been traveling South America for 8 months. Joost and Reem are from Holland and are just here for a few weeks. Yoann is from France and has been in Perú for 3 months.
The group
Joost
Yann
Reem
Steph
Iain
Fredy
The 1st day was mostly in the van as we traveled from Cusco through the cloud forest down to the jungle. We stopped at 2 places that were interesting. The first was the preinca Tombs of Ninamarca. There are about 30 tombs there and a handful of village girls trying to sell bracelets. I had to tell them that my hair bracelet was all that I needed. I did take some pictures of them while they were unaware. haha!
The other stop was where we saw Cock of the Rock bird. This is the Peruvian national bird and is very beautiful. How I wished for my bigger telephoto lens as the pictures I got are not that great.
Just a beautiful Jungle flower
The next day we stopped at an animal refuge where we saw the Spider monkey walking up the road. He then jumped on just about everyone including a motorcycle with 2 people. That was the most comical as he just wanted to sit on top of the woman's head. I couldn't help but laugh and take the pictures. ;) We saw a Tapir, Pecari (wild pig), and some smaller monkeys along with an injured Macaw that pretty much fell out of the tree and grazed Reem's nose on its way down.
When we got to Atalaya, we transferred all our stuff to a long motorized boat and headed down the swift flowing Alto Madre de Dios River. The lodge we stayed at the next 2 days was right above the river and 30 minutes downstream from Atalaya. We did an afternoon hike to a lagoon where we took Tom Sawyer type log raft (partly submerged with our weight) across the lagoon. We did see a small Caimans before it slipped underwater. We saw heaps of Hoatzin which looks like a punk bird. haha!
My name for Reem is "The Little General"
Hoatzin
The 3rd day we did 2 jungle walks which were great as you get to really see the plant diversity. We really enjoyed seeing all the busy ants hauling bits of plant leaves back to their home. Such industrious creatures. When we returned to the lodge that evening, we saw how industrious the army ants are. They setup home in a giant hanging cluster in Iaian and Steph's room. They ended moving rooms as its a bit disconcerting having a huge ant colony hanging above your head in the bathroom.
The real monkey in the jungle...;)
Termites
Busy ants
Fredy getting Cocoa
The last morning we woke up early to go see the Parrots at the clay lick. Unfortunately it rained again the previous night and so we only saw some flying but not landing on the clay. In all the trip was great for the diversity we were able to experience down in the jungle. I was surprised by how few mosquito's there were, but also very thankful as I had my share of bites from Choquequirao.
