One Way United

We arrived in Agua Blanca on Sunday night. This peaceful little village is a short taxi ride away from Puerto Lopez and is home to a mere 280 people and roughly 61 individual families. We were put up in the house of a man named Camilo who is single (but has 22 nieces and nephews!). It’s a modest home much like the others in the area, but the beds are incredibly comfortable, more so than the ones we had at our hostal in Quito I think. And animals roam free around the town as well. Pigs, chickens, goats, horses, bulls, dogs, and one cat; it’s practically impossible to tell what animals belong to who. I’m beginning to wonder if they aren’t mostly communal.

So most days we wake up pretty early. By the way, if you buy into the myth that roosters only crow at the crack of dawn let me tell you: rooster will crow at anytime, day or night, for no apparent reason whatsoever. I imagine the locals are used to it, but I seriously want to wander around with a shot gun and have me some chicken barbaque. Anyways we get up, have breakfast, and then go out to help Camilo in the agriculture section of the village (when I say agriculture I usually mean bananas). This is fun as we often get to use the local all-purpose tool: the machete. If you’ve never used one of these things let me tell you it’s fun. It’s likely swinging a giant sword to chop down whole trees and uproot weeds and all other sorts of stuff. If we could use stuff like this in America I might actually get in to gardening.

After that we teach English to the school children. There is an older class, roughly 3rd to 5th grade, and a younger class. Coming up with lesson plans that actually get the point across but are fun as well is a challenge. I’ve always had great respect for teachers, but I seriously don’t know how they get these little kids to keep still long enough to actually learn anything. It impresses the hell out of me. Sometimes the kids get what we try to teach them (just yesterday we taught them numbers), sometimes it doesn’t seem like anything’s getting through. But still it’s fun especially when the kids participate.

Our time is otherwise spent wandering around the village or swimming in the local thermal lagoon or lounging around in the hammocks. Our primary purpose here was to teach English to the tour guides. So far we’ve done that once as most of them don’t bother showing up for class when it’s scheduled to happen. It’s a little frustrating and hopefully we will be more productive in the coming week. The guides that do show up do seem to really want to learn and pick it up pretty well.

We will stay here probably until next Thursday when we go back to Quito to meet Amanda when she flies down. Also tomorrow we may take a tour to some humback whales too! Love to all.

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After our last big city experience in Lima, Quito was literally a breath of fresh air.  We arrived late in the night, tired and weary from 2 weeks of busses, boats, and jungle.  As the bus started to become engulfed in the big city lights I looked into the sky and saw something that surprised me.  I could see stars.  Not just one or two stars, I could see lots of stars.  Despite my tiredness, I became excited about this big city.  I really enjoy breathing without feeling the need to cough with each breath as my lungs fill with all kinds of toxins.  Quito is near the top of my list of favorite big cities.  While I still have not explored much of the city, I love how spread out it is, I love the mountainous setting, I love that the weather is about always perfect, and of course I love that I can breathe.

However, my enthusiasm quickly wained as both Adam and I became sick our first full day there.  Our bodies, after 2 weeks with little rest, were no doubt ready to crash.  I suffered from a headache, stomach problems, congestion, weakness and a high fever.  Adam also felt weak, threw up, and could not stop coughing all night long.  I had planned a meeting with Jessica, the child I am sponsoring in Quito, the next day but as the night wore on, I began doubting if I could make it.  I prayed over the course of the night and miraculously felt good enough the next day to get out of bed and go and visit her.

I took a taxi to the Children Intenational office in Quito and met a friendly guy named Pedro who had been working there for the last 6 months.  He took me over to the clinic where I met Jessica and her mom, Maria.  I have been sponsoring this little girl since October and have been looking forward to meeting her since I started traveling.  She is almost 7 years old.  We went to a park where Jessica played as we watched and talked.  Jessica was extremely shy as we could only get one word out of her at a time.  The mother complained that at home she could not get her to stop talking.  Pedros theory was that she was shocked at how big I was.  Anyway, after a nice meeting, I went back to the hostel and crashed.

We are both feeling a lot better now and are leaving tonight to go to a small community and volunteer.  We are going to a community on the coast called Aguas Blancas.  It is 11 hours southwest of Quito which means another night bus ride.  We are volunteering for an organization called Ecotrackers that works on developing ecotourism in poor communites in Ecuador.  Aguas Blancas is a very new village that Ecotrackers is working with and there is still a lot of work that needs to be done in that community.  The major priority is teaching English to guides.  We will also probably help with maintenance work as their is still many trails that need to be worked on and ruins that need to be cleared out.  There are no volunteers there right now and when we arrive we will be the only ones there.  Since this community is really small, there is no internet, and we will probably not be able to update for 2 weeks or so.  Therefore, do not worry if you don´t hear from us! 

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So we all made it to Lima. This was my impression of the city. In a sense it reminds me a lot of Los Angeles. No offense to those of you who live in/like L.A., but when I say a place reminds of the there it’s never a compliment. Peru’s capital is huge, it’s horribly polluted, it’s smoggy all the time (I have not stopped coughing since I got here), it’s expensive, and there is really nothing to do here. This is easily the worst large city I’ve been to in South America, quite possibly the worst large city I’ve ever been to in my entire life. I had talked to people who were from Lima before arriving here and none of them ever had anything nice to say about it.

The people in this burg alternated between being really friendly and money grubbing attention mongers. My first day I was given a free soda and bus ride by two seperate individuals and I helped a couple of high school girls with their English grammar homework (I’m seriously hoping I didn’t screw them over; grammar was never anywhere close to my favorite subject). All this was cool had me in a positive mood. But then we took a cab ride to the ruins of Pachacamac nearby and the guy wanted $50. Not soles; greenbacks. At one point I was walking down the street and this guy came up to me randomly and started chatting, very friendly like. The next minute, without even asking me, he proceeded to shine my shoes and want 20 soles for it. I really want out of here.

So we’ve done basically nothing but sit around and go to the movies. Together and seperate we saw X-Men 3, The Omen, and Scary Movie 4. And this is all we have to talk about really. Paragliding was considered a possibility, but I was told it cost $40 for a fifteen minute flight. Oi!

The only significant thing that happened is that we said goodbye to Fabrice, our traveling partner who we met many months ago in Ushuaia. He’s finally going back to France (with a brief layover in Mexico). We thank him much for his company and really good cooking skills, and wish him good luck with his travels in the future. And Happy Birthday as well!

Now Jordan and I have decided that if we want to visit any part of the Amazon jungle now is the time. So we are boarding a bus to Yurimaguas for an estimated 26 hours (ugh..) and hope to catch a boat up river to see some jungle canopy. Be sure and check out the photos gallery. We have pics of Lima (the few good ones) and additions have been made to the Arequipa and Nazca galleries from Jordan and Fabrice’s trip through there as well. Also be sure and check out the people page. Later dudes!

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