This past week i took a trip to Iquitos, in northern Peru, in order to take a 4 day 3 night trip to the jungle. We took a plane to Iquitos. From Iquitos we drove to a village called Nauta, and from Nauta we took a wooden boat with a little motor(or as they call it a peque peque) two hours down the river to a little lodge in the jungle.
It was wonderful :)

Highlights:

* listening to Michael Jackson in the taxi on the way to Nauta. love it.

* monkeys!! so many monkeys!
we got to see 5 different species. they are so hilarious. For instance, we went out fishing on the river one day, and this monkey was on the bank of the river just looking at us. He ended up hanging out there for the next 45 minutes. Just chillin' under the tree. looking at some humans. being a monkey.

* fishing next to some boys from the nearby village. one caught a sting ray!

* finally catching a piranha after an hour of trying. victory.

* eating piranha. yumm!

* tasting sting ray. not so yumm.

* seeing a sloth. jeje.

* simply going down the river and enjoying the view. so beautiful :)

* tasting a worm(suri). tasted like coconut.

* climbing a gigantic tree. ok, so i only climbed like 10 feet up. but it was still an accomplishment!

*using smashed up termites as repelent. it works!

*giant beautiful butterflies..blue, orange, turquoise.

*wrestling with a 15 foot anaconda and almost losing.

just kidding jaja

*camping for a night in the jungle with just a hammock and mosquito net. hard core.

*swimming with pink dolphins in the amazon river while the sun was setting :) unforgettable.

not kidding on that one.

Lowlights

* finding a 4 inch spider near the sink while brushing my teeth

* mud. LOTS of mud.

* feeling dirtier than i have ever felt in my life.

* coming out with 220 mosquito bites. feeling like a leper.

:)

Tuesdays

A day in the life and mind of Amelia, in Peru:

6:30 wake up, ugh sleepy, exercise?, nahhh, ok ok fine, take a walk around the malecon, mmm pretty ocean :), shower, avocado for breakfast, chao todos!, ride with alejo to school while attempting to read, almost crash, get to school after 45 minutes, coffee!, students shouting at the tv, world cup?, art class, finished my collage!, beautiful, starving!, 1 o clock lunch time!, ´crepes and waffles´ with francesca and audrey :), such a wonderful crepe, 3 o clock anthropology class, cool movie about dialects of castellano!, movie ends..dang, listen to teacher?, nah, day dream, yes, three hours later...regrets not listening, time to go home!, rush hour :(, wave down micro, hop on micro, stand for 20 minutes, finally got a seat!, I'm starving again!, do i have a peruvian tapeworm?, dang tapeworm, 20 minutes later..lallaa, 20 more minutes later..lala, finally in barranco!, off the micro, walk to house, pass creepy guy that i pass EVERY night, maybe he's not creepy?, nah...whispering while i pass by = creepy, oh lima, get home, walk in, greeted by Chancho, so cute, hola kika! buenas noches!, watch videos about spanish/arab music with kika, interesting!,yes..paula made noodles!, nom nom nom, now videos on andaluz, hmm, alejo´s home, hola alejo!, get my computer, do hw downstairs while kika continues watching cultural videos, alejo puts three chocolate bars in front of me, no no no no los quiero, ´si si si´says alejo, ok, brothers get home, hola mateo, hola gabo, hola copello, gabo tries to steal my chocolate, no son mis tesores! i mean tesoros!, boys leave,
and here i am, still at the table with alejo while kika watches her cultural videos, now alejo is falling asleep, but wakes up whenever he snores. Oh and now Kika is watching videos on how to make celtic knots.

jajaja i love it

asi es la vida.

Story time

This made my day.

A few mornings ago I was leaving my house to catch a micro to school. I was on my way to the micro stop, which is about three blocks away, when a group of guys started walking toward me. This is always a lil' nerve racking, because about 95.6% of the time some awkward comment gets directed at me. Not to mention that 2 seconds earlier, a guy decided to whisper toward me about my 'bonita sonrisa'

As I was passing them, one of the guys looks at me, stops suddenly, drops his bag dramatically, and grabs his chest. Obviously my overwhelming beauty was responsible for giving him a heart attack.

I couldn't help but break out laughing.

Oh goodness.

Another story:

Today I went down to the center of Lima with my host mom and we were walking to the micro stop when all of a sudden our bus arrived. So after running to the bus, we attempted to get on it. The problem? The bus was moving. Ugh. So the way things work here is that the micros don't keep up with you, they expect you to keep up with them. i have seen old men having to be pulled onto the bus by the cobrador because the bus driver decides to book it before people are completely on. Anywho, Kika successfully gets on the bus, but i'm still behind her. Then the bus decides to officially start driving away. So i hop on, all squished up against kika, becuase she can't get on completely since there are 2 people in front of her hogging up the aisle. Ok, i thought, at least i'm on the bus...despite the fact that i'm hanging out the door. Next issue? The bus doors close automatically once the bus starts moving...and in case you don't remember, I'm hanging out the door, and I'm small and fragile. Ok, I thought, I guess I'll just get crushed by them and accept my death, that's cool.
But then, Kika moved up, and just as the doors were closing, I hopped up on the next step and escaped death.
Or at least a severe pinching.

Asi es la vida.

:)