On Friday the 25th I ate a relaxed breakfast, then met up with a number of girls who live in Santa Ursula to catch a taxi to the airport together. I met Donaldo’s wife (who is super small and cute) and she has a nose piercing too! We chatted about that for a little while. We flew first to Lima, then had a long layover in the airport until our flight left for Iquitos. The directors met a girl from last semester’s group who was visiting her Peruvian boyfriend over Spring Break. We wandered around and wasted time, then got on our flight to Iquitos. We arrived at night and thank goodness for that! It was so very hot and humid, even at night! I’m glad I’m not doing my ISP there because I cannot handle humidity at all. Ugh! We retrieved our bags, then headed off to our hotel. After we checked in the directors left us to our own devices. We headed out into the city center to look for dinner and eventually ended up at a restaurant called The Yellow Rose of Texas. So bizarre, but Tyler later told me that she got delicious banana pancakes there so it wasn’t all bad. Some people went out, but I was in a bit of a bad mood and walked around then came home.
Saturday the 26th we had breakfast then departed to do a workshop with a local organization called La Restringa that does art and dance with your street kids, trying to keep them away from the street and get them interested in more beneficial things. It was a really interesting workshop and they showed us some of the capoeira that they do there. One guy really rocked his bellbottoms and did capoeira at the same time. We all then participated in various art projects and dances, then left for lunch. We ate at a delicious menu place called Fusion, then we returned to rest and prepare for our busy afternoon of two conferences. Honestly I didn’t pay any attention to them, but Leah and I did manage to list nearly every country in the world. That’s something of an accomplishment, right? We’ve taken too many Sporcle quizzes. I had a fun dinner with Anna, Leah, Tyler and co, and then we walked around to see the town. Apparently it was dead last night because Iquiteños don’t go out on Fridays, but the main plaza was super busy on Saturday night. We found a nightclub called Noa Noa that was closed, but these girls are living in Iquitos for ISP so it’s more like we scoped out what they should do when they return. After that we ate some yummy churros filled with dulce de leche from a street vendor, and came back home. I came to talk to Mateo, Casey, Luz, etc.. and they were super funny and convinced me to come back out. We got to Noa Noa just as it was opening, but Mateo and I made the wise decision to turn right back around. We had to wake up at 4:30 to go to the Amazon the next day, we didn’t want to mess anything up for ourselves.
Sunday the 27th you already know all about!
On Monday the 28th we were supposed to have a conference in the morning and an assignment to go on the street and interview people in the afternoon. Luckily they cancelled the class in the morning. I would have missed it cause I didn’t even wake up until 11! We got ourselves together and went to go eat lunch at another delicious menu place, and then came back to nap in the nice air-conditioning of the hotel. First, however, we went to a market right next to the water and tried to find some presents for friends and family back home. Iquitos isn’t actually on the Amazon, but damn is it hot! We returned, exhausted, and I hunkered down in my bed for a couple hours. Bryn and I ended up watching a show about mummies (very informative). Then in the afternoon we had a conference with the community leader from the day before, Alfonso Flores, and he explained his politics and he apologized for the day before. He was a very charismatic speaker and he said some really impactful things. After the conference we got our things together and loaded a bus headed to the airport. I rifled around my bag and accidentally cut my finger on my razor. We arrived at the airport and after a while we finally left Iquitos and headed towards Lima.
We spent the night in Lima (at our favorite El Tambo!) and then early in the morning we boarded another bus back to the airport to fly back to Cusco. There was SOOOOOO much fog in Lima. Apparently it’s called “garua,” and I think my whole ISP month is going to be awashed in fog. Urgh, I hope not. Our flight in the morning was delayed owing to the fog, but around 1 we finally returned home to Cusco, where my family was at home waiting for me. So nice to return! Cusco’s climate is incredible after the heat of the Amazon. In the afternoon Iris called me in a panic and told me to contact my parents and tell them that I’m just fine. (Some people had put their facebook statuses as something along the lines of “Held Hostage in the Amazon!”) I started looking at courses for Fall Semester and I tried to find apartments in Lima. I didn’t make too much of a contribution, but I think that we finally have a definitive place to stay for ISP month. Thank goodness!
Today, Wednesday the 30th, we weren’t supposed to have any class. However, because so many parents freaked out and called Sonia, we met at 9 AM to tell each boat’s story and to discuss the experience. I recorded it all! I think it will be something I cherish. After that I went to a café to work on my paper that’s due Friday, but I ended up writing the behemoth of a story that you presumably just read. This afternoon I will relax and work. It’s so nice to be back here, it really did feel like coming back home. …. Tonight we went out to dinner and ate delicious pizza and our taxi driver home was the best ever! He played Shaggy for us the whole ride home.
Xoxo,
Claire
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