A trip to the jungle (Part 1)

I'm afraid I've got very behind with keeping up to date on what's been happening in the land of the llamas.  I wrote this awhile ago but never published it so here is my news from the jungle.


I've just come back from a week long trip to the Peruvian amazon! We had a week's school holiday and I decided I had to get away from the traffic and busyness of Lima and see some more of the beautiful and fascinating country in which I am staying for just a little while longer.  On Saturday morning I left behind the city of Lima with all its familiarity and chaos and headed into the jungle!

Beautiful banks of the Mayo river

The journey didn't go too well at first.  I arrived in Tarapoto 4 hours later than expected because of "adverse weather conditions" in the area.  It turns out it was only raining heavily but the small plane we were on couldn't cope with landing on a wet run-way and so we had to wait out the thunderstorm in Lima.  After a few hours in the Lima airport, with pretty fierce air conditioning, I was a bit cold, fed up and very thankful that the rain never causes flight problems in Scotland or we'd never get off the ground!


Eventually I did arrive in Tarapoto and was met at the airport by my friend Megan who has been working in a school in Moyobamba since February.  It was lovely to see her again and I was glad the journey was almost over.  We got on a little mototaxi which took us to a taxi station where we got a taxi to Moyobamba which is about 2.5 hours from Tarapoto further into the jungle.  En route we passed some beautiful scenery: tall mountains covered with all kinds and colours of trees and flowers and tall waterfalls cascading over cliff edges surrounded by palm trees.  We passed through many little indigenous villages where the people live a very simple life side by side with their animals and as we arrived on the outskirts of the town of Moyobamba the sun set in a spectacular burst of red and yellow over the Peruvian amazon.  The trip promised to be an unforgettable experience!

Sunday

Traditional dancing

Megan took me along to her church in the district of Lluyllucucha (yep that really is how it's spelt!) The service was a special service for Mother's Day which in Peru is on the second Sunday in May.  Everyone was very friendly and the service was interesting to say the least! It involved tradition dancing from the selva (jungle), tambourines, lots of poems for the mothers and sandwiches, cakes and exotic fruit juice. The church doesn't have its own building so they meet in someone's house.  The room has no walls and the metal roof causes a lot of noise when it rains but luckily on Sunday it was a beautiful tropical summer day. The poor minister had to compete for attention with a very vocal cockerel who kept threatening to make a dash through the room and half way through the service a cat wandered right past him.  There was a beautiful colourful parrot next door who was thankfully well behaved although I'm told he quite liked to be the centre of attention too. All in all I think I can safely say it was a unique church service!  We went home to a lunch of mince and tatties followed by apple crumble - a little taste of Scotland in the amazon.

Monday 

Today I went to school with Megan.  Megan is working as a volunteer in a christian school called Annie Soper which was founded by an English missionary called Annie Soper.  The school is much smaller than Colegio San Andres, where I work, and much more basic but the children are lovely.  They welcomed me with plenty of hugs and kisses and endless questions.  They seemed to be a bit confused as to who I was and although both myself and Megan explained I was her friend from Scotland they still couldn't believe I wasn't her sister.  The morning passed very quickly. The school, like most in the jungle, starts at 7 am till 1pm to make the most of the cooler morning temperatures.  We headed to Megan's house for lunch where I met her lovely hostess Yolanda a very motherly lady who made us a typical jungle lunch of lentils, pork and rice.

Tuesday 

Kinder class in Annie Soper

This morning I stayed at home while Megan set off early for school again.  I made the most of having the house to myself to tidy up and catch up on my sleep.  I woke about 8 am to find someone looking in my bedroom window! I got quite a fright but the lady just cheerfully said "Good morning" and carried on her way.  Peruvians in general don't have the same idea of privacy or personal space as we do in Europe which is not always a bad things. They are far more outgoing and warm and that is something I really appreciate living here in Peru although I did make a mental note to close the curtains tonight!


In the afternoon we headed to our sewing class that we've got involved in a bit by accident really.  Last night we went to have ice cream with a teacher from the school and she took us to visit a friend who holds a sewing class in her house. Well, we were persuaded to stay for dinner and before we knew it we were sewing dolls too! So this afternoon, we went back to do some more sewing at Paula's house before being treated to a lovely dinner by one of the teachers at the school.  Pilar is the primary English teacher in Annie Soper and a lovely lady.  She has a cute little 6 year old boy called Jacob who's favourite phrase in English seems to be "I love you!"  Pilar made us "lomo saltado" which is my favourite Peruvian dish.  It's made with strips of beef, tomato, onions and basil mixed with rice and chips! Delicious!

Dinner with Pilar and Jacob