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I´ve returned from an extended stay in the Amazonian Jungles of Northern Peru, and am anxiously awaiting the next part of my journey. My travelling companion Andy and I are pulling an overnighter in the Lima airport to catch our early morning flight tomorrow. Hence, I found myself with a little bit of time to update my blog and line up some ducks – in a row, of course.
The flight out of Iquitos was delayed, so even though we got back from our lodge late, we still had enough time to make some important phone calls and have a little something to eat. Andy got the alligator. I tried some. The texture was exactly like I thought it would be. Alligator-y. The meat was white like chicken though, which sorta surprised me.
I would love to show you guys some of the trillion photos I took while I was in the jungle, but as I lack the cable to upload the pictures, it´s not really a possibility. I´ll see what I can do once I get back to the `States. Here are some of the highlights:
-lily pads the size of hoola-hoops
-hoola-hoops the size of lily pads
-just kidding about that last one
-lots of boat rides
-more caiman holding (see catatumbo post)
-sweaty jungle hikes
-noisy, colorful birds
Did I aready mention the boat rides? We spent the majority of our last two days there getting in and out of boats going up and down the same stretch of river, each time for a different purpose. Then it´s “get out, eat a meal, get back in the boat and go up and down the same stretch of river.” Then, when that was done, we got back into the boat and rode a cramped and uncomfortable two and a half hours back to the port city. Woof.
Other than that, I hope that all of the usual Thanksgiving festivities went well despite my absence. I thought about you guys while I was eating my mock Thanksgiving food on Wednesday night in Venusa with my host parents. Andy decided that he should bring Bloody Marys` to the Thanksgiving night feast, so he spent most of the time making drinks for everyone there while I tried to entertain my host parents (as we got there late and couldn´t sit with the rest of the host parents).
Aside from everything, I finally got the final word from Marinela that “every little thing/is gonna be alright” (Hey Lacek) with my flight home to the states. I may have told some of you that we had it, but thanks to good ol´Venezuelan bureaucracy (spell that five times fast) it was up in the air again (man, I´m on a roll tonight) right around the time that we needed to catch our bus to Caracas. Anyway, no worries – it`s all taken care of. Anyway, I should get going to find a cozy piece of floor here. Best wishes to all.
So three weeks later, I”m still getting stuff ready for Peru. If it’s not one thing, it’s another. Before I go off on that…
Happy Thanksgiving!
Did you give thanks yet? It’s definitely not a bad idea.
It turns out that there were some problems in my flight home from Caracas to Miami, which are in the process of being resolved as we speak. It’s just a fax and a phone call away, and then I will 100 percent for certain have that flight home, and in FIRST CLASS no less. Pretty rockin’ huh? I thought so. I hear that international first class is about the nicest treatment ever. We’ll have to see how it compares up to Espy and my Mom.
The little kids were protesting again. This time they brought their desks out into the street and decided to have a seat while they stuck it to the man. I thought that was kind of funny.
For those of you who are interested, the outline of the itinerary goes like this while I’m in Peru with my roommate Andy…
Tonight
Overnight bus to Caracas
Tomorrow
Fly to Lima
Saturday
Fly to Iquitos for jungle fun
After 4 days of Jungle fun, we’ll go through Lima again to head down to Cuzco, where we’ll leave from to head to Machu picchu
After 3 days in Cuzco, we’ll have another day in Lima, and then we’ll fly back home to Merida all on the 5 of December. After that, I’ll have another 3 whole days in the country before I fly back home on the 9th. It’s all definitely winding down. I won’t be in contact nearly as much in Lima, so you guys might get bored. If that happens, I more than welcome you to check out any multitude of other blogs that I like, ranging from…
My friend Tommy T
Or this one about Venezuela US relations
Or, for those of you who just like pictures, you can check out this site
Anyway that’s about all I’ve got time for. Thanks for keeping up with me for so long, and I hope that you all had a great Thanksgiving.
Here is probably one of the last hair updates, I’m itchin’ to get it cut again soon.
A lot’s happened over the weekend. I went up on the Teleferico on Friday. For those of you who don’t know, the Teleferico is a cable car system built by the French here in Merida in 1948. Well, the French and the Swiss, actually. Apparently the French didn’t have the engineering chutzpa to build the last tram (the one that goes to the top) so the Swiss decided to take over the project and finish off that mammajamma.
170 pictures later, I’ve carefully chosen a select few to add to my photo page – flickr. If you want to check ‘em out go ahead and give a click on that little rectangle (the one with all the moving pictures) over there in the corner listed under the heading “This will take you to my pictures.” You might be disappointed, but at least you won’t be curious. There might be a cute picture of a puppy in that collection, but who knows?
Other than that, I almost went to go see a “presentation of bands” in a parking lot in my neighborhood on Saturday. Unfortunately it was rained out. Not like it matters, though. Proving their Venezuelan punctuality, the roadies had almost finished setting up at 7:45 when the first band’s drummer started warming up. The concert was billed to begin at 4:30.
Saturday night I did myself a little “bar leeping tour” (shout out to the sistas) around Merida, and wound up doing some group dancing with a group of thirty-somethings. Itwas a lot of fun. The big group of us split off earlier in the night, and as such I was the only gringo in the smaller group, much less the entire bar. It felt good to finally not be in a huge group of foreigners and sort of get to blend in.
Couple all of that with a ton of homework and a Sunday night spent watching bits and pieces of “Agent Cody Banks,” “Hostel,” and all currently existing chapters of R. Kelley’s “Trapped in the Closet” and you’ve got yourself some weird dreams waiting for you when you doze off. Other than that, I’ve been busy lately with homework and Peru planning. My plans for today include attempting to finish my children’s book (not going to happen) and cookin’ up some meatballs for a Venezuelan food presentation I’m giving tomorrow in class. I guess it needs to be about a half an hour or more. I haven’t started it yet – so I gotta get on that, too.
I’ll be home soon.
