Roomies

If you have not seen the SNL skit Roomies with Taylor Swift you must… essentially this is what me and Heather are like now. We first experienced this wonder the day I had last written in my blog.  I spent all day in Puerto while Heather was at Taricaya and on the boat ride back I got this happy feeling knowing I was going to get to see Heather. Later I found out that she had missed me, too.  Then one day she went into Puerto and I was at Taricaya. I told a fellow volunteer, Duncan,  that when she got off the boat I was going to run and attack her with a hug.  Then I was in the middle of a game of chess when Duncan yelled “Vicki she´s here!” and I lept out of my seat and left my very confused opponent, Nicolas, as I sprinted out of the dining room.  We both screamed when we saw each other and hugged and jumped up and down.  Just watch Roomies and you will understandJ

The day after I had written my last blog I started getting sick.  It was NOT fun.  Heather took good care of me though haha. Volunteers usually get sick at least once in the first two weeks.  I´m over it now but I missed my sick spot on our oh so comfy couch at home.

I was finally assigned to do an assignment on our canopy!  The canopy at Taricaya is the highest in South America.  Some other company tried to beat our canopy and got a loan for half a million dollars and failed.  Ours only took $2000 to build (that fact is a little disconcerting sometimes as you are on the canopy).  I do not really have a fear of heights but my heart rate increases everytime I walk up there.  You have to wear a harness and attach yourself to this rope in case the canopy collapses.  Yesterday, Ben and I decided to be dare devils and shake the whole canopy as we walked down it.  One of the other volunteers got so scared he started yelling at us hahahah.  The canopy is 42 meters high and is made of this rickety metal that looks like it is ready to break in some places. I got the task of painting the platform at the top yesterday.  It was fun but terrifying carrying supplies on the canopy and not having both hands to steady myself.

Saying goodbye to other volunteers is a common but unhappy event.  Today we are saying goodbye to Tina and Tine from Denmark.  It truly hurts.  We get so close here and it´s strange when people leave.  We call ourselves the Taricaya family.  On the other side of the spectrum it is great to get new volunteers. It brings a new life to Taricaya.  We just got 7 new volunteers from France, Belgium, Australia, and England.  Charles is from France and is teaching me some French words.  For example, the word for snap is claquement de doigt.  I say it wrong everytime but I tryJ

I have never made as good a cake as I did here in my life.  It was the most delicious thing I have ever made and guess what... it wasn´t burnt! Haha.  Duncan, Rachel, and I were making a cake for John and Anne because they were leaving.  It was a chocolate, banana, and raisin cake.  We guestimated on a lot of the  measurements and Rachel, who is absolutely hilarious, would just throw random stuff in and say “some for good measure.”  To squish the bananas i would just squeeze them until they oozed out of my hands.  I pretended I was angry while I was doing it so we called it anger cake. When the cake was done we covered it with this delicious chocolate, rum sauce.  It was moist and perfect.  I don´t think I can ever recreate it haha.

Surprissseeeee

Well it is odd timing but I was able to come into town today!  Three other volunteers (John from N.Y., Zack from Boston, and Yves from Quebec) and I were assigned the task of taking the trash into town.  We felt a little trashy doing it;) hehe. Then we loaded twenty bags of sawdust into the boat, which I am now covered in.  I am going to be quite random in my blog currently.  For example, the police just came into this internet cafe and is interrogating my friend for no apparent reason... i hope they don´t interrogate me because i do not have my passport on me.  oh well haha i´ve learned to go with the flow and love the adventures. Two nights ago i twisted my ankle on the way back to my room in this hole but just laid on the grass and looked at the moon with heather. Quite splendid actually haha. So we have three new volunteers now! Nard (pronounced Na-ca-td) from Holland (correction from last entry when i said poland), Max from Germany, and Duncan from Scotland.  They are all very funny and crazy. 

Yesterday I was a true amazon woman... machette and everything!  I went picking for fruit for the animals in the morning.  We had to knock papayas out of a tree with a long stick.  Then we hiked into the forest until we found these leaves the tapirs like.  We started machetting them off the ground (they are like a vine) and I apparently am allergic to them haha.  I started sneezing and couldn´t stop.  Then my face started to itch and my nose wouldn´t stop running.  I´ve never been allergic to anything so it was a weird experience.  Then we get on the boat and i found an ant burrowing into my skin.  I later found out there are ants that do this and if you try and take them out their head breaks off in your skin.  Thank goodness mine came out whole.  My task last night was bird watching.  We hike out about ten minutes or so and get onto a platform.  Not the most exciting thing, but very relaxing.

So this week our goal is to have a party every night and stay up late because 4 volunteers are leaving this weekend.  I have only been here a week but it will hurt saying goodbye to people.  I feel like I have known them for so long. 

Heather and I have been labeled the "crazy american girls" haha.  No one minds our crazy free spiritedness though.  They tell us that we are their entertainment.  It´s crazy because we are so similar that we say stuff at the same time and finish each others sentences and such.  Tina said sometimes we are just like one person haha.  Last night we entertained ourselves for bout 30 minutes with a piece of rope.  We pretended to be calfs and the other a cowboy and rope them down like in a rodeo.  It was probably a had to be there moment but I just thought i´d type it anyways hehe.

WOW

I am in town!  Volunteers are allowed to go into town every weekend but it is quite expensive for us... it would cost Heather and I $600 to go every weekend if we wanted to.  Therefore, I will probably not write for another three weeks or so. 

It is breathtakingly beautiful here.  The trees are unique and the forest is so dense.  I took a 4 km hike the other day to feed grown spider monkeys.  They are secluded so far away because we are trying to make them independent and introduce them back into the wild.  They are not too friendly to humans anymore so to feed them two people must go in the cage.  One has a net to catch monkeys trying to bite us.  We do have a 10 months year old spider monkey named Nicole... she is a sweetheart.  Nicole stays in a cage with a young howler monkey named Muneca (toy in English).  Muneca is a little rascal.  She`ll climb all over you and then try and bite you.  It doesn´t hurt though.

There are so many animals here it is amazing.  We get to feed most of them, but only the staff gets to feed the jaguars and other dangerous ones.  There are macaws, a toucan, spider monkeys, howler monkeys, squirrel monkeys, chapichin monkeys, tapirs, jaguars, an otter (his name is Sid and he is very friendly, I might get to swim with him in the river), wild dogs, a few wild cats I am not sure the name of, butterflys, turtles, and much more. Of course there are the unwanted visitors, too.  Our room happens to have cockroaches.  Other rooms have had termites, tarantulas, geckos, and of course other spiders and various insects.  Perhaps our worst enemy while we work are sand flies.  They don´t get repelled by mosquitoe repellent much and leave a nasty red circle.  They do not itch though.

The people here are very friendly.  There are about 20 volunteers here and they are from all over the world.  Me and Heather have been teaching them lots of American games and most of them like them.  Some think they are too ridiculous.  Anyways we have people from New York, Boston, United Kingdom, Austria, France, Germany, Denmark, Quebec, and we just me a volunteer from Poland.  It is fun to try and understnad each others languages.  Most everyone speaks English but some we have to talk slow to, understandably of course.

There are so many things that have happened it`s hard to include in just one blog.  Yesterday in the evening we played futbol (soccer).  It was immense fun! We have just a small clearing big enough to play.  First the goals were wheelbarros but then we got more people se we made them bigger.  The Peruvian staff were extremely good.

We do not have many modern things here.  We have electricity only from 6pm-9pm each night.  The wáter is not completely clear, that is it is slightly murky and has flakes of something Brown in it.  It is still good to drink though.  We only hav cold wáter for showers bu that feels awesome because we are always hot and sweaty.  The river is completely murky and includes paranhas, leeches, camans, and sand flies.  Our romos are covered in spider webs and dirt.  Oh ya and sometimes we run out of wáter and have to Yell AGUA! When we are showering to get it turned on again.  It sounds like I am complaining, but I am not.  I absolutely love everything about this place.  It is a break from the technology obsessed, fast paced, and Money obsessed world.  We are all here to help the environment and help with the ongoing research of animals.  Not everything is easy though.  Yesterday morning I helped build parts for the new encolsure for Sid the otter.  It took us 3 hours in the humid and hot weather to build 4 walls.  The Wood is extremely hard.  It has to be because the termites like soft Wood.  It took all my effort and might to hammer in just one nail.  The boys had trouble, too.  My hand is sore today and I have two tender blisters.

So as we were on our way to town our boat broke down haha.  We were on this Sandy beach about a mile wide.  WE went swimming through and were goofy.  We were stranded for about 2 hours.  A man that owns the hostel w estay at saw us though and picked us up.  Everyone is tired now because we had mud fights, played baseball with a stick and a round piece of Wood I found, and just messed around.

Forgive me for the random capitalizations and weird spellings.  The computer I am using does not know English and so every Word is almost underlined haha it also capitilizes random things. I love you all and miss everyone.  My dear family and friends I hope you are having a wonderful time where ever you are.  And live a french saying i just learned yesterday… Live your dream, don`t dream your life.

4 days left!!!... but who is counting?

These past couple days have been filled with emotional ups and downs on an intense emotional rollercoaster!  I'm excited to go to Peru, but saying goodbye to people... well... quick frankly sucks haha.  I'm finally feeling prepared with all my supplies but the big task is CLEANING MY ROOM... which i dread at any time.  I'm excited for going to go see my kids (the kids I coached) at Foothills tomorrow because they said they have a surprise for me and wanted to show me at show and tell haha. That will be a sweet goodbye.  I'm glad I will get to see them before I leave.  And now the dryer buzzer has called my name so although this is a small post it will have to do for now. Lufffffffff (aka Love;)

Anticipation Is Killer

I have two weeks and 3 days before I leave to Peru and I'm finally starting to get everything together... Including starting a blog!  This is my first blog experiece to if I make some mistakes in "blogging" that is why :).  This is essentially a test so my friends and family can see if they can read this page and comment on it and whatnot.  So if you are reading this then please comment so I can experience the wonder of technology and blogging!  This is probably the main way I will tell everyone what is happening in Peru.  However, the first three months I am there I will only have internet probably once a month.  Love to all!