Our amazing trip in Peru

editor's note: Due to the vast amount of pictures taken on this trip only a small portion can be viewed here. If you really want to punish yourself, you may contact the author directly for a private viewing of all 800 pictures. Thank you for your understanding in this matter.

Hello Everyone!
Lee and I made it home safely. First off, make sure you check out our slide show following this post to view some of our amazing pictures of the beautiful country of Peru. I am really glad we went and had such a fantastic time. I will give a brief summary of our trip (mostly for my benefit so I will remember) and all the great things we did. I want to explain that our group consisted totally of current botany students, past students, and professors and their families from WSU. GO WILDCATS!

June 26th
We woke up bright and early at 5am to get ready to go. We carpooled down to the airport to save gas and money for long term parking. We left SLC around 10am and landed in Atlanta about 4 hours later. After a small layover we boarded for Lima, Peru. It was a long flight, around 6 hours but we survived. We were met at the airport by our trip leader Erick. We boarded our mini-bus and arrived at our hotel about 1am. We all went to bed and tried to get some sleep even though we were excited to be there.

June 27th
After breakfast we went on a small walk around the city and then met our group for a small orientation on our trip. We had a small lunch and then had a bus city tour, and visited a museum about the history of lima. For dinner we had a fantastic time watching various types of dancing from Peru,my favorite was the scissor dance, in which young man dance and flip around while holding large scissors and clicking them together. The food was really good too. I have to say that Lima while it has it's share of poverty it does seem to be much more advanced than Bolivia. And more opportunity to educate and advance.

June 28th
We went on a tour of the little town of Villa el Salvador. It is one of many areas called squatters villages. Where people have taken up residence and not paid for the land. It is a very commom occurence there. Within these villages they have quite the organization though. Everyone has to help with building and maintaing the village. The men are usually at work all day, so the majority of this is left to the women. The children do go to school. The have a communial kitchen where you can buy lunch for your family if you so desire. It is quite the set-up and the have different stages, and eventually these villages can get assistance from the government to help with roads and such. These villages do help reduce the homeless population, and help these people feel more independent. Lima has a population of 9 million so it does help take care of more families. The people are quite nice and very humble. I met a couple of members of our church while there. That afternoon we wandered on our own. Went to look at the beach and did some shopping. If you are wondering we did not go into the water at the beach. It was winter there and only in the 60's during the day.

June 29th
We awoke at 2am so we could catch our flight to Iquitos. We arrived in Iquitos around 6am and had a quick tour by bus before boarding our boat La Esmeralda which would be our home for the next 6 days. We went on a boat tour, ( in our skiff) around the floating village. This village is on the river, and some of the houses are built to float as the river rises during the rainey season. It was quite interesting to see people washing clothes right by the outhouse, which dumps directly into the river. After lunch we sailed upstream and got our first view of the Amazon River. I don't think I will be able to ever call rivers in Utah rivers anymore! The amazon is huge. In some areas a couple of miles long and 1oo feet deep. The mouth of the amazon which is in Brazil is about 180 miles wide. We were in awe of the beauty and surroundings. Our boat was great. It had a observation deck on top, which you could see all around and still be under shade. The cabins were made for 2-3 people. Lee and I had our own cabin and private bathroom, even with hot water. It reminded me of Bolivia, in that you had to turn the switch on the wall to heat the water as it came out of the spout.:) The crew was amazing. We felt very pampered in every way but still could enjoy the environment. We had cabin boys that would clean our rooms and bathrooms, do your laundry anytime it needed to be done, and folded our towels in all sorts of different plants and animals. They also were musicans and would play music at night for us to enjoy and dance to. The food was great, the cooks spent a great deal of time making awesome cuisine from around Peru. The waiters were very attentive, and the captain even let me drive the boat for a short while. I was very impressed with our accomodations.

June 30th
We went on a rain forest walk and saw some the giant water lillies, Vicoria Regia, and some other iguanas, monkeys, and termite mounds. There were many different species of birds that we encountered, especially the parakeets, and kingfishers. Our guides were very knowlegdeable about plants and species and could explain what each did or it use was. I am not a botanist so most of it was a little foreign, but it was still interesting. Each time we entered a village they would want us to buy something from them, and I felt bad that I couldn't buy something from everyone.

July 1st
This morning we explored the Pacaya Samiria National Reserve, both by boat and land. It is a protected area in Peru, that cannot be deforested or hunted in. The do have park rangers to patrol. I was is awe of all the different trees, birds, and flowers. It was beautiful. After lunch we met with a local Shaman. Since most of these remote villages have no doctors or clinics, they rely on Shaman's who have studied for years about the local plants and trees, and different remedies for illnesses. They use also spiritual remedies as well. It was quite interesting. He gave us a good health blessing with his assistant, I was definately intrigued by this method of healing.

July 2nd
Today we went exploring in the rainforest and went on a canopy tour through the trees. Reaching heights of about 70 feet into the air. I admit I was a little nervous, but it was a very secure system, and views were breathtaking. I will never get over how different it is in the rainforest than our mountain forests here. That night we went on a night time walk to see the night life. We did see some cool spiders, scorpians, and insects. We also saw some possums, and cutter ants. At lunch we had lunch with one of the local river families, which hosted us in their home. They can sure cook fish! We ate a lot of fish on our trip since it was so accesiable. If the people didn't have the river, they would go hungry most days. It really is their life blood.

July 3rd
This morning we went on a tour of the forest in the boat, and then went piranha fishing! Lee and I both caught one. It was quite easy, you just put a piece of raw meat on the end of your hook, and put it in the water. You have to be fast though or they will eat the bait right off your hook. We had fun doing that, and they really do have sharp teeth in their mouths. We took them to the boat for the cooks to prepare them for our lunch. They actually didn't taste to bad. That afternoon we went on a dugout canoe ride in another small village. The river people use the canoes to navigate the river. They make them, and most don't have motors to get around. The use the arms and paddles. Children as young as 5 learn to drive the canoes.

July 4th
We visited a village called Nauta, and went shopping in their market, which is always a experience. I can't describe the chaos of the open-air markets. Everything and everyone there to see and buy. We did find some cool souveniers though. We had our farewell dinner with the crew and enjoyed our last sunset on the amazon. In all we traveled 180 miles up and back the Amazon river and visited numerous villages and forest land. It was so great! Definately a once in a lifetime experience.

July 5th
We awoke early to catch our flight back to lima. The plane we were supposed of take couldn't land in Iquitos because of fog, so we had to wait until that afternoon to catch a different flight. We arrived in Lima around 4 and had a few hours to relax in Lima and eat some dinner. Lee and I went to our now favorite restaurant Cafe de la Paz. The food was the most delicous food ever. We all sampled each others food because of how wonderful it was. After dinner we walked around a bit and then went to catch our minibus back to the airport.

July 6th
After flying all night we arrived back in SLC around 2pm. We had been up for about 36 hours with maybe 3 hours of sleep. But we were very anxious to see our children! We really missed them but still had a great time. I was really excited to hug my kids and catch up on everything they did while we were gone. Thanks to both sets of grandparents, and aunt heather for watching them with such love!! We put the kids to bed about 8pm and we soon followed because we were dead on our feet. In all it was a fabulous trip and unforgettable. I am really glad we went and we have memories to last us a lifetime.