Back from the Jungle

I'm back! I return with verdant memories and countless bug bites. The jungle was an incredible experience, deserving far greater depth of description than I could hope to give. So I'll go ahead and abuse the exchange rate between pictures and words (a picture is worth a thousand words) to skimp on my duties as blog writer. Enjoy!

This is the view from the river we floated down to reach our lodge. We ended up swimming in this same piranha infested water-- and I proudly emerged with all of my fingers

That would be a tarantula. We saw several, and our guide (who I otherwise loved)  seemed to have an uncanny knack for finding them.

These cute hipo/ beaver/ water pig creatures were on the shore of the river. They look slightly less noble on land, where they tend to loaf about.

We saw so many crazy bugs!  

Dear lord, they gave me a machete. What were they thinking?!? This is the walking palm. it creates a cage-like set of roots that diverge and enter the ground. When water levels rise, they are covered and any gringos trapped inside are in trouble

I'll never tire of sunsets over water.

Our guide showed us a leaf that, when ground with water, creates the perfect pigment for warding of evil jungle spirits. The spirits he described lead careless travelers deep into the unfamiliar jungle then vanish, leaving them lost. This was a bit of a disconcerting tale coming from the man who had led us deep into the unfamiliar jungle. Fortunately, my face paint must have worked cause he stuck around.

More interesting bugs!

And I'm still not tired of beautiful sunsets over the water!

This huge tree is apparently being slowly killed by the vines that strangle it. The gringos probably don't help either.

There you have it! The Jungle trip! Next up: Machu Pichu! For which I resolve to do some actual writing!

 In which he employs brevity and breadth in place of depth:

In the past week or two, I've found myself between a rock and a dead zone when it comes to wifi and internet access in general. My apologies to all. We've been moving offices and the wifi hasn't caught up with us yet. Beyond that, we went backpacking last weekend and I spent an unpleasant chunk of the week sick. To summarize the time since my last update:

Moving offices: We were gently evicted from our old place when the landlord decided he wanted to for himself, so last week we canceled project work and moved all of the books, clothing, computers, wood, kitchen utensils, beds, spiders, and food from the old office to a nice new place on the other side of town. Except for one slightly less-than-thrilling morning spent moving a wood pile and a few encounters with everyone's favorite eight-legged form of life, the work was actually quite fun. I got to ride on a big old truck loaded with furniture (it felt very Grapes of Wrath), and I think we all got a better idea of all the resources that are lying around in the office.

Piturasay: (That's my spelling and I'm sticking to it). Over the weekend we went on a backpacking trip up to a beautiful lake on the top of a mountain. It was a six hour hike up with heavy backpacks, but the arrival was easily worth it. I immediately changed and hopped in the lake. I then realized that the origin of the lake was a nearby glacier and spent some quality time thawing my toes. Still worth it! In the evening we cooked a nice quinoa dish and desserted (my blog, my words) on bananas and chocolate cooked in campfire. After a bit of stargazing we went to bed. Rest was important, because we had to wake up early to view the crazy shadow of an Incan profile that appears on the rocks during sunrise. We also viewed what our guides identified as a puma shadow, but which looked more like a particularly lumpy blob to me.

 beautiful spot, no?

 And here too, am I right?

 Oh! And this one as well!

 If that isn't an Incan profile, I don't know what is

 It was really, really early.

Illness: Immediately after our return, I was attacked by a fearsome malady and made the shrewd tactical decision to stay in bed sleeping, whimpering, and feeling extraordinarily sorry for myself for the next 48 hours.

A Day in the Life: This weekend we spent the night Chicon. By spending a full day with a family in Chicon, we hoped to get a better idea of what projects the community might be interested in. My family was extremely warm, welcoming, and, it should be noted, had a litter of week old puppies. I was supposed to be shadowing a family member for my time there, but the dad was away on a construction job and the mom thought that my offer to “make as you make for a typical day” was hilarious until she realized that it meant following her into the kitchen. I was sternly evicted and told to go play with Pedro, her son. Pedro and I had a grand time playing soccer in the field, playing soccer in the garage, playing soccer on the path between the field and the garage, and watching Cats and Dogs 2: the Revenge of Kitty Galore on DVD. A more nuanced reflection on my time in Chicon will probably occur in the coming weeks (we go to the jungle next week and I need to pack. That also means no wifi for another week, Sorry!). Until then, enjoy the old standby: More pictures!

The view from Chicon

The puppies