Quick Update

I am about to head out to an island in Lake Titicaca where we will be spending the next 6 days in a homestay. Unfortunately I will not have WiFi to post a blog update there, so I have to do so now. I will come back and post a more detailed blog, however here is a quick 5 minute update on what I did over the past week. In Patabamba, we built 2 stoves a day, and designed them so the smoke would be carried out of the homes. We stayed in a community house, and my group had fun playing soccar several of the days. After returning to Cusco, we spent 3 days teaching and assisting at a local school on the outskirts of Cusco, through a program called Helping Hands. I will have more photos as well when I return from my homestay, and have time to use the WiFi in Lima. Anyway, we just took an all night double-decker bus to Puno, arriving here at 5 AM, and now, at 9 AM we are heading out to our Homestays! Till next time!

ahh, the crutch life x)

P.E.R.U.

Hand Stand!

I am fortunate to have had only one case of food sickness on this trip, and virtually no injuries! However, my streak of good luck ended abruptly two days ago during a game of tag with the children at the orphanage near Urubamba.. Instead of running away from all the little girls that were chasing me, I would allow them to come straight up to me, and then cleverly evade them by hopping backwards and sideways, always staying a finger-breadth away from being caught. However, this technique ended somewhat dismally when I landed sideways on  my right foot with the full weight of my massively heavy frame (sarcasm) to the

How did I fall? Cred: Cutcaster.com

sound of a crack as my foot folded inwards. Needless to say, I crumpled like a sack of potatoes. Unfortunately there was no x-ray facility in Urubamba, so I spent the rest of the day taking a taxi to Cusco, receiving an x-ray, receiving pain medication, and then having a dinner of sheep heart. Unfortunately, I likely tore the lateral ligaments on the outside of my ankle, which now becomes dislocated with the slightest pressure, so I'll be spending the remainder of this trip hobbling around on crutches. On another note, the dinner of sheep's heart was extremely tender and flavorful, and I highly recommend it. So, if you are ever in Cusco, don't hesitate to stop into the Condorito Restaurant! If
you are feeling a bit more adventurous you can try their other specialty of sheep intestines.
              After the past week in Urubamba, I am unsure whether my hands will ever return to their former color. After painting with oil-based paints the past week, my hands look like misshapen rainbows, with a couple paint splatters on top, as though Jackson Pollock were adding his finishing touch. At 8 every morning my group would take a public bus to an orphanage about an hour out of Urubamba, where we would paint their playground and basketball court till 1:30. Then, after the children returned from school, we would spend time with them until 4 or 5. Whether down in the Amazon Basin, up in the Andes in Guachinguero, or in an orphanage in Peru, it seems all children have a predisposition to being spun in circles, carried on shoulders, or chased. It has been great exercise, and I also could practice my Spanish on an audience that doesn't mind too many grammatical errors.
Before Urubamba, we spent a few days in the valley-town of Cusco. The flight into Cusco was incredible, and I only wish I had a window seat. The area surrounding Cusco is comprised of mountains and craggy earth, before opening up to a vast valley filled with ancient stone structures and rows of grey and red-tiled buildings. These structures fill almost every square foot of the valley floor, before creeping up the sides of the mountains. All the streets are made of cobble-stone, a few even made of small round stones. Some of the streets within Cusco look almost vertical, as the buildings seep up mini-gorges within the valley floor. Walking through Cusco you can't escape the countless stores selling all manner of alpaca wool garments, hand-formed clay mugs, vibrantly colored jewelry, and touristy trinkets. It is almost like the market in Otavalo, only all the items are situated in stores within a beautiful European-style setting.

Mystically beautiful cloud.

           After Cusco, we took a train up to Aguas Calientes, which served as our jumping point to visit Machu Picchu over the next 2 days. By some stroke of good fortune, we had perfect weather both days for viewing the ancient Incan ruins. We were even graced with the presence of wispy clouds wreathing the mountain above Machu Picchu, adding some mystical beauty to the scene. Looking at the vast scale of Machu Picchu and the unbelievable effort it must have taken to build exacting structures out of stones with such precision, it was difficult to fathom the culture and the area as it existed 600 years ago. The second day we also hiked up to Wayna Picchu, which allowed us peer down upon Machu Picchu from the top of a mountain peak (the mountain peak in the center of this picture, wrapped in a 'mystical' cloud). By another stroke of good luck, my water-logged camera recently decided to begin working again, so I was able to snap high-quality pictures to my heart's content (nothing against my iPad's camera; you have served me well).
  I have a couple days left of foggy-mindedness before I no longer need my pain-medication. However, my armpits are hurting more from my crutches now than my ankle does, which is a good thing, i think..?  Fortunately, Urubamba is filled with little motorized tuk-tuks which can take me anywhere in the city for approximately one dollar. I honestly think the tuk-tuk drivers are low-balling their service, and they could easily squeeze 2 or 3 more dollars out of me for every ride, but don't tell them I said that. Anyway, next week we transfer to Patabamba where we begin our "Clean-stove" project, where we will be constructing stoves and exhaust systems to foster a healthier environment for the people there. Till next time!

Cusco Calling

The old and the new (Incan stonework).

Cusco Cathedral

Aguas Calientes

Looks like a wonder of the world, eh?

More wonder.

Imagine if this were your bedroom..

An Incan ruin dropping into oblivion.

B.E.A.U.T.F.U.L.

Teamwork at its best.

Reminiscing 8th grade pottery class.

Taking it back 5 years to Vietnam!

The painting bond..

Ahh, the days when I could spin in circles.

Guachinguero to Otavalo

View of. . well you know where this is.

I wrote this blog a few days ago, however have not had the opportunity to post it until now. Here is my blog relating to the service week in Guachinguero, Ecuador. Currently, however, I am in Urubamba, Peru, after having just arrived to a hostel via a Train from Aguas Calientes, Peru. I will post a sneak-peak picture of what I have done over the past few days, however I will go into greater detail in my following blog!
P.S. All photos on this post, except the ones I am in, are my own work.

Prior Blog:
            Writing while listening to music is a dangerous thing. I have discovered that the style, mood, and general feel of my writing can be completely dictated by the style, mood, and general feel of the music I'm listening to. If I am not careful, and place my music service, Spotify, on "Shuffle" I can end up with a general mash of all types of interesting writing styles. One paragraph, while listening to, say, "Only Time" by Enya or "Heart of Gold" by Neil Young might be pensive and philosophical, while the next paragraph while listening to "Tiny Dancer" could be nostalgic, while "Sweet Caroline" by Neil Diamond could make my paragraph inexplicably energetic and upbeat. If I listen to a marathon song by The Doors, such as "The End", I might simply get lost in a mumbling jumble of incoherency.. So, I apologize in advance if there are any odd shifts in this blog, because I don't have the energy to make a Queue, leaving "Shuffle" as my only option..
Currently I am writing this surrounded by about a dozen children from the local school up here i'n Otavalo. I had just finished my lunch of pasta, and set down to write this blog with some NesCafe, when I was mobbed out of the blue and surrounded by about a dozen kids from the classroom directly adjacent to the kitchen.
Anyway, back to the subject. Although the fact that I am being crawled over by a dozen children is occupying my mind right now, I will write more on what we have been doing over the past week. First of all, Otavalo has been one of the most immersive cultural experiences thus far in the trip. After leaving Quito, we believed we were going straight to the public school in Guachinguero, which is run with the assistance and volunteer work of The Tandana Foundation. However, we instead spent a night in Otavalo. Arriving mid-day we met with the Tandana volunteers, had a brief orientation, and then had time to explore the town. Otavalo has an incredible open-air food and clothes market. The second day in Otavalo, we purchased large quantities of food supplies for our next week up in Guachinguero. Our group split 3 ways, and my group was in charge of purchasing bread supplies. We ended up purchasing 25 pounds of flour, along with all the other ingredients, which would later be used to make 325 small loaves of bread, most of which would be given to families in the nearby community. The food market was incredible; we couldn't stop staring at all the makeshift stalls selling whole fish, cow fetus, raw hunks of meat, cow stomach, and piles of vegetables. It wasn’t the refined and quiet environment familiar in the United States, but rather a dirty, raw, and visceral environment that moved with its own kind of efficiency and finesse.
Before leaving for Guachinguero, we gathered up lunch supplies and went to a thrumming little nature reserve where we ate in the grass while cows came up and sniffed our heads. One nuzzled my hand, and I took it as an inter-species bonding moment, however it soon followed its nuzzle with a deep grumble and a toss of the head, which changed my mind and sent me scrambling to the other side of a tree.. I am apparently not a cow whisperer. After lunch we spent time at yet another beautiful waterfall before returning to the bus and heading up to the school.
           After arriving at the school in Guachinguero we were happily greeted by throngs of smiling children. They all clambered around our bus and greeted us warmly. They then formed a line behind our bus, grabbed our bags, and somehow hauled them into the small community room where we would be sleeping the coming week. It was comical to watch, as the children rushed to grab bags larger than themselves and somehow managed to run with them into our room!
Over the coming days we spent our time prepping and plastering a future school building, painting the plaster, cooking and cleaning meals, teaching english in the school, attending a local wedding, shopping at the largest open market event in South America, and attending a class for traditional Ecuadorian cooking. Over five days, we spent our time from 8 till 1:30 working on the building. In increments we scoured and smoothed the concrete, primed it with a sealant, applied plaster, and finally painted the plaster.
When not working on the painting project, we embarked on excursions to nearby areas. On Saturday we spent our time in the largest open-market event in South America, which is held in Otavalo every Saturday. The market, or rather city-wide sprawl of makeshift stalls, was enormous. An entire city block along with all the surrounding streets were filled with colorful Alpaca fur garments, wooden masks, silver jewelry, hand-made bags, and vibrantly designed rugs. Although there were thousands of stalls to visit and view, I found myself getting hung up on each stall I passed, making forward progress impossible and exasperating my companions. However, we all ended up with great items from the market (and maybe Christmas gifts for you if you're lucky), along with a much better understanding of price negotiation. One of my friends, Alex, was quite happy with his purchase of a beautiful hammock, however his face fell when I told him I purchased an almost identical item for exactly half the price.

lunch above Cuycochi lake

   After the market we had lunch overlooking CuyCochi Lake, which we then zipped across on a boat while listening to the information being presented to us by our Spanish-speaking boat-guide. We then capped off the day by going through a leather-selling district in Cotacachi, where we had another opportunity to negotiate for items and admire the leather craftsmanship. I personally purchased a leather crocodile-Dundee hat which I was extremely happy about getting. However, approximately 25 seconds after my purchase I had acquired a strong sense of buyer's remorse after deciding that Brett looked better in it than I. I then offered to sell it to him for half the price, but he responded that I would have to pay for him to wear it.. Nonetheless, after this rocky start with my hat, the buyer's remorse has thankfully passed and I am quite happy with it once again.
          On Sunday we had the opportunity to attend an event that many would seldom be invited to. Thanks to The Tandana Foundation and their close ties with the community surrounding Guachinguero, we were able to attend a local wedding. All the girls in my group had to dress up in the traditional attire in order to be culturally sensitive, and I chose to wear all white which is traditionally what men wear at an indigenous wedding. At the wedding, men swirled through the crowds holding large buckets of a fermented corn drink. This drink could only be offered to others, and could not be drunk without an invitation to do so. Furthermore, if you accepted the offer, you had to drink the entire cup before returning it to the bucket. At the wedding we all tested our commitment to being open-minded and strong-stomached when we were given bowls full of "Blood of Cow" stew. To create this stew, the Ecuadorians cut up and use nearly every organ within the cow (including the small intestines and stomach) and drain the blood of the cow into the stew. Although from our cultural viewpoint it may seem revolting to eat the intestines, stomach, kidneys, and blood of a cow; it is considered a delicacy in Ecuador. I mainly adopted a no-chew and swallow approach, especially when confronted with the little white rings of intestines. After the meal, we all danced to traditional songs, some of which were incredibly long. A few of the girls in my group had to dance for 30 minutes with a partner to a single song!
         The day after the wedding, the man in charge of directing our volunteer efforts on the plastering project was nowhere to be found. He likely was still mired in the midst of the wedding after-party which is usually a week long. As a result, we instead had a lesson on the Kichwa language. The language, to my inexperienced ears, sounded like an incoherent mash of "s", "k", and "m" noises. However, after an hour of repeating the incoherent mash back to our instructor, we can now mumble a few slightly coherent noises in Kichwa.
             Anyway, this is where we part, and where you stop living vicariously through my blog. All is well down here; I am looking forward to the final chapter in our voyage through Latin America! As for me, I am going to drift off to sleep while listening to "Heart of Gold" by Neil Young, and with any luck I'll get some pensive and philosophical dreams. Till next time! Adios, Ciao, Hasta la vista!

Children unloading our bus

Playing volleyball, after a game of soccer with the students

Plastering one of the rooms

Llama on the loose!

Teaching english, and reading ¨Hop on Pop¨,the book I first learned to read.

Inside the market in Otavalo

Vegetables anyone?

Buying bread supplies for Guachinguero!

Finishing butchering Guinea Pigs for lunch

Swarmed while blogging!

The Painting Process

Franco crying over onions..

I´m proud of this picture. View from the mountains above Quito!

Broken Noses, Black Eyes, and Jeopardized Environments

        Coming on this trip, I anticipated learning much more about the environment, and issues with environmental protection in the countries I would be visiting. I also anticipated finding opportunities for change and methods for protecting the environment. However, over the past few weeks in Ecuador this vision for a healthier environment and increased protection has become more and more difficult to maintain. In Costa Rica, much of their economy is driven by tourism, and the tourism is driven by the fact that Costa Rica has some of the most beautiful and vibrant natural environments in the world. As a result, Costa Rica is invested in protecting the environment, and thus its income from the eco-tourism industry. Ecuador, on the other hand, is driven by mining and extracting resources from its land, and eco-tourism plays a much smaller role in its economy. As a result, the regulations and laws in place to prevent the environment from being ransacked are often disregarded and not enforced. I have spent the last week in Tena, Ecuador, and I was able to see both sides of the spectrum. Tena is regarded as one of the best locations in Ecuador, if not the world, for river rafting, kayaking, and jungle trekking. Its jungles, vistas, rivers, and biodiversity are unrivaled and among the most beautiful in the world. However, its rivers are also filled with alluvial gold from the mountains, and the river banks are easy sources of rocks and stones necessary for building roads and creating cement necessary for the development of Ecuador's infrastructure. As a result, almost all of the rivers surrounding Tena now have massive mining operations operating on the banks of the rivers, as developers punch holes through the jungle to reach the easily accessible river rocks. Several mining operations take rock straight from the river bed, and when this occurs it can divert rivers, increase the rate of erosion, and alter the natural path of the river.
Over the past week we have had the opportunity to learn about the challenges environmentalists face in Ecuador from one of the best sources imaginable, Matt Terry. Matt pioneered whitewater kayaking and rafting in Tena, opening up the first rafting business here, Rios Ecuador, 15 years ago. Throughout his time in Ecuador since his arrival in 1997 he has dedicated his time to fighting environmentally harmful operations in the area. He has started two nonprofit foundations to raise money for environmental protection, and awareness on the harm being caused by unregulated businesses. However, he is fighting an
underfunded battle against an unreceptive community, government, and business world. Ecuador is in debt up to its eyes to China, and must pay back its debt in oil, however the amount of oil it produces only allows it to pay China the interest it is accruing on its debts, placing Ecuador in a hole it can't get out of. It is horrifying to note that China has made similar deals with other Latin American countries, thus indebting these countries until they can pay back in oil. As a result, protecting the environment is a complicated issue in Ecuador; many changes must be made in the government and in the mindset of the people here before they are willing or able to protect the natural beauty of their nation. As for Matt Terry's efforts over the past 15 years, he has succeeded in raising awareness and staving off some of the greater harms, however he has been unable to stop the inexorable growth of destructive mining operations in Tena and throughout Ecuador. My group was the 2nd group Matt knew of that was allowed to actually visit several mines, inspect the machinery, and receive a tour of the operations within the mine. Interestingly one of the mines stated that it filtered water from its gold-sifting machines through 4 pools, however later that day as we were rafting by the same mine we witnessed them pumping water straight from the machines into the river.
Before the past week of kayaking, rafting, and learning about mining operations in Ecuador, we spent a week in a Homestay in an indigenous community by the Napo river. This indigenous community still retains many of its traditions including the making of a traditional Yuka drink, use of the indigenous Kichwa language, and training of Shamans. However, the community also had been given electricity by the government (my house received electricity 2 months before I arrived) and was in the process of becoming a much more modernized community. The day of our arrival we received a lunch of Yuka root, fish stew, and plantain. Then my entire ARCC group played a game of soccer against the community. Soccer is an extremely popular sport throughout Latin America, so we lost without putting up much of a struggle. However, I managed to receive a black eye, and Brett broke the nose of my future Homestay father. Cezar's nose was quite out of place after Brett's 6'3" frame rammed full force into Cezar's 60 year old nose. Unfortunately, the community is a 20 minute motorized canoe ride from the nearest port, and another hour away from a hospital, so Cezar was not about to make the trip to seek medical attention. No one in the community or in my group knew how to set a nose, however I stated that I knew what to do and thought I might be able to help. I did not state that the extent of my knowledge on setting broken noses was watching a couple youtube videos on Nose-setting.. Nonetheless, I ended up pressing my fingers against his nose to no avail. I tried again however, and this time I was not tentative, and pressed with much more force until there was an audible pop, and his nose slid back into its correct position. It was an anxiety provoking experience to say the least, pressing on someone's broken nose while they grimace in pain, but it was well worth it in the end.
Over the next several days, I spent time talking exclusively in Spanish to my host family, helping the mother and her children harvest cocoa, assisting the father with net-fishing, harvesting Yuka, cutting and hauling wood for the community, practicing with a blow-dart gun, admiring my black eye, and gawking at Alligators on Anaconda Island. Unfortunately I did not manage to see any Anacondas on Anaconda island. Also, I had to be very careful where I chose to go to the bathroom, because there is a fish in the river that is attracted to Urea and warmth, and would not hesitate to try making a part of my body its home..

I am doubtlessly missing many important stories and I will edit this post with additional information as I think of it. As for me, I am typing this in a bed at Hostal Austria in Tena while listening to Seven Nation Army by Ben L'Oncle Soul. It is quite necessary to listen to music while typing, because I can not think to the sound of Alex softly and annoyingly snoring in the bed to my left. After this song, I think I'll choose Riptide by Vance Joy, Luka by Suzanne Vega, or Wicked Game by Chris Isaak. Perhaps Latch by Disclosure.. Maybe I will just throw my phone at the wall in indecision. Anyway, I don't think I need to narrate beyond this point, because I will simply be doing the normal preparations for sleep, which may or may not be of interest to you, but are quite predictable either way. So, this appears to be where we part. Goodbye. Goodnight. Till later. See you. Cya. Ttyl. l8r. Till next time!

Rappelling down waterfall. Photo Cred: Franco  

Photo Cred: Gabi 

The Shaman in indigenous community. Cred: Franco 

Mining  on riverbank. Cred: Franco 

River near Tena

Inspecting mining equipment Cred: Gabi 

House in indigenous community

Blow dart practice

Cacao harvest!

Basilica in Quito

View from Hotel in Banos

Harvesting with my host mother.

Black eye from Soccer game! Cred: Gabi