Pictures from Fall 2014 Day 16

The pictures from day 16 are located here.

Peru Fall 2014 Day 16 & 17

We had to wake up sort of early because we had to check out of the apartment. They wanted us out by 11am because I think they had someone else coming in right after us.  So we got had a small breakfast, got cleaned up and got packed so we could get out on time. We brought our stuff to Daniela’s office where I performed some routine tech support by replacing her mouse and keyboard with the new ones, installing a lan cable for her computer instead of it using wireless and figured out an issue with her scanner that was preventing it from operating in the way she wanted it to. I did not fully fix it but gave her a work around until she can get the drivers disk for the printer/scanner device to reinstall it.

After we finished the tech support we took a taxi to her house where we dropped the stuff off and said hello to her mother before heading out to La Punta. It was sunny out so we decided to go to La Punta to eat lunch and see the beaches a bit. We ate lunch at Restaurant La Mirador which is not the place we had the wedding but on the other side of the isthmus.  It is of course a seafood restaurant first like most of the places in La Punta. Daniela had heard it was very good so she wanted to try it. We each got a Cuscena to drink and she ordered a crab appetizer in wonton wrappers that included guacamole that I did not much care for.  For lunch I had a white fish with a sauce fines herbs.  It came with a side of white rice.  Daniela had the same fish but it was fried with a “macho” sauce and shrimp.  It also came with rice.  The food was excellent. We did not get coffee or dessert.

After we finished we went down to the beach and met “Pollo” the longest selling ice cream vender in La Punta. He had an official diploma on his cart.  Then we walked the beach for a bit and got our feet wet (and our pant legs) in the ocean before taking a rowboat tour around the sheltered area. This was the same type of boat we used for the wedding except it was red and said Peru on it.  We were the only people riding on it. The rower was explaining things about the area in Spanish. I understood some. Daniela translated some. We got really close to the breakwater which had a ton of birds on it and smelled as bad as the island with the sea lions because of the birds.  Still it was a cool little ride out and back.  After we finished the ride we headed to the port by foot which took maybe 45 minutes then took a combi back to Daniela's house.

Her brother was just returning from his walk with Forest and we all went in and had a light snack that I believe they call lonchi (that's how it sounds anyway).  We had breads, cheese, cookies and coffee and talked for a while. Then we finished my packing and took a two hour nap because we both were fully exhausted. Neither of us slept well the night before.  We woke up around 10pm and had to head to the airport.

At the airport I once again ran into that special phenomenon where every person checking into a flight in front of me takes 25 minutes to get their boarding passes and check their luggage and my turn took 3 minutes.  I still cannot understand how that happens after all of the flights I have been on.  I know I choose my seat assignments ahead of time most trips but still... After check in I met Daniela at the waiting area and we sat and talked for a while then went to Pikeos to have a hot chocolate each before I had to get to my flight. She said goodbye at security and there were really no lines at security or at immigration so both went quick.    I really only had a couple minutes to buy some candy before the plane started to board.  It was actually boarded and ready to depart early.

The plane was a Boeing 767-400ER with in seat entertainment but I was fortunate to get window side 2 seat section aisle seat but with no one in the window seat. That meant that after they ran through the snack to start the flight I put on the sleep mask and put in the earplugs they provided and slept until they announced they were starting to serve the breakfast. The snack was a chicharon sandwich (roast pork).  It was nice but I could have done without the pesto. The breakfast was either eggs or crepes. I chose the crepes but only ate the other stuff on the tray.  I had a very bad coffee too. By the time we were done with the food we had started our descent and it was only a half an hour before we landed.  

After disembarking I got to the Global Entry kiosk (all US and Canada entries use kiosks in this terminal just like in Houston but it is still much faster for Global Entry because there are less people using those kiosks and they typically know what they are doing.  I had to wait a bit for my bag and then checked customs quickly and rechecked the bag quickly too. Though I had TSA Pre I was stuck in a stupid single line standard security recheck that really didn't take long but was annoying, especially because they started a second line right as I got into the xray machine.  Assholes...  Anyway, I had to take a train to A terminal from F terminal and then found my gate but I was super early for my flight. The flight before still hadn't started boarding. I found a place to get a wheat bagel and coffee then found a seat at the gate and started to write this.

The plane boarded rather easily even though I think  it was mostly full and we got underway on time which again was nice. This was a Boeing 757-200 without in seat entertainment but I really didn't care because I basically fell asleep for most of the flight again. I had a quick drink of cranberry juice when they came around and that came with pretzels which was nice.  Deplaning was easy and I was fairly quick to get my luggage and my Dad was waiting for me at the terminal right as I got outside so the rest of the trip was very easy.

I will post the last day of pictures when I get a chance.

Peru Fall 2014 Day 15

Once more it was up and ready in time for my last day of Spanish class for this trip. I had coffee and toast for breakfast along with some strawberry juice that Daniela made fresh.  From there it was straight on to class where we covered some new verbs and conjugation as well as a lot of review for the material we covered. Senor Moises believed probably I should have been in a class level higher than I was in but they weren't running a class of that level this time.  He felt I was familiar enough with Spanish that I needed to be more onto forced conversation which is probably true.  I am trying to introduce speaking things in Spanish to Daniela but it is definitely of the baby steps concept.  When class was over we said our goodbyes, wished each other good luck and I headed on to meet Daniela at the office.

We had to do some shopping so we did a quick draw of money (it is easier to bargain with cash than with credit cards at the markets and shops around here) then had a quick lunch at Subway before going to the craft market areas. Our goal was a sweater and a blanket made from alpaca. We shopped easily for a couple of  hour looking through a lot of little market areas just a little distance away from the Kennedy Park.  We finally bought what we needed for that aside from a replacement keyboard and mouse for her work computer because the transmitter from her wireless set died the previous day. She was very disappointed but we bought wired instead of wireless to try to avoid these issues.

We brought all the stuff back to the apartment spent a little time doing some work then got cleaned up and headed out to the restaurant La Gloria which is in Miraflores, again not too far from Kennedy Park.  It is just behind the Norky's off Pardo Avenue right near the roundabout.  La Gloria is supposed to be one of the 10 best restaurants in Lima.

When we entered we were brought to our reserved table and served an appetizer of gazpacho with a mussel in it along with some crusty bread. The gazpacho was very nice.  The bread was good though perhaps a teeny bit dry.  We got a bottle of Argentinian Merlot that was very nice and shared an appetizer of tuna tataki which was served with a white garlic sauce. This also was excellent.  After the appetizer Daniela had the roast suckling pig and I had the braised lamb shank. I will say that the only lamb shank on a similar level to this one I can remember having was the one I had across from the Louvre in Paris.  It was slow braised and the meat fell apart and right off the bone. There was no having to pull and tear to get the meat.  It was awesome. The wine sauce added a little bit of sweet but not too much. It was served with a baked onion which also added some sweet to the dish and was very nice, and also a boiled potato and mushroom side that was just sort of meh to me. I am not sure it was necessary on the dish and had little seasoning.  Of course the lamb and onion more than obscured the issues of the potato side.  Daniela's suckling pig was also slow roasted and tender and very tasty but was only lightly seasoned and served with sprouts and small marinated apple balls. It was very pleasant tasting and so soft.  I am very glad I got the lamb but I would not have been disappointed with the suckling pig.  For dessert I had what was termed a very special cappuccino which was a coffee ice cream with creme anglais, cocoa and little bits of chocolate on it. It was awesome.  Daniela got a baked apple with a yogurt foam and saffron ice cream. I could see her initial reaction as she tried the pieces individually but I suggested she mix them all together and try it and then she understood the dish and really enjoyed it.

After dinner it was back to the apartment for the night.

The pictures from tonight are located here.

Peru Fall 2014 Day 14

We woke up and I got prepared for class by having a light breakfast of toast and coffee plus some fresh pineapple juice that Daniela made.  After getting cleaned up I got to class and I think Daniela cleaned the apartment and washed all the dishes and stuff like that.  Class was good and we had an observer for the last hour as they apparently have a new teacher starting at Hispana.

After class I met Daniela at the office where quickly got some documents off her computer then headed out to find lunch.  She needed to pick up the document from the day before but it would not be ready until 3pm or so.  We found an Italian restaurant called Il Postino which she had never tried before. It was close the market. They had a reasonably priced fixed menu choice so we decided to try it.  For starters I had a caprese salad and Daniela had grilled scallops with cheese. Both were good.  We both had the chicken with wine entree which had a side of pasta with tomato sauce. This was also very good.  The meal came with lemonade and we ordered a glass of wine each.  The desserts were a flan and chocolate cake.  The food was good and I would definitely eat there again.  A pianist came in and played throughout the meal. Only one other couple came to the upstairs while we were there so it was nice.

After the lunch we headed to get the document then to Lima downtown.  We took the newer metropolitan blue buses which use routes that no combis can run.  They have set bus stops and set routes.  On the way out we got a bus that was not too crowded in both parts of the run. On the way back was another story.  In any event Daniela had wished to go to see the image of the miracles however we were too late it is in storage after November 1.  Also she wanted to go to the ballet but it was finished since a week ago as well.  So really we just walked around downtown for a while after visiting the church and then headed back on the blue bus. This time it was super crowded and I was pushed in and they tried to close the door on my backpack.  There was a French couple that came in later in the dick intentionally stuffed his elbow in my face for the locations we had chosen to try to force me out.  The good news to this was that we found a seat a little bit later on.  The ride took a while and we got back to Miraflores later than we were hoping.

We made a quick run to the craft market areas (with a side stop for some tech support for Daniela's mouse) and then headed back to the room by way of Vivanda where we had a nice quiet evening before calling it a night.

The pictures from today are located here.

Peru Fall 2014 Day 13

The day started with me going to class yet again. Daniela had to do a little legwork for the immigration process as we received notice they wanted more documents from Peru so she met me after class was over and we finished that together.

We went to a restaurant called Il Cappuchino which does fixed menus everyday. I had a beef soup and a rolled beef entree with white rice. Daniela had the soup and rice with seafood.  The food was good though I thought a little bit salty.  The menu also included a drink, dessert and a coffee.  I had the carrot cake and Daniela had the mango cheesecake.  It was nice and not too expensive. Just a short distance off the main avenue.

After lunch we shopped for making some piqueos for the evening. Daniela's friend Janette, typically called J, was coming over to spend the evening catching up. J helped us get into the Amazon cruise so we had to at least talk about that.

For the snacks I made bruschetta by making some garlic toast in the oven and topping it with chopped tomatoes seasoned with parsley, oregano, pepper and salt.  I also made an olive tapenade of red and green olives seasoned with garlic, pepper and oregano.  This I left for people to serve themselves with a spoon and made more garlic bread and some untoasted slices off the baguette.  We also had cheese and olives to pick on. We bought 2 bottles of wine: Postales del Fin del Mundo cab malbec blend and The Little Penguin merlot.  Ok, so we bought the second one because of the name. It is an Australian vineyard.  It actually wasn't bad. We had the first one at Che Santiago so bought that to be on the safe side because we knew it would be ok and wasn't too spendy.

J showed up reasonably on time but for a few minutes of traffic which of course traffic is expected here in Lima.  Daniela knows J from when she started in the travel industry and credits her a lot with being the woman she is. She is a few years older than Daniela and I would say was completely her mentor.  We invited her in and immediately began talking about the cruise and a lot of other topics while we ate the picky food and drank wine.  We talked in English for a long portion of the night until they got to start talking about some business then they switched over to Spanish and I followed along as best as I could.  We went through both bottles of wine, the 3 bottles of Cuscena Roja we had and I drank my Barbarian Artesenal Brewery L.I.M.A. Pale Ale that we bought at Vivanda. It was a great IPA version with a reasonable citric bite.  I want to get a couple to bring home to share.

We called it a night at around midnight with J calling a safe taxi to take her home. I was fairly well tired by then.

The pictures from today are located here.

Peru Fall 2014 Day 12

We woke up and got me ready for class and Daniela went to the office.  Class was similar to the day before.  We are covering basic verbs, gender and plurality right now.  I like very much that I have someone to ask questions and I think it possibly good I am being forced to speak in Spanish though I realize that my vocabulary is weak.  Again the class ran to 11am for a first break where I had some chocolate coconut cookies and coffee then back on to 1pm for the finish.

After class I headed straight to the office and Daniela went to the bank and I headed to the room and started to prepare our lunch/dinner for the evening.  We had bought some pork chops, eggplants and rice at the market and I cooked them today. I made the eggplants by salting and draining them after slicing them and piling a mix of tomato, garlic, parsley, salt, pepper and oregano into layers between the eggplant. I probably should have peeled it but it was ok anyway.  The rice I cooked basic in the rice cooker. I am still not fully understanding how to use the device.  The pork I seasoned with garlic, salt, pepper and oregano and marinated in olive oil and some of the red wine we still had leftover.  The food came out decent enough if it wasn't quite my best meal ever.  We finished off the bottle of wine too.

After a while we went out and got dessert in the form of handmade ice cream at the market at a place called La Fiorentina which uses and Italian gelato recipe.  The texture of the ice cream was awesome. I had apple and blue sky which was a sort of vanilla flavor. Daniela had apple and ginger flavors. They mostly have fruit flavors, especially exotic fruits from the country of Peru.  As with so many places, we went in and all of a sudden a lot of other people showed up too.

We headed back to the room and I tried to get a copy of Maleficent to watch but I ran into a few snags.  While attempting to do so I listened to the Bruins game on the internet. They won by a Brad Marchand goal in overtime.  After the game was over we watched a movie called Chef with John Favreau.  It was an accident I got it but we both actually liked it a lot. Daniela wants to rewatch it with subtitles though to get a few of the dialogues a little bit better.  After the movie was over we went to bed.

The pictures from today are found here.

Peru Fall 2014 Day 11

We woke up early so I could go to my first day of Spanish classes.  Well technically I woke up a bit early and Daniela was not too far behind.  We had a small breakfast of papaya juice, toast and coffee then got cleaned up and got to the Hispana school just in time for my class to start. Daniela dropped me off and headed to the office.

They put me in the beginner A class which is someone who is not yet conversant in Spanish. I am able to understand a fair amount but not so much as to have gotten into the next class up.  There are only 2 students in the beginner A class.  A Canadian man named Gordon who has been living in Lima for about a year and works as an engineer in a mining company and myself.  Gordon said his company works in English and his wife who also works there is able to speak Spanish so he has been able to sneak by without knowing any this whole time but I guess he realized that he was going to be in Peru for a while so it was time to try to learn English.

As soon as we began it was obvious that I was a bit ahead of him in the language and he decided he would add on the intensive 2 hours after lunch to help catch himself up.  We started with basics of the alphabet, verb conjugation and gender and plurality in speaking.  Thanks to Rosetta Stone I am familiar with a lot of the concepts but it was nice to be able to ask questions of someone instead of just going along with the computer.  So we started with llamar and followed with ser. Llamar is to call and is used for asking or giving your name and ser is to be but in Spanish there are two to bes and this one is for, "I am a teacher," or, "I am an American," as opposed to, "I am in the park."

The teacher is named Moises and is a bit older but is very patient and has a good attitude. He could see I was getting done the written exercises faster than Gordon so asked me other questions in Spanish along the way to see where I really was in comprehension.  The class ran from 9-1 with a 15 minute break at 11 where we had coffee.

After class I went to the office and picked up Daniela. Well technically she completed some work first then we took Donna to the bank and Daniela and I headed to the Canadian embassy so she could try to get a Canadian visa to travel there for Christmas.  We mainly had to drop off the paperwork at that point and it didn't really take that long to be done with that.  Again we headed to the office and picked up Donna and went to Papa John's for lunch. We split a pizza with Daniela's half being barbecue chicken Hawaiian and mine being called Espana which had olives, sausages and mushrooms at least.  It was actually quite good. Donna had chicken wings and one piece of my pizza.  When we were done and brought Donna back to the office the girls found out Pakita is leaving the gallery so they had a long sad conversation. I took the time to check up on some news and found out mayor Menino died which I am sorry to hear.

After we got back to the room we talked for a while and then watched the movie Grown Ups 2 at her request. As I expected it was mostly dumb but it had a couple of funny moments. She felt the same.  Anyway she was sad about Pakita leaving so it helped cheer her up. After the movie it was time for bed.

No pictures for today. Forgot to take pictures of the pizza... my bad.

Peru Fall 2014 Day 10

We had a slow start to the day I think because of the late night at Daniela's house the day before.  We had a simple breakfast with the stuff we had already bought, Basically I made a grilled cheese sandwich and some instant coffee. Daniela still felt full from the night before she said so she just nibbled on what I made for me.

After breakfast we got cleaned up and headed back to the market where we went the night before.  This time it was for shopping for the apartment.  I really should have taken pictures of the market but I didn't want to look too much like a tourist.  It was a the natural market style rather than a supermarket. The kind with a lot of booths owned by different people selling various things. It is sectioned off into stalls of various concepts such as the spices area, vegetables area, meats area, chicken area, fruits area and so on.  We probably took about an hour searching out various things then started our way back to the apartment to drop off what we bought.

Daniela wanted to get some ceviche because it was Sunday and it was sunny out so we went to a restaurant called El Cumbre I believe.  It is a cash only place, no credit cards. It was very busy.  We had a quick snack of ceviche and I had a beer and Daniela had an Inca Cola.  The food was really good and they gave us banana chips and chancha as well.

On our way back we stopped at the supermarket to pick up a couple more things that we couldn't get in the real market. Then I set to a quick start of preparations for what I will call dinner and she would call lunch. After a while the Patriots game started and we were able to watch a Spanish language broadcast on Fox Sports 2 (Dos).  I found it strange they were playing a CBS broadcast but I was happy for it anyway.  The Patriots versus the Broncos is the premier game of the week and it was great to be able to see it because of that. It was a slow start for the pats but as soon as they took over the game there was no looking back in their 43-21 route of the Broncos.  Manning was intercepted twice as is normal for his games against the Patriots or I could say Los Patriotas.  I started the actual cooking at half time and we finished the game by eating our lunch or dinner as you prefer.

For dinner I made a spaghetti with garlic and oil sauce that was filled with shredded leftover pollo ala brasa from Pardo's the other day.  In addition I also used some onion, salt, pepper, oregano, fresh parsley and a little bit of lemon juice. I think I should have skipped the lemon juice though because I think it killed the flavor of the garlic and limited the salt a bit too much.  In any event I think it came out nice enough that we both ate all of it.  Daniela would have preferred hers with a little less olive oil but I didn't want the pasta to be too dry. I totally forgot to take a picture of it.  When the game was almost over I served us each a piece of the birthday cake we had brought back from the night before that her mother made. We also had a glass each of red wine with the pasta (it was not a great choice of wine it seems and maybe we'll use it for cooking) and  a cup of instant coffee with the cake.  We did buy real coffee so the instant stuff should be done for the rest of the trip, whew.

When the game was over and everything was cleaned up we went through all the pictures we took during the first week of the trip and then spent a little longer before calling it a night.

The two pictures from today are here.

Peru Fall 2014 Day 9

We woke up rather late. I think I was still exhausted a bit. It was a full busy week with little sleep partially because of the early rising and partly because of the extreme heat making it hard for me to sleep at night.  In any event it took us a while to get going in the morning.  When we did we got cleaned up and headed to the market in Miraflores where we bought some rib-eye steaks and some chicken. Then we got on the Metropolitano and road to 2 de Mayo stop and then found a combi to take us to very near Daniela’s house. We were the first to arrive from the family and we got in to getting the grill going (good old fashioned charcoal). 

I was to be the grill master for the day. Daniela wanted to grill the potatoes we had so I started those first they took a very long time to cook and we even had to cut them in half and finish them off later but I was not surprised to this.  After her brother got more charcoal and Edwin came and gave us some of his fire making expertise we were able to then cook the steaks and the chicken and two kinds of sausage and I even was able to grill some onions because they have a flat surface side as well.  I think all the cooking probably took about 3 hour total.  Edwin made pisco sours.  Daniela and her mom prepared salads and eventually we had a grill feast.  The food was good I think.  Aside from the potatoes needing more time things went well. They had limited seasonings so I really just did salt on them and they used the various sauces to add flavor.  After everyone was mostly done eating they broke out the wine and beer. Wine for the women and beer for the men. We talked and listened to music and danced for most of the night and I think a couple people got really tipsy.

Daniela’s mom had made a cake and frosted it and her sister made some decorations for it and the presented me a birthday cake with an Avengers theme as we got close to the end of the night. It was very cute and the cake was very tasty.  I was impressed with the decorations and now I have several ceramic Avengers for my desk in the office.  When the cake was done everyone went their separate ways and Daniela washed all the dishes we had made dirty then we got a cab to the apartment and called it a night.

The pictures from today can be found here.

Peru Fall 2014 Day 8

We got our wakeup call at 6:30 for breakfast at 7. We were a bit late to breakfast because we had to pack in the morning to be ready to be on our way. The boat was already docked at Nauta so really it was eat breakfast and then pay our bar bill and say goodbye to the crew before getting on the skip and heading out to the docks.  I chose to eat a lighter breakfast because we would be flying that day.

We all piled into the tour bus and were driven from Nauta to Iquitos.  This ride took about 2 hours and both Juan Carlos and Hulber (our guides) told a few stories and details of the local area on the way.  We had to stop for a bano break because one of the passengers had started to get sick but it was not too long before we were on our way.  When we reached Iquitos they brought us to the Dorado Hotel and dropped off a lot of the guests who were going to stay there one or two more nights.  Only 7 of us were returning to Lima directly.  We had enough time to use the bathrooms then run around the square and buy some ice cream.  We ate that in the lobby of the hotel until Hulber said it was time to go. From there it was another half hour or so to the airport.

We were somehow just able to beat the line for check-in at the airport and then we did a quick souvenir shop outside security before passing through security which was simple (it is a very small airport).  Inside security we found the Altomayo café (the brand of coffee I like here) and I got an empanada and a beer.  I ate that and it was not really much longer before we were boarding. We had to walk outside directly and climb the stairway into the airplane. We were very close to the front of the plane.  There are no first class seats in these domestic flights.  The flight was very generic and I slept through a lot of it while I think Daniela read for a fair amount of it (I am not sure if I mentioned she is reading Dance, Dance, Dance by Haruki Murakami, in Spanish of course).

After we landed and got our bag she got a secure taxi and we drove to her her house to pick up luggage and then quickly were off to the apartment.  The taxi driver tried to take us through the coastal route but it is still partially shut down which I believe made us take longer than if he had just stayed inland the whole route.  In any event we got the apartment and were able to get right in. The manager of the apartment was there and waiting for us.  We got unpacked quickly and had to get right down to Daniela’s office to drop something off to her sister. We said hello to the folks from the gallery. It was Halloween by the way… Juan Carlos (from the record store not the guide) was wearing a Dracula cape.  There were a lot of kids walking around Miraflores in costumes with their parents apparently trick or treating at the businesses in the area.  Halloween is starting to become a thing in Peru but it is not fully big yet.  I see most of it happening from American influence like the Dunkin Donuts here were all decorated up. 

After the office we went to the Spanish school and I signed up for a week of classes from Monday to Friday 9-1 each day. They are beginner but not completely unable to know any Spanish classes.  We will see how it goes…  After signing up for that we walked to Pardos and had dinner (I am sure for Daniela it was lunch but it was about 6:30 when we got there). I had a quarter chicken with fries and the cooked vegetable salad.  She had a quarter chicken with the green salad and boiled and roasted potatoes.  The food was good. We shared a chicha morada and eventually a flan for dessert.  After we finished eating we headed back to the apartment by way of Vivanda and bought a couple things we needed but not a real shopping. 

By the time we were at Daniela’s office it had become obvious that a couple of the insect bites I got in the jungle had started to have a reaction. They were near my ankle and it was all swollen and rather painful and itchy.  So I took an antihistamine pill with dinner and by the time we got back to the apartment I was already totally starting to pass out from it. So we started doing some laundry and I ended up unconscious fairly early in the evening. 

The pictures from today are found here. 

Peru Fall 2014 Day 7

We had another early wake up call.  This time to go out and search for morning wildlife which apparently less than half the tour decided to do.  We saw a real lot of birds almost immediately after we left at about 6am. The birds were right past the ranger station we had to check into.  There were herons, cormorants and all sorts of other creatures.  We sailed through a less used branch on the river and we found more different types of birds too numerous for me to name including hawks and buzzards and other more attractive creatures.  They brought us to a location where we were able to see some monkeys in a tree. They apparently were owl monkeys and I got some really good video of them if you don’t mind the shaky camera.  I think the videos came out a little bit better than the pictures.  From the monkeys we turned around and headed back to the boat where we had a breakfast immediately. They were cleaning our room so we didn’t have a chance to do much else. 

At breakfast I had pancakes, 2 kinds of sausages and bacon. I had toast with peanut butter, pineapple juice and coffee too. They had something called maple syrup for the pancakes but I am sure it was not real maple syrup.  The food was good though the pancakes were a touch dry but that is probably from sitting in a buffet warming tray.  After breakfast we had a chance to get to the room and relax for about an hour until it was time for the next excursion.

We left for a morning of piranha fishing after the brief siesta. They brought us out close to where we already did the nature search earlier in the morning but in a different branch instead. We found a shady spot and they gave us small fishing poles which were switches that had line and hook attached to them. We used small bits of beef for bait though apparently the locals typically use fruit.  The trick is to slap the water a little first to get their interest then lower the bait in and try to hook them with a quick snap of the pole. I started a bit slow but I managed to catch 8 fish in total though one was a river sardine instead of a piranha. There was a Canadian guy on the boat who caught 10.  He was a lot closer to the bait and to the guides to have his fish removed from the hook. Anyway we were more successful than the other boat.  The captain tossed some of the fish to have the fisher hawks get them and we watched them snatch a couple from the water.  We fished until the bait was almost all gone and even the Polish woman caught a fish finally then we did a half hour further of sightseeing up the river before heading back.  On the way back we saw a tree that was filled with monkeys but it was far off. I hope video shows some evidence of them because pictures wouldn’t.

After the return to the ship we got cleaned up quickly and had lunch. This time I had rice, beans, a little bit of salad and chicken stuffed with cheese and ham baked.  I didn’t want fish for lunch which the fish they had was done in a passion fruit sauce.  I was ok without that.  They had a fruit jello or pudding dessert that was quite good too.  After lunch I packed into the room to try to catch an hour of sleep before showering. I didn’t do so good unfortunately at sleeping.

After the brief siesta it was time for a lecture about where we went during the trip then a bit more about the Amazon with our guide Juan Carlos.  From there it was get dressed and we moved the skiff about 5 feet to get off onto the shore to the village of Santa Cruz where we brought school supplies bought from passenger donations to the children there. They had to answer questions or do things to get the supplies. It was cute of course with all the kids trying to answer. I loved Juan Carlos’ military drills for the children.  We spent about an hour doing that then we got back into the skiff and headed to the confluence of 3 rivers the third being the actual Amazon.  We had been on the source of the Amazon all this time and this ride took us to what is officially the Amazon if only for a few minutes. The sun started to set as we were out there and Juan Carlos told us to bless ourselves with the water.  We had a small stall while trying to get back to the ship but we made it.  We got a few minutes to get cleaned up then it was on to music time again.

The pictures from day 7 are located here.

Peru Fall 2014 Day 6

We were told we had to wake up at 5:30 and be ready for 6am for our trek in the morning. We left maybe at 6:10 with a light rain hanging around. I am sure it rained all night though.  The skiff took us a few minutes to a park ranger station where we signed in to prove we weren’t poachers then they took us up to a spot that had a few pink dolphins and we grounded the skiffs and they served us breakfast outdoors. They had sandwiches, fruit and cookies. They brought us coffee and orange juice. I ate the chicken sandwich but skipped the egg sandwich.  After breakfast they gave us a quick pee stop across the river from where we ate then it was on to the walking trek of the preservation.

We climbed out of the boats after about an hour long ride, it was hard to tell exactly, where we saw several birds including toucans and even another sloth in a tree.  I like the picture I got for this one because it shows the toes very well.

Inside the preserve we walked around for what was probably an hour and a half or so in a great loop around a small lake that was covered in lily pads from one end to the other.  The idea was to see monkeys during the hike but the best we did for monkeys was some distant looks of them from the boat before we got out.  There really was very few wildlife things to see unfortunately. A tour mate from Lima commented even, we are in the jungle, where are the animals?  The guide did find a red snake that was not poisonous and did not have fangs. It mainly ate bird eggs he said.  We got to touch and even hold it before he released it among us.  It got testy for a few minutes but then we moved away from it and it slithered off.  Otherwise mostly we saw trees and insects.  I would like to say it was more epic than that unfortunately it didn’t turn out so.

We got back on the skiff and headed straight for the boat which took a fair while also.  Probably about an hour or more.  We saw more birds along the way. We were given a few minutes then those of us that wanted to go to swim in the water were going to be taken right outside the boat to do so. Daniela wanted to so I agreed to go and we did actually go into the water and swim around for a few minutes. I switched my memory card to the waterproof camera and we took some pictures from in the water. I am sure they are bad because I really couldn’t see the screen but still it is authentic I guess.  There were pink dolphins swimming right near us all along. The guides said it is safe because the water is black water (meaning murky and brackish rather than whitish).  They didn’t go in which I think should concern me but all the same it seemed safe.  There were no piranhas anyway.  The water was warm and cool all at once. It hit in waves.  I had to use the life jacket of course.  I didn’t stay in for too too long but enough to say I really did it.

After the swim we got showered and headed to lunch where they had a chifa theme (Peruvian Chinese food).  I had the fish because the pork was sweet and sour and I don’t like the sweet. The fish was excellent.  They explained what was going to happen after lunch which was a short siesta followed by a stop at a local village to see a cooking demonstration of local cuisine.  We read for the siesta up on the third deck. After that we headed out for the cooking demonstration after almost being left behind twice. 

The ship was already stopped at the village so all we had to do was take a couple minute skiff ride then climb a tall hill to get there.  The demonstration was from a local villager named Lucy Estela who made a dish called patarashca.  The dish was local catfish cooked with onions, tomatoes and garlic wrapped in a local leaf similar to a banana leaf then put on the grill for about half an hour or so. We all crowded around the demonstration in the hot as hell kitchen until it was just cooking time then we wandered around the village until it was done.  The fish was excellent in flavor and I tried a local spicy pepper that was small and yellow. It was pretty strong but I have had worse.  I did get one full blast in my throat which made me cough a bit.  Still it went away fairly quickly.  After trying the fish it was a quick turn around to return to the boat and a brief siesta until happy hour at 6pm.

Tonight they mainly played Spanish music, most of it of the rock variety.  They played one cumbia song which I danced with Daniela for. No one else danced at all.  The music was probably about 45 minutes or so then it was on to dinner.  They had the patarashca as one of the dishes so I had that along with rice and some vegetables.  The food was really good (though it was better in the village).  For dessert we had my birthday cake because Daniela had already informed the crew it was my birthday. The brought in a cake and played their guitars and sang happy birthday in English and Spanish to me.  I had to blow out the candles and cut the cake and everything. The cake was very good.  Similar to what her mother makes in density with a very nice flavor.  They even had a Cars themed paper hat for me to wear.  After dinner we had a few minutes to get ready then it was back out for another night search for caiman and other critters.

This search started off much better, we only had to go across the river to find a baby (maybe 6 month old) caiman that Juan Carlos caught and brought on the boat.  We got to touch it and take its picture and such.  We released that and stopped by a ranger station where Edgar caught a toad that could be poisonous.  No one was hurt and Juan Carlos made him wash his hands after he released it.  From there we went out further, found a bigger caiman that they couldn’t catch which got away completely then continued further on.  We found a couple of nocturnal herons too. Still we didn’t come up with a real lot of wildlife though obviously better than the night before.  We returned to the boat where we retired for the evening for yet another early wake up call the next day.

The pictures from today are found here.

Peru Fall 2014 Day 5

I really can’t say we woke up early because it was like we didn’t even go to bed on the previous night.  I think we actually did get to bed around midnight or so but we were up by 3am to get ready for our flight to Iquitos.  I think we were out the door around 3:40 or so. The flight was at 5:40am.  Because of the hour Daniela ordered a taxi by phone rather than trying to catch one on the street.  They are safer but of course more expensive.  We got to the airport and checked in and were through security quickly enough then we found our gate (oddly it was the same gate I departed Lima from last trip but this time it was on the domestic side rather than the international side. They had closed some doors and opened others to make this happen.  The flight was on an Airbus 320 through LAN. It was quick mostly because we both fell asleep right away on it.  The flight takes about an hour and a half.

Iquitos airport is very small and we had to exit the plane via a rolling staircase rather than into a terminal gate.  We then waited a few minutes for the suitcase and our transfer to the boat picked us up with a large bus meant for about 50 people. There were probably 8 of us being picked up. We took a trip to the center of Iquitos to pick up some more passengers from a hotel then it was an hour and forty five minutes to Nauta where we would take the boat.  They had a brief orientation then we were taken to the boat on a skiff where they issued us our life jackets. The skiff ride took only a few minutes, maybe five or less.  We got another brief orientation then were assigned our cabins. After quickly settling in they asked us to go to the dining room for another meeting where they explained more about the ship and the rules. We were given a chance to take a quick tour of Nauta with one of the guides.  Most everyone decided to do it from our group but we missed the first skiff and had to wait for it to come back to bring us.  We took a short walk to a square where we met the guide then he took us on tuc tucs (motocycle taxis) to a pond where we fed fish, turtles and even a small caiman bread.  That took a few miutes then we walked back to the taxis and then took a ride around all of Nauta including a few rides over some wooden bridges.  Some were very tight to the size of the vehicles and had pedestrians on them as well.  After the ride it was back on the skiff and back to the boat.

At the boat we got a couple minutes to freshen up then we headed to lunch which is served buffet style.  I had rice, lentils, salad, mixed vegetables and pot roast beef with a sweet potato in the middle. We had a local fruit juice to go along with that.  I also had coffee and Daniela had tea and the passion fruit flan for dessert.  We had another meeting with the tour guides who explained our afternoon and evening to us then it was finally into the room to relax for about two and a half hours before the next excursion.  We used that time to sleep mainly and about half an hour before we were supposed to go I took a shower. The water was very easy to make hot.  I woke up Daniela and she got dressed and ready just in time.

The excursion started with a visit to a local shaman who is more of a natural medicine healer than a witch doctor. He learned about the medicinal properties of the local plants from his grandfather starting when he was 12 and now has been doing it for over 30 years. He is teaching his daughter and his niece about the medicine as well. He serves a community of 500 or so and does not ever go into the cities. He will send patients to the nurse if he cannot help them.  He took about 6 different plants to show us about them and talked about what they did. The visit took maybe about an hour or so and we met Bianca the cobalt winged parakeet as well.  He blessed everyone before we left and they sold some local crafts as well at the end.  It was interesting, especially because he was not presenting himself as mystical or anything like that. He was dressed normal and also works at a local lodge for tourists.  We had threats of rain but it fortunately went around us. On our way out we saw a rainbow.

The next stop was to try to find a three toed sloth a bit further up the river. We passed the boat and were able to find one in a matter of minutes. The guide said we were very lucky. I wonder how they can be so elusive when they don’t move fast.  Still I guess they move around enough that they are not always in the same place. We even saw a second one before we left. The guide explained they move about 40 feet a day and defecate only 1 time per week which they do on the ground rather than from the trees. They use dropping from the tree as a defense mechanism and I guess are very resilient and won’t get hurt by the fall.  Mothers teach the children how to survive and stay in contact with them for a year after they set the child off on its own.  The gestation period is 5 months.  Since we got lucky and found one quickly we didn’t have to stay the full time they had set for it and got back to the boat a little bit early.  We boarded and got cleaned up for a happy hour to be presented at 6:30 with music before dinner.

We apparently took a couple minutes too long because the ship’s crew was already playing a song when we got to the lecture room.  They did a bunch of different songs, some traditional, some written by the crew and some classic rock. They played a Beatles medley and Zombie by the Cranberries.  They were very good and the bartender sang O Solo Mio and has a great voice.  After the music we ate dinner which consisted of spaghetti which I did Bolognese and Daniela did ala pesto.  Also vegetables, rice and chicken cordon bleu style.  The food was really good.  The guides brought in some snakes they found outside. One a poisonous one and the other was an emerald boa.  Not that big fortunately.  They brought the poisonous snake out immediately but kept the boa to be dropped deeper into the wildlife preserve we would visit on the next day.

After dinner we only had a short time to prepare for heading out onto the skiff in the dark to look for caimans. We boarded the skiff and were taken around to search for animals in the dark but really we didn’t have any luck. I think we were out for about an hour and a half and mostly we released the boa from dinner but otherwise we got to watch a lightning show off in the distance.  It was neat but lacking in animals unfortunately.  The guides seemed disappointed but said we would go out again the next night too.  They are not easily discouraged. We got back to the boat and then pretty much got cleaned up and called it a night. I was exhausted from the so little sleep of the night before.

The pictures from today are located here.

Peru Fall 2014 Day 4

We used up every last minute of the night we paid for in the Egypt room including a morning in the Jacuzzi and the included breakfast.  

After breakfast we checked out and headed to Daniela’s office where she tried to get all the stuff necessary for a Canadian tourist visa but she missed the office to submit to by about 5 minutes and we had to give up on that until we got back from the Amazon.  We decided to have lunch at Che Santiago (it was more of a dinner really by the time we got there).  I had an Argentinian rib eye grill with sausages and salad and French fries.  Daniela had grilled chicken.  The food was excellent.  We shared a bottle of Letters from the End of the World Malbec Shiraz wine.  The wine was also good.

By the time we got back to the office we had to wait only  a few minutes for Edwin to arrive and we went with Donna and he to a bar at the 21^st floor of a neighboring building to have a couple drinks. We each had 2 chilcanos and they also ordered some spicy tuna maki sushi as a birthday cake.  It was pretty good.  After we finished we shared a taxi to near their house then got driven to Daniela’s house where we started packing and probably weren’t done until a little past midnight.

The pictures from day 4 are found here.