Ribbon Creek Falls

So the Peruvian adventure is over and I am now fully absorbed back in to my busy routine here in calgary. It's sad because I had a once in a life time experience but the busier you get in to your regular routine the more you start forgetting about the trip. Mind you I do have the occasional flash back of the amazon. But it is definitely nice to be back in calgary doing other things that I love to do, such as training and hiking. I'm not sure if i mentioned this but Ben and I signed up the the Alberta Challenge Olympic triathlon and Ben has assumed the role of training coach. He is totally awesome, has made us a day by day schedule and posted it on the fridge. He super encouraging which is amazing except at the end of a 6 mile run when I feel like I can't take another step and there he is bouncing along beside me yelling encouragements. It is at that point that I tend to yell shut up! I just need to finish this darn thing in peace! But it feels great to be back on a training program again and I love training alongside ben! it makes it so much easier because if i dont feel like going he pushes me and if he doesn't feel like going I push him.
Other than training, life has not slowed down for a minute since I got back, between working full time, training, completing my papers and catching up with friends and family it has been slightly exhuasting... Mind you somehow ben and I found time to go for a 10 km over night hike last weekend. It was friday and ben was off early so we did our usual friday training (which is a mini-triathlon), then packed up and headed to the mountains. The intention was to climb Mt. Bogart a mountain that has a 12 km hike in before you even start climbing, but that plan failed when we got to the back country camp ground and realized that the path up to the mountain was closed because there was a moose carcass and bears up there. Oh well, we still had a great night. Had a "gourmet" meal with some wine and hung out by the fire and had a peaceful sleep with the sound of the rain on the tent. We woke up the next morning to blue skies, hiked out with the intentions of finding another mountain to climb, but our energy levels were low and Ben had a random allergic reaction and his eye was swelling so we decided to pack it in and head home. We planned on having a relaxing night, but of course with us that never happens because we get to bored. So what started as a walk to get some tea turned in to another 10 km walk up to 16th ave by sait (we live on 18th ave in the south) for all you can eat sushi. We had full intentions of taking the train home, only to realize that neither of us had any change and proceeded to walk all the way home. We walked nearly 30 kms that day, ten of which I had 30 pounds on my back and 50 pounds on ben's. But it was nice to have some time together, I vowed not to even think about my course work and succeeded, I was way to tired to even crack a book open. All in all it was a great weekend. This weekend unfortuneately won't be as exciting since my paper is due on tuesday and I didn't even think about it last week I have alot of work to get done. But I figure one weekend of fun, the next for work and so on until July 15th when all my papers are handed in and ALL my weekends can be for the champs.

Adjusting back to my daily routine

So the initial shock of being home has started to wear off as I have settled back in to my daily routine. The first week I was home I only had one shift at work and Ben was only working half days so we had lots of time to catch up and hang out, which was really awesome. He had me in the gym the day after I got home trying to get back the muscle I had lost from the dysentery as well as the diet of rice and plantains. It was incredibly hard the first couple days but it didn`t take long to get back on track. Last week it was also my Dad`s birthday and we had a surprise party for him on Friday. On Saturday was my birthday, and Ben and I were planning on hitting up the mountains to camp and go scrambling but the nice weather didn`t hold up and we wound up with snow on Friday and Saturday. So instead we went to the dinosaur museum in Drumheller and enjoyed a birthday lunch out followed by dinner at my mom`s house. The weather started warming up on Sunday but by then I had been home for a week and it was back to the grind of work, training and trying to write my 3 essays about my trip (all of which are 16 pages). I say training because Ben and I signed up for an Olympic distance triathlon in Camrose at the end of the month (1.5 km swim, 43km bike and 10km run). It felt good to be exercising again and we finally got our road bikes at December and decided that they needed to see some action! So Ben wrote us up a training schedule that will hopefully get us to complete the triathlon in under 4 hours! So, anyways, this week has been incredibly busy with working full time, training after work for at least an hour and than trying to get some research in before I pass out! But I don`t mind, it keeps me out of trouble hey. But the weather has finally turned nice out and is supposed to stay for the weekend but unfortunately i`ll be cooped up inside trying to write one of the three papers for Monday. The adventures of Ben and Jen will have to wait until next weekend, once one paper is handed in. Hopefully this time the nice weather sticks.

Reflecting on the Trip during my long plane ride home

Well the sun is setting on my adventure in Peru and although I am ready to come home, I have had an experience of a lifetime. I have met 18 incredible individuals who have taught me so much and challenged me every day. I have seen the sun rise and the sun set on the Amazon. I have learned rudimentary Spanish. I have seen flocks of Macaws fly above me and monkeys high up in the canopy. I survived being evacuated from a boat after getting dysentery. Although there were moments that we wanted to jump off the boat and boycott the professors for giving us to much work, it only made the trip that much more of an amazing experience. The three courses I took were definitely challenging, each professor shaking the foundations of our beliefs; challenging us to look for alternatives and solutions to the current human predicaments of huge global inequality and environmental degradation. What was frustrating is that the more you learned about it, and saw the reality of both of them for yourself in the Amazon the more everything ended up being more complicated. We had a final presentation at the end of the course to do that tied everything we learned together and the solution that my group came up with was to eliminate conservation, definitely a radical presentation since one of our courses was on conservation. We thought that the very existence of a term such as conservation makes the alternative of extraction acceptable. That the existence of areas of conservation justifies the over-exploitation of the environment everywhere else. We have all driven to Banff and along the way you see the areas of clear cutting and the concrete plant just outside the gates. Well, it was definitely an ambitious presentation but in the end we did quite well. At the end of the trip they had a reception for us, and they had the “alternative nobel peace prize” for the best presentation of the trip and our group won!
I don’t think I can full appreciate what I have learned and seen over the last month. It will take some time to sink in. The time in Iquitos from the last time I wrote is a blurr. Between getting the presentation ready, finishing up my daily assignments. But we did find time to go out two times, once for my roommates birthday and the other for the last night of being all together. That was a really fun night. We were having out classes in a bar during the day, and they had arranged with the bar owner to decorate the bar for us, they gave us a special of 2 for 1 drinks and they brought in a salsa dance teacher. It was really fun. The group of individuals that went on this trip got along so well. With 18 students you expect there to be clicks and arguments, but there wasn’t any of that. We are already talking about a reunion next summer house boating with everyone... seems fitting considering we’ve already lived on a boat together !

two proposals and the last week in Peru

So I'm trying to remember the last time I wrote, the last few days has been a blur trying to get all my work wrapped up. The night of the amazing race I needed some alone time, so I grabbed by books and walked to an Italian place around the corner from my hotel. It was wonderful, I ate some pasta, drank some juice, listened to my Ipod and relaxed. I'm not one that normally needs alone time, but being in a large group gets exhausting and overwhelming at times. It's amazing how just a couple hours alone can rejuvenate your spirits. The next day (May 22nd), I missed out on the morning activities to go to the hospital with one of my professors. They wanted me to go home with my lab workups from when I had dysentery so that if something happens back home I'll have documents of what happened here in Peru. Turns out Justin didn't take me to the public hospital, rather a private one... Which was probably a good thing considering the private hospital still had dirty sheets and mosquitoes everywhere. I couldn't imagine what the condition of the public hospital looks like. Once getting all the documents for the doctors and insurance we had lectures and then a few of us decided to see a movie after dinner. We went to see Angels and Demons! It was English with Spanish sub titles, except the parts that were in Italian when they just had the Spanish subtitles so we got a little lost in parts. There were mixed reviews about the movie from the group, but i thought that it was really good. I had read the book so that added to my appreciation for the movie.. but also I had taken a class about the evolution of western civilization's thoughts and culture at the university this year and it was amazing how applicable this movie was to the course. SO i found it really fascinating from an academic perspective as well.

Saturday (may 23) we had off, and was it ever needed. I slept in and enjoyed laying in my bed reading my recreation book (outlander series still!) But I was eventually forced out of bed by the heat. It was the hottest yet and we found an outdoor pool at a five star hotel named El Dorado... So 5 of us packed up our books and went with Chui Ling (one of our professors) to the pool all day. Of course no one ended up opening a book the entire day, unless it was one for recreational purposes. It was a much needed day of rest. We swam, talked, tried to get rid of our awesome tan lines, and just relaxed. We polished off the afternoon with an ice cream which turned into a race to eat the ice cream before it ended up a puddle on the ground. That evening to continue with the day of rest we had a girls night. A few of us girls drank some wine and watched "ten things I hate about you," the chick flick from our preteen days, when everyone had a crush on Heath Ledger. That day was the one and only day that I did not even open a book or do any homework in the past 26 days, and it was awesome.

Sunday morning they had a morning activity planned of going to church. Of course that caused problems within the group. With 20 students from Canada there are obviously have many different religions and opinions on the catholic church. The plan quickly changed, and instead we walked to the square where there was an army parade. It was really cool, even tho I had no idea what was going on. But it reminded me of my Grandpa. He used to be in the Army band, and although I had never seen his army band play, I imagine it was something quite similar to this. They all wore white uniforms and they had the trombones, trumpets, drums and tuba and they were marching around the square playing songs that seemed pretty familiar, songs i think my grandpa sings during the campfires. After classes that afternoon we had a private caporara (spelling?) dance lesson. It was awesome! and it felt so good to get some exercise in. Caporara is a Brazilian dance that was created by slaves who weren't allowed to practice martial arts, so they came up with this form of dance to practice fighting. So it is a controlled dance or different martial arts moves but without contact. It takes incredible strength, and I definitely got a good workout. It was really fun and hard! There is caporara dance classes in calgary and I think it would be awesome cross training for me and ben when i get home. So after working up a sweat we went for pizza and I slept incredibly well that night.

Yesterday was one of the more stressful days thus far. Everyone realized that there was only 4 days left of the course and crunch time was in our midst. We have a big conference on friday which we haven't even started preparing for, but also we have alot of mini projects to finish up as well. Feeling the pressure I had a little melt down, but talking to ben that night definitely helped. I'm not sure how he does it but even from another country he always manages to say the right thing to calm me down. He is the best and I have missed him so much, there is so many cool things that he would have loved here. Anyways, that night I stayed up pretty late finishing up a bunch of work, but woke up feeling alot better about things today.

Today the professors switched things up and made class in the morning, and we went to the butterfly farm in the afternoon. Which was incredible! but it was quite the journey to get there. We had to find a boat to take us to another town. Three of us got separated from the group and had to find a boat for ourselves. Well we learned an important lesson; the cheapest isn't always the best way to go. We got offered a boat ride for 2 solas per person (that's not even 1$) by two men, and we took it. Well the engine kept dying on us on the way and our captain was pretty sketchy. I am so glad that at least one of the two other people with me was a man or else i'm not entirely sure what would have happened. In a nutshell the captain (who reassured me was 32, single and had a job) proposed to me. Even after I told him I had a boyfriend. So to finally deter him I had to tell him that I was already getting married to get him to stop harassing me. Dara was with me (my roommate) and had to pretend that the boy on our boat was her fiancee to. I mean the driver was hitting on her even after she pretended that he was her boyfriend. Relentless these Peruvian man are. After the rejection i think he was pretty disappointed because he then turned off the motor half way to the farm and told us that he increased he fee. Apparently it's only 2 solas if you'll marry him. Well, after a 45 minute boat ride that should have taken 20 minutes, and two proposals (one for me and one for Dara) and the boat driver trying to scam us for 5x as much as the price we agreed on we made it safe and sound to the butterfly farm. It was amazing! It was more or less a reserve, so there were monkeys everywhere! you had to take out your earrings and secure all your personal items to make sure that the monkey's don't steal them. We saw a manatee and a caimen (something i didn't even see in the jungle). Then we went in to the butterfly farm part which was pretty awesome! Such gorgeous creatures. It's hard to believe that they only live 2-3 weeks. Then we went to see a Jaguar and a pig/elephant looking thing that we got to go in and pet... Except it stepped on my toe! and it was over 300 pounds! luckily i wasn't wearing flip flops like most people or else i would have lost a couple of toes. They got a pretty good picture of my expression during the incident. Then we hung out with the monkeys for half an hour. It was amazing, some of them would come right up to you and take hold of your hand. The wolly monkeys and the howler monkeys kept their distance tho and were a little more aggressive. I have some good pictures, it was amazing. I'll post them soon, when the internet connection is better.

So we are down to the final 3 days of classes and 2 days of traveling. The work has been challenging but it's more rewarding than blindly receiving straight a's at the university. Like the boat there has been good moments and moments of frustration. It has flown by so fast, but I will always remember this trip. I have learned so much and grown so much. Can't believe i'm home in 5 days!

The amazing race!

So we have been in Iquitos for 4 days and it's hard to believe that in 9 days I'll be on my journey back home! This trip has flown by and just seems to be picking up speed! It seems as though I blinked and 4 days passed here in Iquitos. Upon getting off the boat on Monday, the first thing we did was grabbed a meal that consisted of fruit and vegetables, a commodity that was in short supply on the boat. After that we went in search of clothing so that we had something to wear as we washed the smell of the stink boat and amazon mud off of our clothes. Side note: Mom instead of going outlet shopping in the US for clothes you should come down here, it's super cheap. I got 2 shirts for 10 solas (4$ Canadian) and a pair of shorts for 20 solas. After finding something cool and clean to change in to I beelined for the hotel where i showered (with clean water that wasn't pumped from the amazon river) and took every piece of clothing that i brought with me to the laundry mat, where there is someone that cleans it all for you. That night we met up with the crew of the Lobo de Rio and ate dinner with them and said goodbyes and thank you's. Then I walked around Iquitos for a little while just trying to get some exercise in while taking it all in. Then everyone packed it in early exhausted from the heat. The next day we also had off from classes and lectures, but we had a big project and homework to get caught up on, so the day was mostly spent in the hostal drinking coffee and doing homework. That night, needing a little piece of home and craving pizza, 4 of us splurged on dinner and shared pizza and wine. Well the wine went down so good that me and my roommate dara decided that we needed to have a wine night and proceeded to buy 3 more bottles of wine. It was fun, a bunch of us just stayed up talking and drinking a couple glasses of wine in the courtyard of the hostal.

The next day (yesterday) classes started up again, and we had to go to the Belen Market in the morning, prepare a presentation of it, then 4 hours of lecture that afternoon and finally that night prepare another presentation for the next day... busy busy busy... The Belen market was definitely a different place, not somewhere a tourist would normally visit. It is a market of everything from meat to vegetables to clothing and school supplies. It is situated right beside the belen slums which is a floating shanty town on the amazon river. The purpose of this exercise was to pretend we were an NGO and we had to come up with a development plan. Well, there was definitely alot of stuff that you could change, it was nothing like the farmers market back in calgary that's for sure. The streets are mud mixed with animal guts, stray dog feces, and rotting fruit. Perhaps that is where the stench was coming from, but it may have also been from the tables and tables of raw meet sitting on tables fermenting in the 40 degree heat. We saw butchered turtles, cow heads with eyes still in them, and caymen meat (which is illegal). Our group lasted about 30 minutes wandering through the market before the sites and smells overwhelmed us and we had to get out of there. We tried to go down into the slums, but a police officer kept following us telling us not to go down there because it was unsafe. The project that we came up with for the market was one of sanitation, creating washrooms, cleaning the streets and creating proper drainage systems. My first instinct was to get rid of the market all together, but there are thousands of people who depend on this market, either consumers relying on the cheap food or the entrepreneurs depending on it for their economic livelihood. Anyways, it was interesting to say the least.

Today, started with a little bit more light hearted exercise... It was a mini amazing race!.. They gave all 4 groups a GPS unit and a map with 4 locations and 4 questions and we raced against each other trying to find out the answers to the questions. We raced all through Iquitos on Tuk-tuks, going from a cemetery to a square to a market then to the boardwalk. Our tuktuk driver spoke english and got all into the game. He was running around with us and running red lights! And well it paid off, our team won the race by a minute!... The reward was 24 beer, a bottle of rum and snacks.. which we will share with everyone hopefully tomorrow night since we can recover all day on saterday with our day off... It was a fun morning. Now we have presentations and lectures all afternoon, and then homework and an early night since i'm an exhausted and feel like i'm getting run down. There has been alot of work on this trip, but i have changed my attitude. Normally I am so concerned with getting good grades but the stress of the classes and working conditions has gotten to me. But, I have now realized that I am in Peru, and I have to enjoy the experience not be stressed out about grades and school work. If I get B's and C's in these 3 classes it won't effect my GPA by much, and at least i'll be enjoying PERU!.. I could have stayed in calgary and stressed about grades and did readings all day at a desk, that is not what i am here for. I only have 9 more days and I plan on enjoying it.

The Stink Boat

Well we're back in Iquitos after the 3 days on the boat, 4 days of hospital and recovering in Iquitos and than 6 more days back on the boat. The time on the boat was one of the most amazing and challanging times of my life. Amazing included the sunset and sunrise in the Amazon, waking up to pink dolphins swimming beside the boat, hundreds of blue and gold macaws flying in pairs across the sky (not even exagerating.. ), seeing all sorts of animals in their natural habitat and the miles and miles of untouched rainforest. But I can honestly say I have never had such a love-hate relationship with something in my life as i had with the Lobo de Rio boat, which wound up with the nick name the stink boat (smell of the students withstanding). There were moments where you just wanted to break down and cry from the challanging living conditions and than the next minute you want to live forever on the boat. The boat was definitely the highlight of the trip. I will look back fondly on every part of the trip, even the times that I wanted to breakdown and cry. Such as the 45 degree weather where you stare longingly at the river that you are forbidden to swim in. Every meal that consisted of a plateful of white rice, plantaines and the odd piece of chicken or egg on the side (and rice has never been one of my favorite foods) or the stale bagels that gained the name of jungle doughnuts. The heat rash and mosquito bites that have managed to invade every part of your body taunting you with perpetual itchiness, secretly wishing you had a bathtub to fill with calamine lotion. I never throught i would grow a fondness for spiders, but the after the boat we fought over who got to sit near the spider web to keep the bugs away. The rainforest flashflood rain storms and the only space on the boat for the 25 students and teacher to hide was in a 20 foot by 10 foot screened room. And lastly my nightly performance of night terrors where i wake up the entire boat, which i blamed on the mosquito nets that engulphed my bed. Without those timee the trip definitely would not have been the same.

The two days back on the boat after the hostpital was the hardest for me. Everyone was extactic to see me at first, but after the novelty of my return on the boat wore off life went back to normal, and everyone was 7 days in and the boat had started to take a toll on their spirits. They were complaining about the heat, the rashes and moquito bites and all the work. They had us reading over 100 pages a day, with lectures, biology transects and having to keep 2 journals for 2 classes. Well with everyone being studious on the trip, it started taking a toll. Then I came back trying to catch up on the work I missed out on while trying to keep ontop of the daily work. I had 2 days to get all my biology transects done, and it was a marathon. I did piranha fishing the first morning (and caught 15 piranahs!), then afternoon macaws that afternoon, then caimens (and didn't even get to see one) that night.. followed by the terrestrial transect the next morning. That was the best part of the biology portion of the trip. The terrestrial transect was the only time we were actually walking through the rain forest. It is the flood season right now so most of the rainforst is flooded except for the 3 km transect that we used for spotting monkeys. Luckily everyone brught rubber boots because the water was up past your calf, but it was amazing! We didn't see any monkeys on that walk, but i saw them while we were on the boat in different times. Since the forest was flooded the fishing was done on a boat in the middle of the jungle too, but the terrestrial transect was the only time we got to walk through it. It was a busy couple days, and I was pretty run down with little strength after being sick and I started to get pretty homesick. I remember one evening i was sitting on the deck of the boat listening to music when two macaws flew by. Now macaws mate for life and they live for a hundred years.. so of course this gets me missing Ben and all you needed was a sappy love song and it would make for the perfect sappy movie scene... alll by my selllf... don't wanna be.. all by my sellf... you get the image right?.. That night we left where we were stationed and drove to a village called Bolivar where 2 of our crew members were from. We slept on the boat across the river and went into visit the town the next day. Everyone was a little apprehensive about all 20 of us appearing in a town of 100 people who clearly don't have much. But it ended up being on the highlights of the trip. We were in smaller groups and talked to osme of the locals and then a some of the men got out insturments and played their traditional music and the kids were pulling everyone up to dance. It was awesome! That afternoon we went to another village that was much bigger, but the atmostphere was a little but more different, like we were unwanted there. Probably because in Bolivar part of our crew was from there and it was their friends that we met with. We had another little meeting there with locals in small groups and then left. I unfortuntely didn't get any pictures from Bolivar and only a couple from San Martine because we dind't want to be whipping out our camera in front of poeple who didn't have much and whose homes were being threaten by the river. We donated out rubber boots to the two villages as a means to help them.

The next day we travelled allll day leaving the reserve and making out way up river. We visited another town the following day and wandered around, but it was more informal than the other two villages. It was pouring rain, and we played soccer with the kids and walked around the town picking up some local handicrafts. Once leaving that town we drove a little bit further down river to a pretty big town, where they had a bar, and that night EVERYONE, including the professors and crew was out partying. I was unfortuneately the only one who couldn't drink because i was back on antibiotics after getting really sick again 2 days back on the boat. But we danced and talked until they drank the bar of this small town dry (something that would never happen in canada that's for sure). Then today we woke up at 7 and were nearly to Iquitos!

We have 12 days here before i make my journey back home. It has definitely been an experience thus far, and will continue to be. Sorry this was so long, but i tried to talk about every little thing that has happened in the last 6 days which is pretty much impossible. It has been amazing and challaging and there is no other way to describe it. I must say everyone is happy to be back on solid ground, amongst civilzation and access to cold water and cold beer.

Evacuated

Well I had 3 days on the boat before I had to be evacuated by the speed boat and taken to the hospital. I have lost track of time a little bit, but 6 days ago we landed in Iquitos. We were hit with a wall of humidity and 32 degrees (even tho it was 7 pm). Iquitos is the coolest town i have ever seen! it's surrounded by jungle and the Marion river, and the only mode of transportation is a tuk-tuk or a motorcycle. You see families of 4 riding around a motorcyle throughout the streets! Once we checked into our hotel we had a bit to eat, found the boulevard (which is a boardwalk by the water where there is alot of street vendors and bars) and had a drink to celebrate making it to Iquitos and getting on the boat the next day!.. the next day we took a bus from Iquitos to nautu, then a motorized boat out to the river boats. It's pretty small with the rooms having barely enough room for 2 small bunks and a fan. Other than the rooms there is a front and back deck and a screened room on top. There are two washrooms for all 30 people on the boat, they are a tiny room with a sink, toilet and a shower head at top.. The toilet is pretty funny, there isn't a tank or a flush, you have to fill up a bucket beside the toilet and throw it down the toilet bowl. We drove from 11 am that day until 4 pm the next day straight to get to our location for the research. While the boat was moving the deck was had a nice breeze, taking your mind off the incredible heat. That night there was a thunderstorm cooling everything down. I fell asleep quickly only to wake up the boat an hour later with a night terror in which was I screaming and proceeded to punch out the screen on our cabin door! Super embarrassed i tried to fix the door myself with some duct tape which did not work at all, so I eventually had to tell one of the professors who could speak Spanish and could get one of the crew to fix it. Other than that I slept like a baby. The next day I woke up with an uneasy stomach. Thinking it was just from the new food and the hot weather I didn't think it was a big deal. We woke up to pink and grey dolphins swimming beside the boat nad surrounded by the amazon. It was amazing! We had gotten off the large Marion river during the night and were now on a smaller river that meandered through the amazon forest called rio samiria. That day we had lectures all day to prepare us for the different bio excursion. The black caimans go out from 9pm until 1 am, the macaws from 5:30am till 9am, the terristrial transect (for monkeys) 7am-2pm, the dolphins 10am-2pm and the fishing from 10am-1pm. Basically we had to do everyone of those in the 8 days we were going to be at the site. We drove past a few villages scattered troughout the forest and on the way back to Iquitos plan on visiting them. I would post pictures but the internet connection is really bad here, but i have lots! Once the boat stopped we really realized the heat, and there was no escaping it. There was only power from 4pm-10pm at night so you didn't have any fans running inside, outside in the sun was unbearable and the shade was still high 20s. That night I went to bed early not feeling great. The next day I woke up at 5:30 to go out on the macaw observations, it was 3.5 hours on a boat and it was torture, my stomach pain was ten fold worse than the day before, I knew something was wrong. When i got back to the boat I had to go straight to lecture, and then finally spoke with the nurse with the help of one of my professors to translate. By that point it had been a whole day without being able to keep anything down, water or food, it was coming out both sides faster than i could put anything in. The Nurse was super nice, although i couldn't really understand what she was saying. She gave me some pink pills to settle my stomach, some tea, rehydration salts and soda crakers, non of which stayed inside me. The rest of that day I laid in bed between sleep, staring at the wall and doing some readings. I missed the rest of the lectures and tried to keep cool (which was hard because it was 36 degrees outside with 90% humidity and no power).. That night was awful. I maybe slept for an hour? I had to keep getting out of bed to either go to the bathroom or just walk around to take my mind off the pain. All i wanted was to be at home in my bed with my champ. I didn't want to wake anybody up so I decided I would have to wait until 6 in the morning when the cooks got up to make breakfast and people started to get out of bed for the different activities, it seemed like it was a lifetime away (it was only 11 pm). I will never forget that night, I remember sitting outside staring up at the stars praying that I would be ok because it did not feel like I was going to be. I knew something serious when i managed to fall asleep and woke up a few minutes later shivering uncontrollably (and it was 25 degrees that night), my eyes were so dry i couldn't cry any more and my mouth felt like sandpaper. At 5:30 the next morning the nurse came to check on me and found me a mess, not understanding what she was saying my roommate went to find one of the professors. She tried to give me more tea, she tried rubbing my stomach with ointment, she tried giving me tea to no sucess. She said that normally only one pill is necesary to get people feeling better, and she had given me 3 and didn't have anything more she could do. By 7am that morning the decision was made that i had to be transported to the hospital. Justin (the opwall cordinator and one of the bio professors and super nice) decided to come with me since he knew Iquitos best and could speak spanish. Within 20 minutes the speed boat was ready to go and they made me a bed. It took 4-5 hours by speed boat to get back to Nautu, then an hour taxi to get to Iquitos. I missed the gorgeous scenery because i was in and out of sleep that whole time. Once we arrived to Iquitos we checked into the hotel we stayed at when we first arrived, Justin contacted the insurance company to make sure they will cover the emergency evacuation cost of fuel and the hospital bills and then we went to this hospital. I was there for for the rest of the day. They had to give me 2.5 liters of iv liquid to get me hydrated. Then they had to give me an iv of antibiotics. Turns out I had contracted ameobic Dysentery. A parasite in the stomach/intestines that can kill you if not treated. They gave me a course of antibiotics to continue with for the next three days, 2 huge jugs of re hydration liquid and let me go. Since they dont have all the technology they couldn't gaurantee payment from my insurance company so i had to pay for everything out of my pocket, luckily 250 solas (peru money) is only 100 $ to me, not a huge expense to us in North America but definitely would be a stretch for the Peruvians that live here. The hospital was nothing like I expected, or had ever experienced. Not as sterile as we're used to in North America. The sheets i'm pretty sure weren't changed between patients because there was a huge stain on my bed, the IV hung by a metal hook on the ceiling and you had to carry it about your head when you went to the bathroom, there were a few annoying misquotes and they didn't have heart rate monitors attached to your arm, or computers. But the doctors and nurses treated me well and got me feeling better. They cleaned everything very well likes needles and what not and last night i started feeling better. We went back to the hotel, i tried to eat some dinner (3 days of nothing by this point). I slept much better last night, we were hopping to hop on a river boat that was leaving this morning to catch up to my group but by the time I got out of the hospital last night it was too late. So justin went this morning to the office to see if he could contact the boat (you can only radio the boat at 8 am or 5 pm) but no one was there because it's mothers day. So unless we can get a hold of the boat tonight, it looks like well be stuck in Iquitos for another 2 nights at least because once you radio them, the don't come and get you until the next day. It is kind of nice I have today to lay in a cool room with a fan focusing on feeling better, because although I am feeling much better I am by no means 100%. Also, if by tomorrow the symptoms aren't gone we can go back to the hospital instead of being stuck on a boat again. The bummer is that I am missing out on the part of the trip i was most looking forward to! I was pretty upset about having to leave the boat yesterday, but i knew that i didn't have any other choice. The professors have been really understanding and just want me to get better. I mean Chui Ling (one of the professors) sat with me yesterday, gave me a big hug and helped me pack my stuff up, in case I had to fly home. They said we'd sort out my grades when I am back with the group. Anyways, I am going to be fine, I will catch up to the boat tomorrow at the earliest or the 12th at the latest and will still have 6 days to enjoy it.. Then we'll be back in Iquitos doing other activities before I come home in 21 days! so that's my most recent adventure, although not one that i would choose to have. But I got to find out what it's like to be treated in a developing country's hospital and appreciate the health care in Canada no matter how flawed it may be.

Off to Iquitos

So I’m sitting in the restaurant part of our fancy hotel in Mira Flores drinking coffee and eating the freshest fruit that I have ever tasted. Today we are flying out to Iquitos in Northern Peru where we’ll get on the boat tomorrow morning first thing! I wasn’t sure when I would have the opportunity to post again so I thought I’d put up some pictures from my Lima adventures.Monday afternoon me and the two other girls that I am sharing a room with, dara and Allison, took a walk down by the beach. It was a nice walk but like I said it was just like being in any city by the ocean. Except it is permanently foggy down there.. We had some good conversations and after 3 days I feel like I’ve known them for a while. We then had to climb up some dirt cliffs to get back up to the road by our hotel. Needless to say I was thankful for my sandals that were strapped on; the other two were only wearing flip flops and had a hard time. After that little adventure we stopped at the North American style outside mall for some ice cream and wandered around. It’s amazing, there is an aldo’s shoes there, along with hooters, chiles, tony romas.. nearly all the stores there were from the United States or Canada. That however was countered by our experience in Lima yesterday. Yesterday morning 4 of us hopped in a cab to the museum of Natural History. Now the drivers are so crazy here, turning right from the far left lane, no traffic lights so there is either a police officer guiding traffic or they just honk without slowing down through intersections. Well, I was just waiting to get in an accident and yesterday we did. Someone pulled out into our cab! So we pulled over while they sorted it out. Luckily it wasn’t anything serious. The museum of natural history was pretty cool, they had real animal bodies that were stuffed that are native to Peru and the Amazon. So we got to preview what a caimen looked like, anacondas, the only bear in South America and even different parasites. I even saw the huge rodent animal that attacks the guy in “Princess Pride.” I definitely took a picture of that. Then we took a cab to downtown Lima where 4 of us grabbed a 5 solas meal of chicken, beans, rice and potatos. We then wandered around the government buildings that had the most amazing architecture and tons of military personnel and army tanks. We kept wandering until we saw an amazing church. From the outside it didn’t look that big but then we saw that they there was a tour of the church and the catacombs, so of course we had to go in. For 5 solas we had an hour guided tour of the Fransiscan monesetay church and of the dead bodies in the catacombs. We weren’t allowed to take pictures inside the church but it was beautiful. They had a gorgeous library that held the first Spanish dictionary, and all the original books. The tour was in Spanish but luckily we had someone in our group that spoke Spanish fluently so she was our translator. That catacombs was incredible. You entered into these caves underneath the church where all there was pits with human bones in the inside; mainly femurs and skulls because those are the hardest bones to breakdown. I have never seen real human skeletons before and it was kind of creepy. Then we walked down to a lookout where you could look across to a mountain with colourful houses built into it and a Peruvian flag at the top. After that we walked down to the main market and it was crazy! I have never seen so many people crammed in the streets nor so many people selling just stuff. You could have bought any sort of stuff that your heart desired down there for cheap!.. like one solas or so (which is about 50 cents Canadian). It was definitely a contrast to the shopping mall by our house. It was like 20 blocks of just chaos. We quickly tired of all the people and chaos and worrying about our stuff, and we only had an hour until we had to be back at the hotel for a lecture so we hopped in a cab and headed for Mira Flores. After a quick lecture and dinner I went back to my room to do some work, talk to ben and have some time alone. It can be pretty exhausting being around people all the time, mind you everyone is pretty great. Now I am up early to write one last time before the boat! So here’s to the next adventure in the rainforest!

Punch Buggy Heaven

Well i have officially found where all the punch buggys that roamed the streets of canada 1o years ago have gone... to Lima! seriously... every other car is a punch buggy it's crazy! If you try and play the "punch buggy (insert color here) one don't punch back" game you will be getting punched every other second!...

So we arrived safely in Lima yesterday morning at 10 am after a 8.5 hour flight through the night.. We were on the biggest plane i've ever been on where the first class seats actually folded down into individual beds! California turned in to a big waiting game, and we never got to the beach.. but i experienced my first earthquake! all though it was just a little tremour we had no idea what was going on... Kyla, another student, was in my hotel room when the whole room started to shake... we were like what the heck and jokingly she said maybe it was an earthquake... well 20 minutes later they were talking about it on the news... So that was the big expierience in LA...

I loved looking out the window on the way to Peru... it really made me realize that I was going somewhere completely different... You could see the coast, than the desert and the mountains! it was beautiful... When we got off the airplane it could have been an airport anywhere, it felt like anywhere else.. but once you left security you are hit with hundreds of people holding signs for different people, like off of the movies.. After waiting for the group to clear customes and find lost articles we were hitting the road to the hotel... The streets here are so lively and full of people.. I took an urban studies class last semester and ,my professor kept talking about how calgary has no life in the streets.. while i know what that means now... everyone is outside.. singing, talking, dancing, playing, eating.. just living... We drove through Lima and i was mesmerized by the life and the culture.. and the punch buggys.. Then we arrived at our hotel for the next 3 nights... It is a beautiful place in a more touristy part of Lima called Mira Flores... it's a block from the ocean and beautiful but it doesn't feel like I am in anywhere different than say vancouver... I mean there is a Tony Romas and a Chiles restaurant down the street... We had to search last night to find a local place for dinner.. talk about globalisation..

Today, however, we experienced true Lima.. We took the local bus (which has no bus stops) to downtown lima.... we split in to smaller groups and could take a taxi or the bus to the Spanish Inquisition Museum and jsut had to be there by 12... The bus dropped us off a ways away from the museum so 12 of us were walking downtown lima searching for it... Along the way Jeff`s watch was stolen, we passed a politial protest-rally with riot cops, and walked amongst tons of people and markets. The Museum was pretty cool... everything was in spanish so I had a hard time figuring out what was going on, but you there was alot of exhibits showing different torture that was used... Aparently the Inquitision in Lima had quite an impact, their main targets were the indigenious people, women and jews... After the Museum and a quick lecture some of us grabbed some empanadas and Inca cola (for 4 solas by the way.. everything here is incredibly cheap) and took a taxi back to the hotel... We have some reading to do before we get to Iquitos and tomorrow is a pretty full day so we figured now would be a good time to catch up and head down to the beach.. one more day in Lima than off to Iquitos to hop on the boat!

Day one.... 10 hour delay in LA

Well it's only been 14 hours of my adventures this morning and we have already gotten stuck in LA... We arrived safely in LA at 10 am and were supposed to fly out again at 2 for a 8.5 hour flight to Lima where we would arive after 12 in the morning! .... well we definitely had a surprise when we found out that we would actually not be leaving LA until 12 am! arriving in Lima tomorrow morning at 8:30! ... so the airline has been really awesome (did i mention it's not air canada?) and has paid for a hotel room for the day and for our lunch and dinner! By the time we ate lunch and got organized it was after 2, and we all decided we would head to Venice Beach... well organizing 18 students is definitely a task... one would go check their email and another would come back from the bathroom.. It was 3:00 and we were finally at the bus stop only to have a 30 min bus ride to venice beach..... When it hit 3:20 and the bus still hadn't come 6 of us decided to walk around outside the hotel and finally go for a couple drinks... That way we could lay down for a bit before flying allllll night and eat a decent dinner... and that is where I am now, in my hotel room enjoying some alone time before I'm immersed in life with the other teachers and students...

It's only been a day but it's incredible how fast we have gotten to know one another! I guess since we know we'll be spending day in and day out for the next 30 days together encourages friendships but I have already made some awesome friends... Everyone is so enthusiastic about the trip and many have left loved ones behind so we can all relate to one another.. We have talked alot about what to expect and it looks like none of us know quite what we're in for but realize it is going to be a trip of a lifetime! ... anyways.. just thought i'd update you all, that i'm safe and sound and not quite in Peru yet... Tomorrow morning when you wake up though I will be!

We Survived

Well the last 4 months me and ben have both been in school... and the last 2 weeks has been pretty stressful! I had 5 exams and 3 papers to complete and Ben had all his finals for his courses and his provincial exam. Needless to say I was a pretty grumpy girl, but am very lucky at how well Ben handled me. Ben was doing his schooling at SAIT for his first and second year plumbing apprenticeship and I was in school for my third year of my degree. Ben wrote his second year provincial exam on friday and I finished my semester today! It is a pretty big milestone because this year has only brought us close to our goal of moving to the mountains! One day we will be living in a house amongst trees and mountains instead of living amongst concrete and skyscrapers. We'll be able to look outside our window to see a lake and forest instead of cars and homeless people. But in order to get there we both have to put our time in, I have 12 courses left in my economics degree which i'll do in 3 semesters and then hopefully I'll be accepted in to teachers college at Selkirk college in Castlegar. I'm also planning on applying to UBC, Simon Fraser and Okanagan. Ben has 4 months left of school to get his 3rd and 4th year schooling done and in the meantime it's just learning as much as he can to become the best plumber around! But we have survived the last few months of school, and it has been interesting. Instead of going on skiing dates me and ben went on homework dates to the library. Although that's definitely isn't as exciting as skiing at least we were together. We even had our regular table on the 7th floor of the library.
Well, now that this chapter of school is over for both of us... It's back to work for Ben, and it's off to Peru for me! I am actually getting really excited now! 4 sleeps and I'll be in a whole new world! Then it'll be back to our summer adventures together!

Well here we go!

Hello everyone...
I'm not entirely sure how this all goes, but I figured we should hop on the Blog bandwagon so we that can share all our adventures..
Ben's next big adventure is the Calgary marathon at the end of may... He's been training like a machine for the last 3 months to run the marathon in under 3 hours... Up at 5:30 before school and running hill repeats at nose hill. Now just to put how fast and how crazy he is I ran a marathon last year and it took me over 4 hours and I nearly lost a hip! The Big day is May 31, he`ll do awesome!
I, unfortuneately, am going to miss his big race because I'll be in Peru! I'm going with a group of university of calgary students for a spring semester. I leave a week tomorrow! I can hardly believe it, I remember seeing a poster about this trip in September thinking about how amazing it would be! I dragged Ben to all the info sessions so that he would understand that this was a trip of a lifetime and I had to go. Of course he understood and was encouraging me to do what I had to do to get this opportunity. The involves 3 university courses, 30 days in Peru, 14 of which are spent on a boat in the Pacaya Samira National Park in the Amazon jungle, 6 days in Lima and the remaining 10 in Iquitos. They only accepted 20 university students for the trip, and now there is only 19 of us going. I'm very excited about it, but I'm also pretty nervous. I mean I've lived in Boston by my self, but this is a whole other story! In Peru they speak Spanish and I barely know how to say hello in the language. Mind you I am making sure I learn how to say shellfish before I go so that I do not need to be airlifted off the boat because of an allergic reaction! Also, I've only met the other students a couple of times, and I'll be definitely miss the other champ. But the language barrier and missing ben aside, I'm sure I'll meet alot of amazing friends and come home with a ton of memories and perspective.
The trip to Peru is part of the reason I got the blog, but I'm hoping it helps to keep track of all the adventures me and ben embark on throughout the year and years to come.