Nazca and Ica

Big decision: Should we go see the mysterious (some say alien-assisted) lines on the Nazca plains or go sand-surfing in Ica? Hmmm.... both, of course!

We took a 7-hour bus ride through Ica to Nazca. Sixty years ago, Nazca was a dusty small town in the middle of the desert south of Lima. The locals had long known of some of the ancient piles of stones outside of town on the desert plain, but they didn’t know they were in the middle of one of the world’s great mysteries. That all changed in 1939 when Paul Kosok, a water irrigation scientist from the United States, was flying over the region in a small plane. From the sky, he was the first person to look down and see the unusual lines. At first, Kosok believed that the lines outlined an ancient irrigation system. But then he made another pass of the area and noticed that they were intricately detailed patterns of animals, plants, geometric shapes, and straight lines.

We chartered one of the tourist planes for a 35-minute flight over the plains of Nazca to see one of the greatest mysteries on the planet.

Here you see a few of the dozens of images on the Nazca plains. They are each hundreds of meters to several kilometers long and most are only visible as designs from high altitude. Click on each photo to see an enlarged version (then click the ¨Back¨ button to return). The first one, known as ¨The Astronaut¨ looks eerily like someone in an astronaut suit - hundreds or thousands or years before we had astronauts. Hmmm... how did these images that can only be seen from high altititudes get created???

The designs are believed to have been created by the Nazca culture between 200 BC and 700 AD. There are hundreds of individual figures, ranging in complexity from simple lines to stylized hummingbirds, spiders, monkeys, fish, sharks, llamas and lizards. The lines are shallow designs where the reddish pebbles that cover the surrounding landscape have been removed, revealing the whitish earth underneath. The dry, windless, stable climate of the plateau has preserved the lines to this day.

After our flight over the Nazca plain, we boarded a bus for 2.5 hours back to Ica where we chartered a dune buggy to take us into the mammoth sand dunes outside the city. The scale of the sand dunes across dozens of miles of horizon is awesome.

After strapping on our boards, we attempted to conquer the dunes. (You may want to click on some of these to enlarge them to see the massive size of the dunes compared to us... then click ¨Back¨ to return).

Those of us who can snowboard were fairly successful.

Those of us who can´t snowboard took Option B.

We were still cleaning sand out of our clothing and shoes for the next few days, but the experience of sandboarding down 500+ foot dunes with a spectacular view was breathtaking.

After a bus ride back to Lima, we boarded a 10:30 pm flight to Santa Cruz, Bolivia where we would meet up with a bunch of fanatic ducks... Oregon Ducks, that is.

- Steve

Iquitos and the Amazon

We arrived in Iquitos with high hopes but no reservations for an Amazon River tour... we were clueless. After talking to a few tour operators in the main square, we noticed a restaurant called "The Yellow Rose of Texas". Gerald Mayeux (a loud, proud, true blood Texan) retired from an oil company that operated here and started a restaurant, saying "The Texas state line starts at the door, and I'm the sheriff." Gerald is also the former Director of Tourism for Iquitos and he loves to give travel advice. He told us to avoid all the tour operators and comfy lodges and go for the real thing. He recommended an Amazon jungle expedition led by native Cocoma Indians who would take us deeper into the jungle than we could otherwise go.


Thirty minutes later, we met Martin who would be our guide on an adventure we'll never forget. Martin is a full blood Cocoma Indian born in the jungles of the Amazon. Now he leads jungle expeditions in the tourist season (June-Sep) and drives a motor taxi in Iquitos in the off-season. He is a humble man who was an amazing example of selfless service as he guided our trip. He also has an eagle eye for spotting animals in the jungle.

We had about an hour to re-pack our bags, buy more insect repellant, and say goodbye to civilization. First stop, the port of Iquitos, to board a cargo boat for a 21-hour boat ride up the Amazon.

We had a gorgeous full moon and clear weather for our overnight trip on the Amazon River.



We slept in hammocks while the boat stopped every few hours at tiny villages where we'd pull up to nothing more than a river bank for people, oxen, cattle, pigs, and various other cargo to come and go.

At the riverside stops, the locals madly rush onto the ship to sell food, drinks, and anything else they think is marketable. This Amazon version of drive-through fast food is how we got our first taste of hard-boiled tortoise eggs (before we knew tortoise eggs need protection!). Our overnight entertainment was interesting. Our boat deck had a blaring TV showing a terrible U.S. movie that had been pirated (you could see people stand up in front of the person who videotaped it in the movie theater) that was dubbed into Russian but subtitled in Spanish. It was awful.

20 hours and 59 minutes later, we were dropped off where another river joins the Amazon. We transferred into a small "pecka pecka boat", so named because the lawnmower-size motor makes a distinct "pecka pecka" sound as if it's going to stall at any moment. A few minutes later, we entered the 5 million acre Pacaya Samiria National Preserve.

An hour after that, we arrived in a small Cocoma Indian village where we slept overnight in a guest hut.

That's when mosquito nets first became our new best friends after sunset.

Before setting out the next morning, we heard about the tribe's conservation efforts to try to preserve the river tortoises. Here you see Manuel, the President of the Tribal Association, showing us a tortoise hatchery. Families from the community go into the jungle for 20-30 days during egg-laying season to gather tortoise eggs. In the wild, only about 30% will survive, due to predators and poaching by people who sell the tortoise eggs as a delicacy. In the tribe's protected hatcheries (like this one with 2,600 buried eggs), about 90% will survive. After hatching, the tribe transports the tortoises back to their native habitat. As in the U.S., you see progressive conservation efforts right next to environmental carelessness. Just after seeing the tortoise conservation efforts, we saw a village woman cleaning and cooking a tortoise for a special birthday celebration. But it's clear that the tribe is trying to make a difference.

We set out the next morning to head further into the jungle along one of the tributaries of the Amazon. Around every turn, we saw stunning views of water, sky, and jungle.

After a few hours, we stopped to set up our first night's camp. We quickly learned that ants own the jungle floor, mosquitoes and flies own the air (after sunset), tall trees own the sunshine, birds own the skies, and vines fill all the spaces in between. We hiked into the jungle to see some goliath trees, climb some Tarzan vines, and paddle dugout canoes in hidden lagoons where the fish were jumping like popcorn in a hot skillet.














On the second night, we set up camp on a sandbar at the turn of the river (fewer mosquitoes, but more flies!).











That night, we tried our hand at fishing for piranha and spear fishing. Both are harder than they look. That night, we had a clear sky. Hundreds of miles from any city, we saw the brightest stars any of us can remember. It was an awesome sight.




As we boated up the river, we continued to see beautiful scenery with an abundance of animals. We saw eagles, falcons, vultures, herons, mccaws, monkeys, hedgehogs, exotic butterflies, piranhas, and rare pink and gray river dolphins.... plus countless insects, including 8-inch moths.




By the time we returned on our 3rd day, we had seen the kind of untamed wilderness, far from the typical tourist routes, that many people will never experience. We hope mankind figures out a way to preserve it.






As we headed back to civilization, we knew that we had an authentic Amazon experience. After a boat ride back toward Iquitos (half the time, with the current), we arrived in time to have breakfast at The Yellow Rose of Texas. As we were eating the best French Toast we ever had (more like a Cinnabon made with Texas Toast – a secret recipe of Gerald Mayeux's grandmother), we were happy to tell Gerald that he steered us right.


It's time to head back to Lima before we fly to Bolivia. We've got two free days and we're trying to decide whether to go sand surfing near Ica or see the Nazca lines. Decisions, decisions... what a stressful life we're living.

- Steve

Pucallpa

From the airport, we took a motor taxi to the Refuge of Hope School. Part motorcycle and part carriage, motor taxis are the majority of vehicles we saw in Peru. Private cars are rare outside Lima. If you need to go somewhere, you flag down a motor taxi and negotiate the fee – about $1 (3 Peruvian soles) for every 5 miles. The motor taxis swarm the roads like insects. And the drivers are very creative. Need another lane?... no problem, just pretend one exists and pass between the vehicles going in opposite directions.

This is Victor and Anna Izquierda Lara and their family. Victor is the founder of the Refuge of Hope School for disabled children. Victor has a slight limp due to polio, so he has personal experience with disabilities. Many years ago, Victor felt that God was telling him to go to Pucallpa to help others with disabilities. He didn't want to go to the jungle, but he kept feeling an insistent directive from God to go. He convinced Anna, his fiancé at the time, that they should go, and they went on faith that God would provide for them. Immediately upon arriving, he saw a man he knew with a disability. That man said, "Victor, you must come to Pucallpa to help people like us." Victor replied that God already told him the same thing. He started telling people of his vision and searching for land for a school, but he had no money. Then a man said the he would give him a large plot of land for his school but that he had only 1 year to show that it was succeeding or he would take his land back. Victor and Anna went from house to house asking about disabled children, who were usually hidden from view, unable to attend school. Often, parents would deny having such children. But Victor and Anna persisted and started with a tent and 6 children in the jungle. Today, the Refuge of Hope School serves over 450 children, with about 60% having some kind of disability.  For more about this school and its inspiring founders, go to http://www.therefugeofhope.org.

Here are some photos of our time in the classrooms at the school. The teachers and staff are the real heroes of the school. They are tireless and amazing in their creativity in teaching – using words, sights, sounds, touch, songs, colors, body movements, competitions, and many other methods to teach. Many of the school staff also have some disability.




We saw many touching scenes of how this community cares for each other. We will never forget seeing Benjamin, a blind man, pushing the wheelchair of Giovanni, who can't walk. Together, they had the legs and eyes they needed, and their joy of life was inspiring. We heard countless stories of people without much hope finding others who loved them and showed them how much they could accomplish by working together.

People like Segundo, who lost part of his leg when it was caught in an animal trap while he was hunting for food for his family. He came to the school a few months ago and he radiated joy and hope. It was both inspiring and humbling. He always had a big smile and he told us that he has found a place where he feels at home and where he can achieve his dream of becoming an agronomist.


While there, we attended the church services at the Refuge of Hope School. This is Josue, a blind man who plays guitar and sings with such an deep and authentic sense of worship that he inspires you to do the same. Joe spoke at one of the services giving a message on grace and forgiveness from Luke, Chapter 3















Besides working in the classrooms, we helped with construction and maintenance at the school. We spent a day installing wooden plank siding on the outside of one building. We spent another day mixing sand, cement, and water to make concrete for the foundation of a new bathroom. No automatic mixers… just a lot of shoveling and mixing. But that’s ok... it was only about 90 degrees and close to 100% humidity... whew! And who needs a mixing container when you can make the concrete right on the sidewalk and clean it off later?

That was about the time that David got his mystery illness. He was getting miserable itchy red bumps and swelling all over his body, so that he couldn't sleep (and curiously couldn't mix concrete either). After a 9pm house call (his house, not ours) to a fantastic Tanzanian doctor (who gave us travel advice for our time there), we learned that it was an allergic reaction. To what? Hard to tell without a lot of tests. David opted out of the hydrocortisone shot, and was determined to figure out what he was allergic to. The monkey he petted for 10 minutes at the swimming pool? The cat at Victor's house? The exotic jungle fruits we were eating (camu camu, maracuya)? But no... we realized that David's symptoms started two days after we started taking Malarone – the medicine to prevent malaria. After researching it, we learned that in extremely rare cases, Malarone can cause a severe allergic reaction with bumps, itching, and swelling. A day after getting off Malarone, David´s condition was cleared up. He switched to another malaria medicine and is doing just fine.

A lot of our work time was spent helping to build a new house on some property outside town that the school will use as a farm and a ranch. We worked alongside Eler, who will live there when it's completed. We hauled a lot of wood, by hand, over a long path to a building site that had been cleared out of the jungle plants and trees. Sore arms and shoulders at the end of several days, but it was rewarding to see the progress of the carpenters as they built Eler's house. And how in the world can Eler carry twice as much wood as us when he weighs less than us???




Going to the market with the cook to shop for food was one of the most interesting side trips. The market spans multiple blocks with crowded stalls vying for prime real estate. Stall owners calling out their products and prices. Fresh fish or meat butchered on the spot (not for the squeamish), aisles of fruits and vegetables, many unrecognizable to the typical supermarket shopper. Spices and sauces mixed with the quick hands and practiced measurements of merchants who spend most of their days here. Motor taxis jockeying for position trying to negotiate the streets along with pigs and oxen. The variety of sights, sounds, and smells were dizzying. It was a fantastic experience. I don't understand why the merchants wouldn't take my Safeway Club card for discounts.



We want to give special thanks to Sergio, our cook for the week. Sergio served us delicious (sabroso!) meals every day and never served the same meal twice, in between cooking for the kids at the school. Up at 4am each morning, he always greeted us with a smile and with some new food or drink we´d never had before (for example: camu camu juice or papa relleno - fried mashed potatoes stuffed with beef, onion, and hard boiled egg). I think we all gained a few pounds with Sergio as our personal chef. We were willing to try most anything he put in front of us... except the time he wanted us to put string cheese in coffee. Despite that one exception, Sergio is a kucinero maestro.

Our other side excursion was a day trip to La Jungle, an unabashed tourist spot with a "zoo" of exotic animals. We all got our "must have" photo with a live Anaconda (it is domesticated, right???) and got to see a preview of the wildlife we hoped to see in the Amazon. For lunch, we ate boa snake, alligator, and wild boar. All three were surprisingly tasty. And yes, fried alligator does taste like chicken.


After 10 days, it´s time for us to leave. We’re flying to the Amazon port city of Iquitos (the largest city in the world not accessible by road – only boat or plane) to meet a man who would gave us great travel advice and the best French Toast we've ever eaten...

- Steve