PSA: Family & friends! Please, - I repeat - PLEASE do not send mail to my address in Peru, especially through the U.S. Postal Service! When my packages and letters arrive to Lima, my mail goes through a company called Serpost, which is the public equivalent to USPS. I have yet to receive any of my mail for weeks, and I was enlightened with some new information this week that this postal service is having some major technical difficulties! For months now, Serpost has been experiencing an indefinite strike... Thus, their mail generation has reduced to a literal trickle, and I am unsure if I will get anything that you have tried to send me. I apologize for not knowing this sooner, and truly wish that someone had informed me, as well. I plan to change my address to that of my advisers in hope that they will receive it sometime soon, but I can't be sure. For future reference, if you choose to send anything internationally, it is worth the extra money to use FedEx or any other - key word - traceable international mail service. USPS and Serpost both fail to do so, and they are the suckiest of all sucks! Also, my host family is planning to make a move, so that only further complicates my wonderful mail situation. (cue evil laugh) OK, enough of that - end rant... :) You live and you learn.
Warning: I tried to make this one short, but... I can't. Feel free to split it up between days/weeks/a year from now, I won't be mad.
Flash back to the fourth week (31st - 6th)... Mid-terms were demanding and difficult, but I made it out alive and with "decent" grades. I say decent because you have to slave over your studies in order to get the "A" around here and it is actually entirely impossible to get a 20, the equivalent of 100%. You just don't. I need to be fluent in Spanish already to garner a 20, enough said. On my walk home from my tests that day, however, I did notice a man riding a bike with a trailer attached to it. He would get off at every corner and lightly touch the trash bags placed on the sides of the street. I stopped for a moment to watch him and allow him to catch up with me. In doing so I discovered that he was collecting recyclables... his trailer was half full of plastics, glass, metals, etc. This warmed my heart and I shared a big smile with him. He probably thought, "Why is la gringa cheesin' at me?" Whatever the case, it felt good to see someone taking the time to benefit himself and others just as I try to do. I, too, find myself sneaking around the house in the morning collecting the plastic & glass bottles my host family leaves around. They definitely think that I'm weird for that, but I could care less. Well, actually, I care too much. I once asked why Peruvians don't recycle and my response was, "We're not like the United States." OK then...
I have hope; there is someone that cares about the environment here. After a frustrating afternoon of bouncing back and forth from post office to post office, I hitched a solo ride back to home base and ended up with the most friendly taxi driver I have yet to come across so far. We conversed totally in Spanish about everything from politics to music to... wait for it. I was surprised that I could understand everything he was saying, AND was able to respond rather quickly. At that time, I felt confident. I failed to get his name (I'm terrible with names, anyway), but I did receive some noteworthy advice on places to go while in Peru. Miraflores has the best food, you gotta try panchamanca, yadda yadda... Much to my surprise, he said, "I don't like to spend much time in the city, I'd rather be in the forest." HEY! My kind of person! Without me even saying I loved plants and animals first, my path crossed with a fellow lover of all things natural. Leave it to a random stranger to give me the time of day and be nice to me. Something I remind myself to be of daily thanks to my Papa...
A quick ode to Charlotte. Yes... I named the Spiny Orb Weaver - Charlotte. The last time I saw her was the 4th of this month. It sounds silly, but I miss her. She was something I looked forward to. Each and every day that I strolled to school, I would stop to check on her. Charlotte's sides resembled the thorns of roses; she was the finest example of extraordinary evolution that my eyes had seen - in spider form, that is. After a spout of construction on the road that she lived nearby, I watched her move from her comfortable, beautiful bush of purple flowers to the ugly electrical wire... and then she was gone. I haven't seen Charlotte for two weeks now. Perhaps she moved just over the fence line, or her web on the wires made her an easier target for predators. If the latter is true, I have faith that whoever took her from me had a severe sore throat. The days before she disappeared from my view, she had her back to me, which is the real way to see the magnificence of this species. I did not have my camera with me on those days, but Google helps capture her resemblance. I don't normally enjoy spiders, but she was my exception. I wondered how old she was and how long she had been inhabiting her spot. There are exceptions to just about everything, after all. :) Here she is... First my photo, then a "borrowed" one. Charlotte was a work of art.
The weekend of the fourth week, I ventured to the mountains with a few members of my host family to check out their place of origin: Huaraz! Mostly, I'm just thankful that I am alive. After eight hours of feeling like I was going to throw up due to crazy driving... #1 being that we ran through a red light and got a ticket going at faster speeds that I have ever driven in my lifetime... #2 we flew around horseshoe u-turns and skid numerous times with the edge of the mountain only meters away... #3 I held on for dear life in the middle seat with a numb toosh (really need some more padding) and fought car-sickness combined with altitude sickness and blaring music. Along the way, we stopped at the first (of two) houses that belonged to my host mother's mama. She had promised me animals and plants, but it was anything but that. The acreage, although agriculture and "farming" was barely present, had been converted into an informal mine some years ago. Apparently that's a problem here - illegal logging and mining. It was pretty sad; the condition of the animals were very poor, which probably bothered me the most. Mountain people are not very nice to their animals... I will stop there. This place was far more contaminated than beautiful, but I did my best to absorb the beauty that happened to span beyond the property. After all, I was among and completely surrounded by a blanket of heavenly clouds. I felt as though I was in a layer of the sky all day (I mean, I kind of was?). From the potato farm, we went on an unexpected climb (picture me now, in a dress and Birkenstocks) up the mountain and I had to save the girls of my host family from slipping down the mountain. The exception, of course, being of my 70 year old host mom. She was born there! Yes - picture this - one of them fell and was sliding down the side of the muddy mountain and I, in my dress and sandals, grabbed a woman three times my size, yelling at her in Spanish, and locked hands with her on the way up AND down. If I let go, she would literally stop moving. Ha! Talk about teaching you how to master your own terrain... :) Oh, and I had the best and freshest chicken noodle soup of my life that day as a reward. Mmm! My soul definitely needed that. The sunset there, although I was unable to capture it, was a breathtaking rainbow.
Potato farm
No toques! (Do not touch!)
Plaza of Huaraz
Streets of Huaraz that led to the garden
What happens when you feed the ducks at lunch...
35 tunnels to the waterfalls!
- Intermission -
Time for the fifth week (7-13th)! Including the most of the fourth week (& week before, too), my main concern and time spent over break was for the GRE. If you don't know what it is - that's OK - you don't want to know; consider yourself lucky! I took it yesterday, and I am SO thankful that it's over... I decided over break that it was in my best interest to put my full attention into experiencing Peru, rather than worry about the future (grad school = goal/dream!). I will digress back into that once I get back to the States, and let me tell you what, I felt a huge weight lifted off of my shoulders after I rerouted the journey a little bit. ZzzzZzzzzz boringgg... Back to Peru!
In between studying my brains out, I laid poolside and walked the streets when I could. This time last week, I went out dancing 'til the wee hours of the morning with a Peruvian friend for a Carnaval fiesta in Barranco. The whole month of February (well, minus Valentine's Day) is dedicated to all things Carnaval/Carnival (whatever you feel). I was thrilled to dance to familiar music and found Claudia laughing at me as I sang along to just about every song. We met up with her friends, followed the band in, and were shoved right up to the front and center! In hardly any time at all, I found myself being pushed through the railing (I guess that's what happens when you are "little"), through the sand castle (yes, sand art), and was doused in literal buckets full of paint and water guns, too, Like Cinderella, I lost a shoe in the process, only to find my shoe (yay!) and come to the surface with eyes, mouth, and ears full of green paint. I am still combing green out of my hair and a week has passed! The first three times I used a cotton swab this week, a rainbow came out. I'm serious... it was very much worth the alien look and tie-dyed shoes. More "borrowed" photos...
I spy... can you find me in the photos?
RIP shoes
Sneak peak into the sixth week:
Come Valentine's Day, I was thinking of all of my loved ones. I love you and you know it! The days pass so quickly no matter where you are in the world; I truly look forward to your genuine embraces again. We've had a couple of earthquakes or tremors recently, but not to worry! It only happens 200+ times every year... :) The first time I woke up to it, I thought someone was breaking in, so I got up to lock the door in my slumbery stupor. Whoops!
The kids (five and ten years old) around here entertained me with a three-part dance/sing competition on Sunday. My spirits were lifted for a while, as I had the hardest time not laughing for the entirety of the production. I was reminded of the neighborhood-wide concerts I used to have in my own back yard when I was that age - I applauded instead of giggling. The five-year old (a usual screaming terror) gifted me a caramel/coffee candy that day, too. The gesture definitely made me smile, but he's still the sweetest when he's asleep.
Back to school this week! A few photos of my gorgeous campus are below. My big exam is over as of yesterday, and I took a nice long stroll along the coast of Miraflores to decompress. I saw several coastal hawks who flew directly (perhaps too close) above me. My camera was jealous when I got back... or something like that. Still working on a species, but with 10,000 Peruvian birds, I will get there eventually!
SPEAKING OF SPECIES! How could I forget?! Late last July, I came across an interesting (interesting to me, anyway, because I didn't know what it was at the time) turtle in the prairies where I was working one afternoon. In doing my own research, I discovered it was the only turtle in Nebraska that I was unaware existed (there are only 9 species of Nebraska turtles FYI) - the Yellow Mud Turtle. He was SO cute; high-tailing his way along a cattle trail while I was radio tracking birds! I picked him up for a moment, took photographs as a record to myself, and let him go on his way. Then I found out that he wasn't supposed to be there (AKA us, the silly humans, didn't know he was in the area prior to me seeing him). After my professor/adviser discovered my photograph in class, we decided to do something about it and let the world know. After several months of run-around and rejection of my photos, we finally found a home for my fabulous photographs last week! You don't know how loud I screamed when I read that e-mail last Friday... & last night I submitted the manuscript to (fingers crossed!) be published in a future edition of Herpetological Review, a quarterly publication that covers articles concerning amphibians and reptiles from all of the world. I got an e-mail back this morning indicating that it should be in the June issue.
My observation is a county record, range extension, and a record for the Platte River valley for the Yellow Mud Turtle. How cool is that? Am I a biologist now? :)
Above all that has happened, I am determined to be happy in Peru; I am doing everything I can to achieve that state of mind. Some aspects are entirely out of my control, but I try not to worry about that part of life. I am finding that I am stronger than I ever knew. I keep reminding myself right now that your love and support is here with me, even when I am feeling sad or alone.
Enjoy your weekend; I will be exploring Paracas!
Chow! - A
Chow! - A
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