Pressing on

As was mentioned before, I was traveling for Peruvian Independence Day. I went to the coast to a VERY touristy town. While there are much more interesting places to visit in Peru, it was a fun week. Also, I probably had the best meal that I have had in Peru there. Something to the tune of a 20 ounce steak. It was amazing.

Several of my friends here in Peru are volunteers from Germany. They are very interesting as I get to learn about Germany and still speak Spanish (it is also fun to listen to Spanish with a German accent). Not to mention that they are just cool people. As they only serve for one year, they were getting ready to head back to German, but not before on last vacation to the jungle. As I will not be visiting Germany in the near future to visit, I decided to go along.

We went to Iquitos then took a three day tour through the rainforest. We saw a lot of wildlife, caught piranhas, ate the piranhas, swam in the Amazon River, and a lot of other interesting jungle activities. In the end it was a trip to remember. Here are some photos:

Learning how to get water from natural plant life if we ever get lost in the jungle :-o

Paddling our canoe down the river

Learning how to prepare the piranhas

Heading back to Iquitos after a fun three days

Again I am excited to be back in my site and get back to my projects. We have worked very hard to get things going and I am glad to be back and see our projects implemented.

One other point to note: as of the 22nd of August, I will have been a sworn-in volunteer for one full year (this does not count the 11 weeks of training at the beginning). Quite a milestone.

I hope you are all well. I think about you often.

until next time,

tim.