Hey guys,
It's been a while since we've last blogged, but better late than never!
It's just Caitlin writing today, Cora's off translating for some friends who are taking a bus to Bolivia next week. Since we last posted, I've had some fun adventures!!! On Saturday morning I got back from the Amazon Jungle where I'd spent Monday to Friday as a volunteer at the Atalaya Reserve. It was my first time in the jungle, and despite some of my other housemates opinions, I loved it. I went with 5 others from La Florida (our house), but they decided to go on a 3 day tour where as I chose to stay on the reserve and do conservation work. As it was, everyone from the reserve except for four other volunteers either went on the same tour as my friends or on another longer tour, so I had a nice quiet 3 days in the jungle. Our routine each day was to wake up around 7ish make your own breakfast of eggs and toast or cereal, and then we had about an hour of relaxing while we waited for our 72 year old guide Mario, a part owner of the land, who knew literally everything there was to know about the jungle. Once he arrived, we would head out to wherever we would be clearing, wearing gum boots and with our machetes in hand! The plot of land we were working on used to be a bamboo plantation, so there was bamboo all over the place killing the native trees and other wild plants. Our job was to clear it in order to plant trees that would grow to support a variety of jungle wildlife. We usually worked for about two and a half hours, leaving around 9am and getting back to the bungalow around 11:30. Then we'd change into our bathing suits and go up to a little waterfall, about a 10 minute walk, where'd we'd get to cool off and clean up after sweating all morning. Then we had the whole afternoon to ourselves to play cards, take a nap, or sit around and chat. It got dark around 5:45, and since there was no electricity on the reserve, we'd eat dinner by candle light and pretty much be go to bed around 7:30 with nothing else to do. All in all it was an amazing experience, I am considering going back to spend another week! Although I could have done without walking in the rain to catch the 9 hour bus back to Cusco, but I guess that's why they call it the Rainforest!!
Now back to life in Cusco, its starting to rain a lot more here as we're entering the rainy season, but its still very reasonable weather as it only rains about an hour out of the day! Cora had a calm week while I was gone, only having to go to our project 3 days because the kids weren't there Thursday or Friday. She got to know some of the new housemates better, and became the translator for everyone when they went out!
Cora and I went to our volunteer placement today, it was only my 3rd day going since in Cusco, and for once I got to see what class is like on a normal day. The other two days ending up being fiascos because the first day they had a party, and the second we went on a field trip to the Circus! It was nice to see what it is normally like, and I enjoyed it a lot helping out in the classroom.
We celebrated a housemates birthday yesterday, and are now anticipating my 18th b-day on Friday!
Cora and I both love it in Cusco and are still exploring all it has to offer! We're trying out a yoga class later tonight, we continue to find cool new cheap places to shop, and are loving how cheap good food is here!!!
It's been a good week for both Cora and I and we will update you soon on more of our adventures and everything we're doing!!!
Caitlin