Peru trip with Tina!

Alright, are you ready for this?  It’s a long one. . . (yet it still only just barely scratches the surface)

After spending the month of December in California for my home leave from Peace Corps, I traveled to Peru the first two weeks of January with my best friend Tina.  She had finished her 2-year PC service there in October 2013 and had been home for a few months before she planned on going back to volunteer for 2 months at an Amazon animal orphanage/butterfly farm in Iquitos.  I flew back to Nicaragua for one night only on December 30^th, then flew to Lima on New Year’s Eve.  Tina’s flight didn’t get into Lima until early New Year’s Day, so I had to wait for her for 7 hours in the Lima airport, spending New Year’s with a Starbucks chai latte and an $8 People magazine.  It wasn’t fun.  Stupid me I forgot to pack a book!  I tried to sleep but there wasn’t really anywhere except for the floors.  I found the chapel and decided to try sleeping on the bench in there, but never could get comfortable and pretty much stayed awake all night until she arrived at 5am.  Luckily I had packed super light for this trip (only a small backpack and my purse) so I didn’t have a lot to keep an eye on. 

Aji de Gallina and Tacu Tacu con Mariscos

First thing we grabbed a taxi to a PC hostel where all the Peru volunteers usually stay and we took a nap, showered, sent out e-mails to our families that we had made it okay, and stored our stuff during the day while we walked around town.  We met up with our friend Ingrid who used to work for the zoo in Fresno.  She’s a current Peru environment volunteer, and only lives about an hour from the capital, so she came to meet us for lunch.  We also met up with Tina’s various friends who live in Lima, so she got to catch up with people she hadn’t seen in a few months.  We spent most of the afternoon shopping so I could buy some souvenirs from that region.  For dinner Tina and I tried a new restaurant she had never been to, and I got my first real taste of Peruvian cuisine.  We ordered tacutacu con mariscos, which is a fried log of rice and beans mixed with seafood, a very common Peruvian dish.  Plus a plate of ají de gallina, which is a creamy, nutty, yellow pepper sauce over shredded chicken.  They were both so amazingly delicious!  I was in love with the food from day one. 

Huaca de la Luna, Moche ruins, Trujillo

That night we caught a 10-hour overnight bus and headed to the city of Trujillo, where we spent the next full day touring the pre-Incan ruins of the Moche people and culture.  One of the structures had one full side of the 7-tiered temple revealed with all its levels and sculptured facades exposed.  It was crazy to see this structure in person that this ancient culture used to look up at in awe as the priests of their time would sacrifice people to the gods and pour their blood over the side of the wall for all to see.  I also saw my first Peruvian hairless dog in Trujillo.  They are super crazy looking.  They’re solid black and pretty much completely hairless, with dry, flaky skin and only a small tuft of wiry hair on the top of their head.  They also don’t have lower canine teeth (or something like that, don’t quote me on it), so their tongue tends to flop out the side of their mouths. 

Peruvian hairless dog

Night monkey at the Crax Peru Zoo

Fan-headed parrot at the Crax Peru Zoo

Next we headed up to the city of Chiclayo (only a 3 hour bus ride), which is the capital city of the region of Lambayeque, where Tina was posted.  We only spent lunchtime in Chiclayo, again meeting up with some of her volunteer friends that were in the area for the day, and then we headed straight to her site, Las Pampas.  We spent two nights there, meeting with her lovely host family, washing some dirty clothes, and I got to go visit the Crax Peru zoo where Tina worked during her service.  It was really nice to see in person the place where she was having so much trouble trying to improve on things that seem so basic to us animal caretakers with our American eyes.  I can understand how hard it was for her trying to give good advice and helpful suggestions on how to improve so many things the zoo is lacking with a culture that just doesn’t see things like we do.  It’s not as easy as just telling someone that this certain monkey or parrot would have such a better life with some basic, easily-made toys put in their enclosure every day.  Or that putting more branches and perching for animals to climb on and hide behind is a simple as going and cutting down some branches.  There always ends up being some excuse or reason why the local caretaker can’t do it, or doesn’t want to do it.  They claim they don’t have time, or the trees aren’t theirs to cut branches from, or the animal won’t care, or whatever.  Having spent over 2 years living with local Nicaraguan culture and seeing how their general negative mindset is with their own cats and dogs and birds at home, I can completely understand how cultural norms affect any motivation towards change.  So kudos to Tina for sticking with it and doing what she could with her work at the zoo.  She put up some really nice animal information signs on certain cages and started an enrichment collection shelf.  Poco a poco!

With Tina and her host family at her favorite Ceviche restaurant in Olmos

Enjoying the Amazon Jungle view from the boat

Napping on the boat

On our way out of Tina’s site we visited the city of Olmos, 20 minutes away, and had a delicious seafood and ceviche lunch at Tina’s favorite ceviche restaurant, Delicias del Mar, then took a walk around the Olmos market before heading back down to Chiclayo to catch another overnight bus to the city of Tarapoto.  That was a 14-hour bus ride over the Andes Mountains, but luckily I slept the whole time so I didn’t get carsick.  Bummer that I missed the view of the mountains though; you can’t really see them too well at night.  In Tarapoto we stayed one night, just spending the day walking around (more shopping for me) and seeing the sights.  That next morning we took a private taxi to Yurimaguas where we got on a ferry boat that took us up river towards Iquitos, the jungle city of the Amazon.  The ferry left in the late afternoon, but we got on around noon to reserve a cabin so we could safely lock up our bags.  Most people that take the ferry hang up and sleep in hammocks the whole trip, which if you’re heading to Iquitos takes anywhere from 2-4 days, depending on the current.  It took us 2 nights and almost 3 days to get there.  The boat was really nice and relaxing, and even though we had a cabin we still hung up our hammocks (I had bought one in Tarapoto) and napped during the day, or read books, or just admired all the beautiful jungle scenery that slowly passed us by as we headed toward the merging of the rivers that forms the Amazon River.  We also saw pink river dolphins and grey river dolphins during the boat ride.  So cool seeing these animals for the first time ever, and in the wild! Since the boat’s also a cargo boat, it stopped multiple times each day along the way and picked up or dropped off passengers and various cargo, mostly lots of bundles of bananas.  It was interesting to watch each time, and there was almost always a swarm of women boarding just to sell food or illegal wildlife.  The food was mostly fish in various forms, but also roasted grubs and these really yummy crunchy toasted nuts that I loved.  The illegal animals we saw for sale included parrots, tortoises, and some baby squirrel monkeys.  Interesting to see, but sad to know there’s always a market for caught wildlife. 

Woman selling "suri", the toasted grubs, at one of the boat stops

Some fishermen heading out on the river

An Amazon ferry boat similar to the one we were on

Girl trying to sell a baby squirrel monkey

Feeding baby manatees at CREA

Huayrurin, the pink river dolphin at the Quistacocha Zoo

We arrived in Iquitos and spent the last 4 days of our trip there.  The first day we headed straight out and got our animal fix, ‘cause that’s what we do.  We visited this manatee and Amazon animal rescue facility, called CREA, which is partially funded by the Dallas World Aquarium, where they take confiscated and rescued illegal wildlife and raise them to hopefully be released back into the wild.  We got up close and personal with some adorable baby manatees!  It was my first time touching and feeding a manatee, which was so special!  Then we headed to the Quistacocha zoo and had a wonderful visit there.  The first exhibit we came across was the pink river dolphin pool which houses one single male dolphin.  He has lived in that same small pool his entire 9 years of life, which has no filtration system and is a solid green color.  At first I felt really bad for the state of this animal’s life, but as we watched we became more interested.  He was being thrown a bright orange life vest by some visitors (which would so not be allowed in any zoo in the States!), which he would slowly swim over to, play with a bit, then grab in his long toothy beak and toss back outside the pool to the visitors, which would then throw it back in for him.  He seemed to be enjoying his little interactive enrichment session, so we came closer and joined in the fun.  He soaked our clothes splashing and tossing the life vest back out of the water each time, it was so funny!  I thought how odd it was (with my American zookeeping mind) that the public was allowed to interact so closely with this rare and intelligent animal, and actually felt lucky to be in place where that kind of contact isn’t discouraged.  But then I looked around and saw that there was a caretaker there watching and monitoring the whole thing, so then it didn’t feel so wrong.  And lucky for us, we had arrived there just in time, because the caretaker then started a training session with the dolphin (whose name is Huayrurin), and he totally blew us out of the water, figuratively speaking.  The trainer had taught him to jump out of the water and touch a target pole, swim through a hula hoop, retrieve a ball and make a basket with it, retrieve floating rings with his body and snout, toss a large rubber exercise ball into a soccer net, and paint!  Yes, paint!  We even got to take his painting with us afterwards.  We spent some time talking with the trainer and found out she had only been working with him a year, and had taught him all those behaviors in 8 months!  So this was something new for him, finally, some intelligent and fun interaction to keep him busy during the day.  It was also sad to hear how little funding and support the zoo gets, and how the government prevents any money that may be donated just to Huayrurin to be used for him.  Apparently any donations received go into a general zoo fund, so there may never be enough support for this dolphin to get a water filtration system or special attention.  But at least he has this wonderful caretaker that’s with him all day long.  She let us come behind the pool and get a kiss from him.  It was so cool!

The trainer painting with Huayrurin

Getting a dolphin kiss!

Later online I researched these dolphins and found that the Quistacocha Zoo is only one of three current zoos in the world that has the pink river dolphin in captivity.  So rare!  It’s been attempted at various other zoos, including Sea World, and they’reapparantly very hard to successfully maintain in captivity.  They’re much different looking than your typical ocean dolphin, having a chubby body, a dorsal ridge instead of a pointy dorsal fin, a neck that has un-fused vertebrae which allows them to turn their head 90 degrees, small beady eyes that don’t see too well, and a long, toothy beak.  They’re weird!  But now I love them after meeting Huayrurin!  It was such an eye-opening experience to see this animal first in the wilds of the Amazon River, then up close and personal after a really cool training session.  I hope there’s more research done with this species in the future.  There’s so little known about them that there’s no info on their population numbers or their status in the wild.  They’re just guesses and estimates.  Maybe this could be my next project and future career. . .hmmm. . .

Suri grubs

After our super cool time with Huayrurin the pink river dolphin, we headed down to this lakeside beach area the zoo also covers and had lunch.  The lady grilling out front had a variety of fish, but what caught my eye were the skewers of roasted grubs.  Yep!  We bought one and tried them.  It wasn’t bad, really.  They’re kind of nutty and soft on the inside yet crunchy on the outside.  But once you eat most of it you’re left with the chewy outer skin that keeps going and going.  I had to grab my soda and force it down.  Otherwise it was okay.  I ate two. 

Yep, I ate two of them

Three tapirs having a grand ol' time in their pool

After lunch we finished walking around the zoo and saw a pair of leopard cubs on exhibit with their mama, various monkeys, and some crazy tapirs that were swimming and playing in their big muddy pool.  It was hilarious!  There were three of them and they were all so worked up and playful that we took video and watched them for a while until they calmed down.  They were snorting and squeaking and dunking each other under the water.  One kept jumping out, running around like a mad man, and then jumping head first back into the pool.  It was crazy.  So that was a jam-packed animal encounter day we had the pleasure of experiencing. 

Taking a small boat 20 minutes outside Iquitos towards Tina's new place

The next day we took a 20 minute boat ride to the small town of Padre Cocha, where Tina is currently living.  We visited the Pilpintuwasi Butterfly Farm, where she’s volunteering, and took the mandatory tour (meaning visitors aren’t allowed to wander on their own) that the local staff takes visitors on to see the butterfly house and all the various animals they have rescued there.  There’s the RedUakari monkeys, which are critically endangered and only found in that region of the Amazon jungle, as well as a wooly monkey, capuchins, a baby tapir, a young anteater, various macaws, a jaguar named Pedro Bello, an ocelot, toucans, coatis, a manatee and caiman in the lagoon, and some sloths.  It’s a relatively small center, but the owner, a woman originally from Austria, has done a lot of work to keep the place beautiful and running well.  The Red Uakari monkeys roam free in the trees, which is weird and a little unnerving, but they’re used to it and don’t bother the visitors.  The volunteers, like Tina, usually live in the nearby house of a former employee who built a second story on his house just to rent out to volunteers at the center.  It was cool being with Tina during her first visit back as a volunteer.  I helped her move all her bags to her room (this girl does not pack light for a two-month stay; it looked like she was starting her 2-year Peace Corps service all over again!), and got to meet the volunteers that were there at least during the first part of her time being there.  Plus I know exactly what the place looks like and have a much better visual to accompany all her e-mail updates. 

The Amazon animal orphanage where Tina's currently volunteering

The Red Uakari monkeys at Pilpintuwasi

Red Uakari monkey

Wooley monkeys for sale in the market in Iquitos

The last few days in Iquitos we mostly just spent enjoying the city, eating super yummy food, shopping for unique Peruvian keepsakes (I LOVED all the fabrics!), and checking out the local markets and all the bush meat they sell there (we didn’t eat any bush meat, let me be clear about that).  There was a lot of alligator, sea turtle eggs, wooly monkeys, tortoises, peccaries, tapir, and other wild things amongst the chicken and endless varieties of fish.  The monkeys grossed me out the most since they look like little butchered people.  And pretty much any vendor we talked to was happy to tell us what it tasted like and how to prepare the meat.  I guess they don’t get many law enforcers fining them for the illegal bush meat market, unfortunately.  I actually don’t know exactly what the laws are regarding bush meat or illegal hunting, but no one’s secretive about selling it in the markets. 

Alligator for sale in the market in Iquitos

Sea turtle eggs for sale in the market

With Sara, a local woman who hand stitches these beautiful fabrics

Tina left me the last night to take her boat out to Padre Cocha to start her 2 month volunteering stint in the jungle, so I had a few hours to myself in Iquitos before catching a mototaxi out the Iquitos airport.  I enjoyed my last Peruvian dinner alone, which was a delicious roasted fillet of chicken with golden potatoes and fried yucca.  Then I collected my purse, backpack, and sack full of Peruvian souvenirs from the storage closet in the hostel and caught my plane to Lima.  From there it was a short stop in Panama City, and then back to Managua to return back home to my Nica life of my own volunteer stint that’s taking me 3 years to complete.  This Peru trip was so much fun and I couldn’t have enjoyed it more with anyone other than Tina.  She’s a huge motivation in my life and I’m so lucky to have her as my friend!  Hopefully the next chapter in my life can conveniently involve her as well, wherever I end up next (she never misses an opportunity to remind me that us being roommates again is in her agenda).  As for now, I’ve got 8 more months to go in Nicaragua, and I’ve got lots I still want to do.  Stay posted here to hear all about it! 

And don't forget to check out a lot more photos at sarahinnica.shutterfly.com

~Sarah~