In Peru : )

Wow…sorry it has taken me so long to post but I am FINALLY IN PERU!!! I arrived at my destination around 11:30 Tuesday night. It took 62 hours of traveling in all, but I made it safe and sound. 

When I first arrived I wasn’t able to really look because it was so dark but when I woke up the next morning and stepped outside of my bedroom I was met with one of the most beautiful sunrises I have ever seen. The mountains and landscape are amazing here and the sky just highlights their beauty.

I was surprised by how nice the Sachamama Center is. We have real beds, showers (cold water only though), and even a massage therapist that gives hour long massages for just 5 dollars. The food is equally amazing, all made from fresh, organic ingredients and everyone here is friendly and interested in learning about one another.

My first full day here consisted of getting acclimated and catching up on work I had missed.After morning classes and lunch the afternoon was spent exploring the town of Lamas. The town is really beautiful, but obviously impoverished compared to the US. There are no cars, just moped-carts and most of the roads are dirt, filled with ditches and rocks. Nonetheless, there is a general feeling of friendliness among the locals. Everyone we spoke with was happy and interested in speaking with us.

Yesterday we spent the day at Takiwasi, a treatment center for drug and alcohol addiction. At the center they use an innovative therapeutic model to cure their patients, combining psychological therapy and conventional medicine with traditional medicine of the Amazon. The use of plants from the Amazonian environment is a main point of their treatment, as they claimed they help patients to cleanse their bodies and make life realizations. We spent the day getting a tour of the grounds and the gardens and listening to a presentation by a man who has researched and wrote a book about these alternative medicines. It was all very interesting but we were all exhausted by the time is was time to go.

When I got back to the Sachamama Center we had a small break before dinner and then broke into language classes. I wish I could say the language class was good, but my stomach started to hurt and I could tell something wasn’t settling right. To make a long story short, I got food poisoning and spent all last night and today going back and forth from the bathroom. Feeling better now but my body still feels very weak. The next couple of days aren’t too intense so I am just hoping that I am back to strength for the upcoming immersion where we will be leaving the Sachamama Center to work and live in an indigenous community.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

JFK Airport: 27th Hour.

Still here. No plane at the gate but LAN airline workers claim we should be leaving in the next hour?

JFK Airport: 24th Hour.

We've officially made it past the 24 hour mark. While we are still not positive that we will be flying out tonight, things seem like they are on the upswing. Bathrooms are being cleaned, people are in line to board flights, and we've heard rumors that we are set to board at 10:00.

However...that dreaded flight information board still says otherwise...

JFK Airport: 19th Hour.

Well, we made it back through security and are back at the gate. Our flight's status still reads "indefinitely delayed", but at least we are making progress! We found out that our connection flight from Lima to Tarapoto leaves at 10:05 tomorrow morning so as long as we make it to Lima by then we are in good shape.

On a different note, I was able to find a toothbrush!! I was told that they were all sold out, but I found a little newsstand away from the main shopping/eating area that had one left! I am going to end on that positive note, still keeping my fingers crossed we make it out soon...

JFK Airport: 15th Hour.

Well to say that my adventure has begun would be an understatement, as the past 24 hours have been filled with turmoil and apprehension.  

It all began on Christmas, when the weather forecast reported that a giant storm was set to come in and blanket the Northeast. Everyone knows that snow never equates to good things when traveling, and this was supposed to be a lot of snow. Even though our flight wasn’t scheduled to leave until 10:35 pm, my mom and I decided it was best leave bright and early the next day in order to beat the snow on the drive down. We were able to make it from Mass to New York without a single problem--no traffic, no snow, no car troubles. We seemed to be off to a promising start.

Then our flight dilemmas began.

By the time we arrived in New York, airports were already cancelling flights. Come 3 o’clock, nearly all of the flights out of JFK and surrounding airports had been canceled. E-mails were flooding my inbox from other students on the trip telling of delays and cancellations. Taxi services had shut down and there were blizzard advisories all over the news. However, for some unknown reason, our flight from JFK to Lima remained on-time and scheduled. So, ignoring all of our intuitions about snow and airplanes, my mom, grandma, travel companion, Jennifer, and me packed up our things and started our crazy escapade to the airport.

My mom was literally wonder woman.

Shoveling out our car in the parking lot, navigating through snowy, unplowed roads, pulling over to de-ice the wiper blades, and occasionally running red lights to keep momentum, my mom stopped at nothing to make sure we arrived to our destination. No snow was going to stop her and she was able to do all of these amazing acts with composure (Just throwing it out there, I think she should be on the next season of Survivor).

What should have been a 20 minute drive took over an hour but either way we had finally made it to the airport.

Check-in and security gave no problems, but I didn’t really expect any considering the fact that the airport was completely desolate. When Jenn and I got to our gate met up with some other girls on the trip and settled in; things were actually starting to look up. Around 9:30 I started getting curious about why we hadn’t begun boarding so I took a look at the flight information board and was met with disheartening news. Our flight was delayed until the next morning.

Mom’s words were ringing in my eyes: “if your flight is canceled you are sticking it out there for the night”, which is exactly what we did.

Our flight group was taken to a baggage claim area and told to set up shop for the night. Thanks to Tylenol PM I was able to manage a couple hours of sleep, but they were not exactly the most comfortable. The hard tile, random screaming men, and parades of flight crews kept me on edge and in and out of dreams.  When I finally woke up and took a stroll to the beloved flight information board I was met with more good news, our flight had been “postponed indefinitely”. What this means exactly I am yet to find out. No one I have talked to thus far has been able to provide any concrete answers, other than that we have to wait until the airline officially opens to know when our flight will leave (est. opening time 4 o’clock). 

So, in the mean time we are remaining in our happy little campsite in the corner of Baggage Claim Area #2 and dreaming of the Peruvian landscape will be exploring (hopefully within the next 24 hours!) 

All Ready!

I am finally packed! Managed to fit everything in one small suitcase and a duffel bag, now I just have to make it to Peru! The weather reports are saying it's suppose to snow 6-10 inches tomorrow night so I'm hoping that our flight doesn't get delayed. We are set to depart at 10:45 p.m. so I am keeping my fingers crossed until then.

On a different note, I just checked the weather in Lamas and it is going to be in the 90's all this week. I knew it was suppose to be hot, but I didn't realize it would be this hot! It certainly beats the snow though =)

Well, time to double check everything and make sure I'm all prepared- Hasta luego!

Countdown to Peru...

For those of you reading unfamiliar with my upcoming trip, I will be leaving for Peru in just three days, the day after Christmas. I am traveling with Living Routes, an organization dedicated to study abroad organized around sustainability. Their goal is to bring education to life through experiential coursework, service learning, cultural studies, and immersions. The title of the program I will be engaging in is “Ecology, Community, and Indigenous Spirituality in the High Amazon.” I will be traveling with a group of about twenty students from across the United States and I am so excited to get to know everyone is just a few days!

                My personal journey will begin at the Center Sachmama, a non-profit located on the edge of Lamas, in a town located on the tropical foothills of the Andes (Their website if you want to learn a little more ---> http://www.centrosachamama.org/sachamama_e_in.htm). Here is where we will begin our cultural immersion and learn to disconnect ourselves from the ever-moving world.

                Traveling has always been one of my passions, but the reason that I chose this program was because it offered something different than any other travel abroad group I had seen. Our Journey through the Andean Amazon will provide a firsthand learning opportunity in which we will be living in local communities and living in harmony with their local environment. During our trip we will experience indigenous Quechua principles of culture autonomy and respect of ancient practices that “talk back” to global systems of capitalism and politics, and assess the wisdom of a worldview that values the “other-than-human” living world of plants, animals, and spiritual energies. We will work effectively with one another to contribute to the regeneration of local communities through service learning projects that promote agricultural biodiversity, sustainable environmental action, and right livelihood.

                Over the next few weeks I will be keeping track of my experiences through this blog and share some of my new-found knowledge and insights (electricity permitting, of course). I am hoping that the challenges and encounters I face in the coming weeks will help to build my awareness and understanding of myself, my culture, the Peruvian culture, and the world as a whole.