FIMRC does Jungle Book

So on the first real day of our program we had a great FIMRC group bonding session where we read a blog entry from a former FIMRCer about the jungle near La Merced.  Honestly, it was one of the funniest things I’ve ever read in my entire life, and you could have heard our roaring laughter blocks upon blocks away.  Every sentence was a metaphor to how breathtaking Mother Nature was and it was pure hilarity.  That night everyone agreed that we had to go to this mystical jungle as soon as possible and create a "Jungle Book" experience of our own, despite the fact that the Jungle Book took place in Asia.

And this weekend has certainly been an adventure!  We left early Saturday morning for the town of La Merced, about 4 hours north of Huancayo.  It was an absolutely incredible drive filled with quotes from that awful blog entry.  Watching the terrain switch from the rather arid mountains in the central highlands to farmland to gorgeous green jungle was unbelievable. The tight switchbacks up and down the Andes were crazy!  Our driver, Henri, is so talented at navigating the tight passes. 

By the time we got to La Merced, it was time for our first hike.  We hiked on a path through la selva that crisscrossed over various creeks and rivers and ended at a 45 foot tall waterfall.  While the altitude of La Merced was much lower than that of Huancayo, it was at least 85 degrees and SO HUMID, which made it pretty hard to breathe once you were winded.  Once we arrived at the waterfall the mist was so refreshing, after all it was about a 2 mile hike that was predominantly uphill.  We didn't swim in it since we were going someplace that was safe to swim the following day.  

Afterwards we headed to lunch at a "traditional" peruvian restaurant.  I decided to cross something off my bucket-list by eating something that was completely foreign to me, zamaño.  Apparently it is like a overgrown speckled jungle guinea pig (guinea pig, cuy, is a delicacy in Peru) and it was incredibly tasty, similar to a more gamier tasting pork.  Once we cleaned our plates we headed to the "indigenous" village of Pampa Michi.  At first we were really excited when we were greeted by women and children in traditional garb who then dressed us up to match them.  That's right, a bunch of gringos wearing geometric patterned tunics, diagonal beaded belts made of seeds, headbands with feathers and face paint... don't worry there are pictures.  They told us a brief history of their people, and danced with us and it became rather clear that this was a tourist trap.  Thank you P-CEP history department for sharpening my skill of sniffing out historically inaccurate BS, because this place kind of wreaked of it.  Honestly, we were all pretty stoked to get the heck out of there.

Nothing cures a weary gringo like organically-grown, fair-trade coffee, and luckily our dearest Henri knew that, and we were off to a coffee wholesaler.  Feeling wide awake after several free coffee and gelato samples we were off to our hostel in La Merced.  Starving we finally found a restaurant and I ordered my first pisco sour and last (Disclaimer:  The drinking age in Peru is 18, so I am legal).  The pisco sour is the national drink of Peru and consists of Pisco (a distilled grape liquer), egg whites, lime juice, sugar and cinnamon, and I found it rather gross.  And that wasn't the only thing that was a bit funky about that night. To put it simply, the town of La Merced is a rather weird place.  After much deliberation, the best comparison I can think of is to the UP (Upper Peninsula to all you non-Michiganders), the place is physically gorgeous, but the residents are really bizarre.  

Early this morning we were off to another hour north of La Merced to another set of waterfalls in the jungle, and we beat all the other tourists.  The first waterfall we went to was called "The Bride's Veil" and we had to hike about 25 minutes down super steep paths and rock stairways, but it was so worth it.  After schlepping ourselves back up the steep pathways we continued hiking another 20 minutes up the mountain to a series of waterfalls and natural mineral pools that were safe to swim in.  We were all so hot and sweaty by the time that we reached the highest mineral pool that we stripped down to our swimsuits and jumped into the water.  The water was so clear and invigorating.  We all took turns standing under the waterfalls and in the words of that hilariously flowery blog "had a massage from mother nature."  After having a taste of one mineral pool we had to try them all.  We hiked down to the middle one and after the advice from Henri who had been to this area several times climbed about 8 feet high to a jumping point and cannonballed (another verb I'm making up, I know) into the deep area of the pool.  Again, don't worry, there were no scratches, bruises, scrapes, or injuries, but there are pictures :).  We rounded out the natural mineral pool hoping by taking a quick dip in the lowest pool and hiking back down to the van.  The entire time you couldn't pay me to wipe the cheesy smile off my face, it was possibly one of the best mornings of my life.  On the way out of the jungle we had a quick lunch in La Merced and napped practically the entire 4 hours back to Huancayo.  

Now it's back to the grunt work of designing lesson plans for the kids at the HIV shelter for tomorrow!  But one thing is for sure, we are all going to sleep like babies tonight.