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| Me and the other Resident Naturalists on christmas eve from left to right:Hannah, Jo , Me and Tris |
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| Explorers Inn Staff, guides and RNs |
Christmasday was a beautifully sunny day 29 degrees Celcius i remember thinging I have never had a christmas this hot and back to civilisation Puerto Maldonardo where the girls and I were treated to a christmas dinner at a friends house who also guides at the lodge which included a humungus slab of turkey and potatoes accompanied by cocona and chilli sauce the best i have ever had. Cocona is similar looking to a tomatoe but its taste is very different and is used as a popular juice. with the beers flowing (naturally Cusqueña its the beer of peru) we met with other friends and introduced them to English drinking games. went down a storm espcially on the bus, with everybody happy and very merry we headed to the main square where there was a big party with live music and people dancing it was a brilliant way to spend my first christmas away from home.
Newyear was a similar experience again I ventured to Puerto Maldonardo with a good friend and guide at the lodge Jorge who kindly let me celebrate the new year with him and his family. He has a massive family with lots of brothrs and sisters, cousins nephews and nieces it reminded me of new years at my nans with all my cousins aunties and uncles who would be there which was a realy lovely to be around especially at that time of year as his family was very warm and welcoming to this little blonde white girl in there house. Here in Puerto they have a tradition that on the strike of midnight they set fire to what I would discribe essentially as a scarecrow figure who represent a figure of authority eg a major or president and depending on how many people set fire to you determines how popular you are and in a crazy way the more people burn you the popular you are. After recovering in puerto for a couple of days it was time to head back to the jungle. once back at the lodge i started to feel a bit weird i thorght i might be getting my first tropical disease, without dinner I went straight to bed at 7 oclock and barely comeing to till about 10 o clock that evening where scampared down from my bunk bed rushed out side where i proceeded to projectile vomit everywhere on and off for a couple hours. lovley start to the year. Concluding that it was only food poisoning after experiencing it for the first time only 4 months before. therefore thankfully I was right as rain the next morning.
January/Feburary High Lights
So the new year begins and that means so does work monitoring projects to complete and research todo however apart from this Janurary at the lodge saw some lovely visiters a couple particularly come to mind. firstly a lovley woman called Vivviana. let me paint a picture she is a british woman traveling alone and must have been in her early 70s she had the best british accent i have ever heard she prounounced all her words how they are suposed to sound and used such exciting discriptives in the most mundane of conversations, she has a wild and crazy side with a hippy edge and told the cutest of stories one of my favorites being of a story about a cat named bob. She is an artist and came to the jungle to get inspiration for her work. She stayed for 7 days which is unusual long stay for visiters her who normallay stay for an average of 3 nights. during her stay I think its fair to say everybody fell in love with Vivianna and we were all sad to see her leave, her charm and spirt to enjoy every moment of life i will always remember.
A film crew came and stayed at the lodge they were a bunch of nutters and brought alot of soul to the lodge for the few nights they were here. they were film some survival documentary type thing that is to be shown on the discovery channel in may, for the life of me i cant remember what its called however it was exciting to meet these people who were hard working and we all enjoyed a beer together on there last night of filming.
below are the links to the December and January newsletter that the RNs put togethr every months i hope the links works there a fun read and gives you more of an insight to whats happening around the lodge and in the jungle.
Really good Becca, loved the the "Welly Boot" and "Storm" articles. Keep up the good work.
ResponderEliminarLove Dad XxX