Launch forward to Iquitos..

3 days, 3 boats, 3 combi’s, and 2 motor taxis later we finally made to the city within the jungle. Good times..

Market in Yurimaguas..

Pretty darn huge market.. just about to pick up some S/. 1 or 30 cent shotgun shells from the misc items..

See if you can find them..

Making a cocina mejorada even more mejor..

THe primary school had a base and a tube in place, but was still cooking their meals from an open fire in the kitchen.  Only seemed best to have a new cooktop fabricated in Chachapoyas.  Big thanks to masons in town for helping then install it nicely today:

4 tapas or half a tongo of chancaca are melted in water to add sugar to the internal mud mix

Bricks are cut and placed to give enough room for the new metal top.

Broken glass is lined in the bottom to trap heat within the burning chamber.

Internal mud mix is thrown together by hand.. equal portions of clay rich mud, ash, cow dung, sand, the sugar water and a little bit of paper glue.

Mix is tossed inside the burning chamber, sloping upwards toward where the chimney will be.

The top is placed, and Jobo uses cement to seal it down.

Stove is mudded and cemented over, just needs time to dry before we can put the chimney tube back on and start using the thing.

Just needs about 10 – 14 days to dry before it can be tested out.

Gocta Waterfalls, Part Two…

This time with the 9 new Peace Corps volunteers that will be joining the crew in Amazonas department at the end of this month.  We all took the day off to hike the lower section of Gocta Cataratas starting from Cocachimba.  After the couple hour hike we enjoyed swimming in the cold pool below and taking in the magnificent folded rock layers.

One of the many nice days out here in Amazonas.. we do have plenty of bad, rainy days though..

Andrea and Megan from Michigan, who is also working and living in our district of Molinopampa

This being the bottom of the bottom falls. Waters are surprisingly quite rough right underneath the spray.

7 of the 9 new volunteers who will be stationed here in the Amazonas region: Lucas, Tony, Katie, Brad, Madeline, Jacob, and Josh.

Worth visiting here in this part of Peru.. pretty awesomely tall waterfall.

 

 

Welcome to our new house..

A couple weeks ago we moved ourselves and our things down the hill and in with another family.  Filadephio, Marysabel, and Ketin have been very welcoming and we are very thankful for sharing their home with us.  Have a quick look at our new set-up.

Located on the East side of Molinopampa on Jiron Jardines De La Paz, No. 747

Familia Marisabel, Ketin, and Filadephio.. only missing son Jorge Luis who is studying in Lima; real down to earth and generous with their time and space.

Andrea in the kitchen

Office Space

Ketin in the garage.. notice, the Taxi car is named after him

Andrea in our bedroom

Backyard pigs Micha and Monche, one of which will be enjoyed for Christmas next month

Thanks

Water Filter in Casmal..

Located about a 2 1/2 walk from Molinopampa, Casmal is one of those annexes that doesn’t get alot of visitors, nor attention from other folks in the district.  But I have enjoyed making my way up there and visiting the small community.  During my last stop by, I was able to bring by a new ceramic filter for the small school of 11 students.  Sold by Mercantil Interamericana these Filtrons have ‘colloidal silver’ within the ceramic material to kill parasites and bacteria.  It seems worth a try there in the school, because normally the kids are just drinking from the couple of faucets, which if anything like the water quality now in the rest of the district, is pretty poor.  Used the filter as a teaching tool about water quality and personal hygiene and think the kids and teacher enjoyed my visit and will use the device for some time.  Will be going back next month for monitoring, so I sure hope soo..   Thank you greatly Tom and Nanci Pruter for the quick donation a couple months ago to pick this (and another one) up for the school.

Set the filter up in the back of the room. When the kids have break they’ll be able to bring their cups to the device after it has filtered.

Not able to take too many pictures while I was busy teaching the kids, but you can see they are very attentive and happy to have the new filter in their classroom (at the back).

 

Neighbor Reyna can read once again and see her stiches..

Thank you greatly Mom and Dad for bringing those ‘Readers’ here to Peru, our friends over here are very greatful..

Denying a pig of its reproductive rights..

In other words, removing the balls, is not an elegant and clean operation; but rather it’s essential for prepping the pig for slaughter in a couple months.  Basically, the meat around Christmas will taste very much better if it doesn’t contain the gamey flavor that comes from the testosterone.  The pig profiled here at the Gonas-Golac farm had been a good reproducer for about 2 and a half years, but it’s time to move on to using younger males for creating piglets.  The videos of the operation are a bit too much, but a basic outline of the steps seen are below..

Rope around the snout and Julio pulls the front of the pig to the wall.

Wilson the (soltecnisto) or animal vet and brother, washes the sack real well with soap to prepare for the operation.

Injections of Lidocaina or Lidocaine are put in to area to numb away. Won’t really know if enough is used, but typically the pig feels very little.

Hard to believe because next comes the scalpel and little downward cut is made to open things up.

Not too much blood until the cut is made bigger to remove each testicle, the spermatic cord (and blood vessels within, which attach the balls to the body) are tied off like an an umbilical cord and snipped.

Antibiotic powder is rubbed in the empty ball space and shot behind the ears of the pig.

And it is left to rest and contemplate what’s come of its life up to this point.

Other pigs look on in terror.

Colorful Truck Backsides..

All over Peru, and maybe all over South America.  Colorful and like no other in the states.  Been trying to find online more examples of the artwork decorating the back of transport trucks around here, but perhaps will just have to take more photos.  Interesting and nice at times, often with a religious theme or with big bold animals like tigers.

Angels..

Chachapoyan round buildings with cow..

From Mendoza, it’s Jesus..

This driver is looking for direction..