Chasing Waterfalls

I’m sorry I haven’t been able to update this thing for a while. I’ve been uber busy this whole month. I wasn’t able to find time to post the other blog entry I had for 3 weeks ago, so I guess you guys get two for the price of one. Ok so two weeks ago, WATSAN volunteers, a couple youth development volunteers, and I attended our Project Design workshop with our community partners. The workshop was 3 days and it was a great opportunity to work with someone from our site on a future project. It gave our partners a chance to meet our co-workers, and see how Peace Corps works at designing sustainable projects. The workshop was very useful on training people the process from beginning to end on preparing a project and will also be useful if we have to make proposals for funding, just in case our sites can’t fit the bill to fulfill what is needed.

After those three days, and passing a day in Lima, I returned to site for several days to take care of things at site before I went on vacation for Semana Santa. The trip was really fun, and gave us who live in the coast of Peru a chance to see the sierra of Lima, and the central jungle of Peru. The trip was a bit special since we also found out that we were the first group of volunteers who ever went to this part of Peru. The trip started with 5 of us heading to Yaoyos (sierra of Lima) on a bus at 7PM to meet another Peru 12 PCVand after 15 hours of travelling, finally getting to the jungle at 2 AM the next day. In one big swoop, we travelled from 100 meters of elevation to 4800 meters, and back down to 3500 meters in Huancayo, and a lot lower to the central selva.

Huancayo is a city of four hundred thousand people, and is also the department capital of Junin. It is known for having a great Semana Santa celebration. For a capital, it is a lot more tranquilo than the cities in the coast. I still get surprised about how you can really see the differences between how people live in Peru due to their geographical differences. People in the sierra are quiet, and a bit more standoffish while people on the coast are louder, and open.
Anyway we joined up with 3 other volunteers there, and after a bite for lunch and dinner, we were on our way down the hill to get to San Ramon. San Ramon is this laid back jungle town that is surrounded by a river and hills of pure greenery. This is region is also known for their coffee since the majority of Peru’s coffee is produced and cultivated here.

San Ramon reminded me a lot of Hawaii, especially the Windward side of Oahu. The jungle trip was basically spent relaxing, going on hikes to see some waterfalls, lathering of bug spray, and buying coffee and marmalade. It was great to be able to spend Holy Week with my new makeshift family. Although nothing about Peace Corps is normal, being able to see something new with other PCV’s, especially another part of this beautiful country, is something I will always remember.
Living in the coast where it is pure desert, you appreciate the color green. The central selva was so lush and alive, it was great to be in rain, and get to see this part of Peru. I was almost moved to tears on a hike where I just observed the volunteers in front of this waterfall, and the joy in their faces they had seeing this stream of water cascade down the cliff being surrounded by so much life…

Pure jubilation, which reminded me why Easter is such a great holiday.

Here are some links to some pics over the past month...enjoy!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2113140&id=19510535&l=da8bfbd90b

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2114634&id=19510535&l=f3e5815119

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2116467&id=19510535&l=c1744f119a

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2116463&id=19510535&l=325ce9d204