Day One of Amazingness Completed!

Today was a day that felt like an entire week passed within just 16 or so hours.

After taking a three hour nap from midnight to 3am, our group boarded our last flight from Lima to Pucallpa. A one hour flight that went directly over the Andes Mtns..... Gorgeous! And I was quite proud of myself for actually sitting by the window and looking down at the Andes, since I HATE flying.

After arriving in Pucallpa, we were taken to the Forestra Inn, the hotel we are staying. After a 3 hour nap (we are really good at short naps) our group went to Sacha Mamma (a nearby resort) to have lunch. Today is "San Juan Day" in the jungle and in Cuczo. This holiday celebrates the religious figure of John the Baptist. So in honor this holiday, we ate a meal of rice with chicken and eggs cooked in banana leaves and fried plantains. It was really good.

Then our group was taken on a boat tour of an oxbow lake near Sacha Mamma. This was WONDERFUL to be out on the water and see the villages scattered along the shoreline. We stopped in a Shapibo people, a native tribe of the jungle. A woman in this village is an artist and her pottery is known all over Peru and some of her pottery is displayed in museums in the US and the UK, although she has never traveled outside of Peru in her life. I had the opportunity to make a pot under her instruction, not as talented obviously but it was fun! My own mother, an artist, would be proud.

Our day concluded with dinner out at a pizzaeria in Pucallpa. We are all exhausted after day one, but feeling excited, optomistic, and ready to head into La Merced tomorrow to meet the families in the village. About half of our group members have been to La Merced before and they are anxiously awaiting to see their friends again. I am anxiously awaiting to meet new people and started workin with this community.

Overall, I feel blessed to have this opportunity to travel to the jungle of Peru. I have traveled to many different places, and I am consitantely reminded about how many nice, caring, and gracious people there are in this world. The Peruvians here have proved to be nice, caring, and so very gracious!