Jungle Expedition #1

This weekend the medical group that was here went on an excursion to the jungle. We took the "Big Boat" up the Amazon to get a taste of the jungle. This was the first time I got to go out on the Amazon. Our first stop was "Tommy Shack", a small village that use to be run by nuns that took care of orphaned girls. Then the army came in to the town, partly to protect it from kidnappers. Then this village turned into another normal village.



Here our boat is landing at "Tommy Shackle." We stopped here for 30 minutes to get some drinks and walk through a local bread factory. It was relaxing.

This boy was kind enough to let me take a photo of him and his Christmas chicken. That chicken was nice and big.

A shot from where we stayed Sabbath night. We took a walk in the jungle and viewed some interesting trees and birds. Everyone was eager for it to end though because of the savage mosquitos. That night we got in the smaller "Speed Boat" to look for aligators. We found a nice 5 foot one along the shore - apparently this was a rare find. The boat captain got a noose around the gators nose and tried to catch it. He didn't though. That thing whisked away the moment she realized something was going on. We did catch a little baby gator later.

On Sunday we visited the Bora tribe. These people were brought here from Columbia several generations ago to work for wealthy oil barrons or was it during the rubber boom? Anyway, they have their own dialect and live a short distance from Iquitos. Most of the tribe is SDA now. Today they make most of their livelyhood from showing visitors their native dress and dances and selling their different handy crafts.

After visiting the Bora tribe we stopped at an animal petting zoo. Okay, holding a snake isn't really fun, but a hissing snake that is coiling itself around your neck - well just look at the picture. I must say I backed away from this ugly dude.

That silly monkey sat on me like that through the whole exhibit. A friendly lad indeed. At the end I bent down to let a little girl take the monkey off of me. She did, by pulling that grasping monkey with all her might. FYI, we have a monkey that looks just like this at our home base, but it isn't nearly as nice.

The harbors along the coast of Iquitos, Peru.

Christmas Dinner - an Update

Things are looking great. The chickens are full of life and growing at their appropriate pace. These first few days are pivotal in making sure that the chicks are on schedule to becoming large chickens. Raul has been doing an excellent job at making sure that the chickens are getting the right amount of light, heat, food, water, vitamins, and medicines.

This ends my quick update.

Confined in Paradise

WARNING: Images contained in this Blog posting could be disturbing. The publishers encourage user discretion.

Sunday we went out to the farm to check things out. Boy was it nice! Lots of fresh pineapple, ripe lemons, and a few other fruits that were foreign to my palate. It was like a piece of paradise minus the white beach.

Even this piece of heaven was contaminated though. Chiggers! At the time I wasn't aware of these little bugs that had started digging into my skin, but a few days later it was obvious, as the picture below attests.

That morning before heading out to the farm I was already not in the best shape. My head was a little achy and I was feeling pretty tired. Unfortunately this would not be the first time I'd feel this way. I took comfort in the fact that I had been taking my malaria pills faithfully. When Sunday night fell, I found myself aching, so I decided to hit the cot a couple hours early. I didn't have the energy to notice the itching sensation that was starting to form around my ankles.

Today I found myself waking up a couple hours late...again. I went to bed a couple hours early last night. I've found myself submersed in a different kind of paradise.