Jess, some of the staff, one of the priests, and I went with the kids who'd graduated (from high school/the orphanage) on a graduation trip to Oxapampa, now probably a couple weeks ago. It was SO refreshing to finally get out of the city and see green things. The journey there involved a bumpy 6-hour drive in our convi (a 15-passenger van, which is also the most common form of public transportation here), a stop at 4,828 meters (high enough to freak out our lungs), a couple throw-up stops, and a lot of switchbacks, we arrived in the dark at our destination in the middle of the jungle.
The next day, we woke up to an absolutely stunning view--mist-shrouded, leafy mountains divided by a roaring river. The river's noise had been a lot more soothing to fall asleep to than the normal city-sounds of lonely dogs barking, big trucks, and music. On the way to the actual town of Oxapampa the next day, we stopped at a butterfly garden, full of butterflies and flowers native to the jungle, which was complete with a random zoo behind it. There were a group of banana-eating turtles that lived in the same cage as some alligators (for some reason they live together well).. We then explored Oxapampa, which I realized was the home of the BEST yogurt I've ever eaten, as well as locally-made (and incredibly delicious) honey. We actually bought one store out of their bottles of yogurt, so we asked around and went on a wild goose chase thorugh the mazes of side streets in the convi looking for more yogurt. :)
Father Joe, the Polish priest who'd started our orphanage, also had some land in the outskirts of Oxapampa, where the re used to be another orphanage. Unfortunately, he'd had to close it because of finances, but we were able to take the students up into the hills and see an absolutely incredible stretch of rolling, tree- and flower-covered hills where it used to be located. There's also a home for the elderly that Fr. Joe started which is still in use--it was great seeing hte kids interact with the people there for awhile and explore their wonderful garden. On our return trip, we decided to go to Lima a different way so we could stop at "Bosques de Piedras" (Rock Forest--if you know me, you can imagine how excited I was to wander among fields and fields and fields of HUGE boulders with a bunch of kids!!) After an hour-long hike, we piled back in our little convi and continued on our merry way, until we happened to see tiny patches of snow through the windows. The kids went absolutely crazy, because they'd never seen snow before in their lives, and finally we pulled over after cries of "NIEVE NIEVE NIEVE NIEVEEEEE!!!" (SNOW!!!) and begging Fr. Sebastian to stop the convi. It was such an unforgettable moment to see a group of 17- and 18-year olds trample each other out of the convi screaming to a few tiny piles of snow and throw the first snowballs of their lives! (A picture of this will hopefully follow soon!) The rest of the ride back to Lima was supposed to take about 6 or 7 hours, but mysteriously ended up taking over 10 hours because of broken and sometimes non-existent roads. All in all, it was great.. and exciting :)
The dog from the air (courtesy of Wikipedia) :)A few days later, a few of the staff (plus me) went to Paracas and Nazca, which are areas about 5 hours to the south of Lima. The highlight of here (other than dune-buggying, where my camera decided it'd had enough of life and broke on me, and a boat ride in the ocean through a beautiful national reserve) is the famous Nazca lines, a serious of giant, mysterious drawings in the ground. They're believed to have been created between 400 and 650AD and include pictures of a monkey, a dog, a hummingbird, a pair of hands, and more. Because the lines are so big, however, they can only be seen from the air. So this meant going up in the tiniest airplane I've ever been in (4 passengers!!) Compared to what I'm used to flying in, this plane shook so much I thought we were going to drop out of the sky any second. Needless to say, even though I love being up really high, my hands were sweaty enough during the whole flight for me to realize I prefer hanging from something I trust, like a rope or a parachute. And speaking of parachutes, that's a story for another day. ;)
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