more pictures for your viewing pleasure!

Hello again!

Things are still going well in this beautiful community I live in. M and I have made some new friends, two sets of couples and another guy, all who are really cool people. It's been fun to meet and hang out with them.

Classes are still going well, I have a math test on Monday and then a speech due on the next day, so this upcoming weekend will be spent mostly working. I'm doing my speech on Rachel Carson; if you haven't heard of her, you should check her out, she was a pretty cool woman.

I've been loving the radio up here; back in TX most of the radio stations were run by the corporate conglomerate that is ClearChannel. All of their stations suck. There's mostly independent run radio stations up here, and I love them all. KHSU is HSU's radio, they play lots of NPR, which I love! I listen to Democracy Now, PRI's The World, and Morning Edition. I do miss All Things Considered, which they played on public radio in TX, but do not broadcast here. KHSU also has a lot of really cool programs; an eastern music program, a reggae program, a couple different folk programs, and they run a 30 minute segment every day that is all about news on the North Coast. It's nice to have a diverse radio to listen to.

Ike blew through Texas, causing a lot of damage. My mom and sister evacuated to College Station, and they are back home now, though without electricity and hot water. All their animals are fine. My dad, however, stayed in his apartment complex to weather out the storm, and fared worse. He is okay, but the roof of his apartment building blew off, causing his entire apartment to flood. I don't think he had renter's insurance, but he may be able to get some funds through FEMA. He's staying with a friend right now, and they don't have electricity either. I haven't talked to him yet, but my mom has; he's been using his friends' cell phone to call her. I'm really glad that he's ok, things could have been a lot worse.

More pictures! These are from Cusco and a few more from our second trip to Blue Morpho.

This is San Blas, a view from the neighborhood our hostel was in.


About a block up from our hostel, there was this park that had a great view of the city.


This is a picture from when we went to the Temple of the Moon in Pisac.


A different view from the Temple of the Moon.


The ruins of Ollantaytambo in the town of the same name.


Some of the ingenious Incan-built irrigation system, running through the market at Ollantaytambo. This is partly what inspired me to go into hydrology.


A beautiful mountaintop in the Sacred Valley. The Incans thought that the mountains were gods.


Saqsayhuaman, an old Incan fortress.


A wonderful view of Cusco from Saqsayhuaman.


We took a 3 hour train ride to go to the town of Aguas Calientes, the town that serves Maccu Picchu.


We had front row seats for the whole ride there!


The whole way to Aguas Calientes, the train followed next to this beautiful river. I got sooo many pictures because I loved it so much.


The hot springs at Aguas Calientes. The water is filled with minerals that are good for your skin and body.


Daybreak at Maccu Picchu.


A view of Maccu Picchu later in the day, when it got a little cloudy.


We saw a herd of wandering alpacas! This baby was so cute!


Our day at Maccu Picchu was cut a little short, because it started to drizzle. This alpaca had the right idea, and got under some shelter.


We got back to San Blas, and stayed in a pretty nice hostel. This is the view from our window.


This was outside on our porch at the hostel. I love this picture.


I had to take a picture of this delivery truck. For some reason, it made me really happy. :-)


The people of Cusco were preparing for Inti Raymi, The Festival of the Sun. We were in Cusco the week before so we got to see everyone practicing, but we missed the main event. :-(


Back to my second home, the jungle! This is Pedro, the leopard at the Butterfly Farm.


Ah, Blue Morpho. I miss it there. Here are the apprentices blessing the pots.


We spent a lot of time at the lake. Mud baths for everyone!!!


Well, that's it for now. In the next post, pictures of Humboldt, our house, and my school, and of course, more about the life of me. :-)

I hope you all are having a wonderful day. Happy trails!

Hello everyone!

Well I am finally getting around to posting some pictures and updating you all on how things are going. Class started on the 25th and I've been really enjoying it. I'm not enjoying the 45 minute commute, but I am setting a carpool up with a friend so hopefully that will work out well. :-)

The class I am enjoying the most is my pottery wheel ceramics class. I like to think that I'm getting pretty good at it at a fast rate. I currently have 5 cylinders that I've been working on. I think I may recycle 3 of them back into clay, because they aren't as good as they could be. My psychology class is good too, the professor is a smart lady and her lectures are really fun, but kind of erratic, which makes taking notes difficult. My algebra teacher is really cool, he's this older guy with glasses and a big white beard. He is really really excited about math and he loves explaining the theory behind what we're learning. The other day he drew a diagram of a Les Paul guitar connected to the foot pedals, connected to the amp, and explained to us how this relates to functions (which is what we're doing). After he was done relating to us, he said, "God, I love functions" and continued on with the class. :-) I enjoy being there.

My public speaking class is... meh. I know that public speaking is one of the most if not the most useful tools one can have in their life, and I do want to be good at it, but like most people I suffer from stage fright and in my speeches so far I talk with too many "ums" in my speeches. I will have to work on that.

My homework load is alright for the moment, but it's getting heavier. I have to start researching for a major speech, read a chapter and do a take home quiz in psychology, and do two sections of homework in math, all before Tuesday (some of it due Monday). I also have to spend 3 extra hours a week in the ceramics studio, working on projects. I like doing all the work though, I'm not one to complain about getting an education. :-)

Life at home is good too. M and I are enjoying our house and enjoying spending time outside while the weather is good. We ride bikes, go to the beach, take walks, play in the creek behind our house, and work in the garden whenever possible. There is a kitty here that came with the house; our landlords said that we didn't have to pay a pet deposit if we take care of their three kitties. One of them is named Frances, a big maine coon type cat, and she is sooo sweet. She comes inside a lot and likes to cuddle with us while we watch movies or play video games. She also enjoys milk, cream cheese, and bread, so I'm always spoiling her with treats. The other two kitties are kind of feral, they don't like to come around people.

There are lots of things to do up here in Humboldt. We just got back from a rock and gem show in Ferndale, which was really awesome. We got to talk to a lot of cool people and came back with some pretty things. Tommorrow there is this event called Woofstock, which is a big outdoor party with music that people are encouraged to bring their pets to. It is run by a couple local animal shelters and all the proceeds go to helping animals in need. We are going to go and meet up with a friend there tomorrow.

Ok, that was really long, I know, so here is the part you have all been waiting for: pictures of Peru!

This first picture is of a boat that we took out of Bellavista, a neighborhood of Iquitos, to get to the Snake Farm and the Butterfly Farm.


This picture is of the Snake Farm, rising up out of the Amazon River. There we saw anacondas, birds, alligators, jungle mammals, monkeys, turtles, jungle fowl, along with their pet dog.


This picture is us driving in and taking a picture of a motocarro, the main mode of transportation in Iquitos.


This is the view of the neighborhood of Belen, where the main market is located.


Here is a lady in the market selling fruit, I forgot what it was called. The fruit was actually kind of salty but it was very rich and tasty. Also very good for you too, we found out later that one of these little fruits has like 20x the amount of vitamin C that an orange has.


This is one of the booths in the medicine section of the market. A lot of Iquitenans and Peruvians get their medicine from here, rather than a place that sells western medicine.


This is Hamilton, one of the shamans at Blue Morpho, telling us about the chacruna plant, one of the main ingredients in ayahuasca.


This is everything that went into the aya, minus the chacruna leaves. They all have their own specific names and purposes, but I have forgotten most of them.


One one of our many jungle walks; a bug with fungi growing out of it.


On our jungle walks, they would go over a little bit about jungle survival, and these little ants are high in protein and they taste like lemons. I tried one and I have to admit it was good!


I need a new place to host my images, photobucket is dreadfully slow and this is taking forever. Anyone know of a good picture uploader? Now I have to wait a couple minutes for more images to load... but you don't!

At Blue Morpho, we took a riverboat ride, and cast off of a beach that was a few miles away from camp.


A house along the river.


This is not so much of a problem in Iquitos anymore, but apparently it once was...


They have all these little Catholic shrines all over the place. Ahí tienes a tu madre...


A restaurant overlooking the Nanay River.


I tried to make some of these pictures bigger but with the way I have my blog laid out, it cut off a section of the picture. I will mess around with it and see if I can change the layout to allow bigger pictures. Okay, well that is it for now. Uploading all these images takes a lot of time and I need to find a faster way to do it. Coming up sometime soon, pictures from Cusco and then more pictures from the Amazon, with an update in the life of me. :-) Aaand after that, pictures of our house and life up here in NorCal!

I hope you all are doing well!

Love,
E