I'm Back!

So, I know it has been way too long, but I need to get back into the habit. Finally, I am done blogging about Peru. Too many things have happened in the short months since I last blogged, so I will mention a few of the highlights.

First, and the one that consumed most of my time was Tami's wedding. I do have to brag for a moment though, I believe it turned out so beautiful. Tami was sealed to Casey Fowler in the Spokane Washington Temple on March 6, 2009. Besides the freezing cold weather outside, it was the perfect sunny day to take pictures on the temple grounds(even though the forecast predicted rain, and we brought umbrellas just in case). After the wedding, most of the family that attended the sealing went to the church building next door and ate lunch. Next, we went straight over to the reception and took the last of the pictures before the guests started to arrive. The reception followed. It was full of dancing, food, and the traditions of wedding parties. It was fun planning and participating in Tami's wedding, but I can honestly say I am glad that it is all over, I was exhausted!

Second, Asa turned one! Actually, he turned one on Tami's wedding day, but his parents celebrated his birthday a week later. He had a polka-dot themed birthday, it was really fun. I can't believe he is already a year old. He' s walking all over the place, getting into mischeif and just plain being adorable, I love those dimples. Happy b-day Asa, we love you.

Lastly, Natalie and I went to a musical at the Spokane Opera house this weekend called "Aint Misbehavin'." It was a blast. Beforehand, we enjoyed dinner at "P.F. Changs." Delicious! We even got appetizers on the house, because they thought that we had to wait for a long time, but we had a reservation, so it was only like 20 minutes. After that, we walked around the mall across the street and window shopped, then went to the show. It was not what we were expecting, but it turned out to be really well done. It was fun to have a girls night out!

The Sunset Tour

We were able to relax for pretty much the rest of the day. But we had an optional jungle walk which we opted to do. There is no way we were going to pass anything adventurous up! Duane was too tired to go and Denise wasnt feeling well, so it was me, Alora, Tami, and our other tour buddy. Phil wanted to stay with Denise and Deanna was sick too. We walked for awhile and saw peanut bugs, mccaws, and more monkeys. These monkeys were alot more active and playful than the ones we saw that morning.

Once we got back to the resort Tami and I went to the hammocks inside the lodge to take a break and journal a little. Its a tough life to live... It was hard to journal in a hammock though because its so relaxing that all we wanted to do was nap. Alora was off doing her own thing most of the time because she had an admirer that would follow her around. He wanted her to teach him English. His name was Paolo to which Alora loved getting attention from. He was a good looking guy too, so she would get giddy and giggle when around him. Later we went on our next tour with almost everyone. Deanna still was sick and wasn't feeling up for anything.. The sunsets are so beautiful there. At one point in time, Tami suggested that Alora go back and help Paolo paddle the canoe around. She was just giving Alora a hard time but she was so excited that it seemed like she was just waiting for someone to give her the opportunity.

The funny part about Alora paddling was that we were heading in cirlces. Poor Paulo had to paddle twice as hard. She got the hang of it eventually, but its hard to compete with a buff Amazon man! When the sun went down and the sky was pitch black, we began looking for the red caimen eyes in the water. I couldn't believe how many there were! We couldn't have the flashlight on for too long though because it attracted bugs. Once the tour ended we headed back to the lodge once again for a long awaited sleep.

A little of the wildlife in Peru!

In the morning we woke up and started our journey for the day. We cruised around the lake on our canoe while the same guys that carried our bags, paddled us everywhere. We saw so many herons and exotic birds. Also turtles and a whole tree full of monkeys. The tour guide told us that they were slower moving monkeys and liked to take their time while eating... this worked perfect for us because we were able to take a couple decent pictures! You can kind of see them in the picture. Tons of large black dots. We also saw a few turtles and the biggest black caimen in the lake. The tour guide said it was about 3 meters long. Which is pretty big! It didnt let us get very close to it though. Our canoe started back to the dock of the lodge, when all was said and done. When we jumped up on the dock we looked down and saw a black caimen staring at us! He was a little guy but it was neat to see him only a few feet away. Tami got a few good pictures. I think he liked the camera because he stayed there while everyone took a picture.

I know I know, I really need to get out of Peru

After our hike through the jungle, it opened up to a small canal in which we got into paddle canoes and were on our way to being that much closer to the resort. We reached the shore and jumped out onto a long stretch of wooden stairs. This trip has proved to be a pretty good workout as far as stairs and long hikes.

We are at Sandoval Lake Lodge/Resort. We were complemented with a very tart drink and then checked into our rooms. The rooms had mosquito nets above the beds! I was hoping we wouldnt encounter many mosquitos on the trip... but thankfully our tour guide explained that there arent many at this time of year. There are billions during the rainy season. We had a bit of down time to get settled and check the place out before we went to dinner and also on our night jungle tour! We found a nice bench that over looked the lake and had an awesome foot rest. The funny part, is that those who know us Mortons know how short we are.... needless to say, we had to stretch our legs as far as they would reach to get to the foot rest.
We then went to dinner and met up with our tour guide. He explained a little about the night jungle tour, like what we would encounter and what we should bring. We ran into a few creepy spiders and bugs. I think the biggest trial was trying not to trip over the large tree roots in the ground. Its crazy walking through the jungle during the day, knowing all these bugs are in the cracks of the trees waiting to come out at night! We then went to bed because there are only certain times of the day they keep the electricity on at the lodge. The housekeepers tucked our mosquito nets around our beds. We were very excited for the next day because we were getting up at dawn to see the giant otters of the lake playing, and also see some of the other wild life living around the lake.

The march in the jungle....

The boat arrived on the opposite side of the river at a dock with a long steep staircase that led to the top of the bank. I was very glad I wasn't the one carrying the huge sack that contained all our little duffle bags!! Once at the top we started our hour long march through the jungle. We stopped at the park station where we wrote our names and passport numbers to register our arrival and departure dates. Then on through the steamy green canopy... There were so many things to see!! Hundreds of butterflies would be swarming around mud puddles to get the minerals left by the drying earth. The most fantastic butterfly was the giant electric blue one--they were gorgeous!!--I will have to see if Tami got a picture of one of them--my camera was too slow to snap it before they flew away. When they landed, they would close up their wings and just look like a black leaf. At one point--there was a bridge we crossed (picture above) but mostly the trail was muddy dirt and a lot of uneven ground. The "rickshaw" passed us at one point--it was just a metal board between two large wheels with metal poles sticking out for handles--this is how they transfer "goods" to the lodge from the mainland.

On our way to the AMAZON!!

After a wonderful farewell dinner in Cusco with most of our tour group, we woke early and headed to the airport to embark for Puerto Maldanado. We arrived with the captain announcing that it was 99 degrees outside with a relative humidity of 96 per

cent! We felt the steamy air the minute we disembarked the plane!! Our group, which now consisted of Phil, Denise, a couple from the tour (Glenn and Deanna) and our family-Duane, me, Tami and Alora--gathered our luggage and got on a small bus. We were driven to the tour company's office where we were given small green duffle bags to re-pack from our large suitcases three days worth of belongings into the small bags. The tour group tagged and locked up our suitcases for our return. We then got back on the bus, and were taken to the bank of the Amazon River. We went down to the dock where the boat--(pictured above) awaited our arrival. We ferried down the river, which is very muddy and dirty for about 25 minutes. They served us lunch that was a wonderful mix of rice, vegetables and soy meat wrapped in a leaf and steamed!! It was REALLY yummy!!

The last humanitarian aid to Mismanay

As we got back from the farm land area we had a packed lunch from the tour company waiting for us. We sat on the bus because there was no place in the village to sit and eat, and it had started to rain a bit--anyway--the lunch was GI-normous!! Two meat sandwiches an apple, banana chips, pasta salad and a cake. The tour guide found out that some of the people in the front (we were in the back) wanted to give the children some of this huge lunch--we heard them donating and the whole bus gave most of their lunch away to the people--it was awesome!! The top picture is all the kids eating the packed lunches and writing on the post-it notes that our tour group gave the little kids. (All the older children of the village were still in school).