Enjoying the Journey

It happens all the time.

Curiosities become obsessions.

Outings become overnighters.

Pastimes become passions.

This is how journeys begin. 

The last few weeks of my study abroad program are speeding by at lightening speed and it’s very bittersweet! I’m getting so excited to see my family, Andy, and my friends from home, to eat some good U.S. food, and to sleep in my own bed! However, I am going to miss Peru, all the adventures available here, and the amazing people I’ve gotten to know SO MUCH! While I’ve loved getting to know 14 other students from 14 different universities and from all over the U.S., it’s sad knowing we won’t all be in the same place anytime soon!

Besides preparing for the upcoming goodbyes, I’ve been busily exploring a bit more of Peru. A couple of weekends ago, I headed to Iquitos, a city located deep in the Amazon rainforest and completely unreachable by car! We arrived on a Friday morning after a very early flight, drove through the city and then took a boat out to reach our lodge! We got to see the point where the Amazon River meets up with the River Nane—you can actually see a dividing line between the black Nane and the muddy, brown Amazon. Our lodge was very far-removed from anything and we lucked out as the only guests for the weekend! Our tour guide and friends were really nice and helpful all weekend. We really couldn’t have asked for a better experience!

We did all kinds of different things over the course of the weekend. We hiked through the muddy jungle learning about different medicinal and edible plants, got to hold a sloth and wrap an anaconda around our necks, went fishing for piranhas, did a nightwalk through the jungle where we saw lots of spiders and the largest species of frog in the world, visited a few small river towns where we met local kids and went swimming in a backyard creek, saw both a gray and a pink river dolphin, went on several boat rides, saw an electric eel, went swimming in the Amazon, saw the largest lily pads in the world, and visited and danced with the nearby Bora tribe! It was that busy and that awesome!

After returning from that crazy weekend, I had a typical week of school and volunteering. I spent Wednesday night and all day Thursday doing interviews for my final projects and my honors thesis back home! It was really interesting to talk to the women of Villa El Salvador, learning more about their lives and the amazing things many of them have been able to do. Some of the women are single mothers working to support their children, many participate in local organizations, and several have served as leaders in their community helping to establish this city built through land invasions and pure determination.

On Friday, the whole IFSA-Butler group headed to El Carmen near Chincha in Ica. The weekend was really relaxing and it was great to spend some more time with the whole group. We ate some good food, went swimming in the pool, played with a couple of friendly dogs, learned to play the cajones (traditional afro-peruvian drums made out of wooden boxes), attemped to learn some afro-peruvian dances, and spent some time talking about our return to the U.S. and reminiscing on the amazing semester we have had. One of my favorite parts of the weekend was sitting in a circle sharing good memories and kind thoughts about each person. It was a nice opportunity to tell all of my group members how much they have meant to me and it was also nice to hear what others thought about me—some things that I have heard before and others that are ways in which I have changed over the course of the semester.

Now I’m back in Lima for my last week of classes! Starting to feel a little stressed because in the next eleven days I have to do: 3 final exams, 3 final papers, and a final presentation. Yikes! But there are also lots of fun things on the horizon: goodbye celebrations this weekend, the Inti Raymi festival, and heading back to Pampamarca, Cusco to visit my favorite little girls at the Casa Hogar María de Nazaret! Still so many amazing experiences to add to a very, very full semester! I can’t believe it’s almost over, but I also know it’s a semester I will never forget!