Ovaltine....Puh-haps?

My new father knows how to there there pat. I didn’t even teach him how to do it. It is wry exciting.
Note: if the above sentence didn’t make sense to you, don’t worry. Only my immediate family members will be able to understand it.

Okay, as promised to my millions of fans and followers of this blog, I shall talk about my travels. Since a picture is worth a thousand words, I will cut this entry short by posting pictures. Now, where should I start? Let’s start at the very beginning, a very good place to start! (Previous sentence sung in voice of the lady from Sound of Music).

The Amazon

This was our bungalow. It was complete with a hammock, which I accidentally took a nap on every day we were there (all two days). It lives a place called Puerto Maldonado, part of the jungle of Peru. Our guide guided us through the jungle and showed us all the medicinal plants he could find. My favorite was one which looked innocent but when chewed turned my mouth numb and tingly. He gave us some extra so we could play jokes on our friends back in Lima, but I don’t think he knew that 99% of the people I knew in Peru were currently standing next to me at the time. Anyway, it dried out so we couldn’t do anything with it anyway. Actually that’s a lie, I used it when I needed to chop of my arm because I had a suspicious bug bite.

Tribeswomen

Other highlight of the medicinal walk: he crushed up a green leaf which turned into a purple mush, which he painted on my face and made me look like a wanna-be indigenous person. According to him, I looked better like that, but I’m not sure how I feel about that statement. I might try bringing the look back to Holy Cross with me though. I think it could become a new fashion. (Note to a dear Leila Gerstein: I’m wearing one of the shirts that you gave me. Also, Right Round just came up on my iTunes shuffle. I thought you should know).

A Tree! (A Goose!)

Interestingly enough, there are a lot of trees in the jungle.

The Island of the Monkeys

We saw many-an-animal. I tried to throw this monkey a banana but unfortunately my muscles are weaker than I thought because I didn’t throw it high enough so he didn’t catch it, and it just splatted on the ground. Other animals we saw: lots of parrots, one toucan, other species of birds, alligators, many many ants, too many mosquitos to count, capybaras (world’s largest rodents, which reminded me of the ones in The Princess Bride), piranhas and tarantulas (though we didn’t actually see either of those things, they just promised us they existed) and, strangely enough, some humans too. I’m not sure what they were doing way out there.

Pretty Scenery

We had to wake up super early to watch some parrots eat dirt from the side of a hill in the middle of the woods, so I took a picture of the pretty sunrise. Now my life goal of watching the sunrise is fulfilled, though I’m not sure if it counts because I woke up early against my will.

Wow, I spent a lot of time talking just about Puerto Maldonado. I shall rest my brain now and post more about the rest of the trip later. There are still 6 days left of which to speak! I’ll try to be less wordy in the future. Ah, mother, maybe I am more like you than I thought!

So for now, I will say…Goodnight!

PS to my family - I just did the Val cough that you always make fun of me for.