The Good the Bad and the Alana

Full moons and Pisco Sours

2009-08-14T14:41:00.000-07:00

So after a long boat ride back I was ready to eat dinner and go to bed. However to my delight and dismay the lodge decided to throw a full moon party. This mostly consists of drinking and dancing and since I had not done anything for my birthday the month before I decided to take advantage of the occasion. One pisco sour and two cerveza (huge bottles of beer) later I can hardly see straight. I head to bed before I embarrass myself completely.

I spend the next few days of my trip at the Amazon Research Center looking for monkeys, trekking through mud and swimming.

When we get back from the A.R.C. we spend the next few days in some of the villages. We spent our first day in Bueno Vista at the school where we played games and sang songs with the village children. My favorite thing in the village was the random sidewalk in the middle of no where and the fact that just by being a tall white kid everyone thought you were funny.

The next day we went to Chino Village and spent the morning learning how to make jewelry and dye fibers. I then spent the afternoon getting my ass kicked while playing soccer in a field of mud...so much fun!!!!. By the end of the game I was covered in mud from head to toe. I make a mad dash to the shower and finish up my day with dinner and a relaxing bitch session in the hammock room

Warrior Alana and Cayla is ready to be married

2009-08-11T10:53:00.000-07:00

On day three of being in the jungle our group boated to Terra Ferma in search of the Poison Dart Frog. We break off into groups of 4 or 5 and we head out. We saw a lot of bugs and frogs like you would see in National Geographic and I amused myself by taking pictures. So I am one of those people that laugh at anything and everything...like seeing my sister swing from a vine or hitting my head on the big hollow log that had bats in it. I had a great time even without seeing the frogs. After finding the frogs and not being aloud to touch them due to my rope burn I was a little bit heart broken :(. My heart was repaired when we came to a little jungle oasis complete with clean water and white sand. Best swim/bath I've ever had, only down side was the walk back to base camp soaking wet. We enjoyed a lunch of oh surprise of cat fish and rice cooked over a fire YUM!!!
After lunch I took a ton of pictures of a fuzzy red flower which I later found out was paprika. Our guides used the paprika to paint our faces. Apperently I give off a warrior vibe because I had warrior paint done. My sister however was decked out in marrage paint. haha. After that the joke for the rest of the trip was that we were going to marry Cayla off to the youngest guide "Smerf". We head back to the lodge.

101 ways to eat a catfish

2009-08-10T14:12:00.000-07:00

Before I continue talking about my adventures I want to talk about eating catfish. At the lodge we had catfish at least once a day which you would think would get pretty boring but suprisingly didnt.
A few of the ways I have experianced catfish are
- boiled in a tomotoe sauce
- grilled with lemon and dill
- baked till crisp with alot of salt
- in pasta
- with rice and a bunch of spices I didnt know
- pickled

ok so really there aren't 101 but there were alot...I cant even remember them all.

So back to my Amazon adventure.
We set out in a boat to spend the rest of the day searching for dolphins. We ended up seeing everything but the dolphins and decided to give up on our search. Insted of heading straight back to the lodge we decided to stop and go for swim. At first I was alittle wary of going on because of the fish that swam with the last group, but after the guides reasured me that there weren't any here I went in. Upon getting out we find ourselves covered in tanic acid which is actually leaf mold. Fortuantly for me I have dark skin and didnt look like a crazy hairy bush lady. Heading back to lodge we finally see the pink dolphins but due to my inept photo taking skills I have no pictures of them.
I finish off the night with a hammock room session...AKA Kyle and Alana talk until bedtime cuz we were the odd ones out in the group.

kicken @ss and taking...rope burn

2009-08-04T21:35:00.000-07:00

Finally we get to our destination but not before being sweat drenched (I managed to combine being sweat covered with being covered in mud because I am such a clutz). This is now the moment were the guides separate the men from girls... I mean we decide who is hauling themselves up to the top or who is to lame. Tyler decides to be a man and climb up himself so really this makes my decision for me because I am so competitive. I give Tyler a head start and then proceed to leave him hanging in the middle waiting for the guides to come and save him. Just for the record I didn't let him live that down for most of the trip. I think now would be a good time to mention...I <3 you Tyler. I can say with all honesty that hauling myself up to the top of a massive tree was much more fun then the zip line it self.
I finish of my first day at the lodge with dinner and a shower. I fall asleep to the sound of the jungle rain.

Day 2 I wake up to the dinner drum calling everyone to breakfast. After breakfast I skip the morning activities and spend the morning chillaxin in the hammock room. It was a much needed rest because I was still trying to kick the last of being sick.

Stay tuned for the eating of catfish and searching for dolphins

hot dogs and pancakes - the breakfast of champions

2009-08-03T19:12:00.000-07:00

We get out of the airport and arrive at Amazonia's main office. At this point we get hit with our first major weather and the pants get rolled up and the hoodies come off (yes everyone I said hoody and not bunny hug aren't you proud of me). Our guides flag our taxis which really means a three wheeled motorcycle that can take 2 plus luggage. Of course me being the way I am think these things are the greatest invention ever and grin and giggle like an idiot the whole way to the restaurant. After a breakfast of rice, beans, fried bananas, hotdogs, pancakes and some other stuff. Topped off with a glass of fresh squeezed juice *YUM*. We head back to the main office in our taxis- known by locals as tootoo and get on the boat ready to head down the Amazon River.

The boat we were in was similar to a school bus which as most of us know isn't that fun to ride on for any period of time. Luckily for us our trip also consisted of a trip to a village for bathrooms and leg stretching. I used my time wisely by taking horrible pictures of everyone and talking to a little Peruvian boy.

Finally we get to the lodge and our entire group is about ready to crash and burn, unfortunatly for us the guides had other things planned. I find myself trecking through the jungle in rubber boots on my way to the zip line.

toothbrushes are dangerous

2009-08-02T13:13:00.000-07:00

I know I know its been forever. I would like to use the excuse that I have just been super busy, however that is only half true...the other half is I am just lazy and have had alot on my mind lately. Anyways here it is. I'm going to as my philosophy teacher says "head down and giver er" (insert dirty comments here). Ok so before I start talking about Iquitos and the jungle here is an Alana is a klutz story. At our hotel which was nice but had little rooms I had the joy of using the bathroom which match the rooms in the fact that they were also tiny. So anyways everytime I go in there I slip on the floor which is all fine and dandy except for the fact that one time when I went in to brush my teeth it ended badly. I slip...suprise suprise and jam my toothbrush into my mouth and cut my bottom gum up so for the rest of the trip I had a fat lip...YAY.

And now back to the adventure part.

We get to the Lima airport at 2 in the morning ready to head out to Iquitos. I should mention that the airport is much friendlier when you are leaving even if it is 2 am oh and some of their stores are open then :). Anyways we get on the plane and we had what in my opinion was the best flight of the trip even without the in-flight movies on the personal screens. This however may be due to the fact that for the first time on the trip I could swallow without it feeling like gulping down a brick. So the first exciting thing that happend in Iquitos was that we used the stairs to get off the plane and actually had to walk on the tarmack...SO COOL (alana shows true dorkiness).

Stay tuned for first amazon breakfast!!!

power outage

2009-07-20T17:25:00.000-07:00

So I wrote a big long post and the power went out and my computer crashed before I had time to post it. SOOOO now I have to start over. I'll keep you posted.

Lima - where the road lines are just suggestions

2009-07-17T09:29:00.000-07:00

We finally get to Lima and talk about unwelcoming. Maybe it was just me and the fact that I was sick and tired but I honestly dont think it was. After we get through to the baggage claim which was no easy feat since we had to go through customs and there is a huge swine flu scare, we are heading out off the building...or so i thought. Turns out we have to go through a scanner and suprise suprise I have to go send my bag through the X-ray machine. It comes through clean and I dont have to get searched.
We make it to our cabs and next comes the ride of death. I honestly thought that we were going to crash over 20 times. We make it to our hotel and Im sure it had something to do with devine intervention. I shower and hit the hay.

The next day wasnt really that exciting. I spent the morning either walking around or sleeping and the afternoon going on a Tour of Lima. Anyways it was a lovely tour I just cant tell you much about it because i was still suffering from brain fog.

Phlegm on a plane

2009-07-13T10:23:00.000-07:00

Day before day one,
Try packing but end up spending most of the day in bed with a fever. I plan on getting up early the day we leave so that i can finish packing.

Day one aka June 30th,

Wake up and go to the medical clinic - as it turns out I now have tonsillitis and have to take meds almost the whole time I'm going (fingers crossed- I dont need another allergic reaction). I decide to go ahead and go on the trip anyways. I throw a few things in my suitcase and then sleep in the van for 4 hours. After a few quick stops in Whitehorse to pick up things like rain ponchos and flash lights we are ready to hit the airport. After some tearful goodbyes and some group photos we are ready to bored the plane. At this point in the trip I am ready to deck someone in the face because everyone is so cheerful and I would rather get hit by a truck then feel they way I do. I enjoy the 2 hour flight to Vancouver with an inflight movie.

Vancouver to Toronto was a much less pleasant flight because a) i was stuck in the middle seat and b) I had to keep using the bathroom so that people wouldnt be grossed out by my phelgminess. Eventually i drift off to sleep.

who knew the jungle didnt have electricity

2009-07-12T13:26:00.000-07:00

So I know its been awhile and I promised that I would blog my Peru adventures, the only glitch in that is that I had no time to hit up a computer while I was in Lima or Iquitos so this may end up kind of jumbled and confusing but I'll try and keep it as organized as possible.

I'm going to list everyone in our crew now so that as I post things you will know who I am talking about. First off is our team leader duo Mary and David Sloan aka "Missa Mary an a Misser Daveed (thats my Peruvian accent). Team Guttman- Ashley and her mom Lisa. Im going to mention now that Ashley is very loud and her mom is very not. Then there was team Bekk (I wont include myself in this one) -My mom and sister Cayla. This leaves the individuals of Bailey - the quiet soft spoken type, Kerstin - The tall, skinny, colourful type and Anne - the one that is not Caylas sister. After all that we have team kyler which consisted of our two boys Tyler aka teddy and Kyle. I spent most of my time with the boys so you will probably here more about them then anyone else. I should also mention Gary from tennesse and Cassy from Austraila, we adopted both of them into our group because we all got to the lodge on the same day.

Well thats everyone that was in our group, but i am still suffering from jet lag. My next post will be from the offical start of our journy.

Till then, hasta luego

I like it because its provactive and gets people going

2009-06-21T12:10:00.000-07:00

So things are pretty lame at the moment hence the cool title. The highlight of my most recent adventures are i got strep throat and the toilet flooded at work...yippie, just kidding! So my thinking is instead of being all negative today I'm going to talk about some things that i like.
I like when a song comes on and your friends go to sing it but start singing before the actual words start. I like when you are setting up a sprinkler and someone turns it on and you get soaked. I like commercials on TV that no one else thinks are funny. I like laughing and having people look at you like you are mentally ill. I really like how when it rains i get insane hair that is both frizzy and poofy...this makes me happy. Anyways these are just a few of a very long list of things i like :). Anywho soon I'll be in the Amazon jungle trying not to get dengue or eating by paranas, so i shall try and post somethings before i leave and then I'll write about my adventures once i get back. So till then...stay out of trouble

Awkward moments define my life

2009-06-12T11:58:00.001-07:00

So the other day I am sitting in a restaurant with my younger sister and she points out to me that there is a young guy sitting at the table around the corner, so me, being my usual ditz self decide I am going to try and get a good look at this guy without being noticed. So as they get up to leave I decided to creep the corner while still sitting in my chair. Now i would just like to point out that my stealth skills are lacking and that the guy had not left the table yet. So anyways here I am sitting in a chair trying to look around the corner and guess what... there is 'the guy' standing there looking down at me and probably thinking something along the lines of "Oh My God what a retarded girl i feel sorry for her". Needless to say he was not hot so I didn't feel so bad about it and i did laugh it off later. Anyways it seems like moments like these always happen to me I'm pretty sure my day isn't complete without something embarrassing happening to me. Oh well i guess that's just who i am, and on the plus side it makes my life interesting :S

anyways, till the next awkward moment brings us together im outty

The "what's for dinner?" question.

2009-06-07T19:28:00.000-07:00

Ok so i dont know if this happens to anyone else but it is a common occurance in my home. I'll make a pass through the kitchen and ask my mom "what's for dinner?" which, in my world demands a simple answer such as "I dont know" or something along the lines of "chicken"...But alas its not that simple. Every time I ask this question my mother responds with some lengthy explanation such as "Well last night we had rice and i had some leftovers in the fridge so i put some potatoes on and..." so you see where i am going with this it just goes on and on and on and on!!!. And its not just "whats for dinner?" that my mother answers like that, its pretty much every question. Sometimes her answers are extremly obscure such as "Are we going swimming tomorrow?" to which she replies, "Well your uncle just called and i have to clean up the kitchen and do laundry and the pope died...so i dont know yet." Ok Ok so im exagerating a tiny bit but seriously this has been going on for a long time. Maybe this is just me, who knows. Anywho that's my little rant for the day.