Spring Break in the Amazon

Last week was spring break at ONU. Some people had vacation plans or work to catch up on, but I had a class. While that sounds like the worst-case scenario, the class took place in Peru. It was called "Global Healing Traditions," and it was a pharmacy class about the healing herbs and rituals that are used in tribes in the Amazon Rainforest.

We flew out Saturday night to JFK, and then to Lima, Peru. The international flight was brutal, with little legroom and no comfortable way to rest. But there were a few meals on the flight since we were in the air for 8-9 hours. Once we arrived in Peru, one of the students had a problem; he didn't have his passport and might have left it on the plane. This layover was long, but not long enough to get an entirely new passport. After searching the plane through angry airport workers and a language barrier, he unfortunately had to go home. He flew back to JFK that evening. Another brutal flight, I imagine. But the rest of us flew from Lima to Iquitos.

Landing in Iquitos was interesting; there are no gates or closed rooms. You have to walk on the tarmac to board the plane. The whole airport was just some walls and a roof that were not connected. Once we got into town, it was a similar trend: rusty roofs, garbage in the streets, graffiti, stray dogs, and congested streets. It was not comfortable for me to be in this new environment. We stayed in a hotel for a night, and then took a boat ride to the lodge where we would be staying the whole week. This was much nicer. Although termites were eating through wood, and the fan had to run all night, and no clothes ever dried, they were problems I could deal with. Natural problems that I could justify. 

We saw and did so many interesting things: A monkey rehabilitation center, caught a piranha, played music with locals, met a tribe, experienced healing rituals, and many more. We made friends with the locals, and I will still miss my tour guide. We played music at every meal, and often they called me up to keep the beat for them.

We flew back on Saturday and Sunday. After spending the entire week in extreme heat and warm rain, it snowed on the tundra. The transition was harder than the flight. If I could go back and do anything different, I wouldn't come back.