April 11th: Day Two, Lima to Tarapoto to Yurimaguas

The airport in Tarapoto

A clean toilet! Note the lack of toilet seat (build those quads!)...that's the way they are in Peru, and of
course, the ever handy garbage pail beside it for toilet paper!

Today was our flight over the Andes mountains from Lima to Tarapoto and then the 3 1/2 hour drive across the mountains to Yurimaguas. I met the most wonderful woman on the plane to Tarapoto. Her name was Maria and while she lives in Tarapoto with her husband, she is studying in Lima. We had a memorable time learning spanish and english between each other. She came and found me at the airport as well and gave me a heartfelt hug and kiss goodbye. It is definitely a common greeting or goodbye in Peru to kiss the right cheek. There is a certain loveliness to this...a warm affection in exchanging such a gesture between people.

Once again, all our bags made it! We were missing one bag and thought we had lost it when suddenly the flight attendant came wandering into the airport with it. In light of all that we were transporting, it really is amazing that all those bags made it through three separate flights.

One funny story: I called home from the Lima airport and my mother thought I was a telemarketer and hung up on me!

We had a delicious lunch at a restaurant called Real Grill in Tarapoto, before we headed on our 3 1/2 hour journey across the mountains to Yurimaguas. There are very few restaurants that Susan, our host missionary, feels confident taking North Americans to (due to the food handling issues) but this is one of them and it was out of this world! We ate lomo saltado, this super yummy dish that consists of beef with onions, tomatoes and peppers on top of french fries with rice on the side. It tastes SO good! And the juices!! oh my!...pineapple and grape and lemonade and so many more. Absolutely delectable! (or in spanish: muy rico! which means "very rich"). While we were eating, this older man came along and started singing with his guitar. He was wonderful and it was a perfect introduction and welcome to Peru!

The journey across the mountains was beautiful, although I'm very happy that I took a gravol and was at the front of the bus! The vegetation was so lush and green and I was very surprised at the soil, which in many places is like a red clay like substance. I never expected to see such red soil.

We saw this beautiful waterfall as we drove and the driver was so excited...he started speaking very quickly in spanish and pointing to the waterfall. Susan said that the falls are very rarely so obvious from the road. It had been raining for days in Tarapoto and the area and it seems it was to our benefit, in terms of the volume of water coming over the falls. You can't tell from this picture because it's zoomed in, but the waterfall was actually very high up the mountain so it was a very tall waterfall and cascaded down the mountain side.

We arrived in Yurimaguas, affectionately shorted to "Yuri", at night. Our first destination was the Hogar, the Maternal Care Centre that Susan, our host missionary is based out of. The Hogar is a wonderful place that cares for women of indigenous native tribes in the jungle who are noted by outpost medical teams as being high risk in their pregnancies. They stay at the Hogar until they deliver at the hospital in Yuri and then remain for as long as they or their baby needs for adequate recovery. The Hogar has also become home to several children who have been abandoned by their parents or have come for treatment for malnutrition. While we were there, there were six children living permantly at the Hogar, along with four children of the expectant mothers. I'll write more about how essential this ministry is later on. It really is so beautiful to see the joy and life in these kids.

Our greeting at the Hogar was filled with laughter, smiles, hugs and kisses from the children...it was truly a wonderful, wonderful introduction to Yurimaguas.

Dinner out was chicken! (again!) It's quite hilarious...pretty much every restaurant in Yuri is a chicken joint! This was also our first introduction to the infamous "Inka Kola", which is a drink of choice in Peru. You pretty much have two options: Coca Cola or Inka Kola, or water (with or without "gas"). The Inka Kola tastes a lot like bubble gum! or perhaps cream soda.

I was happy when we settled at our home away from home, Hostel Akemi. For being a hostel, this was one nice place! I honestly think it was more a hotel than a hostel. The rooms were clean, the beds decent, we had a fan, decent shower (although this was the begining of cold showers...no hot water) and more than anything, the people working there were so friendly and helpful...just beautiful, beautiful people who couldn't do enough for you. If you every end up in Yuri, stay at Hostel Akemi!

Oh! one thing I almost forgot about. While we were walking back from the restaurant, I looked up at the stars in the sky and was surprised to find that the night sky is completely different than at home in Ontario! The stars are different in the sense that the big dipper is upside down and new constellations are obvious...like the Southern Cross. This discovery really threw me off!...I hadn't even thought about how the sky would look different in a different hemisphere. Quite astonishing.

One more thing about Yuri...stray dogs everywhere and they are horribly malrnourished. Even on the drive over the mountains as we saw animals, the horses and cows were just so thin. The houses through the mountains were so simple as well: just four pieces of wood with a roof on top, made of palm branches. This was the beginning of me realizing the level of poverty I was entering.