Well, I am about to spend my last night in Finca Amiruca. Their home can go from having 17 people eating at the table, to nobody there during the day. I have been doing a little weeding and gardening, straightening up the plants they are hoping to sell, some fruits, some ornamentals, some medicinal, most native to the area. I also help Deidania with her homework, help to cook meals, scratch my countless bug bites and sweat a lot in the sun and humidity. The family is full of smiles and jokes which make me lighten up a bit. Two guys from Texas came three days ago to volunteer, they left today. They told me that they weren´t getting anough food, they told Mercedes, the matriarch, they didn´t have enough money. With me afterwards she laughed and thought this was very funny. What´s (NOT SO) funny to me is that they weren´t willing to buy too much food, and they sure did eat a lot (tall, skinny fast matabolism, 24 year old male, you know the type). She couldn´t figure out how they had money then to travel. It´s true that at the moment the family doesn´t have money right now, Mercedes has been waiting for a check from the municipality for just about 2 weeks now. Yesterday I gave the $2.80 necessary for the kids to go to school and back today, otherwise they wouldn´t have gone. In a just world, they should be able to ride for free if they´re going to school. Well, in a just world, this wituation wouldn´t come up. There has been little, but enough food, and I find the Texans closed minded and hope this trip loosens them up a bit.
Things I love about Finca Amiruca and the Napo Region:
Swimming under all the waterfalls
The smiles of Deidania, Sandi, Elsa, Mercedes, Damian, Jose, Fabricio, Jimmy, Henry & Quindi
The sound of the crickets and river together at night
All the amazing tropical fruits (I ate the most delicious Papaya yesterday)
How I am challenged by my perceptions of ownership, generosity, and friendship
Yucca
Things I have learned:
(I want to learn) more about all the medicinal plants here
The outside of platanos are sticky and permanently stain clothes
How to cook Yucca countless different ways
It is impossible to avoid mosquitos
How to cook with one can of Tuna for atleast 12 people

Well, I am off back to Quito for the weekend and then to Finca Llurimahua. If you want to send me mail, please do so in the next 2 weeks, it takes about 6 days for mail to get here. My new address is:
ANNAH SHAPIRO
PONTEVEDRA 553 Y VIZCAYA, LA FLORESTA
QUITO - ECUADOR

Finca Amiruca

I have spend the last five days eating the most delicious tropical fruit that I never knew existed. There is one called the Abio, the makes my lips sticky and white and is most delicious and sweet, another fruit from a palm that has a crisp texture and and perfect sweet-citrus blend. The Grefa-Mamallacta family who own their farm are plenty, kind, generous and full of knowledge. There are many little babies crawling and crying around. With the two other French volunteers I have worked on cleaning and weeding the starts, they have palms, ornamentals, fruits, and flowers. They are starting to build a new bathroom today as well. The River Hollin is down the hill and I have gone twice now to bathe and swim. The second time we saw rafters at there take out point, and it again occurred to me what a special place this is and what an amazing experience I am having. Life is not a Utopia in the family of course. Kindy, not yet a year old, Mercedes´ youngest, of nine children, has a full bady rash, an allergic reaction from something for which they had to take him to the doctor for an infection. They also make their own medicinal concoctions to spread on his skin. Deidania, 15 had an ingrown toenail and it is a little infected and is making her miserable. Damian is a little over a year, the son of Elsa who is 18 has diarhea and the father of her baby, Ronald lives with them, though he is not an attentive father and they did not plan to be parents so soon. I have lots of itchy bug bites on my feet. I just got back from the doctor in Tena where I found out that my intestines were inflamed because of a bacterial infection from a parasite, so I am now on three medicines to correct this. The past week has been full of wonderful fresh fruit, but I also have been having major stomach issues, and so I came into Tena to take care of it all, and I´m so glad I did. There is lots of love and understanding and energy and people to talk with and learn from here.

It´s my birthday...

...and I´ll be sick if I want to. My tummy is not so happy right now. Meanwhile it´s a beautiful day in Quito and tomorrow I am off to Tena. That´s all I have to say.

Everyone Loves Mail!

Ok, for the next three weeks or so I will be in the same area on an organic farm outside of Tena. This means I can pick up mail at the post office there. So...if you have something you want to send me, i.e. dark chocolate, good magazines, letters, leg warmers, and anything else you think I may find wonderful you can send it to the following very simple address and hopefully it will magically appear in my hands. Gracias

Annah Shapiro
Correos Central Tena

Ecuador

This was the first mass email I sent out before deciding to create a blog:

Hi Everybody!
Well, as some of you know, and some do not, I am currently in Lima, Peru, in the continent of South America. I have been travelling for just over two weeks and have a plane ticket to return to Phildelphia on March 21. I hope to write several updates over the next three months, and you are being sent this email because I care about you, want you to know what I am up to and I want to hear from you! I also understand if you don´t want to get these nonpersonal mass emails, so just let me know. And if you think someone would like to see this email, please feel free to forward it as well.
I arrived in Cuzco, Peru on Dec 12, and my sister Mirra, met me at the airport. We stayed in Pisac, 40 min. outside of Cuzco for two days acclimatizing (the city is 3326 meters above sea level) and talking about plans. We also ate Choclo con queso- large corn on the cob with fresh cheese-delicious! We spent our days walking around in both Pisac and Cuzco. Our last day and night we spent with a family that adopted Mirra for a month during her studies. Mirra played a Huayno (local music) that she learned here on her little guitar and the parents sang along. We got up 5am our last morning in Cuzco to see Sacsayhuaman, Incan ruins around the edge of the city. It was a temple dedicated to the sun at one point before the Spanish took it apart and used the gigantic beautiful stone to build cathedrals. The huge stones fit perfectly together like lovers. There are many theories as to how these humongous stones were moved and fit together, I don´t know any of them, and still it is a mystery. The air was fresh, and the sight with very few people.
We left Cuzco and went south eight hours to Arequipa, and city edged by two volcanoes and the old buildings of the city made of a beautiful volcanic white rock. Our two days in Arequipa were spent walking and talking some more, lighting for the first nights of Channukkah, and eating in Mirra´s favorite restaurant of tea infusions and yogurt with fruit and Meusli.
We traveled over night to Yanque, a town in the beautiful and grand Colca Canyon. There we stayed with another family. Gloria is the founder and director of the preschool, and we were guests in their Navidad ceremony for the end of the school year. We drank much Chicha, home-brewed fermented corn juice-yum, took some beautiful walks, and dipped in the town´s hot springs. On the outskirts of the town is an incredible pre-Incan ampetheatre of corn and potato fields with the river as its stage in the center.
Next we traveled up north, two days on the bus (I could write a seperate email just about traveling on the bus in Peru) to Chiclayo, to stay with another family that had also adopted Mirra. We went to Pimentel Beach and ate dinner on Dec 24-25 at Midnight as is the custom here. Now we are in Lima and are about to part ways. Mirra will go back to Philadelphia and I will continue on to Ecuador where I will meet up with friends and hopefully after that stay put for a little while doing volunteer work. I will miss Mirra dearly.
I hope to use these next months wisely, however that may be and am still planning for them. I welcome any recommendations and contacts you may have. Also, I am downloading photos on my new flicker site for all to see, and when I figure it out, I will send a link. I send my love to all of you and wish you a renewing, peaceful, and joyous new year.
In Peace
Annah

Serpentine Voyage

ser·pen·tine: adjective
Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French serpentin, from Late Latin serpentinus, from Latin serpent-, serpens1 : of or resembling a serpent (as in form or movement)2 : subtly wily or tempting3 a : winding or turning one way and another b : having a compound curve whose central curve is convex

voy·age
Etymology: Middle English viage, veyage, from Anglo-French veiage, from Late Latin viaticum, from Latin, traveling money, from neuter of viaticus of a journey, from via way -- more at WAY1 : an act or instance of traveling : JOURNEY2 : a course or period of traveling by other than land routes 3 : an account of a journey especially by sea

The title of my blog is fitting to this transitory moment of my life and travels. When I first arrived in Cuzco, Peru, Mirra gave me a beautiful necklace with a serpiente green stone that falls right below my neck, fitting just right. She gave it to me for centering, strength and for something to hold onto throughout my travels.

While in Cuzco, we learned of Yacu-Mamá the serpent river that holds a lot of meaning in Incan mythology in regards to life and death. I am thinking of it as I am entering a new period of my life. I am in a beautifully tempting world, in Ecuador and back home in the States, both externally and internally and through all the turns I arrived at my journey.

New Years in Cuenca, Ecuador

I am going to jump right into this. I arrived in Cuenca, Ecuador on the 30th of December, and my friends Wes and Myla met me there on the 31st. We celebrated the solar new year by burning a cardboard image of a famous political figure I am unfamiliar with. In the days before midnight of the 31st all over the streets of Cuenca (and apparently other Ecuadorian cities) people are setting up dummies with masks in front of their stores, homes, and mounted to their cars. As the clocks strike 12am, people are in the streets burning the effigies and setting off very loud fireworks. We set afire our own image as well. Before midnight there are many people out in the street, men and boys cross dressing and dancing in front of cars until they get a donation to allow the car passage in the street. We spent the night wandering around enjoying the festivities and merveling how this would never fly in the states. This was New Years



On another note, Cuenca is a beautiful city with old cobblestone streets, universities, very stylish shoes (I bought a pair of very pink, very high tops), great juice, and surrounded by green hills. We went hiking for a day in Cajas, a national park with running waterfalls and streams, majestic vistas, a random cloud forest and wet, muddy ground everywhere in the high altitud. It was wonderful and refreshing to be in the wilderness and breath the thin air. We hiked for 15km, over 9 miles and when we returned to the city I felt as if I had spent days away in the wild.



More to come later.