June 22-24:

La Merced. The Jungle. It was actually warm,we stayed at a beautiful hotel! A group of about 25 of us went, our group from Arizona, another group from U of I and a group of Med Students from New York Medical College. The first day we dropped our bags at the hotel and went for a six hour hike through the jungle. As we hiked we were told about many deadly snakes and plants that can kill you within 45 minutes...we were also showed the plants that could cure a sting or a bite by these plants. We were also shown the plant that penicillin comes from! We hiked up about 5 waterfalls, sometimes using a rope and sometimes just relying on the rocks! After hour hike we came back to the hotel and roasted marshmellows by a campfire with everyone.

The next day we visited a native tribe called Pampa Michi. They dressed us all up like natives and we danced around to drums in a circle. We then took a walk through their agricultural fields of potatoes, oranges, and yuca. John and I ate an orange off a tree and it was delicious. We passed by a river on our walk back to the river, and rested on the mini-beach. We went back to the hotel after this and played two games of pool volleyball for two bottles of rum, our team won! John played sports the rest of the afternoon as I finished off the last of the hunger games. Later that night we went out to a discoteca which was pretty cool. It was right on the river, had two levels and it served food! We tired quickly though after the long day.

Sunday we traveled to a few more waterfalls, not for climbing, just for swimming. (These are the pics on facebaook.) And we traveled back to Hunacayo later in the evening. On the way back our bus driver stopped at about 11pm in the middle of nowhere for a "bathroom break". Aside from the bushes as toilets, the sky was beautiful! The most stars, and open sky I have ever seen!