Yao Davis Family: 2010

Believe it or not, this is still an abbreviated list of what I did and saw in the two weeks I was in Peru. Our days were jam-packed with visits, interviews, lectures and field work sites mixed in with a little bit of sightseeing. Here is a quick travelogue of my time in Peru:

Our first morning in Lima with the group

Sol, our tour guide for the day, was very memorable

a native Peruvian dog-it is even uglier in person

The Universidad Del Pacifico hosted us for two days where we
were able to meet the President and two other Harvard graduate professors
that are experts in the field of nonprofits

Fe y Alegria is a nonprofit that sponsors schools and programs
in schools all over the country

two star-students at a Fe y Alegria sponsored school in one of
the poorest neighborhoods outside Lima

Micaela, the ED in this region of Lima for Un Techo para mi Pais

(one roof for my country), tells us about the families we will meet

in the slums where they are working

Juan, an U.S. Embassy officer in the drug trafficking division,

arranged our last meal at the naval base in Lima. It was a roof top

restaurant overlooking the ocean and the chef, pictured here,

prepared the best meal of my life!

Our next stop was Iquitos and our first morning we went to the local market

where we found everything from fresh, local bananas to alligator

Two girls we met at a nonprofit orphanage in Iquitos. The orphanage

was unable to retain the music teacher b/c of budget shortfalls so our

group left a donation to pay the music teacher's salary for the next 6 months.

Amazon Cares, a nonprofit animal rescue and education program in Iquitos

After a day of touring several nonprofits we boarded a ferry to

take us up the Amazon to our lodge in the jungle

a typical house in the jungle

the difference in water level from low to high season can be 30-40 feet

a clinic started by Linnea Smith and supported by

Rotary International groups from Wisconsin

(she has written a book, La Doctora, that explains her story)

our local guide showed us a seed that can be used for dye,

war paint in this case, and lipstick

Yagua Indian tribe showed us how to use a blow gun

a woman from the tribe in traditional clothes knitting a bag

(Do you see what's in her hair?)

our guide's uncle owns the only rum distillery in the jungle and he

showed us how to make sugar cane rum

(horses or water buffalo would usually be pushing this)

the Director of a nonprofit library in the jungle-the first ever!

"Monkey Island", a nonprofit animal rescue that rehabilitates monkeys

the monkeys were really friendly at first, as you can see here, but when

we tried to leave some of them got pretty aggressive and we

decided they weren't so cute after all

a night of entertainment at Explorama lodge

(that's our guide playing guitar)

Conapac, a nonprofit entity of Explorama, sponsors schools with

the help from donors all over the jungle-this is one of the schools they sponsor

those of us healthy enough to play, played the students in a game

of soccer-we won with the help of our guide

(it was so hot and humid it literally felt like

we were taking a shower when we finished the game)

another nonprofit rescue that houses everything from holler monkeys

to butterflies to leopards, this one lost its mother to poachers

after Iquitos we flew to Cusco, elevation approx. 13,000 feet

they have a special tea that helps with the altitude sickness

one of the squares in Cusco with my roommate on the trip,

Katey from CA

a traditional dance at a dinner/show in Cusco

a group of students on a field trip to the Incan temple in Cusco

our guide, Francisco, was irresistable,

he started every sentence with, "My dear friends . . . "

we visited a nonprofit weaving museum in Cusco where we learned

about a weaving co-op that supplies the shop and how they

are trying to preserve their culture through weaving

this is one of the co-op weaving groups we visited in the

country outside Cusco, we learned how they dye the yarn

using natural resources and how they spin and weave

mother and daughter starting a rug

next stop was Ollantaytambo on our way to Machu Picchu,

we saw Incan ruins that were really interesting

Emma runs a nonprofit weaving shop in Ollantaytambo

called Awamaki-they employ women from all over the

region selling their goods at fair trade prices

that afternoon we got on the train to go to Agues Calientes,

the gateway city to Machu Picchu

We ended the trip with a full day at Machu Picchu. I went with a group at 5:30 a.m. to hike Huayna Picchu and we were lucky enough to have a perfectly clear (and hot) day, which is rare.

I'm sure I've left a lot of informatin out, these are just the highlights. It was such an amazing experience b/c we were able to see all the major regions in Peru and talk to so many different people doing important humanitarian work in the country. It was an experience of a lifetime!

Yao and I actually had some time off from work and school and decided to take a short trip to Jackson Hole, WY as kind of a pre-birthday celebration. Yao turns 38! on Thursday (10/21) so we lived it up in Jackson for three days. Here are the highlights: