A Rescued Plane

Here on the base the Air Force recently finished a restoration of an old abandoned plane. The plane is called the Catalina. It had been abandoned because when the Air Force ¨renovated their fleet,¨ (I think that´s the terminolgy my husband used,) they didn´t use the plane anymore because it was too outdated to get parts for repair and they began using more modern planes. I guess its like tossing out an old pair of shoes because they went out of style.

A Captain here decided that instead of letting it rot, to rebuild the plane and diplay it on base. It was rebuilt form the outside only, none of the internal parts are included. The whole reconstruction took about a month and here´s some of what the rebuild process looked like.

I think the final product was worth it. And passing by it makes me think of old World War II movies. The plane was used in battle all throughout the 1940´s.

My New Photography Website

In case you haven´t noticed, I love taking pictures soooooo much! It always makes me feel so happy. Recently I´ve been trying my hardest to learn as much as I can about photography, including learning Photoshop in Spanish, and I have been having so much fun experimenting. So, I created a website with some of my pictures and I wanted to share it with all of you. Feel free to pass it on to anyone!





http://anniephotography.blogspot.com/

Garden of Eden for Saturday Lunch

On Saturday my husband told me he wanted to take me somewhere we hadn´t been before. I agreed to this plan of course. He said we were going to have to drive for a while but eventually we would find a lake with a restaraunt to relax for the day. So we headed out on the moto and somewhere between the Manatee Refuge and Quistacocha we found a bumpy muddy road which led us to our destination.

Neither one of knew the name of the restaurant or the location, but we nicknamed it ¨The Garden of Eden.¨ We decided that was a good name because its beautiful, there is fruit hanging from every tree, and you can roam peacefully among the animals.

   

When I first approached one of the lakes and saw these littles heads skimming the water I thought they were huge scary Amazon snakes, but they were actually just sweet little turtles.

The place actually had about 4 lakes, and there were little bridges and water falls flowing into each one. Here´s what I mean by fruit hanging from the trees. This is a jungle fruit known to only grow in this region called, ¨Aguaje.¨

And hanging from the trees we also found starfruit, coconuts, guava, and limes,

And then there were these little funny looking animals everywhere. They looked like big hamsters. I honestly don´t know what they are, but I know that they make a very strange noise when you get too close.

A couple of the lakes were covered in plants in way that made it seem as though it were land that you could walk on.

You probably noticed the threatening thunder clouds approaching us in the photos. If you´re assuming we got caught in a crazy rainstorrm, then you´re right. We thought about waiting for it to pass at the restaraunt but we assumed that muddy road would wash out. So we got hit by the storm while we were on our little moto and it felt like somebody was literally throwing buckets of water on us. But a little rain was totally worth the beautiful day we had at the lake. I hope we can go back soon.

Carnival

I will do my best to explain a unique Peruvian custom that I had the pleasure of participating in last weekend. It was pretty much one of the craziest things I´ve ever been a part of it. And I loved it.

All month has been the month of Carnival. The history about this holiday is a mystery to me and apparently a mystery to the Peruvians I assked. But I did google it and found this info written on a blog. It was the best explanation I could find. But what I saw of the holiday was that basically for the whole month of February and early March this celebration goes on and it involves hanging out on Sundays and throwing water balloons at each other, squirting people with water guns, throwing flour or paint on people, or worse. You might be wondering where this happens....well it depends on the region of Peru and it depends on each distinct neighborhood. But basically in Iquitos, no where is safe. As a gringa I was a huge target. So we didn´t go out much on Sundays, and if we did I had to hide in the mototaxi. And it doesn´t matter if you want to be a participant or not, you will be targeted. And if you have blonde hair, it will be worse for you. But I never took any of the atttempted attacks personal, plus husband usually blocked the water balloons for me. My hero!

So this whole celebration culminates on the last Sunday of Febrary or a Sunday in early March. Everyone gathers in their respective communities and gears up the water balloon and flour fight while dancing around a tall pole called an Húmisha which they ceremoniously cut down. As a community our little Air Force Villa decided to organize our own celebration and here´s how it turned out.

Here is our Húmisha. 

Here is how the celebration started out, mildly...... a few water balloons here and there with a little flour and foam.

And then things got ridiculous. There was mud. Colored mud. And Red Achote seeds which act as a natural dye for clothing, and then there were buckets of water, and then more mud, more seeds, more balloons, more mud. You get the idea.

And no one was spared. Young or old, holding a small child, dressed in nice clothes, holding a camera (don´t worry my camera´s ok), you were attacked.

It was actually pretty fun. It was like having a killer food fight when you were young. Everyone was acting like kids and everyone looked ridiculous.

 

 

And we did our dance around the Húmisha and performed the ritual of cutting it down. Then like a piñata everyone ran and violently gathered all the tupperware items that had been attached to it. I really wanted a pitcher but Coco and I ended up with an ice tray.

 

 

It was a great day that required a long shower afterwards, and alot of laundry. I love Peruvian traditions.