A Proposal!

A Proposal!

Most of you who read this blog are close to me and my family so you already know the news…that Jorge and I are engaged! We are so excited and happy. We feel blessed that God has brought us together and that He has given us family and friends who love us and support us. After over a year of dating, with a lot of it being long distance, my time here in Peru has made us realize how much we care for each other and how we want to commit to doing life together. So, you may be wondering how he proposed. Well I will tell you…

A few weekends ago we went to Lima for a little weekend visit. There was a plane heading there from Iquitos so we jumped on…literally… Jorge came to my place and said I had 15 minutes to pack. So we spent a few days there catching up with family and friends and eating food that we had been craving in Iquitos (Starbucks, ceviche, salads). One morning Jorge made plans with his friend Alonso to go surfing. I said I would tag along but that I would probably go running along the coastline while they were in the water. Later I would find out that Jorge was counting on the fact that I would want to go for a run….

So we arrived at the beach and the boys got all suited up and headed into the water while I took off on my run. As soon as I was out of sight they began to execute their secret plan. They prepared for my return and then watched and waited for me to come back. Well I didn’t want to be the annoying girlfriend who cut the surf session short by finishing the run early and sit by the car looking bored. So I really took my time with the run and even stopped at a few places. They said they were wondering if I was ever going to come back. When I finally did, I approached the car and I saw Alonso getting out of the water. I told them they could spend more time in the water if they wanted but he seemed eager to get changed and he said Jorge would be out of the water soon too. So I thought Alonso was busy getting changed, but he was getting a camera, flowers, and some music ready inside of the car. He told me that I needed to go down to the water to help Jorge out because he had stepped on a sea urchin (which turned out to be true and he had to have the hospital remove an urchin spike from his foot the next day).

So I went down to the water and grabbed his body board for him and took it to the car. Meanwhile he was walking backwards with the big flippers on his feet and reaching into his wetsuit for something. I walked back toward the water where he was and he had a handful of sand. He said he found something and I really thought it was a crab or shell. So I sifted through the sand in his hand and found a beautiful ring. That’s when he carefully got down on one knee (difficult to do on a rocky shore and with flippers on your feet) and he said , “Baby, you wanna marry me?” Then he put the ring on the wrong finger. I said yes and got so excited and happy and then showed him which finger was my ring finger.

I was so amazed that he kept the ring inside a tiny pocket in his wetsuit the whole time he was in the sea. The whole while this was happening Alonso was taking pictures and blaring one of our favorite songs from his car (Lauryn Hill’s “Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You). Then I got to hear the whole sneaky story about how it was all planned, and really I didn’t know a thing. Later Jorge told me he had a big speech planned but he got so nervous in the moment that he forgot it. So he told it to me later, and it was beautiful.

After the beach we went to see some of Jorge’s family including Tia Betty, Tio Juan, Prima Erica, Primito Oscar, and their pet turtles. We celebrated at lunch with them and then visited more family.

We stopped by Grandma’s to see Jorge’s dad and his wife and two daughters. We also went to check up on Panda. He is much bigger now and looks much healthier. Grandma has been taking great care of him and she is definitely in love with him (as pictured below).

Our journey to and from Lima involved a cargo plane to Lima and for the return flight, a real passenger plane from the Air Force with actual seats and seat belts! I liked all of the Air Force symbols all over the plane.

A little note about or flight on the way to Lima from Iquitos, there was some special cargo I want to tell you about.

About a month ago Jorge was copiloting his first flight in a Twin Otter plane that was flying from a small town en route to Iquitos. Him and his pilot were carrying two passengers and the mechanic. As the five of them began their ascent, the ‘chip detector’ light came on along with a lot of other ‘danger danger’ lights. Him and his copilot had to make a decision, they decided to continue ascending and once they were level in the air they were forced to turn off one engine because all signs were indicating that the engine would soon explode if they didn’t. So they were in the air using their ability to float with only one engine. As soon as they lost an engine every member of the Air Force was notified and everything basically stopped while they were in the air as all efforts were concentrated on getting them safely landed. It was kind of like those scenes in Apollo 13 where everybody waits in silence praying for their safety and emergency crews were rushed to the Nanay/Amazon river where they would be landing. Him and his pilot did an amazing job correcting their navigation the whole time as they were making a landing on water with one engine. Everybody in all of the Air Force of Iquitos was there to celebrate their safe landing. And the whole time I had no idea. Nobody notified me until he had or hadn’t landed, and I was fine with that. Its very rare that this sort of thing happens and Jorge was told that he handled the situation very well, not like a rookie at all. And I am very proud of him.





So ironically on our flight to Lima there was some special cargo on board. On the back end of the plane was the very same engine that almost made him crash. The engine was from Canada and was only a few months old. So needless to say there is going to be an investigation of the engine in Lima. And then it will be sent back to Canada. I felt mad at that engine and I gave it a few mean glares.

Okay there is plenty more to blog about but not enough internet time…so keep checking in. I love you all!

Halloween

So Halloween has long been one of my favorite holidays. Over the past few years my costumes have been consistently made out of cardboard or things laying around the house, but I always put as much and heart and soul as I possibly can into my costumes. I love Halloween. Well, Halloween is not such a big deal here in Iquitos. I hear that it is more celebrated in Lima, but Iquitos doesn’t really blink an eye. So I had no costume. But…I did bring a bit of the spirit of Halloween here by carving some pumpkins. Knowing about my love for Halloween and its traditions Jorge promised to find a pumpkin for me to carve. Here pumpkins are very rare, but we decided to embark on the journey anyways.




We went with our friends Fio and Cali to the open air market of Belen. Cali is an engineer here in the Air Force and Fio is his lovely wife. They have been extremely hospitable to us and we are blessed to know them. I had been to the market once before but it was on a week day in the late afternoon, so there was not too much to take in. But this time we went early on a Saturday morning…and oh my goodness. I have never seen such things. I would have taken my camera but its not exactly a great place for valuables, plus I already stick out like a sore thumb, plus I need to remember that sometimes it’s better to take things in through my senses instead of through my camera lens. So I will try to describe it as best as I can.

Well, I felt like Alice in Wonderland when she fell down the rabbit hole and chased that little rabbit with his clock all through a magical land…only I was chasing pumpkins. The market is filled with most random of items, nothing quite makes sense to me and you are lucky if you find what you need right away. It’s not like asking the clerk at the grocery store what aisle the cookies are on. So imagine this…mototaxis and motos everywhere, people yelling prices in your ear, a smell of rancid old vegetables mixed with fish, a woman selling turtle eggs, a whole table full of alligator meat with its toenails and scales still intact, a pile of flopping fish, a small boy sitting playing with a large sharp knife like it’s a tiny toy, a cow’s stomach, a cow’s tongue, cow testicles (I mean bull testicles) people lined up at a counter drinking fresh made fruit juices, flies everywhere, an old lady with a rack of mysterious spices and mysterious bottles of perhaps magical potions (used for cooking of course), a huge pig cut in half with all of its contents completely gone, legs of animals hanging from the ceiling, people carrying baskets of food on their head, a guy following you around wanting to sell you some earings, and puddles of stale water everywhere. I promise to take you here if you come to visit me…haha. Really it was all very interesting. We were redirected about 5 different times until we were finally told about a girl we could get pumpkins from. When we found her she had a few small ones. We inquired about some bigger ones and she said we would have to follow her. She took us on a little walk and led us to an old wood building where we had to climb the stairs into an attic…and there hiding in the dark was a pile of about 5 pumpkins. We carefully selected the best two and then made our quickly back to the entrance and out of the rabbit hole.

So we had a little barbeque on the day of Halloween, and while everybody was cooking and barbequing delicious things (including alligator) I was busy in a corner planning my pumpkin masterpieces.

I went for the classic Jack-o-Lantern so as not to confuse the Peruvians. And at first I felt like the weird girl from California going at a large squash with a fierce knife, resembling “Carrie.”

But when I finished, everybody loved them and they all wanted to take pictures with them.

We had a few kids show up for trick or treating here in their costumes and they were excited to see the pumpkins as it was the first time for some of them to see carved pumpkins. Fio and Cali gladly kept one on their porch and we gave the other one to a friend of ours who is from Canada. She had the only house in the whole area with Halloween decorations and was thrilled to have the pumpkin complete the whole look.

Earlier in the day we went to a famous restaurant here called Texas Rose. This place looks like a man from Texas came to Iquitos and shot every animal he could or wrestled it with his bare hands and strapped ‘em all to the walls and called it a restaurant. And we met that man, his name is Gerald. He was extremely kind to us and told us all about how he plans to expand his larger than life restaurant. Right now he serves regional food, but is also the only place in all of Iquitos where can find good old fashion American cuisine.

Sorry if I seem like less of an authentic traveler, but I find this place and its food sooooo comforting. Soon he will be serving Cajun food and Mexican Food. Ok I can officially stay in Iquitos for a while. So I had to have some coffee (my first cup in over a month) and a big pancake. I thought of my dad during that breakfast because I was surrounded by cowboy and old west memorabilia and I was eating pancakes like him and I always used to do on Sundays together. I could just picture my dad at our dining room table in Oakhurst taking his chocolate chip pancake and piling on butter, peanut butter, maple syrup, yogurt, whip cream, and then cinnamon. Those of you who have experienced the man’s pancakes know what I am talking about, and if you haven’t then you need to. I miss you daddy, you’re awesome.

The next day we went on our friend’s boat to the beach again. This time the journey was a little less treacherous and when a thunderstorm came we just waited it out right there in the water. It was a great day. And that sums up Halloween here. I love you all!

Morado, A day at the Beach, and a Buena Vista

So the month of October is the Mez de Morado or Purple. And the whole month is to be marked as a celebration for Senor de Los Milagros. If you are wondering who that it is, well it's Jesus of course. The man of many miracles. Coincidentally I have been reading through the book of Mark the last few weeks and relishing on all of Jesus's miracles. Not coming from a Catholic background, this tradition was a first for me to witness. I will try to explain how it is celebrated, but remember I am just a foriegner and have no expert opinion. Supposedly there are marches or processions all throughout Peru during the month in which the image of Jesus is carried by a carefully selected group of people and everyone follows behind.



The procession in Lima is apparently massive. The one I witnessed was organized by the Air Force and it was small and intimate, but it still had a marching band. Different departments within the Air Force organized their own stations around the base decorated with lots of purple items, images depicting Jesus' miracles, flowers, and candles. The priest led the procession and stopped at every station where a hymn was sung, scripture was read, and prayers were recited. My feet really hurt by the end, but I wanted to see the whole thing.





At the end a group of man made the heavy image of Jesus appear to dance three traditional dances, it looked like backbreaking work. And Jorge made sure I was aware that the actual images of Jesus are not to be worshiped or adored, and instead the actual man behind the miracles is to be adored. I concur.

So a while ago we decided to go to the beach, sounds like a nice laid back idea right? Well in order to get there it was quite a journey. We had to take a long mototaxi ride out of the city to the beginning of a long dirt road where our mototaxi driver decided that he wouldn't take us any further. So then we have to get in another mototaxi that is willing to take us to the water's edge. Then we get on a little "pequi-peque" boat, named for its sound, and slowly but surely arrive at a river beach called Tipishca. And it was well worth the journey.

We soaked up the sun, lost two matches of volleyball to local students, ate shambo ice cream, went swimming, drank some Inca Cola, and then the clouds started to roll in.

I woke up Jorge from his nap and asked if he thought it would rain....and he said, "We have to leave right now." So we did. So that lovely little journey I described earlier, we had to do it all over again backwards in a frightening thundering rainstorm. It was kind of awesome.

And on our mototaxi ride through the muddy road, that now resembled a river, we were joined by a german woman who is one of those extreme travelers I always feel intimidated by. She had been traveling around South America by herself and volunteering in conservation work. She fell in love with the jungle all around Iquitos and is now buying a piece of land in the middle of the jungle and plans to live off the land. Hm, that's not for me, but good for her. Two days later we saw her in the internet cafe and I felt sorry for the people sitting next to her because they didn't even know they were sitting in the presence of a world-traveled jungle warrior woman.

We went to eat at a restaraunt Jorge had heard about from a friend. It was called Bucanero. It had a big glass room at the back of the restaraunt that had the best view I have seen so far in Iquitos. It overlooked a bustling port on the Nanay River. It was breathtaking and lucky for us we caught a glimpse of rainbow while we were there. And the food was delicious. I really can't remember what we ate but involved alot of meat and it was delicious.

Well that's all for now. I had some interesting adventures on Halloween, but I will write about those the next time I get a hold of some internet. I love you all!