Day 9: June 25 last day of vacation

To make a long story short, I had gotten sick the night before. It started with a headache, then turned to nausea, excessive tiredness and bad stomach cramps. I had missed out on 2 activities (night search of insects last night, and bird clay lick hike today), it was kind of scary, but I got through it. I ended up going to the doctor when I returned to the US and it was a bacterial infection.

I woke up this morning and was excited to go to the canopy tower. I was pretty weak and sick, but my adrenalin got me through this one! We hiked a little ways, then climbed up a 90 foot high staircase to the canopy top. We woke up at 5am before breakfast to see this beautiful site at sunrise. We saw toucans, parakeets, parrots, hummingbirds, etc. The pictures say it all:

the climb up!
sunrise
sunrising
these were seeds hanging from the tree branches, they looked like Christmas decorations!

I rested all afternoon, then got the energy to go to the organic farm. This is the farm that provides the food for the lodge. It was really cool seeing the variety of banana plants, mango, pepper, avocado, pineapple, cilantro, oregano, and the list goes on. We got to try the different foods. We especially liked this one banana that was pink instead of yellow, it was good and sweet. They don't have pesticides or anything, so that farm was organic and pretty bug-free. They had discovered a plant that keeps the bugs away from the crops, and also enriched the soil! I had chicken noodle soup for lunch and dinner they made especially for me. I hadn't eaten for 24 hours and was weak.

finger banana tree
the farmer's cat

I ended up losing 5 lbs on this trip due to sickness and constant exercise! The next 2 days we traveled home. Layover in Lima for 8 hours, we made some friends with a Peruvian family. They were so excited to talk to us for some reason! They even were putting their baby in our laps and taking pictures of us! About 15 family members all at the airport to see one girl off to Spain. It was bizarre, but killed about 2 hours off our wait!
Peru was an amazing trip. I enjoyed taking photographs of the locals and the animals. I am excited because my passion for photography will carry over to my photography class this year. I am teaching photography and general art, and I think it will be great.

I definitely practiced my Spanish a whole lot, and would like to go to a non-Spanish speaking country. I have been to Haiti, Peru, Dominican Republic and Mexico. I learned I don't want to live in a busy city, I like having quiet. I love nature, and fancy hotels do us no good. Being in nature makes Templeton and I most happy. We don't like tour groups and prefer to travel and research on our own. (The rainforest group was cool though, more relaxed). I learned you don't need a lot of luggage, we traveled really lightly and did just fine. I had the best travel partner, we are on the same page about everything and it just makes everything so much fun. It looks like Europe is next, along with Asia and Africa! Thank you to the faithful readers!

On top of the canopy tower. Room for 8 people...very small.