Poco de Nada

It’s only a month and a half more before I’ll be returning to Belgium, so this might well be the last article I will write before seeing everyone back, as I’ll then be able to tell all my Peruvian adventures in person. Most important personal event of last month was the visit of my parents during my two weeks of holiday, which gave me the opportunity to travel a bit through Peru with my family. After a week in a jungle lodge near Iquitos, located on the Tamshiyacu River, another tributary of the Amazon, we went one week to the south of Peru to visit Cuzco, the Sacred Valley of the Incas and off course Machu Picchu. Especially the visit to the ruins of Machu Picchu was a wonderful experience. Not only to admire the great building skills of the inhabitants of the Inca Empire, but also because of the breathtaking environment where the ruins are located. Also Cuzco is very beautiful city, with a very relaxed atmosphere despite the many tourists. The architecture however is greatly Spanish, as the conquistadores destroyed everything that could remind of the great Inca culture. The Catholics also found it necessary to destroy all of the Inca temples and to replace them by Christian churches. Finally all art was destroyed as it was considered idolatry.

Also in Iquitos everything is going great. Besides my parents also a friend of mine who was travelling in Peru made a visit. I arranged for him to stay in the house of a colleague and he seemed to really enjoy his time here as he was planning to be here only a few days but in the end stayed almost two weeks. When my parents arrived he was still in the city, so he, together with a few colleagues, helped me to prepare a ceviche (a typical seafood dish with a lot of lemon juice and onion) for my family and colleagues. We also went all together for a dance at El Pardo where my parents managed to impress the crowd with their salsa skills.

The day after I returned from Cuzco I used my last free day to visit the village of Santa Victoria, a bit downstream the Amazon River, where the mother of Marina is working as a teacher. In the afternoon we went with a few friends to Santo Thomas, a beautiful situated village just outside Iquitos, where we went for a swim in the Nanay River.

It is one week now that I’m working again and most important event on the working front is without any doubt the end of the education of Tomás to become a nurse. This Saturday he had to defend his thesis in front of a jury and after this the formal decision was made to give Tomás his final degrees. Afterwards we went with all the members of vzw Putumayo and the people of the jury to a restaurant to celebrate the successful conclusion of three years of hard work by the first Peruvian Secoya to receive a degree in advanced studies. Finally he’ll be able to return to his village to use his skills for the benefit of his people and to see his wife and three children again who were eagerly awaiting his return.

Chau,

Jeroen