Collpa and Cacao

Macaws in the trees above the Collpa.

"The Tourist" is what we called her. Almost as if she didn't have a name (her name was Christelle and she was from Paris). LPAC hosts tourists: it helps pay for the expense of running a research station like this. "The Tourist" came with a guide, hired by LPAC. He took her on hikes in the forest, and on several other outings, two of which we as volunteers got to go on. The first one was a trip to a nearby macaw clay lick, otherwise known as a Collpa. It is right on the river, and so we observed it from the opposing riverbank. Macaws, however, are skittish creatures. They gathered in the trees above the Collpa, socializing and generally making a lot of ruckus. When a boat came by on the river however, they would all fly away, squawking and screeching. In the next half hour they would return to the trees one or two at a time. We observed them for around two and a half hours, but they never came down to the clay itself.

The second activity we were able to do because of the tourist was a trip to a nearby organic cacao farm called Sumaqcao. The family who runs the farm has an incredible understanding of conservation and sustainability compared to many small-scale farmers. They are trying to reforest parts of the land and are growing species like ironwood and mahogany, which is locally extinct because of logging. They are also planning to "sell oxygen" by planting trees to companies overseas as a way for those companies to mitigate pollution. They are a relatively new farm, and this is the first year their cacao trees are in full production. I was quite impressed with how many cacao pods were on the trees, even though they said it is currently the low season.

After giving us a tour of the farm, we were given a full presentation of their various products, including hot chocolate, cacao pulp liqueur, and cacao beans covered in variations of sugar and chocolate. We all bought something.

The "LPAC Babes" with ironwood saplings from the cacao farm, which we will plant near LPAC.

The next morning, Thursday morning, my stomach felt weird, and I could hardly eat breakfast. I still went to Lucerna to get news of the outside world, pick up food, and drop of one of the coordinators. Checking my email there revealed my 4th college result: I've been accepted to UC Santa Cruz! This is my first UC result, and now I am antsy to receive the other results in the next few weeks.

After we got back from Lucerna, I went straight back to bed until lunch, which I also couldn't really eat. After lunch I took another nap. That evening, I was miserable and low-energy, simply from lack of food. I also realized it wasn't your normal stomach upset: it wasn't really my stomach that was painful, it was my esophagus. Every time I swallowed, it hurt, but once the food had reached my stomach, it felt fine. This feeling continued all of Friday as well, resulting in my eating less because it hurt and being accordingly depleted of energy. There is not much I can do but wait and sleep. My theory is that something I ate must have irritated the lining of my esophagus, and now it needs to heal.

I have come to another interesting conclusion. When I was in Bahia, Brazil, I was often very frustrated because I felt as though I had a lot of knowledge that was simply not applicable to the situation I was in. However, here in Peru, I feel like the knowledge I have managed to accumulate in my short lifetime is relevant and useful to my current situation. This makes for a much higher feeling of self-worth. Additionally, from my paternal side I have inherited a "what could possibly go wrong" mindset, which enables me to identify any weak links in the (metaphorical) chain or possible dangerous situations, and do my best to eliminate them. This way of thinking is excellent when trying to plan a trip or constructing something functional. However, it is also a limiting mindset when it comes to putting myself in situations where I could have a lot of fun but also have the chance of getting hurt in some way, like going to a party with people I don't know. The key is to know this and to know when to use this way of thinking to my advantage and when I need to override it for the sake of adventure.