Newsletters from Peru

During the past 6 weeks, preparations have begun for the commencement of this year’s turtle project. For those unfamiliar with this annual project, the aim is to help repopulate the local part of the Madre de Dios River with the yellow spotted Amazon river turtle (known locally as the Taricaya, from which our reserve gets its name). This turtle is widely distributed throughout the tropical rainforests of South America, and is probably the most common turtle on the continent.

About a 30 minute walk north from the centre of Cusco you can visit Sacsayhuaman, some magnificent Incan ruins that are set on a hilltop overlooking the city. The origins of the great limestone walls of Sacsayhuaman are uncertain and there are many different theories about the significance of the architecture.

It has been a relatively eventful month for the rescue centre as various animals have been moved around as their needs have changed. The new parakeet enclosure is complete, and now houses all of the parrots and the red-masked parakeet, the squirrel monkeys, Nicol (baby spider monkey) and Muňeca (baby howler monkey), however, it is soon to become solely a monkey enclosure, as the birds are to be moved to a larger enclosure, formerly inhabited by Sid the otter.

Every year in June, Cusco celebrates the festival of Inti Raymi, an Incan celebration which honoured the Sun God. Inti Raymi was the most important festival of the Inca Empire Tawantinsuyo, which based its religion on the cult of the Sun. The 24th of June was when the Incas celebrated the beginning of the Sun's New Year.

On April 12th 1924 politicians forgot their rivalries and came together to declare the second Sunday in May as Mother's Day in Peru. Since this date, Mother’s Day has been highly celebrated and this year volunteers witnessed this special day on Sunday 9th May.

We have recently been working with the village of Palma Real, which lies about 2 hours boat ride downriver from Taricaya. There is an area of roughly 100 ha surrounding the village which has been over-farmed, leaving the soil a very poor quality. A few years ago we approached them, offering to help make this land useful again for future generations.

In 1550, Spanish chronicler Pedro Cieza de León wrote of the discovery of a vast set of buildings, some 25 km from the city of Huamanga. The architectural style differed systematically from Inca constructions. It was Wari, capital of the first pan-Andean State, dating back well before the Incas, as the culture flourished in the area from 550-800 AD.

In August 2009 we became the proud parents of Sid, a young otter. He was a very cute baby when he first arrived and after a couple of weeks drinking a special milk formula, showed a huge appetite for chicken. Although we live by a river we don’t eat fish at the lodge all that often, and bringing it all the way from Puerto can be quite expensive so we were very happy to find a relatively cheap and abundant alternative.

Semana Santa (Holy Week) is one of the most important religious celebrations of the year in Peru and this year it falls between 28th March and 4th April. Catholicism has been the main religion of Peru since the Spanish conquest and therefore Peruvians have adopted the many festivities and religious holidays associated with the Catholic Church.

As you may have seen in the last few newsletters, there are always happenings in the rescue centre. The first 4‐6 months of 2010 will be especially interesting for the adult spider monkeys. Wally, Dixon, Attila and Wolfie are destined for release this year, but have several checkpoints they must pass through before being given the green light. First on the list was the test for tuberculosis.

From February 1st to February 18th, the highland town of Puno, nestled on the shores of Lake Titicaca at an altitude of 3,870 metres, became the Folk Capital of the Americas, with the annual Candeleria Festival. The festival gathers more than 200 groups of musicians and dancers to celebrate the Mamacha Candelaria. For the first nine days, the mayordomos (those in charge of organizing the festivities), decorate the churches and pay for Mass, banquets and firework displays.

This time of year is one of the quietest in Taricaya in terms of volunteer numbers, so quite a few of our staff take advantage of this lull to take their annual holiday. A week before Christmas we wished happy holidays to Daniel Neira and Daniel Medina (Plantón) who were travelling back to Arequipa to pass the holidays with their families. Plantón is taking an extra couple of months to complete the write up of his thesis for his university studies. Also heading off to foreign climes (England!) was Stuart Timson, the conservation manager for Peru.

For many Peruvians the first week of the year represents holidays and many choose Cusco as the perfect destination to spend this festive period. Those that are in the area on the 6th January should be sure to visit Ollantaytambo for the festival of Bajada de Reyes, one of the best festivals in the Sacred Valley.

When arriving in Nazca by bus, it’s hard to see what all the fuss is about. Nazca is a regular, medium-sized town with little of interest for the visitor. However, just a few miles out of town is the airport which organises short flights over the phenomenon that draws thousands of visitors each year and what has put Nazca firmly on the list of things to see whilst in Peru; the Nazca lines.

In the middle of November we re-established an area for raising small animals, mainly for the arrival of Nicol, a tiny female spider monkey (Ateles chamek) weighing just under 700g. With our experiences this year raising Lilou, Maqui, Sambo, Abi, Balu, the young jaguarundis and of course Sid, the southern river otter, a large part of the rescue centre is now dedicated to raising young animals.

Volunteers from Projects Abroad Peru have the opportunity to help out with a new Library Project. Currently this project exists in six primary schools in the Sacred Valley where we are introducing the students to the magical world of reading.

The transfer of the first group of monkeys (Wally, Attila, Dixon and Wolfie) to the pre-release enclosure is scheduled for January, at which time they will undergo 2-4 months of evaluation and monitoring within the cage and, if all goes well, both with behavioural and veterinary evaluations, they will be released.

In mid September, the annual reenactment of an Incan tradition took place in Cusco – that of the festival of Warachikuy, known by the Spaniards as the "party in order to arm gentlemen". It was something like an "initiation" ceremony in which young men got their first wara (breechcloth). In order to get the wara the young men had to pass different athletic tests and sham battles; after successfully passing all tests they got their citizenship and the permission to get married and go to war.

This is a project which, although it did not involve the volunteers or staff as such, has changed the look of Taricaya. In the pipeline for over a year, the 2-storey building which has housed many volunteers since we began in 2001 has finally been taken down.

There have been so many small changes within the Rescue Centre recently, although looking at it from an insider's perspective, it seems relatively little. However the advances are quite significant compared to the situation within the centre even just 1 month ago.

A place which you should try and visit if you have time during your stay in Peru is the Sacred City of Caral, which is located in the Supe Valley, 182 km north of Lima, in the central north area of Peru. Caral is the oldest known civilization in the Americas, and was a thriving metropolis at roughly the same time that Egypt's great pyramids were being built. Because of its size and its architectural complexity, this is one of the most outstanding urban settlements that has been identified on the American continent from the period of 3000 to 2000 B.C.

This month saw the beginning of one of our most popular projects, the only one which stays the same every year when the river level is (usually) at its lowest, which encourages the taricayas(Podocnemis unifilis), otherwise known as yellow-spotted side-necked river turtles, to venture up onto the newly-emerged beaches to lay their eggs.

Most of my colleagues in the past have written articles about their experience in Peru, the culture, the food, that sort of thing. When I asked if anyone had written anything about bungee jumping I was told they haven't. I'm not much of a writer but when I heard this I felt it was my duty to write something to my closet adrenaline junkies. In each one of us there is a junkie screaming to be let out, unfortunately the stronger brother, Mr Fear, more often than not gets their way over the junkie...

We received our second visit from Marco, a butterfly expert, who was this time accompanied by Amos, a PhD student from Minnesota, USA. Marco first came here in March this year with a colleague to study and collect butterflies within the Taricaya Ecological Reserve. They spent 3 weeks with the help of volunteers settings up traps on different trails and baiting them with, if I may so, dreadful smelling bait designed specifically to attract butterflies...

During my stay I have also been fortunate enough to participate in many other extra activities, from school renovations and painting sessions, to salsa lessons and clothes campaigns, all of which have been fun and interesting. These additional activities have been as a result of the vast amount of protests and transport strikes that seem to exist in Peru...

Continuing with the mist nets along Quebrada Trail, we have not caught a huge variety of species but those we did capture were definitely interesting. The highlight for myself and the volunteers who accompanied me (Maylis, Alex & Guillaume), was the female Royal Flycatcher. It was a stunning specimen, and one the volunteers knew the name of even before we took it out of the net.

The festival of Corpus Christi is one of the most important Catholic festivals in Cusco in the month of June. It is a celebration of the saints and is celebrated throughout Peru every year, though perhaps most colourfully in Cusco. This year it took place on the 11th June, and all of Cusco took a day off for this special festival. Many volunteers took the opportunity to take part in the celebrations. Celebrated across the world, Corpus became established in Cusco after 1572 by Viceroy Toledo. So what is the celebration about?

The coffee plants at the pilot farm, having been steadily loading their branches with fruit over the last month or two, are now finally ripening and ready for harvest so coffee picking and peeling has been a major activity in the lodge for a few weeks.

Chunchachas is one of the youngest dances which reappeared after a 90 year break and originates from the Q'osñipata valley at the time when the natives came to Paucartambo to worship the Virgen del Carmen. It is danced to a very happy and rhythmic music which makes this an energetic and athletic performance. The dance contains 12 couples, and a k'usillo or monkey, which is the dance’s pet.

Our main focus this month has been on one of the more ambitious projects planned for this year. We, staff and volunteers, have spent a couple of weeks sewing, digging holes, clearing ground, even carrying away pieces of tree, and generally working very hard to construct what will be a butterfly house. Daniel Alvarado (Gigo) our butterfly guy has been studying the butterflies within the reserve for over a year, building an inventory of the species present in this area.

Easter came late in the year in 2009, but this didn’t mean that volunteers didn’t get to celebrate this big festival in the Peruvian manner. Easter week or Semana Santa is one of the biggest festivals and is celebrated throughout Peru, though with most fervour in the city of Ayacucho. The streets of Lima became filled with devout believers as they follow the procession, and similar scenes could be seen throughout Peru including here in the Sacred Valley.

We visited the Ese’eja community of Palma Real at the beginning of the month to complete the final stage of the agro‐forestry plantation. Having cleared and planted several rows of brazil nut saplings interspersed with fruit trees over the last few months, we returned to plant one final row, this one being the control row. All of the previous plants had been given fertiliser (goat manure, which we have plenty of), so this last row was planted without to see if the fertiliser would make a significant difference.

Ceviche is a national dish of Peru, traditionally made with raw fish, lemon, chilli and onions. It is traditionally served with slices of cold potato or corn on the cob. Ceviche is so popular in Peru that there are special restaurants, cevicherias, which just serve varieties of the dish.

It has been an odd month. Over New Year we had a lot of rain and the river grew scarily high, not as high as last year I have to say but it got to within 60cm of the floor of my bungalow which is now one of the lowest in the lodge. Since then however there has been little rain, leading us to wonder if either it will be a very dry year, or that maybe there is something in store for us in the next few weeks. In Puerto Maldonado there have been rumours that there will yet be floods although no-one is sure quite what to believe.

It’s an exciting time for the Animal Rescue Centre, at the beginning of the month we received a young margay (a small cat with markings similar to a jaguar) from a family at Palma Real. Named by the volunteers as Sandy, she was a little thin when she first arrived but is thriving nicely now on a diet of raw meat, cat biscuits and the occasional guinea pig from the farm!

The thermal baths of Colcamayo are situated just 10 minutes drive away or a 2 hours walk away from the village of Santa Teresa. Colcamayo consists of three warm, crystal clear pools of different sizes and depths. However, should you need to cool off, just step under one of the natural 50m high waterfalls that are at the side of the pools.

At the beginning of the month two of our favourite biologists, Mauricio Ugarte Lewis, ornithologist, and Hugo Zamora Meza with his assistant Yami, bat biologists, returned for a couple of weeks to continue their ongoing investigations into the fauna of Taricaya. With the arrival of new mist-nets both for bats and birds, things here were well prepared and we had wonderful results. Identifying birds by both sight and sound, Mauricio managed to increase our bird list to 400 species, a new record for us (it would have been more but the previous list had to be revised due to changes in the taxonomy).

Panetón is a very important Christmas tradition here in Peru and volunteers spending Christmas here in the Sacred Valley and Huyro will undoubtedly get to sample this sweetened Christmas bread with a cup of hot chocolate on noche buena and the days leading up to it.

One good way to discover more about Peru is to look outside of your Lonely Planet guide book and hit the internet to further research Peru via its own media, where you gain a different insight into the country and what to expect upon arrival. Looking on Peruvian websites is also a great way to practice and improve your Spanish prior to your trip out here, while learning more about the country.

Since 2005 Taricaya has been working hard in creating an accurate and up to date species list, which now includes 359 birds, 54 mammals, 42 amphibians, 54 reptiles and 105 species of butterfly. Various methods have been used to collect this data from mist-netting to manual capture.

Home to a number of our Care, Spanish and Teaching volunteers, Pisaq is a must see location for all volunteers who come to projects in Huyro, Cusco and the Sacred Valley. Pisaq is the home of what is now a ruined citadel which sits at the entrance to the gorge which controlled a strategic route connecting the Inca Empire to Paucartambo. It is also well known for its thriving market held on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays in the main plaza. Entrance to the site is with your Boleta Turistica from around 7am to 5.30pm. You can take the scenic route by foot passing agricultural terraces, astounding views of the valley below and ancient ruins along the way to the main site. Alternatively you can take a collectivo or taxi from the main road.

The Salineras (salt pans) are still in use after about four hundred years. There are two ways to visit this site. Either coming from visiting Moray there is a walk down from Maras to the salt pans. Otherwise you can take a combi from Urubamba to the village of Tarabamba where you cross the bridge over the river, turn right, then after a little while downstream along the river bank turn left and up the canyon along the salty creek.

This month sees the start of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, which opened on the 8th August and will continue until the 24^th. Peru is not well known as a successful sporting country, in fact the Peruvian Olympic Committee’s President is reported to have said it would be “a miracle” that Peru gets a medal. Many other Peruvians no doubt feel the same, but the twelve man delegation which travelled to Beijing feel differently, and flag bearer Sixto Barrera has said that they are going with a winning attitude and want to come back with “a little medal.”

Peruvians celebrate their Fiestas Patrias or Independence Day on the 28th July, the date when Independence was declared in 1821, though was not really considered consolidated until three years later. Peru's movement toward independence was launched by an uprising of Spanish landowners and their forces, led byJosé San Martin of Argentina and Simón Bolívar of Venezuela. San Martín, who had been involved in the overturning of the royalists in Chile, proclaimed the independence of Peru in Lima on July 28, 1821.

The Auto-Cameras use infra red sensors to detect movement (Like a burglar alarm) which then activates the camera. They have memory for 150 photos and rechargeable batteries which last for up to 1 month. Completely water proof, they can be left out in the jungle in all conditions.

Every year on the 24th of June Cusco celebrates the festival of Inti Raymi. It is an Incan celebration known as the Festival of the Sun and honoured the Sun God. Inti Raymi was the most important festival of the Inca Empire Tawantinsuyo which based its religion on the cult of the Sun. On the 24th of June they celebrated the beginning of the Sun's New Year. Scientifically the solstice begins on the 21st of June, but according to the Pacha Unachaq, a sundial used by the Incas, the sun stays some days in the same place before rising on the 24th. This day was proclaimed by the high priest as the New Year: Inti Raymi!

As usual we are always looking forward to hearing from you all! Years have passed since some of you have spoken to us, some of you have only just got home and still have not gotten in touch to say you’re safe, it does not matter how long it’s been, we still want to hear from you at some point! Let us know what are you doing? Where are you? Who have met recently?

Since 2005 Taricaya has been working hard in creating an accurate and up to date species list, which now includes 359 birds, 54 mammals, 42 amphibians, 54 reptiles and 105 species of butterfly. Various methods have been used to collect this data from mist-netting to manual capture.

Hi everyone,
First of all let me introduce myself...my name is Cliona Stenton, and as of 10^th April, I am working with Projects Abroad Peru as the new Social Manager.Originally I came to Peru for four months in 2001 as a Projects Abroad teaching volunteer. For the first few days as a volunteer I remember feeling that everything was very strange and really quite overwhelming. However, I soon came to love Peru, and realized that my experience of living and volunteering in such a beautiful part of the world is truly a once in a lifetime experience.

Next up we have a species that I have never seen up close before, always through a pair of binoculars which is never my favourite thing to do! Our Chestnut-eared Aracari has, like almost all our animals, come from someone in Puerto Maldonado as an unwanted pet. This means, like almost all the birds we receive, that the flight feathers have been cut, so we have to look after the animal until the feathers re-grow, which can take anywhere from 3 months (for small birds) to 1 year (for birds like Macaws). Fortunately we have the care for birds down to an art, so we usually have no problems at all keeping them healthy until release day and then we very rarely have a problem once they are released.

We are coming to the end of our two months in Urubamba and have agreed that it has been the most challenging but rewarding time of our lives. Arriving here knowing no Spanish was very difficult but before long we were in full swing of our school routine.

Along with all the dramas of February, we also managed to receive our first out-side expert, Hugo, a bat expert we met in Arequipa last year when we were at the Ecological Conference. Hugo was captivated by our working style and was very enthusiastic about coming to work with us to do research in to the species of bat we have inside the reserve.

One of the many rewarding experiences that Projects Abroad offers is the six week teacher training course. Kicking off in early January, teachers from Cusco and the surrounding area have the chance to attend English classes for four days a week, led by our team of enthusiastic volunteers in a school in Cusco. This project is not only aimed at improving the level of their own English, but it also gives the teachers a valuable certificate proving their attendance and dedication, (as long as they attend 80 %!)

Since 2005 Taricaya has been working hard in creating an accurate and up to date species list, which now includes 359 birds, 54 mammals, 42 amphibians, 54 reptiles and 105 species of butterfly. Various methods have been used to collect this data from mist-netting to manual capture. Where possible this list has the species name in English, however there are several species that only have scientific names.

Armed with the Christmas decorations made in the previous month and Christmas presents for the children, volunteers and staff celebrated with the children and parents. Afterwards we enjoyed a delicious lunch in popular hangout of Projects Abroad volunteers, the Muse. We will keep you informed about our next social… Volunteers with the final products from our Christmas decoration session at the end of November.

Christmas is celebrated in many different ways around the globe, so if you are spending Christmas in Peru, you will come across a number of new traditions and customs that you would not come across in your own country. The rural context of the arrival of the infant Christ allowed early Peruvians to identify immediately with the festivity of Christmas, which is highlighted by artisan creativity, a sense of aesthetics and the religious devotion of Andean settlers. However, Andean Christmas has taken on characteristics of its own by adding elements from each region.

The 5th of November is a day that Taricaya can never forget. We celebrated 6 years of working with Projects Abroad. Over the course of the last 6 years we have received aprox 600 volunteers.
Created around 40km of trails (Which need to be maintained every few months) Built 20 buildings, including 7 platforms – Including the highest Canopy walkway in South America.
Identified 56 species of mammal, 359 species of bird, 42 species of amphibian, 54 species of reptile and 105 species of butterfly.

In Teaching this month the “Minisaga writing competition” has started, look out for the winners in Decembers edition. In October Noah Prince-Goldberg and Michael Freeman have started providing afternoon English classes in IEMx Humberto Luna in Calca. The classes are available to all local people of any ages and they now have a regular following of 20 to 30 people. Well done guys! Also, after the great success of the singing last month, look out for a second recording session in the office.

This month we arranged Salsa lessons for all Projects Abroad volunteers on Tuesday 25th September in the Projects Abroad office. Profesor Cesar arrived at 4pm and began to teach the volunteers some salsa basics for them to practice on the dance floor in Cusco at the weekend. Some volunteers showed themselves to be salsa experts while others decided not to display their cases of two left feet! After the lesson we enjoyed drinks, snacks and pizza.

On August 15th at 18.41pm the coast of Peru was hit by an earthquake. The epicentre of the earthquake was in the town of Pisco. It was reported that the earthquake was 7.9 degrees on the Richter scale. Pisco, Ica and Chincha were in the zone most affected. The quake left hundreds dead and injured, while thousands have been left homeless in the Ica region, which is south of the capital Lima.