Ok people. I am way behind on this blogging thing. I had a feeling this might happen. Until now, I haven't had easy access to a good computer. I have been sending a few emails here and there from internet cafes. The connection is usually good but often cuts out unexpectedly and you loose everything. Another problem has been the computers themselves, which are usually old, slow and have really weird keyboards that cause me to type things such as: I wnet to w2ytnatrfall @ sw the snah6<...Additionally, there is a lag between the time you hit the keys on the keyboard and the letters appearing on the screen so it feels like you are typing invisible words. Finally, I am in a friend's house using my computer with a wireless connection. Fabulous!
I arrived in Peru on December 19th. I left the US with a weird rash on my legs that my US doctors said was a fungus...? (This rash so kindly followed up a case of amoebas that I had contracted from my previous trip to Peru.) I had to fly to Peru with an ice bag on my legs to keep from overheating and itching. The rash become worse when I arrived to Peru and I immediately headed to the doctor's the following day. The Peruvian doctor said it was an allergy, gave me some strong cream, and Poof! it was gone. It was about $20 for a complete check. I love Peruvian doctors and have visited quite a number due to having experienced a variety of strange ailments when in Peru.
OK...On with the trip...Rudi and I passed our first few days in Lima, in an area called Barranco. This part of Lima is on the coast and is full of old Spanish/Colonial style buildings and is a haven for artists and musicians. You can feast on many of the classic Peruvian dishes and find Afro-Peruvian musicians, like Susana Baca and players of the Cajon (type of drum made from a wooden box that was developed by black Peruvians). Peru has AMAZING FOOD! From the cliffs of Barranco, you can also watch world-class surfers wrestle the beautiful hepatitis/fungus-ridden waves of Lima. (The ocean is much cleaner north and south of Lima). Rudi and I stayed in a quaint little hostel with a view of the ocean and local trash dump. Peru is full of extremes.
On December 23rd, we traveled over the Andes in a car (approx. 5,000 METERS) and descended down into the rainforest to Rudi's family's house in a region called Chanchamayo. Rudi's house lies between two towns, San Ramon and La Merced, and the total population in this large valley, that includes a few more towns, is about 100,000 people. The elevation where Rudi grew up is ~ 800 meters which means it's very warm but not as hot as the Amazon basin (where we are doing fieldwork). The temperature is nearly perfect in Chanchamayo. 
Hot afternoons tempered by storms, warm nights, and lovely mornings full of singing birds. Rudi's house is in a river valley surrounded by hills the quickly turn into steep mountains as one rises in elevation. Rudi and I stayed in Chanchamayo until the morning of January 3rd. We passed Christmas and New Year's with his father and some other family members and friends.
Just before leaving Chanchamayo, Rudi and I took a small trip to an area called PampaHermosa. It is further up the mountains with a landscape that is described as Montane forest and Cloud forest. The mountains are extremely steep and waterfalls are abundant. If you have ever been to Machu Pichu, it looks like that but without the giant city. However, Incan ruins were recently discovered farther up the mountain from Pampa Hermosa. Large tracts of forest in the lower elevations near Rudi's family's house have been cleared for timber and land is used for agriculture. In Pampa Hermosa, there is still virgin forest and one can find giant Cedro trees (in high demand by the US for furniture), monkeys, ocelots, peccaries (Peru's version of wild pig), perhaps Jaguars, and new species of frogs (Rudi has already found some). The name Pampa Hermosa essentially means "a beautiful flat area". The name is referring to the large flat expanses of forest that are nestled within the steep slopes of the mountains. It is an unusual phenomenon and I cannot explain it geologically. Pampa Hermosa, is a new preserve on paper with the lowest level of protection by law, but is highly vulnerable to the surrounding community of farmers that increases in size as more people migrate down the mountains from the Andes looking for work and food.
The trail that passes through Pampa Hermosa continues through cloud forest and up into the mountains, passing through various communities and finally arriving at a larger city in the Andes above the treeline. People walk for hours between these communities and lead extremely poor and difficult lives. Many of these people farm small patches of land whose soil only endures a couple years. They often grow crops on mountainsides so steep as to appear that the entire farm will someday just slide off the face of the Earth. Many of these farmers walk long distances carrying only the amount of goods that one person can bear to reach a town where they sell their corn, bananas, potatoes, etc. for nearly nothing. They then must return to their patch of corn and begin the process again, only earning enough money to buy the basic rice, oil, and candles. What happens if they need medicine for one of their 9 children? How does one advance when caught in this viscous cycle? The mountain communities of Peru have seen little change in the past hundreds of years.
The Chanchamayo region was colonized by Europeans in the 1800's when Peru was giving away free land to "develop". The new colonists blended into the landscape and interacted (probably in good and bad ways) with many of the native people alreadly populating the region. Old haciendas belonging to Italian, German and French families sprinkle the hillsides in the region, primarily above the towns of San Ramon and La Merced, but also much farther up into the mountains. Isabelle Allende writes about remote German-speaking communities in the high, forested mountains in South America and it's possible she is referring to the towns such as Oxapampa and Pozuzo, further up another moutain road from La Merced. In these towns, you can find blondes speaking Spanish and German, and dark-skinned people with blue eyes. Rudi has a German-Peruvian acquaintance that lives in a falling down hacienda off the road to Pampa Hermosa where he grows a bit of coffee, listens to ham radio, complains to his dog, Nicki, and goes a bit crazy with the extreme solitude.
To reach Pampa Hermosa from Rudi's family's house, one must drive about 2 hours up a very steep gravel road that is constantly threatened by landslides and washouts. To visit Pampa Hermosa, one either stays at the only lodge in the area or camps on a farmer's property. Rudi and I camped on the lodge's property (we cut a deal with the owner) which is at the base of the preserve. It is the only lodge in the region and is owned by a local Italian family. The actual owner, who's had a few "nips and tucks" but cares about conservation and is aware of the importance of eco-tourism, lives the Miami Beach life and her son runs the lodge.
Rudi hired a driver from the town of San Ramon to drop us off at the lodge and we were told that the manager of the lodge would take us back down the mountain in his truck 2 days later. When visitors come to the lodge, only by prearranged visits, the lodge maintains a truck and driver for emergencies. Do to negligence on the part of lazy employee in San Ramon, who was supposed to communicate to the manager that 2 guests would be staying at the lodge, thus needing food and a vehicle, there was little food and no car at the lodge when we arrived. However, Sandra the cook was highly creative with our cans of tuna and the noodles, yucca and plantains that she found. Without a car, this place is more remote than where Rudi and I are doing graduate fieldwork because one is trapped at the end of a steep mountain road with no phone or radio contact.
The atmosphere in the lodge was a bit strange because we were the only people staying at this beautiful, spacious lodge. The lodge is actually quite fancy with 10 cabins, gardens, and open bar and dining area with plenty of beer in the refrigerator. There are 6 or 7 macaws that sleep in a cage at night and fly around the lodge during the day. All of the lodge's energy is derived from a small hydroelectric dam that the owners built. Everything is constructed with endangered rainforest hardwoods, and the lodge is perched at the base of a steep mountain covered with forest, next to a roaring river. It was definitely a scene out of an Alfred Hitchcock movie. An enchanting but empty place, haunted by the spirits of Indians, European colonists, and jungle animals.
During our stay, I dropped my camera on a concrete floor and altered its ability to function correctly. Fortunately, Rudi had a camera. While hiking around Pampa Hermosa, we found lots of animals. Of course, Rudi found many frogs, even tadpoles living in brommeliads. Rudi and I both found species of glass frogs along the river. I found a large lizard that Rudi blindly shot his hand out into the dark night in order to catch. I also found my favorite snake along the trail at night (not sure on the species), a Dipsis. We saw many groups of monkeys and Peru's national bird, the Cock of the Rock. Yes, the name sounds bad but it's a beautiful bird. We set up a blacklight for insects and the primary visitors were moths. Very few beetles. I was hoping to catch a Chagas bug but alas, found nothing. Tomorrow I am going to the National Institue of Health to meet a professor and talk about Chagas bugs. Fun!
Overall, Pampa Hermosa is an amazing place. The lodge itself is important because it provides tourists (mainly from Lima) with the opportunity to learn about and experience the beauty, high biodiverity, and intrinsic value of Pampa Hermosa. For me, Pampa Hermosa is one of the most beautiful areas I have ever seen and I highly recommend any adventurous tourist to visit. In Peru, and many other Andean countries, forest at this elevation is very threatened because much of it has been cut and there is high biodiversity. Because the habitat changes drastically with small elevational steps, there is a high level of endemism at many different elevations. One can think of these forests as horizontal trips along the Eastern slopes of the Andes. Within the narrow, horizontal strips of forest habitat, there are also valleys and pampas that create even more habitat changes, thus leading to more speciation and higher endimism. The large numbers of monkeys at Pampa Hermosa and abundant frogs, insects, etc. indicate that the habitat is probably in good shape and there are a number of new species waiting to be discovered and described. However, we must work hard to protect this area and because it is truly fragile.
Well....stay tuned for the next blog.....Northern Peru....land of the Moche!
