Iquitos

Iquitos is a dump. Felt unease about the city the entire time. Everyone has motorbikes taxi things. The definitely had two distinct periods: The Rubber Boom Years and Post Rubber Boom Years. They have suffered economic death for over 100 years. The rubber boom in Peru didn't last long. Firestone had a rubber plantation in the jungle someplace but abandoned it quickly. A lot of old colonial buildings that are falling over. And a convenience store in an old building built by Eiffel. It was made out of iron. Apparently it gets super-hot in the summer. Whoops. Apparently they built a railroad to Iquitos. which that building is probably falling apart someplace. The river/bay area is super polluted. They flush directly into the river. Yum. There is a monument to the Peru-Chile war. Story has it that the architect misheard the commissioner and made the Chileans Chinese. So they are wearing Chinese military outfits. There are actually a lot of busts of famous admirals all over the city. No idea why.

The Amazon River. It has two types of dolphins: big pink ones and little grey ones. We saw the pink ones (weird color) but getting a picture is difficult. They don't jump into the air, they just surface. Pictures of them are really ugly. They aren't the sleek ocean ones. Another interesting fact the Amazon is brown. The tributaries are black (coffee) because of the organic decomposition. The Amazon is brown (coffee with milk), it is a very clear distinction. I swam in it.

Our lodge was natural in all forms. Mosquito netting. Hot. Humid. Death. I didn't like it because I couldn't sleep. But everyone else could! The rain forest in South America is weird. There are only monkeys, some form of cat, and insect that will cause you to have a debilitating and agonizing death. We learned that quickly in the jungle night walk. This spider... very poisonous. It doesn't build webs. It can jump up to 3 feet. Uh. This spider is also very poisonous, but it builds traps. Let's poke it to see it. Erm. This tree very poisonous. Don't touch it. This tree has a bee nest. Avoid. (Great it is hanging over the path).

We went on a walk through some of the villages to visit a rival shaman of our guide. The villages looked like they salvaged crap from our dumps. Look a bit of wood, let's build a house. But kind of like Indiana: every village has a soccer field. One village had a bunch of kids playing with the One Laptop Per Child XO-1. That was really a surprise because I thought they abandoned the project.

Our guide was weird. Everything in the jungle can kill you but can also save you. Eat a leaf, live forever. Eat the roots, die. Everything can be made into a tea. One of the oddest parts was the fertility tree next to the abortion tree. One eases birth, the other stops it. Why they are next to each other I have no idea. We watched a 14 year old girl crush some sugar cane. That stuff was actually pretty good. Too bad we use some chemical plastic crap from a factory in New Jersey.

We went to an island with monkeys. I hated it.

Last day of Class

We had a drink of Pisco Sour (I wish classes would end like that at Purdue). Some sandwiches. Lots of Pictures. We received diplomas, a Peruvian hat, and some stuff the Peruvians got us.

It was nice.

I will miss them.

Project

We had to make an internet-based interface for the telephone system. As a complex and difficult as you could get. I don't know how we ever got it done.

Joke in the end.............. Asterisk already had one.

Museo de Nacional

A standard museum. Clay pots, silver pots, silver garments, stones, etc. The very interesting part that really struck us was the Shining Path display. Some of the Peruvians told us they thought America was this super dangerous place where we all carried guns and shot each other for fun (thanks media). But Peru was super safe! Yeah right. For years Peru was caught between drug gangs, pro-communist guerrilla forces, anti-government forces, student protesters, and the government. People were rounded up, sent to isolated prisons, and would never return. The military occupied colleges where protests had been held. In one instance, 3 students were kidnapped by the military and their bodies discovered 3 days later. Later we had dinner maybe 100 feet from the center of a huge truck bomb explosion in the posh area of Miraflores. That explosion ruined hundreds of buildings in the area, and cost a few million dollars in damages. You can see all over the city the lasting legacy of the Shining Path. Everything is behind walls, fences, gates. Locked away. The wealthy you are the better built the wall. You either had a fence or a stone wall capped with glass, barbed wire, or electric barbed wire. The really rich neighborhoods were further walled off with guards and gates. Everywhere is filled with police. I swear the biggest employers are the police, military, private security, or taxis. Basically the whole thing came to the point where the fighting would stop in Peru if you make the cost super high. And you do that be arresting everyone, torturing everyone, and killing everyone. Eventually the Japanese embassy was over run. People became so frustrated with everything. The Shining Path gave up. Fujimori is now on trial for crimes against humanity and fraud. He started the path for an economic boom in the country. People respect him but don't seem to be proud. Apparently the country is starting to relax a little from the high tension years of the Shining Path. Some say if the police presence were to go away that the Shining Path would come back. The government is still fighting them in the jungle in the north. It was really chilling to read all of the stories about people killed by the government and the Shining Path. After that I did not feel the same about Peru.

Futbol game

Professor Hanson, a professor from TECSUP, his brother, me, and another student from Purdue went to a futbol match to watch Universatario play against another team in the Peruvian league. This stadium was massive! I guess it seats over 80,000 people. The problem is the average attendance is under 20,000. (Later a Peruvian student told me they only sell it out against their main rival, during concerts, and when the national team plays there.) At this stadium you get a quick understanding of Peruvian idea of professional. The place was really dusty, the bathrooms were questionable; the field looked very well worn. Generally, I like older stadia because most of them have more personality than modern ones. So I figured this stadium was 70 or 80 years old. Maybe over the years they renovated to fix the concrete, put in new seats, added a ton of luxury suites, etc. No! This place was only 8 years old. I have never been to a top stadium that looked so in disrepair. It made me wonder if Peruvians build things and let it go until it falls over. The game wasn't too exciting. The field was surrounded in a thick Plexiglas wall with barbed wire. You weren't allowed to sit at the bottom 10 or so rows (the fence was completely covered in banners) because the riot shield police were at the ready. Again you had the Peruvian food vendors coming up to you asking you wanted something. The Peruvian professor told us that you can ask the vendors if they have drinks filled with alcohol. Unofficially, of course. The fans sang, yelled, and used flares. Definitely different from American pro sports. Afterward we went to a restaurant and I ate a whole chicken, two beef-ka-bobs, and a salad. The games weren't too expensive. I guess it was 10 soles to enter.

Fountain Tour

We went to the largest display of fountains in the world. Some were sculptures of things with water spraying out. Others had jets of water coming out of the ground. It was almost like the greatest collection of fountains from all over the world. One looked like a cooling tower of a nuclear power plant. One fountain was like a tunnel. Jets of water would curve over us and we could walk through it. I stuck my hand between two jets and the police blew a whistle at me. Whoops. At one end was this massive fountain that shot water straight into the air. A guess the guy got his inspiration from a fountain in Las Vegas. The most impressive part of the entire show was the show they do. This fountain has a long line of jets that shoot straight into the air. They have colored lights under them. At 8 I believe at the middle, the jets turn into sprayers were they project a movie and lasers through the water. They play music during the show. Afterwards we went home and on the way we saw their massive renovated national stadium. At the one end they have this massive tower with a restaurant at the top.

On Saturday

Saturday was our tour of Lima. We circled lot of statue-filled plazas, wide boulevards, and ancient Spanish parks. We drove past a huge Inca pyramid that was built out of mud bricks. Millions of bricks. I don't believe these bricks were probably 4 or 5 times larger than modern bricks. Back in the day the pyramid used to have a flat spot on top that they said held huts. I wonder where all the bricks went because it isn't very large anymore. We went to a park that dates back to Spanish conquistadors. Pizarro apparently wanted olive trees and received about 12. Since then they had traced more than 50 trees in the park back to the originals. This park also contained the Argentine embassy. A beautiful yellow building. Architecture in this area can be traced to certain people. Incas built mud brick buildings with a flat grassy roof or no roof at all. Spaniards built medium pitched roofs to keep the rain off (What rain?). Central Europeans built high pitched roofs... for the snow.... Our guide didn't tell us this but all the buildings at one point were all the same color. But since all of the buildings are right next to each other, it became hard to tell each one apart. After that each house had to have a different color and they picked bright colors to catch your eye. We went past the Palace of Justice, more statued traffic circles, and a Sheridan. We had lunch at a buffet and one of my fellow students got the number of our waitress. That was a little weird. After that we went to the Presidential Palace where the president doesn't live. The fancy yellow mayor and government offices. We went to a park that had the old outer defensive walls of the old city. The park had a large statue of Pizarro on a horse. Really it is weird how the Spanish came in like they owned the country, killed, Christianized the natives, gave them diseases, and yet still honor him. The opposite mentality than we have in America. We walked over to another church that had the saintly relics of the three saints of Lima and Peru. Our guide didn't really seem to care but it was still interesting because all of the normal saintly relics are usually in Europe. The buildings in the old parts of Lima have balconies. I forget what our guide said about them. I think they had something to do about not being seen by commoners, and hiding women.