This is arranged in 3 sections: Travel Information, Volunteer & Donation Opportunities, and Latin American Literature that I read (in English) during the trip.
Travel Information:
•Much of trip inspired by BBC’s “Planet Earth” (not “Indiana Jones & the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” -- all similarities are coincidental).
•Guidebooks: Lonely Planet’s “Peru”, “South America”, & “Trekking in the Central Andes”; Bradt’s “Amazon”.
•www.saexplorers.com: South American Explorers non-profit travel organization.
•www.galaxia-expeditions.com & www.hauraz.com/casadeguias: Andean trekking near Hauraz, Peru (save $ by emailing burro-handler Ezer Santos (Spanish only) directly at dizansantos10@hotmail.com).
•www.inkajungletrail.com: Adventure travel to Machu Picchu (this agency pioneered the route; ask for guide Juan Carlos (and ask him about “las sagradas parablas”, but only if you’re male)).
•www.amazonas-explorer.com: Rafting the Apurimac near Cusco; excellent safety & environmental record.
•www.manuperu.com: Manu Cloud Forest Lodge (1st lodge in Peru’s cloud forest & only one donating part of proceeds to Manu Nat’l Park; ask for guide Humberto (master’s degree)).
•www.andeantravelweb.com/peru/companies/peru/manuexpeditions.html: one agency that arranges stays at Casa Machiguenga, rustic lodge owned & run by indigenous tribe in Manu National Park.
•www.quexplo.com & www.colcatrek.com: Colca Canyon & climbs of Chachani, Volcan Misti, or other peaks around Arequipa, Peru.
•www.explorama.com: Amazon rain forest near Iquitos, Peru (with a range of accommodations in the jungle, founded by a biology teacher 40 years ago, donates services to scientists & medical providers to advance ecological research & preserve culture of & provide medical care to indigenous people).
•www.pantanaltrekking.com: Ecological Expeditions – highly recommended by Lonely Planet but I didn’t see anything particularly “ecological” about them, felt that our guide harassed wildlife, & 4 people out of 8 on our 4 day tour had 24 hour bouts of upper GI cramps, nausea, & vomiting (I was the lucky one who also got diarrhea), so I suspect food or water was prepared improperly.
•www.riosuperfly.com.br: Hang-gliding with agency owned by former Microsoft lawyer and tandem hang-gliding pioneer, Huy (“Ruy”) Marra.
Volunteer & Donation Opportunities:
•www.rifugi-omg.org; andesdboscousa@yahoo.com: climbing guide school near Huaraz for Peruvians set up by priest Don Bosco; has affiliated hospital.
•www.amazonmedical.org; amp@amazonmedical.org: Explorama clinic founded by Linnea J Smith, MD, author of “La Doctora”, which chronicles her experience in the Amazon. Currently not accepting medical volunteers because of riverbank erosion threatening clinic.
•Amazon Rainforest Adopt-A-School Program, in conjunction with Detroit Zoological Society: Claire Lannoye at clannoye@dzs.org or Pam Bucur de Arevalo at conapac@explorama.com.
•Paul Farmer’s Partners In Health foundation’s work in Lima: www.pih.org/youcando/join/Peru_Posiciones_2008_(2).pdf. Dr. Farmer’s inspiring work is the subject of Tracy Kidder’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book, “Mountains Beyond Mountains”. Dr. Farmer single-handedly changed how the World Health Organization treats multi-drug resistant TB, based largely on his work in Lima. The book is required reading for all incoming University of Washington freshmen.
Literature:
•Mario Vargas Llosa, an author from Arequipa, Peru, compared to Colombia’s Gabriel Garcia Marquez (Nobel Prize-winning author of “100 Years of Solitude” and “Love in the Time of Cholera” – their friendship ended when Llosa punched Marquez). I read Llosa’s “The Feast of the Goat”, about Dominican Republic dictator Rafael Trujillo, and “The War of the End of the World", about a 19th-century messianic rebellion that withstood the Brazilian army for months. These are considered his greatest works, and I believe “Feast” is the best novel I’ve ever read – a great story and he uses storytelling experiments that I haven’t seen before, and they work well. Interestingly, Llosa served on a commission investigating a massacre by the Shining Path.
•Che Guevera’s “Motorcycle Diaries”, which follows the young medical student’s route with a friend from Argentina up the Andes to northern South America. A lot of the book is devoted to Peru – Machu Picchu, a leper colony near Iquitos (where Che volunteered for 3 weeks), and other sites. Reminiscent of Kerouac’s “On the Road”, but Guevera’s emerging pan-Hispano-Americanism and socialism lends it a far less hedonistic bent. Incidentally, after assisting Castro’s Cuban revolution, Guevera was killed while planning another revolution in Bolivia. Strange that he is idolized for attempting to do exactly what the Shining Path is vilified for doing.
Mexican actor Gael Garcia Bernal (also in "Babel", "Y tu mama tambien", and "Amores perros", all Oscar-nominated) stars in a 2004 movie version of the book. I haven't seen it, but it has received many favorable reviews (83% of critics, per rottentomatoes.com).
