A Journey Unlike Any Other

After twisting and turning for about eight hours on the roads through Peru’s coastal and mountainous regions, the ARRIBA team, the Carlton’s and the Coss’ all made it safely to the high jungle of La Merced, Peru. As part of the three credit hour biology class, I was able to spend four days at a camp nestled amoungst the green-covered Andes Mountains of Peru. The sights on the way to La Merced were quite different than what I was used to in Lima. We began our journey on the coast of Peru. As we packed our bags in the back of the Carlton’s van, our breath could be seen as the vapor slowly disappeared in the gray, cloud-covered sky. After traveling for about two hours, the clouds began to lift, the sky got brighter as the sun could be seen and felt by the eight of us seated in the van. The “mountains” that we were used to in Lima suddenly became in our minds piles of dust in comparison to the beautiful snow-covered Andes in the mountainous region of Peru. Upon reaching 16,000 feet above sea level, four hours into our trip, we were able to get out of the van and take some photos at Ticlio, a tourist stop. With the wind chill there being about twenty degrees Fahrenheit, we were very thankful for the warmth of the van as we piled back in and continued our journey. Within another two hours or so, we were seeing the sunlight breaking through once again as we crossed over into the high jungle region of Peru. Rather than the seemingly dust mounds on the coast and the towering snow-covered Andes in the mountainous region, the Andes of the high jungle were beautiful densely foliage-covered mountains reflecting the abundant rainfall in the area. In just eight quick hours, we were able to cover the three main geographical regions of Peru.