Australia

Australia, home to the Great Barrier Reef and many of the world's most deadly animals.  It is known for many things, including the Sydney Opera House, cuddly koalas, wallabies, and wombats, but the thing that it is best known for would probably have to be the kangaroo.  Amazingly, the Great Barrier Reef, off the coast of Australia, is the world's largest reef and it covers about 133,000 square miles, the diversity of marine life that it houses is astounding.  Australia is also home to the Sydney Opera House, one of the world's most famous buildings.  It was built by Jorn Utzon in 1973, inside the Opera house the sound is incredible, many of the world's most renowned performers preform here.  Rugby is very popular in Australia.  Since the Australian national team is one of the best in the world, they went to the Rugby World Cup finals this year.  Australia, which is a facinating country, has many unique aspects about it. 

 

Sydney is the capital of Australia and is a massive city situated right in the middle of a beautiful ocean-front harbor.  When we first arrived in Sydney we spent three days in an apartment, mostly doing school.  We were situated in the middle of many different restaraunts, my favorite one was the wood-fired pizza.  This pizza restaurant had the greatest calzone pizza ever, it was stuffed with three different cheeses, ham, and bacon, then folded over itself like a taco.  Disappointingly, one thing that I have noticed as we have been traveling, is that pizza in the States is just not on par with the rest of the world.  The majority of pizza in the States is Papa Murphys, Dominos, and Pizza Hut, whereas the majority of pizza everywhere else (at least the countries that we have visited) is all authentic wood-fired Italian pizza.  I think that a wood-fired pizza restaurant in the States would do quite well.  The second day, we went to Bondi Beach, here we surfed and just chilled on the sand.  Afterwards we went on a walk along the coast, we saw many different smaller beaches, and at the end of the day we went out to eat.  The third day, we left early in the morning to transfer to our other house that we rented, which was quite a bit larger because we were going to stay here with our Grandparents.   The walk to the house was brutal, it was only 1.5mi, which doesn't sound like much, however, when you add 40lbs to your back it suddenly becomes quite far.  When we arrived, we grabbed some breakfast and did school for the rest of the day.  The next day we went on a bike tour of the city.  This was an all day event and was really fun.  We biked past the Sydney Opera House, the most expensive hotel in Sydney ($18,000 per night with a minimum of two nights), the Botanical Gardens, several monuments, and the local Chinatown (which we went back to to have dinner).  The bike tour was really fun and turned out to be a great way to see the city.  The next day, our grandparents came at 12pm, we just hung out with them for the rest of the day.  The day after they came we simply walked around town all day.  On Sunday we went to Hillsong, this was so much fun and it was great to be at a church again, it was similar to home (our church is modeled after Hillsong), just twice the size.  The worship was amazing and the sermon was fantastic.  After church we went to get lunch, then since we wanted to stick around to see Hillsong light up the property for Christmas, we decided to do something close by.  Since bowling was full we decided to go rock climbing which was a lot of fun.  My sister even made it to the top!  On Monday we went on an all-day driving tour with a man named Sam.  We toured a wildlife sanctuary where we got to pet kangaroos, koalas, and emus.  We also saw wombats, snakes, and a brilliantly colored peacock. 

Our Grandparents got us some boomerangs, which were really fun to throw around.  The day after, we went surfing at Manly beach.  This has honestly been (in my opinion) the best surfing beach on the entire trip, the waves were absolutely perfect.  For our last full day in Sydney, we toured the famous Sydney Opera House.  It was built in 1973 by Jorn Utzon.  Sadly, he didn't even get to see it completed because due to politics and many complications in the building process.  The Opera House is beautiful on the outside, however the inside is equally as beautiful.  In the amphitheater, the sound is incredible, you can hear someone talking on stage all the way in the back of the massive theater.  Sydney is an incredibly beautiful city with friendly locals and lots of fascinating things to do, my favorite part though, was the tour of the Sydney Opera House. 

 

After Sydney, we flew into Cairns and then drove to Port Douglas.  Port Douglas is a small little town that seems very tropical.  Our Airbnb apartment that we were renting was really nice, it had a pool and we each had our own bed.  When we went out to eat that night we took a short walk along the beach.  While we were on the beach we found some ripe coconuts and took them back with us to try and crack them open.  We were able to open them by repeatedly smashing them on a sidewalk until the outer shell broke off.  Once we broke the outer shell, we then smashed the inner shell (the nut) on the sidewalk until this part broke open.  When it finally did, we would quickly scoop it up and pour the coconut water into our glasses.  The coconut water tasted like sugar, but it was not very good in my opinion.  We then went out to eat and I had a great burger.  When we were walking back that night we noticed lots of bats in the sky, they were everywhere.  Batman must have been nearby.  The next day we went on a boat to go snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef, this was incredible.  There were so many different colors of coral and tons of different fish.  We also got to go scuba diving, which was really fun.  Sadly, it messed up my ears for about two weeks.  It is amazing how diverse God has made the ocean.  As amazing as the Great Barrier Reef was, I personally liked the snorkeling in the Galápagos Islands better because I thought that there were "larger" animals in the Galápagos waters.  In the Galápagos we saw seals, turtles, starfish, penguins, sharks, fish, cormorants, whales, and much more.  At the Great Barrier Reef, I saw a very small shark, many fish, and a ton of coral.  The Great Barrier Reef is unique in the aspect that it is a reef and has large amounts coral, however the Galápagos had better animals but very little coral, so it really just depends what one prefers.  I really liked Port Douglas, it was similar to a remote little jungle/surfing town with many small restaurants, and bats. 

 

The Daintree Rainforest is the oldest rainforest in the world, we came here after Port Douglas.  This rainforest has many different kinds of animals living in it.  We stayed in a fully self-sustained house in the middle of the jungle.  This house was in the middle of nowhere and was powered by solar.  Amazingly all of the water came from the rain, which collected in a massive water tank in the backyard.  We even found a white tailed rat hanging out in a chair on the deck.  With it were some newborn babies on its back.  Our first night we went on a sunset cruise with an older man from the States, who gives tours on his fishing boat.  I have to admit that when we first showed up I didn't have very high expectations, however it ended up being really fun.  He practically knew everything that there was to know about the river.  One interesting fact that I learned was that here in this rainforest was the finest collection of mangrove species in the world, meaning that 36 out of 70 mangrove species lived on this river.  We saw lots of bats, birds, flowers, and crocodiles.  The next day, we went jungle surfing, which was the exact same idea as the canopy tours in New Zealand.  It was supposed to be educational but it didn't really end up that way.  The canopy tour in New Zealand was much more fun.  We also did a jungle walk with a native guide.  This potentially could have been fun, however, I wasn't feeling great and so I needed to stop walking and sit down, so I missed most of the tour.  Another interesting fact about the Daintree Rainforest is that the world's most dangerous bird lives here, it is called the cassowary.  It is the most dangerous bird because it has actually killed two people.  Despite being dangerous, it is a very facinating bird.  It cannot fly, and it has a horn-like structure on the top of its head that it uses to produce a low sound that can actually go around trees so that it can be heard by other birds.  It also has a built in fishing net.  The cassowary has a large mat of feathers that are more like string.  The feathers are hollow and so they help it to float.  The cassowary will jump into the water near the mangroves where the little fish are feeding.  Since its feathers are hollow, they will rise and float.  All of the small fish will then swim under this big mushroom-like object and then the cassowary will climb out of the water.  When it walks out of the water all of its feathers will go back down trapping all the little fish.  When it arrives at a dry spot the cassowary will then shake out all of its feathers causing all the little fish to fall out.  The cassowary will then eat the fish for dinner.  The Daintree Rainforest was really fascinating and there are so many animals living in it including snakes, crocodiles, cassowaries, lizards, and kangaroos. 

 

After visiting the Daintree Rainforest, we drove for two hours to get back to Cairns.  Cairns is a mid-sized city on the ocean.  Our apartment here that we were renting was great.  The wifi was really fast, and we had air conditioning.  The first day while we were here we went on a scenic railway up to the tribal village of Kuranda.  We rode on an old-school train for about two hours before arriving at the village.  At the butterfly garden we saw many native Australian butterflies.  We then went to a parrot house where there were all kinds of colorful parrots.  I love parrots.  I even got pooped on!!!  After the parrots we went to a zoo where we got to hold koalas.  This was so cool and the koalas were very soft and cuddly.  Interestingly, there are only a few places in Australia where you can actually hold a koala.  After going to a few markets, we took a gondola down to the bottom of the mountain that Kuranda was on.  The gondola was really fun and it went over the canopy of the rainforest, which was really cool.  The next day we worked on some school and then that night we went to see a cultural demonstration of the aborigines.  This was okay, but it was not as amazing as the Maori demonstration in New Zealand.  I was even called on stage to dance (not by choice).  Overall we just did a lot of school in Cairns.  One of the days we went to drive around the country side.  We stopped at a local fruit, nut, and vegetable market to get some macadamia nuts.  We also stopped to get fresh homemade ice cream at a local dairy farm and saw an old castle.  Cairns was really fun, and it was awesome to have wifi again.  The village of Kuranda was fascinating and it was incredible to get to hold a koala. 

 

After Cairns, we stopped in Brisbane for a day, here we just relaxed and spent the day at the beach before heading to Thailand the next day.  I think that our time was divided wisely by spending three weeks in Australia and eight in New Zealand.  Interestingly, Australia has amazing animals, which can be incredibly dangerous, but the landscape is not as facinating as in New Zealand.  I really liked Australia, however, I would rather go back to New Zealand. 

 

 

 

New Zealand

     Our adventure in New Zealand started in Auckland on the very north tip of New Zealand.  Auckland seemed like an incredibly wealthy city because there were many massive oceanfront houses and exotic cars.  We spotted a Mclaren 12c, Lamborghnis, Ferraris and even a BMW i8.  I was very impressed with the food as everything was all organic and healthy.  Our apartment that we rented through Airbnb was quite spacious and about 200m from the ocean.  Basically all that we did while we were in Auckland was catch up on school, although we toured an aquarium, went sailing, and saw a movie.         

     After spending a week in Auckland we picked up a camper van that we we spent 17 days in.  When we arrived at the camper pickup site the manager showed us how to work everything.  Interestingly, it was a pretty cool set up, all of the seats, which folded into beds, were really soft and it seemed at first that there would be plenty of space.

      We started off with a two hour drive to Mata Mata, which is home to Hobbiton, where Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit were filmed.  Normally in movie sets the set designers build the set out of temporary materials and then destroy it when they are done filming.  However, in the case of the Lord of the Rings films there was a 1.5 second clip of a local mountain range that made it in by mistake (it was supposed to be edited out).  A few locals recongnized the mountain range and showed up on the property wanting a tour.  So the first tour of the set site began in a van with about four people.  After they were finished filming Lord of the Rings, the set was destroyed.  Wanting to film The Hobbit at the same location, Peter Jackson came back a few years later, but since where he had filmed before was private land, the owner announced, "Sure, you can build on my land, but you have to build the set out of permanent materials and transfer the rights to me so that I can give tours."  Peter Jackson agreed and built the set out of permanent materials so now there is a massive tour company giving tours.  

      After touring the hobbit holes we drove to Rotorua, which was one of my favorite places in New Zealand.  Here we rode luges, toured cultural villages, and went mountain biking.  Crazily, the luges didn't have a fence on the sides so if you went off the track you were a goner; however, the

luges were really fun and the tracks were awesome.  You could go crazy fast.  The cultural village was facinating, we were able to see the houses that the Maori people used to live in, the games they used to play, and the dances they used to preform.  We then had a massive buffet style dinner that was similar to Thanksgiving dinner, there was stuffing, turkey, pudding, cranberry sauce, lamb and much more.  In Rotorua we were even able to dig our own hot tub.  Digging a hole on the beach was really fascinating because Rotorua is volcanically active and so the hole would fill up with hot water like a hot tub.  We also did a canyon tour on zip lines.  

On our last day we went mountain biking, this was one of my favorite parts of all New Zealand.  The mountain bike park was huge and filled with massive redwood trees.   Biking has different levels just like a ski hill, this park had trails for all different levels of riders but the highest we went was an intermediate, which was plenty high for us.  The scenery was absolutely beautiful as there were snow-capped mountains everywhere.  The bikes in New Zealand are slightly different than in the US as the back brake is on the left-hand side instead of the right.  Despite this, I only went head over handlebars once.  After Rotorua we headed to Lake Taupo.  Here we stayed at a free campground on the lake, it was also really awesome because there was a free city-wide wifi.  We hadn't had wifi for about a week and it was really great to catch up.  The next day we went to Tongariro to hike the Trans-Alpine Crossing.  This trek was among the top ten one day treks in the entire world.  We had to hike through snow and mud.  It was really enjoyable; however, since we are following the sun we didn't bring that many warm clothes and as we were hiking through snow we were all really really cold.  Awesomely this is a satelite picture of the 12mi trek.  

After Tongariro we went to Wellington, the capital of New Zealand.  Here we went to the Weta Caves, where Peter Jackson works on his films.  We saw many of the original props from Lord of the Rings and many other films.  We also learned how they make many of their props.  We also went to many Gallipoli exhibits.  At the bottom of this post I'm including a paper that I wrote for a school assignment about Gallipoli.




South Island 

      After the North island we took a 3 hour fairy to the tip of the South Island.  We then drove the camper across really steep roads to a great campsite which was right on a lake.  After doing some school and spending the night here we drove to Abel Tasman National Park where we took a boat out to the park and then hiked back.  The hike was really cool because it was in a jungle/rainforest and there was also a really awesome beach.  Sadly we then drove to Christchurch where we dropped our beloved camper off.  Staying in an old jail house that was recently converted into a hostel was really a neat experience.  We spent one night in this unique hostel and then took the Trans-Alpine train to Greymouth where we picked up a rental car and drove to a tiny little town called Hokatika where we did a lot of school.  In Hokatika you can find jade in the river mouths so there are many jade shops.  We were even able to carve our own jade which was really fun.  When our two days in Hokatika were up we then drove to Franz-Josef Glacier. 

(The Tranz-Alpine train)

In Franz-Josef we stayed in a really big jungle house.  It was in the middle of the rainforest and had 5 bedrooms.  We also went to a kiwi breeding lab where we saw a NZ kiwi for the first time.  The next day we took a helicopter up onto the glacier. This was my favorite part of Franz-Josef and was awesome as I had never been in a helicopter before.  

 After staying for two nights in Franz-Josef Glacier we drove to Queenstown, the adrenaline capital of the world.  Obviously, Queenstown was my favorite part of New Zealand, we did so many crazy things here including riding in a jet boat, bungy jumping, mountain biking, and canyoning.  Canyoning is basically where you almost freeze yourself to death, jump off of waterfalls, and go down really fast rivers.  Despite how cold the water was it was really fun.  The scariest part was probably when the guide pushed me down a 20ft waterfall and I couldn't see what was beneath me. 

The next day we did some school and then went rafting.  The rafting was designed for a family and so they were only grade 1 and 2 rapids but it was still fun.  

That night we went on a jet boat ride.  JET BOATS ARE SO COOL.  They can do 360's, ride on 3in of water (they weigh about 3 tons), and are really fast.  The one that we rode in had 2 V8 engines.  

The next day we went mountain biking.  The mountain biking was not as scenic as Rotorua, but it was way more intense.  It was all down-hill so we would ride a gondola up and ride down.  

We also went hang gliding, we had to schedule it 3 times before the wind conditions were right, but when we got up there it was so much fun.  The "driver" made it swoop and dive but always as we were about to hit the ground we leveled out.  Finally, on our last day we went bungee jumping.  Jumping was insane.  I really didn't even think about it when the supervisor counted to 3.  I didn't even look down, I just jumped, I thought that I was going to be torn apart while I was falling, and right as I was about to hit the water, the cord caught me.  This was probably the craziest thing that I have ever done.  

Afterwards, we then drove to Milford Sound, this was a giant fjord.  It is one of the few places in the world that has black coral, which is usually only found in very deep places.  Interestingly, for some odd reason, the black coral is actually white.  We also saw seals, penguins, and some people saw a whale.  Also in Milford Sound are birds called keas (pronounced key), these are big parrots, who will land on your car and try to eat your food.  We never had one land on our car but we saw some people with them on their cars.  

After Milford sound we drove to Fairlie where we were going to spend a week working on a farm.  This was a blast, we got to de-tail lambs, bassicaly we would pick them up and the farmer and his son would give them a vaccine and use a gas scissor to chop their tails off (they burned them off with the gas).  

(That was what my shirt looked like at the end of the day)

We also did a lot of weeding and had to get up every morning to feed the animals.  I got to feed calves, sheep, a baby lamb, and pigs.  

We also got to drive their Polaris which was really fun.

I ended up really enjoying the farm and learned a lot in the process.  The next day we drove to Christchurch where we flew to Australia.  All in all, I really liked New Zealand, it is very green and has many rainforests.  One of my favorite parts was that basically no matter where you were, there were always mountains.  Someday I would like to go back to New Zealand.  

MY GALOPILLI PAPER:

     World War One was an incredibly bloody war in which many lives were lost in a struggle between life and death.  The war started because the Archduke of Austria-Hungary was assassinated by Bosnian terrorists believed to be supported by Serbia.  This led Austria-Hungary to declare war on Serbia, which was defended by Russia.  Meanwhile, tension was brewing because Germany was afraid as they were surrounded on all sides by countries with powerful armies and because they greedily wanted more land.  Germany's thinking was that France had many powerful forts bordering Germany, but tiny Belgium only had three forts and they were of an old and weak design.  Therefore if they could conquer Belgium then they could go through the border of France and Belgium, since it had no forts, and get to Paris that way.  Therefore, Germany attacked Belgium, quickly overcoming their three measly forts.   

     Since Great Britain was allies with Belgium they declared war on Germany, however, they were not an immediate threat as they had to get through the English Channel and march quite a distance.  The moment Germany broke through Belgium, Russia also declared war on Germany and attacked from the east side.  This meant that Germany also declared war on Russia and had to send at least half of it's military over to fight Russia, which greatly slowed their progress on the eastern front.  Since Serbia was protected by Russia, Austria-Hungary joined Germany in attacking Russia.  Europe was rapidly dividing into the Allies, which included France, Great Britain, and Russia, and there were also the Central Powers, which consisted of Germany and Austria-Hungary.  These were the main events that led up to the brutal beginning of World War One.

      Turkey sided with Germany and this was the catalyst that pulled the Australia and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZACS) into the catastrophic war.  Both Australia and New Zealand were colonies of Britain, therefore if Britain went to war it was their duty to help out.  Turkey was closest to Australia and New Zealand so naturally these two nations went off to fight the Turks.  Britain also sent some of their troops to help deal with the Turks.  These three forces made it to Gallipoli, off the coast of Turkey, in April of 1915 and were ready to begin the bloody battle.  

      In Gallipoli the fighting was horrendous, there were barbed wire fences, and if a soldier dared to venture out of his trench he was dead meat.  There were machine guns everywhere.  The Turk's snipers really took their toll on the ANZACS as they were constantly picking their men off.  There were very few doctors and so dead men were lying around everywhere unburied.  Many soldiers complained in their journals that the stench was almost unbearable.  Eventually a truce was called because of the smell and both sides were permitted several hours to bury their dead men in No Man's Land.  After thousands of ANZACS had died, they were finally forced to retreat because they had so few men that they could not hold off the Turkish attacks anymore.  The battle of Gallipoli was a total massacre with tens of thousands dying on both sides, the terrain was inhospitable, and the entire battle was a massive bloodbath.  

      Before traveling to New Zealand, I had no idea that New Zealand or Australia were involved in WWI let alone the effect on New Zealand that had catastrophic consequences with 10% of it's population being lost.  The percentage of New Zealand's men that were lost in the war, compared to the population of people in New Zealand at that time was greater than any other nation who fought in the battle of Gallipoli.  In New Zealand there are many exhibits dedicated to the battle of Gallipoli.  Peter Jackson himself has donated and made many statues honoring these men as it was also a personal event for him, as his British grandfather fought at Gallipoli and later moved his family to New Zealand because he was so impressed with the New Zealanders who fought at this battle .  It is truly disheartening how many loved ones were lost during the battle of Gallipoli.  New Zealand certainly played it's part in WWI and typically doesn't get the recognition that it deserves as it seems the effects of this war were felt the most by this nation and it was devastating to them how many men were lost.  Learning about this battle as part of WWI and seeing the Gallipoli exhibits at both the Anzac Memorial and the TePapa Museum in Wellington has truly impacted my understanding of New Zealands part in WWI.  

Cusco and Machu Pichu

Cusco is a city right in the middle of the Andes mountains at an altitude of 11,000ft above sea level.  The place where we first stayed basically sucked.  We each had our own bed, however there wasn't much of a common area and the people who owned the place had dogs and cats.  Their dog named Chester was the cutest little golden retriever puppy that I have ever seen, however if you got him excited, he would tear up anything in his way including pillows and your pants.  There was pet fur all over and every morning for breakfast we were served a drink called Coca Tea, that I did not care for at all, but it was supposed to help with altitude.  The people who owned the place were as nice as could be, however the place itself wasn't all that sanitary.  When our neighbor from MN arrived we finally decided we'd had enough and we moved to a really nice hotel.

Cusco is a fascinating city because much of the architecture is original Incan stone.  Also there are tons of cultural markets where they sell Alpaca clothing.  Alpaca is a huge industry in Cusco and alpaca fiber makes very nice clothing.  It is warmer than wool although you don't sweat.  Alpaca's are similar to llamas.  You can also bargain for cheaper prices, which I think is very enjoyable.  Cusco also has delicious food.  They sell guinea pig, which is considered a delicacy to eat, although I didn't have a chance to try it.  One day we did some touristy stuff and went to see an Incan agricultural area and some salt mines.

Finally the night before we went to Machu Picchu we met our guide Saul (pronounced S-a-oo-l) and he gave us a briefing of what we were going to be doing.  The next morning we got up at 5am and headed out in a bus to Machu Picchu.  When we got there we learned that we were going to have to hike an extra 4k because the regular road was closed for construction.  The first day was relatively easy and we didn't have much difficulty.  Lunch was an awesome 3 course meal complete with table and all.  Afterwards they let us have a half our nap before continuing.  It really was glamping (glamorous camping).  When we reached our campsite for the night we passed out.  We got to sleep on a pad, air matress, and sleeping bag, so it wasn't uncomfortable at all.  The second day was definitly the hardest and we hiked over 13,500ft.  We skipped lunch so that we could keep going but it was really difficult.  Almost all of it was uphill, and the summit was amazing as it was above the clouds and almost half way done with our journey.  It was also the highest I've ever been and it was enjoyable to have a half hour break and eat beef jerky.  By the end of the day my legs were practically dead.  Day three was easy and awesome until dinner.  We hiked through a cloud forest and had the coolest campsite ever.

Sadly that night we all got very sick, a combination of food poisoning and altitude sickness.  I threw up 15 times in three hours and by morning I still wasn't better.  The fourth day we all had to stumble down a slippery mountain slope for three hours with practically no strength left before we made it to Machu Picchu.  My first glimpse as I passed through the Sungate was amazing as we were actually higher than Machu Picchu and we had to hike down to get to it.

Instead of staying to explore, we took the bus to the bottom where we then walked to the hostel that we were staying in.  We took a hot shower, had some awesome pizza and then went to bed.  The next morning we took a bus back up to Machu Picchu where we had our formal tour.  No one actually knows how or why Machu Picchu was built, and what we see today is actually thirty percent restored after the original strutcture collapsed in places.  I learned that Yale University has many artifacts from Hiram Bingham's expedition, despite a deal that they made with the Peruvian government, and they won't give any of them back.

Frankly the pictures just don't do it justice.  Machu Picchu is INCREDIBLE!  It is gigantic and all of the stone walls are amazing.  After Machu Picchu we took an awesome panoramic train back down to the bottom of the mountain, where we then took a bus back to Cusco.  We stayed one more night in Cusco before heading back to LA for three days!!!

Iquitios

Iquitos is a big city in the middle of the Amazon.  It's claim to fame is that it is the largest city that you can't drive too.  Literally there are no roads going to it.  You have to fly or boat there.  Here we met up with a missionary couple, whose names are Osmar and Nicole.  They run a a kid's club called "Sunshine Kids Club," they are also partnered with River Valley Church (our church at home).  We were here for a week and we served for five days and took two days off to do touristy things.

When we first arrived we met up with Osmar, went out to eat and then went to our guest house that we were staying at.  When we first rang the doorbell at the guest house, no one came, so we just went back to Osmar's house.  We later figured out that they didn't know we were coming, so we thought that we were going to have to find a different place to stay until they told us that they had room.  Our lodgings were okay; however, Iquitos was so hot and our rooms didn't have AC, which made it feel like a sauna inside of our rooms.  Serving at Osmar's kids club was really awesome.  In the really poor town that the kids club was located in, it floods for 6 months every year.  This means that they have to redo/rebuild their house every three years.  All of the houses are made out of wood because the people in the town cannot afford more expensive materials that would last longer.  We spent the majority of our time helping Osmar rebuild his kid's club. This was really fun because we were ripping up boards and putting new ones in.  One day we even brought our speaker and played Toby Mac while we worked.  Along with our family, there were two women from Guatemala who came to help out as well.  One of them was a dentist and she let me be her assistant for one day.  I got to prepare needles and pliers and stuff like that.

For our first touristy day we went to the local market and saw a lot of local food items including crocodile, cow heart, piranhas, etc.

a piranha

crocodile

For our other touristy day we took a boat out to a few islands and got to hold monkeys, parrots, sloths, kinkajous, and anacondas.

One day they were having youth group at the kid's club and so we went and sung songs in Spanish and then there was a short talk afterwards.  It was a lot like Castaway Club YL.  Overall our time in Iquitos was really fun and it was super cool to see Osmar's faith in action.  He had no source of income and yet still ran this kid's club while having a family.  It was cool to see how he had to rely on God 100% of the time.