rain rain rain

After finally having rested up from our bus ride, I´m realizing and remembering why I love the jungle or at least Moyobamba so much. 


So many fruits. So many foods. So many trees. So many nice people.


A pijuayo is a fruit from the amazon jungle and this is the first time that I have tried it. The trees it comes from are very tall and skinny. And it is difficult to eat. I don´t believe that it gets eaten raw. You have to boil them first. Then peal and eat the fruit that tastes a little like nuts and a little like something I can´t put my finger on. It gets made into drinks and ice cream too!


Aquaje is another amazon jungle fruit. It has a hard shell that resembles fish scales that have to be picked off first. It is a little messy. You can eat it raw plain or with salt or sugar. It also gets made into drinks. It´s pretty delicious. And apparently good for female health.


We have been eating a lot of pijuayo and aguaje. Amongst a lot of other things. And Julton has beein going between his parents house and his grandparents at each meal time... which would explain his stomach ache!


Yesterday we went to visit a smaller city just outside of Moyobamba where Julton has some relatives. One of the daughters is studying tourism so she took advantage of the opportunity to show me around. I learned a lot. Including that there was a legend that there were dwarves that would come out of the river to make people disappear into the woods, at one place we were visiting. As I looked around she said, but not anymore!!
It rained on our way back and I woke up last night to hear it raining heavily oustide. Zanax doesn´t know what to make of that. She is still hiding under the bed. She tried to catch the birds in Trujillo but I think the quantity of birds in Moyobamba scare her. Julton´s sister´s kitten is so curious about Zanax´s litterbox and likes to play in it, which she doesn´t like one bit. The poor little guy really wants to be friends with her but Zanax won´t have it. 


Today Jultons mom took me over to the stadium to meet her niece that works there and to let me go into run. But the running didn´t work out so much since it rained so hard last night and the track is made of mud. So Julton took me out to the other side of town to a tiiiny concrete soccer field , where I could run. I nearly crushed a frog in the process and was nearly trampled by a horse since the soccer field was literally in a field where horses were grazing. 


So far I am loving our trip in Moyobamba. As always. It´s so easy to relax here. If you don´t mind getting rained on. But the rain is a good thing, since that means there will be water to take a shower. This is the second time that I have been here and the water has been turned off for one reason or another, so it is either bucket showers or wait until it rains! Or go to the thermal baths, instead!