Hey, this is Helen. We´re back from an amazing week in the jungle! Sorry for not writing earlier, but I´ll tell about our last few days in Cusco, and then coming here. Last friday was our final day of spanish class. It was sad to say goodbye to our awesome teachers, but we get to go out with all of them as our last hoorah. They took us to a picanteria- a traditional restaurant that serves local food. It was a lot of fun! The food was good, and so was the entertainment- and a man playing guitar and singing circled our table, and some of us danced along. Back at the school John (the director) gave us a talk about FairPlay and how/why it began. It was really interesting and stuck with me a lot. It´s amazing to get to travel this way, and meet so many people who are doing great things with their lives. Saturday was a free day in Cusco, and also was Elta´s birthday! Her favorite meal is Sushi, so to celebrate we all met for dinner at a really good asian restaurant in town. On sunday we packed up and headed out early to catch our flight. As soon as we stepped off the little airplane into Puerto Maldanando, sweat just started pouring. It was so hot and humid! Not at all what we were used to coming from chilly Cusco. We spent one night in town there before going to the rainforest. On monday morning we took a 5 or 6 hour boat ride on the Tambopata river to our destination for the week! It was incredibly beautiful and relaxing. We saw a few capybaras on the shore, and the most amazing sight, I thought, was a tree full of brightly colored macaws! There will be pictures to come. We landed at El Gato, our hostel, in the afternoon. I didn´t quite know how to picture a hostel in the middle of the jungle… but it turned out to be really beautiful. Monday night was spent resting and preparing for our week of macheteing trails through the jungle! More news to come…