End of year fiestas at Estrella de Sauce

Here in the Southern hemisphere it is the end of the school year.  At Estrella de Sauce we gave gifts cake and drinks to the children who attend our daily program on Thursday and on Friday we had another celebration for our senior citizens group who meet once a week throughout the year.

Now we will take a break for a few weeks before beginning our 'vacacciones utiles' summer camp for 120 children in 3 different communities.

We send holiday greetings to all our past volunteers, our supporters, friends and family.

!Paz y luz a todos!

Christmas gifts for 26 senior citizens

Mercedes serves up fiesta goodies

Christmas songs with guitar and harmonica

Denise hands out gifts

Our volunteers Miriam and Mercedes

November in the United States

Volunteer Denise relaxing aboard 'Estrella del Lago' as we head for the swimming beach.

Lourdes and I are heading north to the USA for all of the rest of November.  We have a new grandchild, Rowan Stevens in Asheville North Carolina who we will be meeting for the first time.  We plan to offer baby-sitting services to his mom Betsy and dad Lief so they can go out on the town while we are visiting.

We leave our Waldorf educational and social project Estrella de Sauce in the capable hands ofour wonderful volunteers Mercedes who comes from Pucallpa, Peru, Miriam who is from Cologne, Germany and Denise from near Hamburg in northern Germany.

Mercede is a trainee Waldorf teacher and an expert in Shipibo embroidery.

We all went out for a last sail, swim and kayak messabout on Monday after which I prepared our 33 foot sailing catamaran 'Estrella del Lago' for our month away by removing all loose gear such as sails, motor etc and tying her up with extra ropes as November tends to have strong winds on the lake.

We will arrive in the US on November 7, right before what pomises to be a wierd and interesting presidential election.

 Miriam cruising aboard 'Estrella del Lago' ready to do some kayaking.

Another field trip for the grandmothers of Sauce and a 10 day educational project near the city of Pucallpa

 AN EDUCATIONAL VISIT TO A SHIPIBO VILLAGE

Lourdes and volunteers Victoria, Luka and Miriam travelled to the city of Pucallpa then took a small river launch upstream on the rio Ucayali to reach the small community of Ceilan.  With a group of 40 children they held daily classes in movement, painting, drawing, reading, writing and arithmetic.  They also made delicious jungle-style food together.

A VISIT TO CHAZUTA

As part of our educational and social outreach in the community of Sauce we hold a weekly crafts and social get-together for women over 60 on Friday afternoons.  For 5 years now we have hosted field trips for these ladies to different locations around our region of San Martin province.  This year we decided to go to Chazuta about 1 1/2 hours away.  It is another small town that sits beside the rio Huallaga, a major tributary to the Amazon river with huge rapids falling over enormous boulders - quite a sight to see when the river is in full flood conditions.  Chazuta has more of a connection with tribal people than does Sauce as there are several tribal communities further downstream from the town.  It also has a rich tradition of crafts, mainly wood-fired ceramic ware decorated with distinctive designs made from natural pigments but also artesanal chocolate made from locally grown cacau.

Our group led by Lourdes and accompanied by our wonderful German volunteers Luka and Victoria were welcomed by the grandmothers of Chazuta who wear their own distinctive style of hand-embroidered clothes and carry thier ceramic pots on their heads.

Welcome Rowan

Our newest grandson Rowen was born on May 12 in Asheville NC.  Lourdes and I have plans to visit him, his mother Betsy and his father Lief during November.  We've so far only seen Rowan in photos and are looking forward to meeting him in person.

Vertical rock garden, waterfall and koi pool

Work proceeds slowly on our house in Sauce.  I've had fun not being a carpenter for this project and trying my hand at stone work.  I got pink volcanic rocks from over the other side of the lake, white rocks from up on the mountain and rounded river rocks from the bank of the rio Huallaga to create this vertical garden with falling water that comes from a pipe perforated with little holes hidden behind the upper wooden shelf.  The water irrigates the plants and also makes interesting patterns flowing down the central tiles.  I made the plant containers by forming the shapes with chicken wire and then covering this with cement.  At the moment we have 3 goldfish and 2 turtles living in the pool.  Hopefully soon we'll get some koi as well.  I find it relaxing hanging out beside the plants and the falling water watching the evolving aquatic ecosystem.

Catamaran Video and Facebook

Our friend Pedro shot some footage recently as we cruised the lake on rather a grey day with little wind - but we had fun anyway!

https://youtu.be/xVS27_Qpl.9U

He also put the catamaran on Facebook:

www.facebook.com/Catamaran-de-Laguna-Azul-1580880938895864/

Catamaran Graphics

In preparation for getting the catamaran ready for paying customers we are doing some final details like repairing and reinforcing the bamboo boom,  putting the boat's name on each bow and this beautiful trditional Shipibo visionary design done over a 3 day period by our friend Mercedes who is now back in Pucallpa resuming her law studies after staying with us for over a month.  Do we have the only sailboat in the world with a Shipibo design on the mast?  Highly likely!

Useful vacations

It is summer in the southern hemisphere and the children are out of school.  We are running our annual 'vacaciones utiles' program which is a mixture of fun activities as well as some academic work including English classes.

Yesterday Lourdes and five volunteers took over fifty children on a lake excursion which included lunch and swimming.

Lourdes leading children from Sauce to the dock where two excursion boats await.  They are singing a song which begins, 'vamons en paseo en un bote feo'  (let's go on an outing in an ugly boat).

Our house with 'mirador' is on the right.


Lourdes and four volunteers are offering this summer program to 120 children in three different locations.

Kind of a grey morning following some much-needed rain during the night, but the sun came out later.

New roof

It has been very hot and dry here lately but we expect the rainy season to be here soon.  Accordingly we have just had our roof at Estrella de Sauce replaced and at the same time added a large skylight.

Sailboat update

Back to the repair dock again after finding some problems in the mast.  Here is the mast being lowered to the deck.

Estrella del Lago sails again

Our unique 10 meter jungle sailing catamaran is back sailing on Lago Sauce a.k.a Laguna Azul after extensive repairs that had the vessel out of the water for about a year and a half.

Here is our volunteer Victoria helping me raise the mainsail for a run down the lake with the family of another volunteer, Luka, who have been visiting Peru from Germany.

 Luka's father Thomas has sailed various boats before and is here working with Victoria who is also a sailor to get the bamboo boom into position as the mainsail is hauled aloft.

                                        








                                           The mainsail going up.    

                                                     Thomas steers the boat.

 Luka's sister Anna hangs out under sail. What could be more relaxing?

Luka working the jib sheets as we cruise downwind. Just in case you're wondering, the blue, yellow and green flag on the left is the town of Sauce banner, while on the right the peruvian national flag flies over the British red ensign which is the civilian cruising flag of the UK. And in case you are wondering some more, those deck boards are made from 1x5 inch balsa wood which grows in abundance in these parts and is just about strong enough to support a human adult while being the lightest wood to use for a catamaran platform. The light-coloured board is one I just recently replaced as eventually this wood deteriorates in the tropical sun and rain.  Thor Heyerdahl had the same problem on his Kon Tiki raft which was made from the same material as my deck boards.

Lourdes and I both work pretty hard so it feels really good when we finally get to relax out on the water and I love it when someone else steers the boat.

 Back at the dock right before the tropical sunset..

A belated happy new year to all of our friends and family!

Due to acute inability to operate computers I have been unable to access this blogsite for a while.  Fortunately Luka, who is very cyber-savvy, came to my rescue this morning and I'm now back to blogging.  Please watch this space for news and updates from our headquarters in the small community of Sauce, located beside a beautiful lake in the northern peruvian jungle not too far from the city of Tarapoto.

Hello Yorick!!

Congratulations Lief and Betsy!

 
I was fortunate to get to know Betsy when I visited Asheville, North Carolina back in July and August.

Having seen how well my son Lief and Betsy were getting along exemplified by cooperative cooking efforts including the pie above which was entered into the annual all-Asheville pie party

and smootching in the kitchen.  It was therefore no great surprise to hear that they decided to get married on December 30 2015.
Congratulations to you both and here's wishing you a lifetime of happiness.
Milo is the King Charles Spaniel and is very cute (as are Lief and Betsy).