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).

Visitors from Cusco

Cooling off in Lago Sauce.  It has been very hot lately. 

It's hard to believe that the students taught by Lourdes from class 1 through 6 at the Kusi Kawsay school in Pisac near Cusco are now about to graduate.  It was wonderful that they and their tutor as well as two parents all elected to make the journey from Pisac to Sauce for their 'promocion' which is Spanish for their end of year class field trip.

We were very happy to receive this class of 9 students, most of whom we have known since they were six years old and show them around the place we now call home.

Roman and Lourdes at Tarapoto airport. 

Special needs children, visitors from Cusco and our volunteers.

Field trip to Moyabamba

We have now been offering a venue for the senior citizens of our community of Sauce to get together for crafts activities and companionship for over four years now.  We have also offered the chance for members of this group to go on various outings.  Last year we took a group of grandmothers to the city of Lamas and this year we went even further afield to the regional capital of Moyabamba which is situated over four hours away from Sauce and involved an overnight stay in an hotel as well as visits to an orchid nursery and a banquet-style lunch in an outdoor restaurant.  A good time was had by all!

We welcome a new volunteer to Estrella de Sauce

Victoria is from Mannheim in Germany and brings a lot of her natural enthusiasm for life into her work here.  Victoria will stay for one year doing voluntary educational and social work.

In this photo she is accompanying a group of grandmothers during a recent field trip to the city of Moyabamba.

Another volunteer in Sauce

We welcome Hans from Holland who has been travelling in South America but has decided to stay with us in Sauce for a few weeks and has been helping out with various projects.  He is a careful and meticulous painter who has been putting color between the bricks in our new cafe and painting the platform of our sailing catamaran which we hope to relaunch over the next few weeks after extensive repairs.

Hans is staying up at our 2 hectare (5 acre) horticulture site called 'Fundo Skydance' where we have a recently constructed jungle-style bedroom plus kitchen and bathroom.

We are interested in developing some raised bed gardens at this site and would welcome anyone who might have an interest in staying with us and helping us with this project.