SATURDAY (sorry, I can't think of a more creative title)

I woke up a couple of times in the night feeling crappy and when I got up at 5:45 the next morning, I still didn't feel much better.
I was too nauseous to eat breakfast, but like it or not, at 7, we got on the tour bus. First we stopped at the plaza in Huancayo for a few minutes to snap some pics, then we did the same in Tarma at their plaza and church. I slept during the bus rides, and by about midday, I was feeling better, fortunately.
Our next stop was the Amazon Jungle!! We parked and did about a 20 minute walk through the jungle (gorgeous) to the Tirol waterfall. (Admiral Morris came, too)

 We got to swim in the waterfall, and it was pretty awesome.
Then we walked back to the bus and headed to the restaurant "El Mirador."I wanted to try something interesting, so I chose the zamano (tilde over the n). I wasn't sure what it was, but there were pictures of the animals in their natural habitat on the menu so people would know. Although, looking at a photo of a deer, doesn't exactly make me want to eat it. After some googling, I found out what it was called in English, and I actually found the exact pic that was on the menu.

This is the Spotted Cavy Paca. It wasn't bad, but I wasn't blown away by it, either.
Then we loaded up the buses again. The other bus drove off and for some reason we didn't. We sat and sat until word got around that there was a hole in the brake line. Perfect. And no one had cell phone service. After a lot of chaos the other bus finally came back for us and took us to the indigenous village of the Ashaninka. They dressed us up in their traditional clothes and painted our faces, then one of them told us a little bit about their culture and then we danced. It was pretty cool.

After dancing around the fire, my dance partner, a little boy who was probably 10 or so, dragged me over to one of the stands they had where they were selling souvenirs. I bought a bracelet and a pair of earrings. I also bought a hair wrap, but it fell out of my hair later that night. It was only 10 soles though (about 4 bucks) so you get what you pay for!
After that, we went to a coffee factory. At least we were told that was what it was. They had a lot of other stuff too, though. They let us go through and sample some of their products. Most of it was jam. It was delicious, but they didn't give you anything to sample it with, so after about 10 spoonfuls of jam, I was ready to move on. Next came juice and liquor. They had samples of a liquor called 7 Racines. I have no idea what it was, but it tasted like concentrated mulled wine. In a good way. They also had Creme de Cacao. Yum yum. Then they had a coffee sample, which was by far my fave. After sampling, we shopped around and I got some jam and coffee. I also had a guanabana (soursop) slushie.
After that we finally went to our hotel, the Hotel Fundo San Jose Ecolodge in La Merced. Unfortunately, our buses couldn't make it up the driveway so we had to schlepp all of our stuff up a super steep hill. Worth it though. Even though it was dark I could tell the hotel was super nice.
First they gave us a welcome ceremony. Apparently there's an Italian community in La Merced, so they performed some Italian dances, and then gave us an Italian dinner. Caprese salad, spaghetti, and ice cream.
After a long day, the plan was to crack open a beer, but unfortunately the hotel was out :(