Snedeker Science

The Adventures of a Science Teacher

Month: July 2022 Page 1 of 2

Will I Make It Out of the Canyon?

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On July 24, 2022

In Peru Blog

Day two in the Canyon saw a much later start than the previous day. As mentioned in the previous post, there are several reasons why I was glad that I chose to do this hike in three days instead of two days. It was nice to be able to relax within the cabin and we enjoyed some really good food our first day in the cabin. The second reason I am glad that we did the three day hike is that we got to walk through two towns that the other hikers did not get to see and we were able to learn more history about the people in the canyon. After a fairly short walk we arrived in Cosñirhua. Primary students in San de Chuccho would have to walk to Cosñirhua to attend school. There are very few kids in this age group though as the school would only have eight students and one teacher.

Cosñirhua. You can see the school to the left of the image with the courtyard covered with the green tarp. It didn’t take us long to walk through this town.

There is a gold mine on the opposite side of this mountain and they have invested in these towns. They are the reasons they have roads and they are building an aqueduct to help provide water to the people that live here. There is only one secondary school in this valley and while there used to be a school bus to take students to this town (towards the top of the valley) it is broken so students have to walk up to 90 minutes to get to school. Not sure what is happening with the bus but the gold mining company bought it. Hopefully they plan on fixing it.

Aqueduct cut through the mountain. Earthquakes will often damage infrastructure like this.

The next town we would walk through would be Malata. This primary school has 14 students currently attending it. We walked past a tiny little clinic that is the only clinic if people get sick in any of these towns. Down the road a little further is a private clinic (much nicer) that is for the gold miners. Apparently in emergencies they do help out the people that live there.

Entering Malata

After passing through Malata we would drop back down to the bottom of the valley to cross the Colca River again. Once we crossed the river we would climb back up a little bit and enter Sangalle, an oasis at the bottom of this valley. There are no roads to this town and the only way to get in or out is by walking. Mules carry goods in and out of the bottom of this valley.

Sangalle. The trail out of the canyon can be seen on the left.

The third reason that I was glad that I did the three day hike is that I got into Sangalle around noon. This meant I got to enjoy the swimming pool during the heat of the day. Since we were near the bottom of the canyon, the sun set behind the canyon walls around 3:30 p.m. and temperatures dropped quickly. It is winter in Peru. People that did the two day hike arrived at Sangalle between 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. and they could not enjoy the pool as much as we did. Some of them did jump in but they found it really cold.

The pool in Sangalle

It was an early night as the next morning would be tough. We would be hitting the trail by 4:4o a.m. to hike to the top of the canyon. Our goal was to reach the top before the sun rose and then we would get to have breakfast. The climb was steep but we made good time. We hiked over a mile in the first hour. Things started to slow a little at that point though. What made it tough was how dry it is. You don’t realize how much dust is kicked up hiking in this area until you are hiking by headlamp. As the second hour ticked by fatigue was starting to set in. It looked like the top was approaching but I know how misleading false summits can be. It turns out that this wasn’t a false summit and I was almost to the top. With about 15 minutes of hiking remaining the sun started to rise. When I reached the top there was this tremendous sense of accomplishment.

The hike out of the canyon. The last half of a mile to town was flat. That means we climbed about 3500 feet in just under 3 miles.
I did not drink any chicha prior to starting this hike. This is what the trail was like!

After reaching the top we walked another half a mile to town, had breakfast and left. Not too long after leaving we stopped at some natural hot springs to soak our tired/sore legs and it did feel good. On our way back to Arequipa we stopped at a viewpoint that was over 16,000 feet high and saw several volcanoes. We stopped once more so people could use the restrooms but I was fixated on the volcanoes as well as the hoodoos that I saw. Eventually we made it back to Arequipa and I prepared to move on to my next destination early the next morning.

Smoking volcano!
Peruvian hoodoos!

A Hike? To the Bottom of the Second Deepest Canyon on Earth? Sure!

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On July 24, 2022

In Peru Blog

These are the things that I get myself into when I don’t get much sleep. Then again, I probably would have still done it anyways! I do want to disclose that we didn’t start from the canyon’s highest point nor did we go into the deepest part of the canyon but it was still about 4,000 feet of difference from the highest point to the lowest point. This adventure would start from Peru’s 2nd most populated city, Arequipa. This city is beautiful with buildings constructed of volcanic rock. It is also surrounded by volcanoes!

You can see some snow-capped volcanoes in the background

For my hike of the Colca Canyon I had the choice of doing it in two days or three days. I’d previously spent the past two weeks in cities and I was looking for some relaxation so I opted for the three day hike. Apparently this is not very common and there was only one other person. Everyone else does it in two days and we were both glad we chose three days for reasons which will be explained later.

Andean Condors

Like so many of my adventures, we got an early start. I had to be ready to go by 3 a.m. After two hours of driving we stopped at an overlook where Andean Condors like to ride the thermals. These condors are the heaviest flying birds and can have wingspans that reach 11 feet! They can go months between meals and can go hours circling the skies without flapping their wings. The Andean condor was considered holy by the Incas.

A juvenile condor dropped by for a visit

After a little more driving we arrived to the trailhead for the start of our hike. We were on the southern rim of the canyon which meant that the walls of the canyon were facing the north. This is weird to say but during the day the sun is in the northern part of the sky. While it is indeed winter, we are at a fairly low latitude so the sunlight would be fairly strong. When paired with the high altitude, solar intensity would affect me much more than the elevation would.

A map showing average solar intensity for July. The red indicates high intensity. The red line was our the approximate path we took over the three days.
You can see three towns we would walk through in this image. We would spend the night at the town on the far right. Beneath the towns are terraces created by the Incas and pre-Incan cultures to reduce erosion and for agriculture.
Looking down on Sangalle, an oasis at the bottom of the canyon. We would come in from the right, spend the second night here, and hike out towards the left.

After a short hike along the rim we began our downward journey to the bottom. The sides were steep and the trails were just several miles worth of switchbacks. One misstep and you would find yourself falling uncontrollably towards the bottom of the canyon. This wasn’t too much of a concern at first but after hours of being out in the sun and feeling the effects of heat exhaustion I had to be extra careful with where I stepped.

The trail before the switchbacks began. The slope it crosses is incredibly steep!

As we descended, sheer walls of columnar basalt towered over us. It was intimidating and unnerving to know that an earthquake could occur at any time that could bring these walls down on top of us and we would have nowhere to go. Fortunately there were no earthquakes and I could admire all the geologic wonders that were there.

Columnar basalt

Eventually we did make it to the bottom of the canyon. After crossing a bridge across the Colca River it was time to start ascending up the other side a little bit. By this time the heat was really getting to me and I struggled more than I should have. It would not be too much longer until we got to the small town, San Juan de Chuccho, where we would have a lunch (made over a fire) and spend the night. Avocados are grown in this valley and it was served with every meal. The food we had while staying here was excellent and the woman was very nice. It is impressive because there is no road nor is there any electricity. After lunch, the people hiking the canyon kept going another 3 miles while I got to relax in the canyon and take in the views.

In the foreground you can see the building I spent the night in. In the background you can see the trail zig-zagging down the slope.

It took me a few hours of hydrating and resting to start to feel like myself again. Agnes would have been disappointed as I was not able to finish my lunch. By dinner I had my appetite back and was back to finishing my meals. Stay tuned for part two of the Colca Canyon trek!

A Real Desert Oasis

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On July 24, 2022

In Peru Blog

Peru, West of the Andes, is a desert. It is a continuation of the Atacama Desert that is found in Chile. This desert varies in appearance throughout Peru and while in Paracas I saw a lot of salt deposits covered by a thin layer of sand. My next destination would be Huacachina which looks like your stereotypical desert full of towering sand dunes.

Huacachina is an actual desert oasis formed due to an underground current of water. Due to overuse water has to be put back into this oasis to prevent it from being completely drained. It turns out that this is a party oasis and had I known that I may have stayed in Ica which is just 15 or so minutes away. I would be here for less than 24 hours so I could deal with it. Music was heard playing until 6am.

If you see tiny black specks along the ridge of the sand dune, those are people.

The afternoon that I arrived at this oasis would prove to be extremely exciting. I had signed up to ride a dune buggy through the dunes. The driver was crazy and there were several times I thought we would roll over. We got some serious speed and we could feel the wind and sand blowing through our hair. We would go up a sand dune and straight down the other side. It was definitely like a roller coaster. At one point we caught some major air and things flew out of the back.

Eventually we made out way to the top of one of the large sand dunes and everyone got out. It was time for our sandboarding. We were each given a board and lined up along the ridge. It as a long way down and fairly steep so it was definitely a little nerve wracking. Eventually it was my turn to go down and it was so much fun! At the bottom we were able to walk up another short ridge and continue boarding down the dune.

When our sandboarding was done we got back into the buggy and continued to another dune to catch the sunset. We sat there enjoying just how peaceful it was. Once the sun set we were back in the buggies and headed back to Huacachina, racing other buggies in the process.

I spent part of the evening sitting next to the water enjoying this unique location. As it got even darker I decided to venture partway up one of the sand dunes to escape the lights of town to look at the stars. I was not disappointed. There still was a lot of light pollution but I was able to make out several constellations including Crux (Southern Cross) a well known constellation only visible in the Southern Hemisphere.

This is not an actual picture of what I saw. It wasn’t nearly dark enough.

The next morning I would leave Huacachina. It was worth a visit but one night was enough. I’d be spending the next 18 or so hours on a bus but there was a brief stop in Nazca to see some of the Nazca lines. If I decided to stay in Nazca I could have taken a flight to see more but three were visible from the viewing tower the bus stopped at.

Arbol (Tree)
Sapo (Toad)

So That Is What the Sun Looks Like!

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On July 23, 2022

In Peru Blog

Lima’s nickname is ‘The Grey City’ because the sky is always so grey. As the bus pulled out of Lima this morning I wondered how much of Peru would be like this. Only time would tell as we made our way to Paracas.

As I describe my adventures throughout Peru I will try to keep it brief. This means that I will not talk about every thing I did or every place I visited. For more pictures you can go here: https://scisned.com/travel/peru/

On our way to Paracas we stopped at this bakery and had freshly baked Peruvian bread. After breakfast we were given a horse dancing show and then we got to play a few rounds of cuy bingo for prizes. Once that was done it was back on the bus.

Cuy bingo!

We were getting close to Paracas but the sky was still grey. About ten minutes out we started to see blue skies and we saw the Sun! For the next two weeks, there would only be one day without the Sun (Machu Picchu day). Once in Paracas I would spend the next couple hours just wandering the small city and walking along the beach. That evening I would go on a sunset trek to the Paracas National Reserve. While there we would hike up the sand dunes along the coast for a couple hours and enjoy the beautiful sunset over the Pacific Ocean. Hiking was easy as these sand dunes were made of salt covered in sand.

This is not snow
Just after descending the peak after sunset

The next morning I took a boat tour to the Ballestas Islands which are nicknamed ‘the Peruvian Galapagos’ because of their biodiversity. There were not nearly as many sea lions but there were a lot more birds. islands completely covered with them. There were also Humboldt penguins!

The seas were a little rough
Arch covered with birds
Penguins!

While floating through the sea stacks we saw a sea lion doing battle with something. After watching for several minutes we saw that the sea lion had successfully caught a large fish. Here you can see it dragging its meal up onto the rocks.

Later that morning I would head back to the Paracas National Reserve for a tour of some of the different features that can be found there. Once our tour was over we got on the bus and it was off to our next destination.

This rock formation is called the Cathedral. It no longer looks like a cathedral after collapsing during an earthquake many years ago.
This red beach is caused by the weathering of the red granodiorite in the cliffs above it.

The End of the First Chapter

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On July 23, 2022

In Peru Blog

It is amazing how quickly our ten days in Peru for our International Field Experience went. There was so much packed within our time that I would have so much to process once I got home. I addition to those three school visits I just described, here is a little more of what went on during our last couple of days in Lima.

International Alumni Engagement: Building Networks and Understanding Through Teacher Collaboration

Some of the Peruvian Fulbright Alumni that we met during our time in Peru

One of the many goals of this Fulbright Teachers for Global Education program is to build networks between teachers in the United States and teachers in other countries. Towards the end of the program an Alumni engagement event was organized. Some of these teachers/administrators work at the schools that we visited. Others were either too far for us to go visit or the visits got cancelled. There were three main objectives for this alumni engagement session:

  • To debrief experiences and observations
  • To begin action planning
  • To discuss continued collaboration

One of the topics that was discussed were concerns that the Peruvians shared regarding their educational system. One of the significant concerns mentioned was the hidden discourse inherent in their society. While there is a lot of diversity in Peru (including international and indigenous communities) they are often not incorporated into the curriculum. Images transmit messages, even if it isn’t intended. Ignoring the contributions, histories, and existences of different groups can be damaging to students wellbeing as well as the societal stability. Students within the country are able to identify more international celebrities than Peruvian ones. One possible reason for this is that companies with money influence the writing of textbooks.

Physics teachers making connections

During our morning session there was time to continue to build our connections. I spoke with one teacher about some of the programming at her school which has embraced project-based learning. Students are leaders and have to produce something that will benefit the school or community in some way. They are currently working on learning about Peruvian inventors and they are taking an interdisciplinary approach. This aligns with many of my educational philosophies so we were excited to talk. Unfortunately there was not nearly enough time but we do want to see if we can find a way to partner our schools up for virtual collaboration. We’d like to choose a project that would benefit both of our communities. We shall see what happens!

Debrief of the International Field Experience

With just two days remaining we got together to debrief and discuss our thoughts on our time together. It felt like we had just been in the conference room at the hotel for an introduction to our field experience. Our objectives for this morning session were:

  • To reflect upon your travel experience
  • To synthesize and evaluate professional and personal impact
  • To practice and plan for telling the story of your travel experience

The first part of the session was to really think deep, reflect, and consider the impact it had on us. From there we were asked to consider what our next steps might be. To be honest, I’ve felt pretty discouraged with education after the last two years of uncertainty with covid and everything else. I left this program reinvigorated and excited. To work with so many innovative educators that continue to strive towards excellence really was what I needed.

The rest of the session was spent discussing Fulbright Alumni resources, grants, and opportunities. Now that I have finished my Fulbright Teachers for Global Classrooms programs I am eligible for numerous other programs and grants. These grants are specifically for incorporating global education into my classroom. There are virtual platforms that bring alumni together from all over the world to support each other and to work with. There are Fulbright Distinguished Awards in Teaching Short-Term Programs and one I was very interested in until I realized that I missed the application deadline. That program will have a teacher spending 6-8 weeks in Cusco working with schools to develop environmental education curriculums. This mirrors a lot of the work that I have done leading professional development within my school and community.

Taste of Peru Cooking Class

On our last day, right before our farewell dinner, we went to Sirena Restobar which is a restaurant along the coast for a cooking class. Prior to that we went on a tour of a Peruvian market and got to learn about (and taste) some Peruvian fruit. The first dish we made was causa rellena which is a popular appetizer made of mashed potatoes, avocado, and chicken. It also contains some aji amarillo (yellow hot pepper) which made it even better.

Causa rellena

After we got to enjoy what we just made we were moving onto the main course, ceviche. I’m not a fan of ceviche but I went along with it anyways. For those note familiar with it, it is raw fish that it “cooked” in citrus juice. The acid replaces heat in the denaturation of it so it is safe to eat but it still isn’t really for me. When the head chef who was leading the course tried mine she was impressed and gave me two thumbs up though. At the end when asked whose was the best she pointed to me and to one other educator. Still not for me.

Ceviche. We were told to pour everything, including the juices onto the plate. I feel it would have looked better without them.

Once we ate our ceviche we moved on to the last thing we would make, pisco sour. This is a drink that Peru is well known for. When those were finished we moved on to our farewell dinner. At the dinner all of the participants were given certificates that were personalized for something that made them stand out.

Why was I named the most adventurous? You will have to wait and see. While my International Field Experience has now come to an end, I stayed in Peru an additional two weeks to do some traveling on my own. Stay tuned! The most exciting stuff is yet to come!

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