Where: Anaconda Lodge – Puerto Maldanado, Peru – Anaconda Lodge; Acrylic Paint 2013; The location is next to the Madre de Dios river that hosts camine, unclassified fish and countless endemic birds.
Tiny motos zipping around the bumpy dusty streets, woman skilfully crafting plates of fish, meat, and chicken with rice, dramatic soap operas roar through the vendors tents who scream into the crowded alleys to buy ice cream, vegetables, electronics, toothpaste or toliet paper. The town is alive and beating with a rhythm of fierce busyness and hard workers.
My daily routine was to wake up at 6am-7am to meditate, breakfast buffet from 7:30-8:30. Painting for 4-6 hours, with the exception of the hours of 11:30am-2pm as it was unbearably hot. For this time I would swim in the bright blue tiled cold pool and play with the curious monkeys who happily climb on you and take naps on your lap.
At night I would head to town on the “El Sol” bus for one sol and go the markets. You can get dinner for $2-4 Soles ($.75-1.50 USD) and fruits and veggies. I am a sucker for sweets and would always get ice cream, couldn’t help myself with all the heat! Icecrem costs usually $1 Sole ($.37 USD) and these Peruvian woman make the ice cream in these little bags homemade! Que Rico!
Now for the mural:
The Hostel: Anaconda Lodge, run by a Swiss man name Donald and his wife Wanee who is from Thailand. The couple has owned this hostel for the last 7 years and the land for more than 25 years. They have 4 monkeys on the property that can’t get enough love from tourists and a swimming pool that sometimes is necessary in the hot hot heat. Wanee works everyday in the kitchen day in and day out making authentic thai food. Lucky for me! But really they have a buffet for breakfast and then delicious Thai food offered all day till 9pm at night. I was in heaven.
What: A mural course! A huge one at that. I worked with or rather had to destroy a garden (that was in front of the wall, don’t worry I made beautiful bouquets of flowers from it). The wall was rough, dirty, grey and concrete. It was also the largest wall I have done yet.
Length of time: 5 days of work 8 days of hanging at the lodge and 4-6 hours of work a day.
Accommodation: Free food from the delicious Thai Resteraunt which, as a vegetarian consisted of lots of phad thai and veggies with rice. Authentically prepared by one of the owners and it was always delicious.
What I learned: Being an artist and painter is not as glamorous as it seems. I was cutting down plants, scrubbing the huge concrete wall infested with termites and dirt. There is so much work that goes into making a piece, and so much more than just a pretty picture. I laugh sometimes to think of my work as art as its more of a skilfully woven process where each step is just as important as any other.
I said I would never do a mural outside again, but I really wanted the challenge of doing something a little different and simple. Glad I did even with all the mosquito bits included.
I learned you have to be direct with many Peruvians an asking questions. You must ask exactly what you need and stand by it. Sometimes if you ask a Peruvian directions or a question they will tell you a lie in response. This is not because they are bad people but because they think they are helping you when in reality it’s doing the exact opposite. They also may not hear your specific question and answer something totally different I’ve never heard a Peruvian say “I don’t know”. You can be lost asking for directions and 4 people will tell you completely different responses.
So, when I went to purchase paint all the paint stores kept telling me they don’t have acrylic paint. I know that a huge paint store does in fact have paint so after asking maybe 5 people in each store I went into I finally found someone that understood me.
What else did I learn? This was the first time I had a helper, Lukas my friend from Germany, who I met during the vipasana retreat paid me a visit. He has been riding his bicycle since Mexico and is headed to Argentina where his uncle works on a farm. This was nice because most of the people that came through the hostel only stayed one night so it was nice to have a friend that was constant. And help was amazing as the wall was so big.
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