Day 6 - Back to Sacred Valley & White Water Rafting

Morningstar Water Fight - No - Water WAR!

We woke up after a rather chilly nights sleep grabbed a yummy breakfast and loaded onto a big bus (yeah - the kids hate splitting - ever), and headed back to the Urabamba Valley area about half an hour away. The devotional for this day was Courage to be you, delivered on the bus ride. The tour theme this year is Courage. Every day Kieri holds a short devotional. Other Courage challenges have included Courage to reach out to others, Courage to improve yourself, Courage to lead, etc. Today's devotional evolved into a discussion of each person and the qualities that everyone knows about them - not only the obvious things but the things in their life outside of PGY. What was discovered was that there was a lot more they could learn about each other. This lasted the entire 2 hours it took to arrive at our river adventure.

Once we arrived at the Urabumba River, we were met by our river guides and everyone put on wet suits, life vests, helmets and windbreakers. After a humorous safety course, we divided into 6 boats and headed down the river. Each boat had 6 people and a guide. The guides gave basic instructions and trained the rafters on the skills of moving quickly in response to their orders such as row forward, row backwards, move right, move left, move inside, etc.. The first test of these commands was a small rapid. Our guide yelled right, upon which Kasha, moving to the right side of the boat managed to knock Roman in the mouth as her hand cupped around the handle of her oar, collided with Roman's front teeth. We waited to see blood and expected to see a chipped tooth when Roman righted himself again, but he received no permanent damage. His injuries were soon forgotten as Preston, riding on another boat, launched himself, his body horizontal to the water, at Roman and dragged him into the freezing cold river water (37 degrees). Well, predictably this launched a battle that will go down in Morningstar history as the greatest water fight ever. Boats ramming boats, daredevils launching onto the rafts pulling, pushing and tossing everyone into the water! Even the chaperones went in. Luckily we had all paid attention to our rescue skills and aside from a few bloody noses and bumps and bruises, we all survived. It was bedlam but hilarious.

Fight is ON!
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And we all managed to pull ourselves back into focus mode to successfully navigate the three largest rapids. No problems there, but of course as soon as we all made it through, the war began again and lasted till we arrived at the bottom.

We pulled ourselves out of the river, changed in tents and then warmed up to a delicious meal of stuffed chicken mashed potatoes and spinach soup with a dulce de leche crepe. Without question it was the kids favorite meal so far. They licked the plates clean! With stomaches full we thanked our river team and headed back to Cusco. The bus ride home was breathtaking but the kids turned their focus to the question game (one of their favorites). After a quick lesson on the art of turnabout conversation they rotated around the bus having 5 minute conversations about everything from their most embarrassing moment to what in life scares them the most. though the most interesting conversations came from if they had to be stranded on a desert island with three other Morningstar-ers for the rest of their life who would it be...?

Once back at our hotel the kids quickly showered and we headed to our show at the same auditorium as our Friday show. The kids were tired but a last minute surprise snack of guinea pig and alpaca provided by Sue and Jocelyn gave them a jolt of energy. OK most of them just squealed after seeing a whole guinea pig sitting there including legs, the head and teeth, but a few brave ones dug in avoiding the guinea pig teeth and feet and regardless it lightened the mood. There were peanut butter sandwiches for the less adventurous. We are lucky to have some amazing chaperones this year.

The show was great. The kids are getting better and better. Reed and Ashlyn stole the show! They have figured out the secret to Peruvian audiences is the clowning and personal connection. Swing was the best yet and the audiences loved somebody to love. Thriller and the Elvis section. And of course all the western. The audience was packed thanks to a few kids who headed out earlier to pass our flyers in full costume.

After the show we ALL got certificates from the Lyons Club of Cusco (our sponsors) and we packed up and headed to dinner at 11:00 . Dinner was interesting but we thanked out restaurant staff and headed home and went to bed ... Well eventually.