CONNOQUENESSING TWP — Diane Bishop of Connoquenessing Township spent part of her summer cruising up the Amazon River in Peru, fishing for piranha and walking across the tops of jungle trees.

But while Bishop had time to sightsee, she and five other Americans were also in Peru to deliver supplies to jungle schools that are only reachable by river boat.

Bishop was only following a family tradition established in 2002 by her aunt, Nancy Kopf of Titusville, a teacher who visited a school in the region.

“She was so intrigued by what they needed and how interested they were in learning,” said Bishop, that Knopf signed up with the Adopt-A-School program of CONAPAC, a Peruvian nonprofit organization promoting conservation of the rain forest on the Amazon and Napo rivers.

Its centerpiece project is the Adopt-A-School program.

For an annual check of $425, the program buys supplies for one school.

“I was not only able to 'adopt' the school in the village of Jore Chavez, I was able to visit it and take an extra bag of supplies,” said Kopf, who spent last week at the Crawford County Fair selling Peruvian crafts she had gathered to fund further trips.

“From the moment I stepped off the boat into the village my heart was captured,” Kopf said.

Since 2003, Kopf has gotten Bishop's mother, Mary Lou Hines of Prospect, to make trips to Peru with her to deliver school supplies.

“I have no idea how many schools she supports,” said Bishop. “She just smiles and gives me a sly look and says 'A lot.'”

“This year was the 11th year of taking a crew there,” said Bishop. “This was my first year of going with my aunt. My mom has been on several trips.”

“Mom's 83. We wanted to go as a mother daughter this time. But she got ill,” said Bishop. “Maybe in 2015, if she's still as functional as she is, we'll go.”

The group — Bishop, her aunt, and a couple from Meadville with their two grandchildren — left the United States on June 11 and returned June 23.

Bishop said the group flew to Iquitos, Peru, and then traveled 2½ hours up the Amazon River by boat to the first of the jungle lodges they would stay in as they delivered the school supplies to seven schools in jungle villages along the river.

“We take actual supplies. My aunt started it. She brings back items they give her as gifts. She takes and sells them for money to buy supplies: clothes, shoes, books in Spanish, paper, baby clothes,” Bishop said.

“We each carried two 50-pound suitcases loaded with nothing but school supplies,” Bishop said. “We lived out of a carry-on bag that we had. All of the luggage was for supplies.”

“Once we got to a lodge, we were repacking constantly, juggling supplies,” Bishop said.

“One girl who was a first-time visitor got toothpaste and toothbrushes through her dentist, enough for 120 schoolchildren,” Bishop said.

Bishop said one of her aunt's schools was San Luis, which had 30 to 40 elementary students being taught in one room.

“The kids were all excited about having us there. What I did notice was even the poorest schools are so proud of what they had,” said Bishop. “They are the happiest people. They will share everything with you.”

“They had a prepared meal,” Bishop said. “I was not prepared to have a fish looking back at me, but the food was very good. For what they have and how they cook, I'm impressed how good it is.”

She also was pleased by the fresh fruits plucked right out of the jungle and the heart-of-palm salads.

“Everyone of these places we were at could only be reached by boat. There were no roads,” Bishop said.

Primary jungle means mostly untouched. Secondary jungle, where the villages were located, meant the brush had been cleared out at least a bit.

Bishop said the sun was up from 5 a.m. to 5 p.m. because of the proximity to the equator. School days lasted from 6 or 7 a.m. to 2 p.m., taking advantage of the sunlight.

She said while there is electricity in some of the villages, there are no overhead lights because of the way the buildings are constructed with suspended roofs and unattached walls to allow for air flow.

The schools were mostly built of cement block.

Bishop said her group, after distributing supplies to the schools in the morning, would break for lunch and then have time to explore the jungle.

The Americans visited a monkey sanctuary, walked along forest paths and moved along the tops of trees in a canopy walkway. They visited the Yagua people and watched them dance ritual dances.

Bishop said she made friends with a half-tame tapir at one of the lodges, fed monkeys, saw poison dart frogs whose secretions are used to tip poison darts, huge snails and “every kind of bird you can think of.”

While she did glimpse the elusive pink dolphins of the Amazon, she did not see either caimans or anacondas.

But she said, she used a pole and a hook baited with raw meat to fish for piranha. While she didn't catch one personally, the group did haul in three of the feared man-eating fish of edible size.

“It was the mildest fish,” she said of its taste. “It had a good flavor. It did NOT taste like chicken. They wrapped it in leaves and cooked it over an open flame.”

“I never thought I'd want to go, now I want to go again,” she said. “The people in the villages treat each other with respect. They work together and help each other. They do for each other. I was impressed.

“I've never had so much fun doing so many things and getting so worn out doing them,” Bishop said.

Kopf said she is planning to leave Nov. 5 for her 19th trip to Peru.