La Paz and end of trip

We arrived in La Paz on October 17th, 2008. On the bus into town we got a good view of La Paz, which is situated in a valley at 3600 meters (highest capital city in the world). It´s very busy with traffic and people and the city seems like one big market (at least here in the center). We are not affected at all by the altitude, because we have been mostly above 3200+ meters for the last 7 weeks.
We haven´t been doing much in La Paz except souvenir shopping, checking out city center a little (went to witchcraft market and saw a parade) and mostly finishing off this blog and getting ready to leave. We leave South America on October 20th, which is the end of our trip and therefore this will be our last post. Paulien will go back to Holland to work and Brian will make a detour via Australia (for a wedding) and Thailand (for a holiday).

If you are just interested in looking at only photos then you can visit the flickr sets (all these photos are in our blog).

Lake Titicaca

On the way to Llachón (October 13th) we started to notice how rural the area is. Many cows, sheep, bikes and some motorbikes with a person holding a sheep. When we got dropped off in Llachón it was almost deserted. Fortunately, we were able to find a hostel, which was very basic. No running water and only a standing toilet, but it was very tranquil. After lunch and a siesta we went on a walk with the owners daughter Lourdes along the lake and a bit into "town". Each region has it´s own traditional clothes. Here it´s a four pointed hat with 2 pompoms (only for females) and colorful long toques. Paulien didn´t have supper tonight because of stomach problems; maybe because of altitude sickness, since Lake Titicaca is around 3800 meters above sea level. The guy running the hostel gave Paulien a bowl to pee in, he suggested rubbing the pee on the belly to cure any stomach ailments. We had to be careful not to burst into laughter when that was suggested. We would often get muña tea here, which is supposed to help with digestive problems.
Next day we set off to Amantaní Island, the less touristy of the two nearby islands. It took 90 minutes in a small boat to get there. It was clear that it was not touristy anymore, since almost all shops were closed, including artisan shops and we only saw two gringos as we were leaving the island. It was actually hard to find a snack! We walked a lot around the island and also up both of the islands peaks Pacha Mama and Pacha Tata. On both peaks there are Inca ruins and excellent views. We first went to Inkatiana that is an inca throne carved out of stone on the shore. Then we started our way up the mountain, which was quite steep and we had to make our way up terraces to the top. Once we were at the top we found a tourist path that goes all around the island (it took over 3 years to build)! Also here we found that the people cultivate land even high up on the hills and walk their sheep almost to the top of the mountains, so far away from their houses.
The following day we took the same small boat (40 minutes) to one of the Los Uros islands. There are around 30 of these floating reed islands. We saw three, but visited only one. These ones are less touristy than the ones near Puno, but we still got a lot of attention and felt some pressure to buy some of their crafts. To us the crafts weren´t very impressive and all the families sold the same things. The island we visited was about 6 x 15 meters and 8 families lived there with around 14 school age kids. The children go to school somewhere else. The reeds are not only used to make the island (which is floating buy anchored), but it´s also used to make the houses, boats, some of the handicrafts and it´s used for food and as a substitute for toothbrush and toothpaste. Their food mainly consists of fish and different parts of the reed plants. The roots of the reed plants are actually not bad. Since it was cloudy, cold, windy and rainy we didn´t stay very long. We did, however, take a little boat trip on a more modern version of the reed boats (constructed with some nylon) to the reeds. Even though the weather was pretty bad it was still worth the trip to see how these people lived.
At 1pm we took a bus back to Juliaca. The first hour was the slowest bus we had ever taken in our lives. We couldn´t even catch up to a person riding a bike. Then suddenly he sped up, probably he was just going slow hoping to pick up more people. In Juliaca we took a motor taxi (tuktuk) to the bus terminal to Puno. There are a lot in South America and this was the first time we took one. Once in Puno Brian got sick and the next morning Paulien didn´t feel too good either. We stayed in bed most of the time and arranged everything through the hotel. We finally broke down and started taking antibiotic pills. When we looked on the internet we found out that what is eaten here a lot (bananas, rice and potatoes) are actually good against diarrhea. In the afternoon we felt better and took a tour to Sillustani. Sillustani is a hill containing many burial towers made by 4 different cultures from 2000 B.C. up till the time of the Incas. They are all different styles and generally built near the edge of the hill. On many burial towers there was a tiny entrance on the east side, because that´s where the sun comes up and a new life starts. Especially the largest tower was impressive how it was built with such big rocks that fit together perfectly (it was pre-Inca). On the way back to Puno we stopped to visit a traditional house where we had potato with clay mayonnaise (the clay is taken from the river and used as a sauce)! Back in Puno we saw a big parade, which is a common thing in Puno (there is a parade every week). There were amazing costumes and it was very big. On October 17th we took a bus at 7:30am to La Paz and arrived at 5:30pm. We stopped in Copacabana (town on Lake Titicaca on Bolivian side) for 90 minutes. The bus ride also included a ferry trip. Fortunately we took a separate boat than the bus, because the bus looked like it was going to fall off the ferry from the wobbling. Apparently big buses don´t go through there anymore, because one of the buses actually fell into the lake.

Arequipa and Colca Canyon

On October 8th, our bus from Cusco arrived in Arequipa at 5am, which was an hour earlier than we were told. We arranged for a taxi pickup at 6am, so we decided to wait, especially since the taxis in Arequipa can be dangerous. Also, we didn´t know whether the hostel would be open. At 6:20am we took one of the taxis only to find out we could have called and also that there was somebody at the station looking for us! So, we first had a nap and for lunch we met Claudia. She is the wife of the brother of Brian´s brother´s wife, does that make sense? We wandered around town a bit as well.
Next day we left at 4am for a 3-day trip to Colca Canyon, which is the world´s second deepest canyon (twice as deep as the Grand Canyon). A 4 hour bus ride took us into the canyon (160km) and on the way we saw many cactii, rocky cliffs with different colors and textures and again many terraces. Our first stop was a condor viewpoint (Cruz del Condor), where we found a lot of people waiting for condors. We were there for an hour, but didn´t see any condors. We happened to miss 3 condors just 5 minutes before we arrived! We went into town (Cabanaconde) for a wander, lunch and then afterwards started hiking with a group of 6 plus guide. In contrast to the Lares Trek where we had porters and donkeys, we had to carry all of our things. This meant that Brian had to carry almost everything, because the hike was going to be hard enough on Paulien´s knees already without carrying extra things. Fortunately, she didn´t have any knee problems after that one time in Ollantaytambo. Also, in contract to the Lares Trek it was very sunny, hot and dusty. Almost all of the paths had loose rocks and sand and the hike down was pretty steep (one of the girls fell and hurt her knee). We walked down the barren and rocky side for 3 hours and had a short rest. Then we walked up the lush green side with flowing creeks for almost 2 hours. There are no roads on either side, only paths for walking and donkeys. We spent the night in the village of Cosñirhua where we stayed in a hostel and had unexpected luxuries: shower with hot water, tv and dvd-player. We were also watching the cooking and were witness to a guinea pig being killed (by breaking the neck) and then dipped in hot water to remove the fur. Fortunately, we are vegetarians and didn´t have to eat it. Since we were all tired we went to bed early at 9:30pm and slept in till 7:30am; this tour ended up being much more relaxed than we were expecting. After breakfast we walked to another town where we checked out a small local museum that explained local traditional life. Then we walked down to the oasis which is at the bottom of the canyon. Here we could swim, lay in the grass or relax and play cards on the tables and chairs made of palm trees. Lunch and breakfast today were carried (from Cabanaconde) and prepared by our guide. So, he had a lighter bag going up, but we didn´t. The lunch had a lot of carbohydrates to help us get out of the canyon. After another little siesta we started our climb out of the canyon. The oasis is at an altitude of 2100 meters and Cabanaconde at 3300 meters. The two of us went ahead and climbed out in 2.5 hours. Many times it seemed as if we were almost at the top, but that was just not the case as we would find out around the next corner. On the way we saw donkeys, mules (one carrying a bed frame), sheep, locals (some were running down) and, of course, some tourists. We did some internet in town while waiting for the group to arrive, since we didn´t know which hotel we would be staying at. After dinner we went into town for a drink with our group and some of the people we met on the way. We were very happy with our guide that we got through Perú Schweiz Explorer, since he gave us a lot of information about the plants, people and the area. He was able to answer all of our questions and although he basically only spoke spanish with us he was very easy to understand. One of the things that he explained was how Christianity is mixed with the Andean religion - for instance combining a cross with a pacha mama (cubby hole for an offering for mother earth). Our third and last day we walked to a lookout and spent some time there, because the only road out was blocked by a rock slide. We had to wait for that to be cleared, so that our bus could pick us up. We were actually supposed to go early in the morning to the condor view point for our second chance to see the condors, but couldn´t because of the rock slide. We found out when we did arrive that a few late condors had just disappeared. We drove back to Chivay, which is on the edge of the canyon for a yummy buffet lunch (not included in tour!). Then we went back to Arequipa and made some stops to look at various volcanoes and herds of vicuñas, alpacas and llamas.
On our last day in Arequipa we went to the Santa Catalina Convent, which is an over 2 hectare complete miniature walled colonial town in the middle of Arequipa and is Unesco protected. About 450 nuns lived here in total seclusion (few nuns remain now). It´s constructed, like many buildings in Arequipa, from sillar (local white volcanic stone). It was pretty big and worth the visit.
We also went to the Museo Santuarios Andinos that contains frozen bodies found on Ampato Volcano (>6000 meters), including the famous Juanita found in 1995. These children were sacrificed by the Incas to please the gods. These children walked all the way from Cusco up that high mountain to give their lives to help their people.
At 2pm we took a bus to Juliaca, a transport hub for the area. We arrived shortly before 7pm and found out that there were no more buses to the Capachica peninsula. In fact, when we asked some locals they didn´t even know the place and a tourist who has family there and had been there multiple times asked us why we were going there... well, our book says it´s nice there. So, we stayed overnight in Juliaca and caught a morning "collectivo" (minivan) to the town Llachón, which is on the tip of the Capachica peninsula. This story will continue in the next post...

Cusco and Machu Picchu

After taking the night bus from Huancayo to Lima we caught a flight to Cusco on October 1st. The rest of the day we mainly spent looking for a trek to Machu Picchu. Cusco is the ancient Inca capital and now has a fascinating mix of Inca and colonial Spanish architecture. Unfortunately, it is very touristy, too touristy for us even in the off season. When you walk down the street you are constantly asked if you want massages, tours, food or drugs. Along with the hassle of finding a trek we also had to arrange our own train tickets from Machu Picchu, since there was a train strike the day that we wanted to come back (which is why we couldn´t do the Salkantay Trek). We ended up booking the Lares Trek through Liz´s Explorer. They gave us the impression that it would be a private tour, but it ended up being with 6 other travellers. Liz said the pickup time would be 6:00 or 6:30, but when she pooled us with other people she tried to change the time to 5:00, but we weren´t having any of that. The guide that we were told we had changed twice before we left. The first day we were pleasantly surprised by the quality and amount of food, but after that it got saltier and saltier (or we noticed it more and more) and on the last day much of the group couldn´t finish their plates because of that. To give credit to the cook (and his assistant) though, they tried very hard and even set the table as if we were in a restaurant. Nonetheless, it was an excellent trek and we are only mentioning the above for future travellers. Get what is important to you about the trek written down before paying!
We ended up with a nice group: 2 girls from England, one couple from Belgium (so, we couldn´t "gossip" in Dutch) and one couple from Brazil. We started the Lares Trek by driving to Lares - the scenery is nice: terraced mountains, valleys with villages and even high up on the mountain small houses could be seen and barren scenery in differing colors and vegetation. We made the mandatory stop at a tourist trap to see some weaving, textiles and domesticated caged condors. The area around Lares is covered in green vegetation, so it was a big contrast to the drive there. We had lunch at the hot springs (pools ranging from 28-34 °C) in Lares after relaxing there for a while and started on the trek. The first day was the shortest with only 3 hours of walking. On this first day we saw many children come running down the hills to our group on a quest for little presents. We gave them candy, snacks we were given by our guide, coca leaves and finger puppets. There were so many kids we ran out of candy, fortunately the rest of the group still had some. Also, luckily the English girls had lots of pens to give away too. The children walked in bare feet or sandals and many had dirty hands, feet and clothes. While walking we saw how the Quechua people lived by farming potatoes and herding llamas, alpacas and sheep. They live in simple small houses made from rocks and straw or tin roofs. There are rock walls surrounding all of their potato fields and often their houses, which serve also to protect crops from animals. These walls can be seen all over. We camped in the village of W´aka W´asi. It was quite cold and we both had upset bellies, so our guide made a tea of special herb that he had collected that day. Kids came by with 2 mantas (blankets) full of drinks and hand made clothing to sell. Brian bought a scarf and a beer from the children. Normally we don´t buy things off children, but in this case we made an exception because the children don´t "work" for very long and the proceeds are used to help the families. We asked the British girls where the bathroom was and they told us that it was in an abandoned house (that is what they were told). So, we went there with our flashlight, noticed it was used previously as a bathroom and used the facilities. Because it was so cold, the ground was uneven and we got up at 6am, we didn´t get much sleep. The next morning on the way to the bathroom our guide asked us where we were going and kindly directed us to the proper outhouse (hole in ground with tin walls, a roof and no door), which is a standard toilet around there.
The second day of our trip the scenery was different: there weren´t many villages, there were lakes, glaciers, an alpine forest. This day we hiked from 3600 to 4400 meters and after lunch descended to 3800. The girls and women wore colorful skirts and upturned hats. The boys wore ponchos or westernized clothing. Some of the people we encountered spoke only Quechua, so our guide was our voice. The people that did speak spanish generally spoke very little. Some of the kids in this area have to walk two hours each way to school. We met one boy who had walked his sheep from Lares to where we had walked 6.5 hours in total and was going to return the same day. It was even colder this night and our tent had frost on the outside in the morning. 3 pairs of socks, 2 pairs of pants and 4 top layers didn´t keep Paulien warm enough, so she woke up with tired and puffy eyes. Brian went to bed sick without dinner and had a great sleep and woke up a bit early feeling super. We walked downhill the whole morning, which quickly turned from shade into sun. We saw 4 condors in the distance and many, many butterflies. We had lunch beside a creek and then started to wait for our bus ride to Ollantaytambo. Due to mountainbike races the road was blocked so our bus came 2 hours late. To pass that time and get some exercise the two of us walked to the highway. There we encountered the same girl that had joined us for lunch, so she was walking around with a big bag of spaghetti that she was eating with her hands. She was dirty and drooling chocolate, so after grabbing Paulien´s hands and arms, Paulien went back up the road to find water to wash up. Ollantaytambo was touristy, so the main ruins were busy and expensive. We decided to go to the Pinkuylluna ruins on the mountain opposite, which were free (of tourists and monetary). We could see all the tourists on the other side flashing their cameras. The ruins here were used as storage and were used at the same time as the other ruins (this side of the mountain was not exposed to as much sun, so was cooler). During the walk up Paulien noticed that both of here knees were inflamed, so it was a good thing we chose the Lares Trek instead of Salkantay (which is a harder hike). The town of Ollantaytambo was interesting with narrow cobblestone streets everywhere. Brian tried a Cerveza de Coca (coca leaf beer), which would be so illegal in other countries. At 7pm we took a train to Aguas Calientes, which is the town closest to Machu Picchu. We got to bed at 10:30pm and we had to get up at 3am, because we wanted to shower (for the first time in 3 days) before our 4am breakfast. On this fourth and final day we went to Machu Picchu and lucky us it was raining. Brian bought a plastic poncho and it was the best 3 soles (1$ USD) he ever spent, because it rained a lot that day. After a steep 90 minute hike up the humid rainforest, we had arrived at Machu Picchu. Since it was still raining and very foggy, we couldn´t see any of the surrounding mountains. Once through the entrance it was the same, however, this made Machu Picchu look mysterious. After a tour of almost 2 hours we had some food and waited under umbrellas for the rain to clear. When that happened we checked out Machu Picchu some more and took some photos where you could actually see Machu Picchu. Also, we hiked up Wayna Picchu mountain, which has many Inca ruins as well as an amazing view of Machu Picchu. We were very lucky, because we were #195 and #196 and only 200 people were allowed into Wayna Picchu. It was an hour up and the steps were very big, but it was well worth the effort. We waited at the top for the mist to clear so that we could see Machu Picchu. It was amazing to see what the Incas had accomplished in so little time - the rocks that fit perfectly together, the location (remote jungle) and altitude, using two different mountains, the large variety of areas: agricultural, temple, living areas, etc. It was astonishing to find out that the Incas had managed to keep this whole area, which is now a wonder of the world, a secret from the Spanish. We had to catch a bus down to Aguas Calientes to catch our 3:30 train to Cusco. This train was was a lot fancier than the ride to Aguas Calientes, because it was the only type of ticket available. We got some food and drinks, performance by a traditionally dressed and masked guy and also a fashion show with alpaca and llama clothing. It was especially funny because the girl in the fashion show was strutting her stuff and the guy was walking almost as fast as he could. We arrived at 8pm in Cusco quite tired (it´s faster to take the bus from Ollantaytambo).
The next day there were no vehicles all morning (except police), because of the protests and strikes. Strikes and protests are common here. It was different, because the roads were filled with protesting people instead of honking taxis. Since it was cold and rainy we went to check out important buildings. We visited the cathedral (which is a 3 church complex) and Qorikancha at Santa Domingo, which was once the center of the past Inca society. This important Inca temple was destroyed by the Spanish and now there is hardly anything left. Before going on our night bus to Arequipa we had a well deserved massage. It was relaxing, but we were very oily afterwards and had to hurry up to our bus. Also, Paulien felt a little bit bruised the next day (probably from the Inca massage, which is a rough massage using warm smooth rocks). We took a cheaper bus this time and stopped at a lot of places along the way, which didn´t make it easier to sleep!

Last 3 weeks in Huancayo

Tinkuy Peru has turned out to be the most rewarding of the four volunteering projects. First we´ll start with some more information about Tinkuy Peru and their plans.

Tinkuy Peru:
Since Tino was eight years old he has wanted to help the poor, but then without money since he was poor himself. Tinkuy Peru started in 2002 after a radio interview in New York where he was questioned about what he was doing to help the poor children and whether he had an exchange program setup. This gave him the idea to setup a volunteer program and four months later he got his first volunteer (from Canada) who helped a lot with organizing the volunteer program.
The Andean School (where they teach English to help fund the Mountain School) is closed because there aren´t enough volunteers. They hope to re-open in January 2008.
We´ve talked a lot with Tino and Marie and the have many good ideas for Tinkuy Peru to help fund the schools. They may open up a guest house with an artesan shop and organize tours in Cuzco. Gloria can hopefully start a bakery, since she is almost finished cooking school and is an excellent cook. Additionally, they are hoping to be able to offer workshops to the older children and some parents in, for instance, gourd carving, ceramics, weaving and silver. These workshops will hopefully provide a better future. Also, they would like to open up another school in the town Concepcion (another poor town 1 hour bus from Huancayo).
With the rest of our donations we funded two things. Firstly, the registration of the school, which will make it an official school with all the benefits of a "real" school. Secondly, we have paid for the first floor of the new school; currently Tinkuy Peru is renting one floor of a house. The "Casa de Niños" or "Children´s House" (which may be the name of the new school) will have computers, proper bathrooms (with showers) to improve hygiene and a playground/garden for the children. Future plans may include having a floor dedicated as an orphanage and another floor for the workshops.

Tino´s Family
Tino´s entire family and everybody else living in the house is very nice and have made us feel at home at all times. Most of them help in one way or another with Tinkuy Peru. Many of them are also studying and/or working hard as well. Tino is one of the 10 best weavers in Peru (his weavings look like photos) and has met many important people because of that. Instead of making a lot of money with his weaving he has decided to help poor children and only do a little bit of weaving. Tino and Marie are so appreciative of any help they get or anything you do and are also very helpful. It´s always nice to chat with the family and they have many stories to tell.

Teaching
Teaching at the schools is 4-5 hours per day, but our days were full because we also spent time on walking around 20 minutes each way twice, preparing lessons, some teaching or helping out (math, chess, computer) at the house.
Brian was mostly teaching math and some english: in the mornings with students between 6 and 15 years old and in the afternoons between 9 and 11. Paulien taught math, english, some geography and health to her afternoon class (7-14 years old). Paulien mainly taught numbers, letters and colours to her morning class (3-6 years old). In the beginning Gemma worked with Paulien in her morning class and afterwards another volunteer named Brian (from Ireland). Gemma and Scott left after our first week and the volunteer Ian only came back shortly to return later this year. So, most of the time we were 3 volunteers in total. The class sizes ranged from 3-15 children depending on how many students showed up and how many volunteers were working. All of the children only attend for a half day and for the other half they attend a government run school. Students in Peru only attend their government run schools for half a day. There is a big difference in the level per class (for instance, 4 different math levels) because of the age difference, but also between students of the same age. This might be because they go to different schools, but also because some students are more eager to earn. Some students are clearly behind; for instance, a 5 year old who cannot recognize the numbers 1-10 and a 13 year old who cannot tell time well in Spanish. Often the children, also the older ones, just wanted to draw in class instead of learning new things, but we only allowed some drawing or games at the end of class if they were good. A bingo/memory game in English that Paulien got from her co-op student was very popular. The children also asked for help (miss/teacher, ayudame!) a lot as well as for erasers, pencil sharpeners or kleenex, which kept us busy. The class with 4-6 year olds in the morning could get pretty tough, because after the break in the morning they could get quite restless. The teacher there works basically as a volunteer (Tino pays her a small wage) and whenever she had other commitments class would be cancelled if there were no volunteers. The government has decided to close the class for 3-6 year olds at the government school starting next week. Kids 5 and up will be attending a different government school 4 blocks away, while the other children will go to the Tinkuy Peru school. Next year all the children can go to the Tinkuy Peru school when it´s built and officially registered. That will also be a lot better for their hygiene, since there was no bathroom at the current location and often no running water. The children would just pee behind the classroom and sometimes even on the school yard.
We did 2 excursions with the students aged 3-6. A walk up the hill, while the teacher told them stuff about the area and nature. The other time we went to the zoo and the playground. All of us (12 kids and 3 adults) went into one station wagon taxi. Again, the children walked in pairs, were well behaved and enjoyed the outing a lot.

Children General
The children love having their picture taken. So, we were basically forced to take lots of photos if we brought out our camera. Then they would, of course, want to see their photo right away on the camera screen. We got presents from Sara: a knitted and perfumed table cloth, cereal and many drawings. Sara is mentally and physically disabled, but is always cheerful and always first to class in the morning and afternoon. Little kids told Paulien that she had a big nose (it is compared to theirs), while the older ones would admire or braid her hair. The children that we taught seem noticeably poorer than other kids from the same area. They often wore the same clothes, or clothes with holes in them, but they were happy in general.

Huancayo General
Most of the time it was sunny. One of the weeks was fairly cloudy and rained a bit more than normal. The temperature would often drop by 5pm when class ended. On the way home in the afternoon we got amazing views of clouds, sun, rain and mountains. There were often fiestas with a small symphony for live music and people dancing. Tino and Marie told us that they have fiestas for any reason: such as for finishing a floor of a house and for finishing the roof there is a big party.
Many women use a very colourful blanket to carry a child, produce from the fields, plastic bottles, groceries, etc. We bought one too and one day Paulien wore it and got a lot of attention from the locals.
There were a lot of dogs, but most of them were healthy and the situation was a lot better than in Ecuador in Cabo San Francisco.
There were many bike kiosks, either parked or biking around with a megaphone.
Brian found out that there are a lot of fun places to go at night (even till really late). The people everywhere are very nice and we never felt unsafe. Kids are often saying "hello" on the street. People in general called us gringo or gringa (name for white person) and mama/mami or papa (words used to show affection). Many people made small talk for no reason and we got warned a lot to be careful as well. All this made us feel really welcome.

Excursions
Our second weekend we went on a bike ride north of Huancayo in Mantaro Valley from 10:00 a.m. till 7:30 p.m. with Tino, Marie, Scott and Gemma. We biked about 60-70km total with multiple stops. First stop was Coches where there are detailed gourd carvings "mates burilados" - we got a small gourd filled with stories of the area. Then San Agustin de Cajas for fresh fruit juice. Followed by Hualhuas where there are different craft places with weavings (we got a scarf). After lunch we went to San Jeronimo, which is a town with many silver shops. Paulien got a bracelet and earrings. Then just Tino and us biked up to Virgen Inmaculada Concepcion, which was a hard bike because it was steep and the weather changed and got windy and cloudy after being totally sunny. Concepcion is the second tallest statue at 25 meters in South America, followed only by "Christ the Redeemer" in Rio de Janeiro. You can climb in the statue to the top - it was so windy and cold at the top that we only took a few quick photos of the amazing views. We took a one hour bus back. This was a very good trip: it was nice to be biking again, nice scenery, good smelling eucalyptus trees; at the end we were sore from the bumpy dirt roads. That Sunday we walked around town and at night we went to Torre Torre under a full moon. Mabel bought coca leaves, which Brian chewed on until his mouth was numb. It was really amazing and a great experience.
Our third weekend we went to the glacier Huaytapallana. In Quechua huayta means flower and pallana means "pick up". In April and May there are many flowers, but we only saw a few flowers. September, however, is apparently the best time for hiking the glacier. We took a taxi for over an hour to get up to 4000 meters for the start of the hike. The way there was a rocky dirt road with cows, sheep, llamas, donkeys, horses and pigs - on or alongside the road. The mountain is holy and people perform ceremonies there. We also did a ceremony of our own - we each put the best coca leaf from a handful under a Tinkuy Peru rock pile called "apacheta" and made a wish. We hiked from 9:30 a.m. till 2:30 p.m., which is apparently fast. 6 hours is normal for this hike. At the highest point we reached an altitude of 5300 meters. The hike started out sunny and when we reached the glacier it was cloudier and started snowing. We saw rabbits, squirrels and birds. There was snow, yet it was barren and rocky - there were multiple lakes and one was a bright turqoise (like Lake Louise in Canada). Since Tino has climbed the glacier many times before and has done a glacier guiding course we were able to hike higher up the glacier than most tourists go. Paulien found it a little bit scary jumping over small crevaces and walking on icy ridges. The top part was really steep and it was really fun to slide down the glacier. At the high altitude the clouds were amazing and moving fast and changing shape quickly. The visibility would change really fast and at one point we could just see each other. After hiking we had a really well deserved lunch of yummy trout at the restaurant at the start of the hike (the only place around for many kilometers). We could see our breath in the restaurant, it was starting to get cold already. This hike was a great experience: the hiking/exercise itself (which is a lot harder at this altitude), but especially the immense mountains, snow, walking on a glacier, having the entire glacier almost to yourself and being at such a high altitude. We both took some altitude medicine for the hike. Here you can buy single pills of medicine - they open the package and cut the amount of pills out you want. Sunday we checked out the artesan market again and "Mercado Libre", which is a gigantic market of food, clothing and other daily necessities. We were, most of the time, the only gringos around. We had lunch in a vegetarian restaurant and had a 4 course meal (including lamb soya) for one euro. In the afternoon we went to "Parque de la Identidad". It´s a beautiful park made mainly with nicely arranged rocks in different patterns. There are different statues showing artists and things specific for Huancayo and a castle for children to play in. For dessert (before dinner) we ate picarones (onion-ring shaped and deep fried dessert with sweet honey sauce) and arroz con leche (like rice pudding).
For our fourth and last weekend we went to La Cabaña (touristy restaurant) on Friday night with 3 other people. We had some local drinks with pisco (alcoholic). Then to two different discos - one was apparently the best in Huancayo, while the other was a bit dodgy and we were the only gringos. We got back at 5:30am and didn´t do much the next day because of that. That Saturday was Tino´s birthday, so Brian got up before 9 to make soy milk together with Marie for his Dutch pancakes. We made different kinds of Dutch pancakes and hutspot (Dutch meal) for around 13 people for Tino´s birthday dinner. The cooking, cleaning up and eating took from 6-11, so luckily everybody enjoyed the meal. Sunday we went to Torre Torre for the third time. This time we brought a camera to take daytime photos. On the way up and down we saw some of our students that live around there. One of our students was walking with her 2 younger sisters and a herd of sheep. After that we went to Mercado Libre with Gloria. We saw some parts that we hadn´t seen before and started to realize how big the market was. Some interesting items for sale were snakes (in a jar) and dried frogs (for soup).

Stay General
Shortly after our last blog post they changed the water connections and there was a normal temperature shower. Also, not long after the last blog post Paulien got better. In addition to latin music, 80´s and early 90´s music is very popular in Peru and Ecuador.
The food we got at the house was generally tasty and healthy and cooked by different people. For breakfast there was bread and often fruit with either egg, french toast, pancakes, chocolate milk or porridge. Lunch in Peru is also the biggest meal of the day and always had soup and a plate of rice with veggies, salad, beans, or eggs and usually potatoes as well. Dinner was always different, but often with potatoes or rice. Every meal had tea, so Paulien drank more tea this month than in her entire life. Two special meals in our last week were grilled alpaca and lasagna with alpaca. The alpaca was the first "steak" that either of us has eaten in 5 years (since we are vegetarian!). We decided to try it because it was supposed to be good and it turned out to be maybe the best meat we have ever eaten. In addition to the lasagna on our last day we also had Cahiuw Relleno (stuffed vegetable) followed by delicious maracuya pie, both made by Gloria. On Sunday´s we would go out for pizza (Brian´s favourite food) - Huancayo has a couple of really good pizza places.
Doing laundry in Huancayo wasn´t the biggest success for us. The first time our laundry was clean, but the second time it smelled like smoke or gasoline. So, the third time we tried another place where we got our clothes back after two full days still wet and not really folded. The fourth time we tried another place where we got clean clothes back the same day, except Brian´s jeans were missing - even though that was the only place that marked all the clothes by either sewing a mark or writing with permanent marker on the other clothes. To make a long story short, after some hassle and not believing we would see the pants again, we got them back.

Last Day
The kids were already a bit sad on the second last day and asking when we were coming back, but on the last day even more so. Both in the morning and afternoon we had a small fiesta with some drinks and food/candy at the end of the lesson. Since the children knew about the fiesta ahead of time, we had good attendance and even a student we had never seen before. Unfortunately we didn´t have a lot of time on our last day to hang out with everybody because we were busy packing and arranging the last few things. It felt weird to leave - we were both sad to go and would have liked to stay longer. We liked Huancayo and working with the children, but also we really liked our stay with Tino´s family. Everybody was so nice and it felt a little bit like leaving our own family behind. We took a night bus to Lima. We want to return one day, hopefully before our hair is gray.

Donations spent

With money that was donated we bought a second-hand spectrophotometer (from Gemini BV, who gave us a discount) for the laboratory in Cabo San Francisco and medicines (through a vet in Nijmegen) for the Santa Martha Rescue Center.

For the Santa Martha Rescue Center we bought a cheap mini-oven and some kitchen/cleaning utilities to make life easier for future volunteers.

To be able to do our work at FCSF we bought stuff for the following tasks:
- Garbage cleanup (eg: gloves, many garbage bags and material to make signs)
- Laboratory work (eg: converter for microscope, ups/power regulator to protect electrical equipment, parasite atlas and materials for conducting the research)
- Teaching English (2 dictionaries)
Additionally, we bought some small items for the FCSF house like garbage bins and bed sheets.
Also, for the main elementary school in Cabo San Francisco we purchased stainless steel plates, bowls and spoons for all the children (260). There is a government supplied lunch, but the children had to bring a plate, bowl and spoon from home. This was not very hygienic since they often dropped them on the ground, some plates were old and made out of plastic (with probably many germs in the scratches) and they might not all be washed properly at home. Now, when some more supplies are bought, the plates will be washed at school and will stay there.

To Yanapuma we made a cash donation of $800. Half of this will be used for the Tsachila community in Bua where we stayed for one week (probably for a health center or library). The other half will be used by Yanapuma where they feel it will have the most benefit; we indicated a preference for a project in a very poor area.

For Tinkuy Peru we purchased all of the books used by the government elementary schools, plus a few other books and posters. Also, we had to pay a small fee to bring the books from Lima - we brought 20 kg of donated books.
Additionally we paid for the costs that will allow Tinkuy Peru to be an officially registered school. This has many benefits for the students, such as allowing them to transfer schools. We have also paid for the costs of building the first floor of the new school, which will have improved facilities. Right now the children are using the third floor of a house that is used by other people. Also, with the new school Tinkuy Peru will no longer be paying rent for the classrooms.

We used € 300 of the "Brian and Paulien" money, so that the donation to Tinkuy Peru would be enough for registration and to complete the first floor of the new school. The remaining money was mainly spent on transportation and extra (unexpected) costs for volunteering that we wouldn´t have had if we would have just been travelling.

Donations spent as of September 23rd, 2008.

First week in Huancayo

Day 0 (September 2nd):
We arrived at the house just in time for a birthday party. It was Jessica´s birthday, so there was cake and other sweets. There were 3 volunteers in total: Ian, Jessica and Laura. Not only volunteers live in the house with Tino (director of Tinkuy Peru), but eight members of his family as well: Tino's mother, his two sisters, his two nieces, Leslie and Jacki, his wife Marie, and his two daughters Pilar and Angela. Also, Mabel (extended family) and Lydia (cleans and cooks) live there too. There´s plenty of room because the house is very large. In high season there can be up to 20 volunteers at once.

Day 1:
Brian was sick in bed almost the whole day, so we didn´t do much. Paulien was mostly getting information.

Day 2:
In the morning 2 new volunteers arrived: Jed and Sebastian. Today we checked out the different classes. It is a 30 minute walk uphill to the schools, or a bus ride. Many roads aren´t paved, so it´s really dusty and we get a dust tan. August is the dustiest month, so that should start getting less. There is a government run school with classes in the morning (9:30-12) for children 4-6 years old. There is a teacher there, but the education is poor. In the morning volunteers teach at this class as well. The Tinkuy Peru mountain school has classes in the morning (9:30-11) and afternoon (3:30-5) for different groups of children ranging in age from 3-15. There are around 67 students in total, but the amount that show up each day is different. Many of the children at the school are either orphans or have a step-parent or don´t get enough attention at home. When we arrived we got greeted by the kids with a hug and kiss, which is normal here (also, when saying goodbye). The female volunteers are called "miss" and male volunteers are called "teacher". The kids are very cute, but a bit dirty. Many have dirty noses, hands and clothes (the children in Cabo San Francisco were cleaner). The dirty noses are probably because of the high altitude - we´re around 3200 metres. It´s sunny and warm during the day, but cold in late afternoon and night. We didn´t teach today, since we were mostly observing and helping Laura. Afterwards the teacher gave a lesson and we were surprised to see what she was teaching: she actually showed the children what burns (eg paper and plastic) and what doesn´t without mentioning, for instance, that fire is dangerous or that you shouldn´t burn plastic. After lunch we taught the youngest class at the mountain school, making paper planes, coloring, practicing numbers, etc. Teaching is difficult because there is a large range in skills in each class and our spanish isn´t super good.
Brian went out at night with all of the others drinking a local drink called Pisco Sour. Paulien had to go to bed early, because she was sick now (probably altitude sickness).

Day 3:
Paulien felt a bit better, but had intestinal problems now and therefore could not go to the morning class at the government school, since there is no bathroom there). It was the last day for Jessica and Laura, so there was a going away party arranged in combination with one of the students birthdays. There was food and dancing and all of the kids were clean and dressed up. The food was really healthy for a kids party and afterwards all of the parents and teacher drank beer. In the afternoon we took the students from the mountain school on a field trip to the zoo and then a playground. There were 27 children and they loved it. The children are really affectionate: always wanting to hold your hand, give you a hug, etc. That night we went to see a band playing Peruvian music with lots of different instruments, with one person maybe playing 3 instruments in a song (flute, pan flute & saxophone).

Day 4:
On Saturday we (Mabel, Marie, Jed, Ian and us) went to visit a ruin in a nearby town Ñahuimpuquio. Up on a nearby hill that we climbed up, there are ruins from 800 BC built well enough to withstand many earthquakes and years of erosion. After that we went down to the lake and went around on some paddle-boats. The boys won the race obviously, especially since the girls didn´t consider it a race. For lunch we had trout prepared two different ways on a stove heated by eucalyptus branches. Ian and Jed ordered more food than they could eat, so it was fed to a dog with blue eyebrows (painted). Then we walked to a nearby town called Chupaca, we pronounced it Chewbacca (like in star wars), to a local market. In Peru they have 3,000 different kinds of potatoes, so almost every meal has some kind of potatoe (except for breakfast). Paulien got welcomed to the town by two different guys. From Jessica and Laura we heard that that kind of attention was normal. After being blown away almost by all of the dust, we took a bus back to Huancayo. When we got back we saw people on the street dressed in traditional clothing dancing. We went close to take a photo and got dragged into the party and invited to dance.

Day 5:
3 volunteers left this morning (Ian, Jessica and Laura). Luckily, Ian is coming back in a week or so. We checked out the market in Huancayo and bought a blanket that people use here for carrying things on their back (in the local design). It was a really big market, but that is not too surprising in a city of 300,000 people. Not much else interesting that day.

Day 6:
Two new volunteers arrived (Gemma and Scott). In the morning there were only classes at the mountain school. There we gave our first real classes. In the afternoon we went on a field trip, because there weren´t that many children, which is apparently normal on a Monday. Also, Sebastian wanted to checkout "Torre Torre" on his last day. It´s a series of naturally formed reddish sandstone pillars from which you get an amazing view of the surrounding area. Unfortunately, we don´t have any photos of it, since we didn´t bring our camera, but we will go back and take photos. It´s less than 10 minutes away from the mountain school. The children are fearless and run on the crazy dodgiest parts (even jumping gaps with 20 meter drops). Many children have broken shoes or shoes not suitable for hiking. Needless to say this field trip would never be allowed in Canada or Holland. Then we went into town to buy some books for the school - we managed to buy the whole government curriculum for grades 1-6 in math, science, social studies and 1 other subject. This was really needed, since the children are mainly taught English and math by the volunteers.

Day 7:
2 volunteers left (Jed and Sebastian) to fly back to the United States. Together with the 2 remaining volunteers (Gemma and Scott), we gave classes in the morning and the afternoon. Mainly teaching at the government school is very tiring, because the children ask for help often and have problems with many of the tasks. In the afternoon Paulien couldn´t teach, because she was still sick with intestinal problems, which got worse.

General:
Paulien is called Paulina in both Ecuador and Peru.
Sometimes we speak Dutch by accident. Brian when he´s speaking Spanish and Paulien when she needs to speak English. Speaking Dutch can be useful, however, when we want to say things that we don´t want others to understand. We have to be careful though, since there are Dutch people everywhere!
In certain spots here there can be a lot of garbage, just like in Ecuador, but the town itself is very clean due to people cleaning it up. In Ecuador we saw many times that the bus driver would clean up the bus by simply throwing everything out the window - no matter where the bus was.
We are here for another 3 weeks.