La Paz con un poco de Coroico

The original plan was to only stay one night in La Paz, but because we loved it so much, despite the rain and cold, we stayed a few more days.

We stayed in a really nice hostel, Solario, which was right next to San Fransisco and really cheap and full of french people. I think a month could easily have gone by and we wouldn't have noticed, La Paz is such an easy place!

There are a lot of normal markets, and right next to our hostel there was the Lanza market, a big old concrete maze with strips of stalls going diagonally up, down, left, right; I got lost in there so many times! The stalls are never all open at the same time which makes it even more confusing as the rows look different every time!! Best egg sandwiches and choripan from the upstairs bit (Doña Elviria) which is what we lived on, also tried some delicious cuban food in a restaurant with live music and writing all over the wall..

We went on a walking tour from the San Pedro square and learnt lots of interesting things about La Paz from this guy who learnt all of his english from Downton Abbey and who overdid being a funny tour guide. San Pedro prison is sponsored by Coca-Cola. And Coca-Cola are the only US company who are allowed to import coca leaves. I have been learnin a lot.

My friend Sarah ran down the side of a building...

The protests from last week about the pension laws continued onto this week. In La Paz they are really good at blockades. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and almost Friday they marched down the whole of the prado, the main street which divides the hispanic and native halves of the city and stops you going anywhere. On Wednesday was the worst, I didn't go and see but from 3 blocks away you could see a sea of miners marching down, shouting, chanting, firecracking...

The teachers' strike wasa lot nicer, they looked like they were just having a pleasant stroll down the road

Wednesday was the day we went to Coroico. Because of the blockades it took us 1 hour to do the journey to Villa Fatima terminal which is normally 10-15 minutes away, but we got a great tour of random bits of the city we would never have gone to.

The collectivo (minibus) on the way there went up into the snowy mountains I had spent the last few days gawping up at. It's crazy how variable the climate is! 

The road to Coroico (they built a new one which wasn't as dangerous as the death road) was having work done on it so we waited for an hour  by the side of the road...

And because of that for the last hour of the journey the driver raced us there through complete clouds on the roads then on the dirt track right next to a lot of metres drop. Waaahhh!!

Coroico is really small and twee and hilly with cobbled streets. We found el Hostal Familiar with the most beautiful view over the mountains and the jungle and the clouds...

We were the only people staying there and the owner Cesar was extremely friendly and helpful. He drew us a map with squiggly lines for a walk the next day and assured us that we would never get lost in the jungle with his map. 

On the bus there we had met Marianela from Argentina and Ana from Rio, we went out for pasta and beers and cards in this garden pub. My spanish was broadened by those two; Argentinian jsh instead of y so 'jsho me jshamo Marianela' and Ana has a really strong Brasilian accent and says loads of words in portuguese instead of spanish.

In the morning we set off on the road down into the jungle on the side of the mountains with their tops disappearing in the clouds. Past coca plantations and little villages where all of the houses had huge sheets with coca drying in their yards, huge birds...

And this guy on a motorbike drove past really fast, had obviously just crashed because he had a huge wound on the side of his face with blood pouring out, but kept on going. 

Lots of photos taken

We got to the cascades a bit of a way off the path, there was a little pool and we went swimming, it was so nice after being in the hot humid sun. And ate half a kilo of that delicious Bolivian cheese for lunch.

Then waited on the side of the road for the next collectivo...

Entonces back to Coroico, back to La Paz for one last night

Lake Titicaca and... stuck in Cochabamba again!

Goodbyes to the Arequipenos were very teary and sad. To all of the kids, to all of the volunteers, Nate, our brother, Kerryn and Dave, our loved mum and dad... But you just can't have everything can you.

The bus from Arequipa to Puno was incredible. Never in my life have I slept well on any form of transport, and on this bus I slept all the way from 10 minutes into the journey until we arrived in Puno.
 We  got attacked by about 7 dufferent people selling tickets to Copacabana as we walked unto the bus station. Un the end we bought them off a man who took our money and just gave us a bit of paper with our names and the bus detauls on which wasn't even the bus company he said he was from... which was all very suspicious. But fine in the end.
We watched the sunrise accross the lake eating avocado sandwiches, then hopped on a bus which took 3 hours to cross it through beautiful wetlands to Copacabana. Here we crossed the border back into my homeland, Bolivia.

Immigration gave me another 30 day visa which I'm pretty sure they are not  allowed to do, but I didn't say anything...

After sitting on the pier enjoying the lake and getting snacks we took a boat to la isla del sol. On the boat we met some Valencians with their lovely spanish accents. Juan had brought his clarinet so we were blessed with beautiful music whilst we contemplated the lake whilst our hair blew in the breeze. It was that poetic. And the lake is blooming huge, could have been a sea! Have a look at it on google maps, Lake Titicaca, you will not be dissapointed.

Arrived on the island on the north side we walked the 3 hours down to the south, after being offered super cheap rooms by a lot of 10 year olds. The most beautiful views of the beaches, the lake, the Andes on the mainland... crossed a lot of sheep and donkeys as we walked through the villages. You have to pay for the entry to the island and all of the locals on the way checked our tickets and pointed us in the right direction.
Life there just is so peaceful and far away from everything. Lovely.

On the south side there are a lot more hostels and restaurants, we decided to splash out and stay in the best one in the village, which cost 4 pounds a night, got a nice cuppa coca tea which was well needed as that place is blooming freezing!!
We got asked what we wanted to eat by this elderly guy who insisted on translating everything into english after he had said it in spanish, and while we were eating the delicious trout he came and asked if everthing was ok... so we assumed that he owned the hostel... but then discovered that he was just a tour guide that always brought his people there and liked to think he owned the hostel. Funny funny man...

Somehow I woke up just in time to see the sunrise behind the mountains, indescribable!
We took the boat back in the morning with the same funny old man, and learnt a lot about the island's corns spuds and beans, medicinal plants and economy on the way down to the boat, then had another idyllic ride back to Bolivia!

From there we travelled back to La Paz where I parted with Beth, Sarah and Annabell, who were destined to Sucre and Uyuni in the south, and hopped on a bus to Cochabamba, my home town...

I planned to stay one night, but as it turned out there were blockades, because the miners and the teachers want 100% of their pensions and the way they go about this in Bolivia is by blocking the roads. It works pretty well. The current president actually started the tradition himself before he was in power, and now he is getting a taste of his own medicine.

What I really love about Bolivia is how essential refreshment is in all situations. All the policemen guarding the ministry of education shared a couple of bottles of coke, and there were so many cholitas selling snacks to everyone doing the blocking.

So, at first I was going to leave on Tuesday... then that turned into Thursday... then it was Saturday morning, but in the end it was Saturday evening.
I had such a lovely week, seeing all of my old friends, seeing my mum, going to all of my old favourite places and eating the very much missed Cochabambino food...

I also went back to +Proyecto Horizonte and helped with my kids for a couple of days. It was so good to see them all! They really have grown a lot in the month I have been gone, they talk a lot more, and their behaviour has improved significantly.

I also had the great honour of cleaning the toilets in the school with the other volunteers, as an experiment to see whether they were smelly just because they were dirty or if there was a problem with the plumbing. We had all been out for a boogie the night before so were all feeling a wee bit under the weather but it was really funny as we had the spirit of the team and had funky music on. Without the music it would have just not been the same.

And so on Saturday I finally left Cochabamba, for the last time this year I think, and headed back to La Paz to spend a couple more days there...

Busy times at IntiWawa

I started working in the Jardín last week; which meant waking up at half 6 and walking through Arequipa in a completely different light to normal.

There are about 25 kids aged 3-5 shared between 2 classes, Profe Norma and Profe Beren, with Annabell and myself helping out.

I'm not sure if it was because it was early in the morning and you need a lot of energy to hang out with kids, but I didn't really enjoy working in the Jardín. I just didn't feel like I was actually doing a lot. But the kids were so sweet, I'll give them that...

It was the anniversary of San Isidro last Sunday so the kids had to learn a traditional dance to perform to the community. I just find it really amusing how they do things here. Instead of starting to plan weeks in advance, we first introduced the dance to the kids when they only had 2 days of practise left. So this meant two days of going through the same steps for almost 3 hours to the most catchy Peruvian music, with kids who just had no more attention left in them....

San Isidro

I missed their dance performance unfortunately as I was off to the Colca Canyon again to work in another project in a tiny village called Coporaque right down in the Canyon. Intiwawa do an Interculturalidad project there on Sunday mornings for the kids in the village, and also teach English which was what I was doing.

We left on Saturday morning, after having an America breakfast with all of the other chums who were celebrating America that day.

This time Reyna, the bus company I went with last time and which massively let us down, stayed true and got us to Chivay in perfect time, and we got to Coporaque in a minibus full of flies and taking with us all of the stock for the local shop.

Coporaque is tiny, the only people I saw out were an old woman with 3 sheep and an old man with big holes in the toes of his shoes. And it is so so so quiet after Arequipa.

We were staying with the Chocolate family. I was a bit puzzled by this at first too. Mr and Mrs Chocolate have 3 lovely daughters and rent rooms and take their guests out on tours of the area showing them all of the best and secret spots. They collaborated with Intiwawa a good 4 years ago to create this project. And Chocolate used to be just a nick name, now it's his stage name, and it's really good for business as people as far a Lima know his name!

Their wee garden

They really are the nicest family, on Saturday evening after we arrived and played I-spy with Rubith who is 5 and reminds me so much of my little sister Elise, Chocolate took us on a walk down to the bottom of the valley, where on the side of the huge river there are natural thermal baths. It was so so nice, there were so many stars out, it was so tranquil and beautiful and warm and oh I could have stayed there for days!

After some tasty trout, thanks Rosío (Mrs Chocolate), some Milky, and a last little look at the stars and the quiet we went to bed at 9, absolutely freezing.

At 7 on Sunday morning Rosío took us on a walk up and around the sides of the canyon to a mirador with some views that weren't too shabby actually. That lady knows so much about the land, which cactuses you can eat, which cactuses you can use as shampoo to make your hair grow, which plants make tea thats good for you in every way possible... Here is a poor representation of the beauty:

Then the project, which I had kind of forgotten was happening by the time we had had breakfast outside in the morning sun with the Chocolate kids...

Punctuality is not one of South America's strong points. We were meant to start at 9 but we started at 10, Maria and I teaching English to first a group of shy little kids and then to a group of older kids split between the cool boys who just messed around all lesson and the really super mature girls who really wanted to learn. But we managed, and now they know how to be very polite in english as well as talk about the wherabouts of tableware. Kerryn and Dave were teaching about Interculturality; this week was life's important values. 

Kerryn is starting a photography and art project on Saturdays as well to make more use of their time there, and she is raising money for cameras right here... 

http://www.gofundme.com/camerasforcoporaque

You can donate for nothing or donate for some photos the kids take in return. Best of luck to Kerryn, please give what you can!

We, the volunteers, also had out own dance to practise though, another traditional Peruvian gem, for IntiWawa's 6th birthday on Monday 29th... For the last two weeks we have been taught how to boogie the Peruvian way by our diva dance teacher who sometimes turns up and sometimes doesn't...

Despite many problems for everyone organising this fiesta, I think it went just great.

First thing in the morning I was live on television. I had met the manager of channel 9 who picked up Annabell and I hitching back from San Isidro one day, drove us all the way home and said he'd be interested in doing an interview about what Intiwawa does. 

Thus I went with Dave and Raffa, and spent a very surreal half hour in ATVSur's studios. First of all we had to wait by the live screen with this lady overly made up wearing the tightest clothes doing aerobics very inappropriately. Then they just said, yep come in, make sure your mobiles are off, here are some microphones, sit down, 123 and live. Whilst the aerobics lady (Claudia)  was asking us questions we had written about Intiwawa acting really interested and concerned it was really difficult to take her seriously and not laugh. Halfway through my little speech about our objectives someone waved at me to tell me to talk into the microphone so you probably can't hear half of what I said...

But it was a truly peculiar time. And no-one asked for my autograph afterwards. what!

After our 5-10 minutes of fame we joined the others to decorate the museum where the presentation and exhibition was going to be. Banners, yellow balloons, crepe paper, yellow ribbon, the place looked a right treat!

Beth knows it

After a huge lunch for 2 squids, we made the final preparations and the guests and the kids (way more than we were expecting) arrived, 59 of them managed to fit into a minibus, which was way more than we were expecting.

Each group did their little act, listened impatiently to lots of talking from board members and thoroughly enjoyed the copious food prepared by fellow volunteers.

However, our dance teacher, who someone had put in charge of the music and the costumes, didn't turn up. But we did it anyway, and it were hilarious...

Here it is;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCR1GrM7_Ds

Enjoy!

El Canyon del Colca

Our trip to the Colca Canyon last weekend certainly had a very interesting start.
First of all, Beth and I both overslept through various alarms and had to run out of the house to meet Pat, a friend from home who happened to be passing by Arequipa... we missed the 8 o'clock bus, bought a fare for 11 instead and killed a couple of hours having a very long breakfast.
But we did get on the bus, and all was good. About 2 hours into the bus ride, the bus starts stopping a little too often and for a little too long each time.
'Wouldn't it be funny if we broke down?' Yes Beth, it would be funny.
In the middle of absolutely nowhere in the desert, with no phone reception, nothing for miles and miles, nada.

They told us they were getting another bus to take us, a bus coming from Arequipa which was 2 hours away.
It was actually kind of nice to start off with, sitting in the sun, playing games, playing with rocks.

And then, 2 hours later, they send not a bus but a mechanic. I am not going to pretend to know anything about autos but something was wrong with the cooler, and this mechanic could definitely not fix it.
This is when, along with everyone else, we lose faith in Reyna (the bus company) and walk up the road to try and hitch hike. However, as soon as we decided to do this cars just stopped coming. It was like magic. And the one truck which did come and was willing to give us a ride was going the wrong way.
Also it was really cold. And we only had a bit of water and 2 packets of crackers left. I think if we had brought proper food everything would have been fine. Or if we had tea.. But we didn't.

We waited some more, and after at least an hour a bus came from Arequipa! It was already full so we had to stand up for an hour in the tiny aisle and I am pretty sure sleeping heads got elbowed but we got there in the end! After a scary journey along a loopy road down through the mountains down to the tiny town of Chivay. I think a good al paca bifstek was deserved that night.
The hostel owner sneakily lied about there being ample hot water so after a nice cold shower we enjoyed the fantastic tv variety of spanish dubbed american movies.

Things do get better though.

In the morning, absolutely frozen, after an al paca and tater sandwich at 7 we got to the bus station and got offered a tour of the canyon and villages on the way for half price, perfect!

One village, Achama, was named after an Inca's expression of disgust when he tried their chicha. When we got there, at 8 in the morning there were a few ladies dressed up in traditional cholita dress with dressed up llamas, an old guy carrying a falcon and a little girl dancing , trying to make a bit of money from tourists who want to take photos with them, as well as loads of people selling the same jumpers, keyrings, al paca hats, scarves and gloves, purses wallets pencilcases notebooks... in a tiny village at 8 in the morning, probably earlier still as some tours leave at 4-5am. It's so crazy.

sneaky

But yeah! The Colca Canyon; absolutely beautiful! I can't remember the number but it is lots of metres deep, absolutely incredible, with thousands of tiny terraces built up the sides by the Incas and the very occasional house or village lost in there somewhere.

The main place people go is Cruz del Condor, a view point frequented by condors. We got there at half past 8, just in time.

Looking triumphant as if we have just accomplished something 

We made friends with a group of elderly folk from England doing a tour round Peru. I really felt like I was back in Malmesbury for about 20 minutes. Things like 'oh yes that is a jolly good one' and 'absolutely spiffing canyon' and 'oh cripes!' you just take for granted at home.
At about 9.30 the real big birds started circling up. Someone nearby had put some drum and bass on which fitted perfectly! That's apparently what makes for the best condor action. As soon as the music came on there were more and more birds, about 15 circling up and swooping above us. We were stood next to this guy who know so much about birds and so we also enjoyed a running commentary on the exact purpose of their behaviour. Here they are, jolly good show:

The tour was really good, as well as being truly knowledgeable about everything to do with the canyon our guide also had a great set of classic jokes (p.s. anyone that is reading this that doesn't know me personally should be informed that I am a very sarcastic person) including a toy snake which he pretended was real.

In the afternoon we went to a place abut 10 minutes away from Chivay to La Calera to the thermal baths, and spent all afternoon there. One of the lifeguards took a photo that is possibly the worst photo possible;

Then we went home.
The End

La vida en Arequipa

Entonces, hace una semana he llegado aca en Arequipa.

The city, 'la ciudad blanca' is full of beautiful colonial buildings, churches, fine foods and lovely people, all overlooked by Misti the volcano, see below.

Cheery chums

It's really interesting to hop from one NGO to another and see how differently stuff is done.
Intiwawa has several different projects all over the place. They help in a local primary school with English classes (one of the actual English teachers couldn't speak english!), in a kindergarten in San Isidro, which is an hour out of Arequipa, and there are Interculturalidad projects in 2 villages way out of town, teaching a group of kids about other cultures, teaching them about their rights and also a bit of English.
And the main project, tareas, where I go every afternoon is in San Isidro, a tiny village an hour away on the bus.
Buses here are mental. They cram so many people in, like 20 people in a pretty small aisle and it is very rare to get a seat. There is just no limit to the amount of people you can fit on, there will be people hanging out of the doorway, and if you are at the back getting off is always a mission. Then we have to walk a mile or so to the house, or sometimes we get lifts in the back of pick-up trucks, living on the edge.
About 30-40 kids from age 3 to 14 come every day after school to la Casa Intiwawa, a big house where they can come and do their homework with our help and all of the books they have there and have fun and just be kids. Which they are really good at!

On not great photo of the house

I have seen some crazy homework. One kid in the 6th grade had maths homework which took 4 of us to work out. Maths is definitely different in different countries... Really often they have to copy pages and pages of text book, even if they don't understand it! Or like 20 times the letters 'ma' then 20 mu's mi's and mo's. I don't miss homework.  Then we do games, try and keep them under control and then they have dinner which is cooked by a local mama.
All the work is done by volunteers which is amazing but a wee bit precarious, as numbers must change so much throughout the year, so I am going to help with advertising also. The week before I came there were 4 volunteers, but now there are 14 of us! As well as a lot of Peruvians who help once a week or co-ordinate the projects.
Have a looksie;http://www.intiwawa.org
The house is surrounded by hills and it is so beautiful at sunset....

This week has been really lovely and chill. We have been enjoying the hostel and the beautiful patio with coca leaf tea, where I am sharing a rom with the lovely Beth my friend from home. We also spend a lot of time in the volunteer house, as well as a lot of time walking all the way there, cooking, and eating a lot of pasta with pre prepared veg you can buy in the market in little bolsitas, which I am already a bit sick of, and lots of eggs. Arequipa is full of tasty treats, such as queso helado 'cheese ice-cream' which sounds suspicious but is in fact delicious, ceviche; seafood and lemon juice, which I have mixed feelings about, granadilla my favourite fruit which looks like slimy frogspawn...

 The city is really nice just to walk around; I could happily wander all day long. There is a beautiful plaza with a cathedral and a fountain, a million pigeons who ain't scared of no-one and people who without fail ask me if I want to buy sunglasses despite the fact I am actually wearing a pair. By night:

We also found the most beautiful cafe ´cafe y vino´ which is on the balcony of this courtyard right in the center but is so quiet, you can sit on the sofa outside and see over all the rooftops. It's a french place and I could very happily go on my own and listen to the one lady who is there absolutely every night talking with the french owner and chuckle at the et euuuuuuhhh et bof et bref. Golden.

Beth y yo also joined a gym which is really out of character as I would never join a gym in England, but it is 11$ for the month so I am deeming it acceptable. Entonces we have both been aching for the last few days, my pain is in the abs so every time I laugh or cough or try and pick something up it means serious pain!

Last weekend we also went to see Amy Winehouse which was an interesting experience. Here she is in person;

And even got the karaoke face out...

Cracking. I am going to go bed and then to the biggest canyon in the world tomorrow! I will bring y'all some photos!