Peru!

 

I arrived in Peru yesterday morning after quite a long journey from Ecuador. Slept in the Lima airport which was quite awful. But arrived in Arequipa to sunshine and snow capped Andes mountains.

The geography is quite different here. Set in southern Peru it is quite dry, and warm. Which is a comforting change to Ecuador. The city feels very much like Spain. Large plazas and all the restaurants you would usually find in a big city: KFC, burger king, pizza hut, starbucks, and so on. A bit weird..

Today was first day up at the school. We cleaned 3 out of the 5 classrooms, hopefully finish up tomorrow and have the rest of the week off.

So I was planning on going to Bolivia after I finished volunteering.. But I found out that there is a $135 entrance fee into Bolivia. Which at my current financial state greatly exceeds my budget. A bit frustrating, because that's where I was hoping to fly out of as well. :/ o well.

 

My new house is alright, I live by myself now.. (no other volunteers)

My host family is actually really nice, gvi has said that the housing here is more just room and board and they don't really include you in the family. My host brother who is 17 is really nice and is pretty fun to chat with. My host mom tries to talk to me and converse which is also pretty cool, because my Spanish seems to have gone into remission lately. It's good to have someone force you to speak and practice..

 

The schedule is a bit more laid back here, wake up at 7 rather than 5:30. And I wont have as much lesson planning since I'm teaching kindergarten.

 

So a lot to look forward to, a few changes.

Enjoying the warmer weather and change of atmosphere.

And look forward to getting to know this new city.

 

Despedido

 

Today was my last day.

It feels so weird to be leaving these kids. Leaving huayapunga, otavalo, Ecuador.. All of it.

This week has gone by like a day.

I don't really know what to write about how I feel about this whole experience.

Yes, it's been incredibly challenging at points, but what I experienced is like nothing else.

The last image in my head is a few of the boys holding on to my backpack, saying. 'vas a quedar aquí? Si si quedas quedas!'

But the road goes on, and the ocean refuses no river.

 

This trip will not be easily forgotten.

The bumpy rides up to school, the chilly mornings, my 5 kids.. Who I am determined to come back to see again within the next few years.

I hope I was able to make a difference in their lives, because I know that they have made a difference in mine.

 

Now, on to Peru.. Arequipa! Start all over again. A nomadic life is filled with goodbyes, but at the same time, filled with introductions and new friends.

 

Today I fly to panama, layover for 5 hours, then Lima for another 5 hour layover, then arrive in Arequipa Sunday morning. Summer school has just ended there this week, so this week we will be cleaning the schools then we the following week teaching will begin.

 

Another dialect, bigger city, new kids, new friends, and a couple more stamps in my passport. Onward.

 

 

Biking challenge!

 So in a week I am leaving for Arequipa, Peru where I will continue teaching. During my time there I have decided to participate in a biking challenge consisting of 2 days, the 23 and 24 of march, in the Colca Canyon. We will be leaving at 3am heading to the town of Chivay and begin our journey on the ancient route to the famous city of Cuzco called Vizcachani (4406m). After 3 hours of pedaling we will arrive at Ventana del Colca (4350m) and will have the opportunity to repell a 40m high wall. 4 hours later we will arrive at the town of Chivay. The second day we will wake up at 6am heading to Cruz del Condor where we will be staying for an hour. After that, we are back on our bicycles for 2 hours through the valley de Colca. For the last step we will arrive at the town of Maca to head back to Chivay from where we will return to Arequipa. On our way back we will stop at 4910m to be able to enjoy a splendid Mirador. The reason I chose to do this challenge is to raise as much money possible to provide these kids a free, first-time and sustainable education. Continue to provide them sustainable basic human rights, free education and food is the main goal.  Really every dollar counts down here. For one dollar a day here in Ecuador, we are able to provide a piece of fruit for every student in my school at the end of the day. Money goes a long way in south america! So whatever you can contribute is greatly appreciated by all!  

 

More info on donations: Click here

Don't say oh well.

 It's been awhile since I've updated this thing..

 

Let's see, my cough has gotten better, which is quite nice!

 

Tomorrow will be my one month benchmark. It's been a interesting month. I want to say it has been a long month, but at the same time I feel like time has flown by. I can't believe I'm almost finished here in Ecuador. This is my last full week of teaching.. Next week I have Monday and Tuesday off for carnavel, then wed thurs fri I am training a new volunteer who will be taking my class. Ugh, I dont want somebody else taking my kids. Oh well.. 

 

This past weekend, went to banos with a few of the other volunteers. Almost 7 hours of sitting on a bus. Ugh. Haha, it was a good trip though. We left right after school on Friday and got there around 9:30 pm.

 

Saturday, we decided to make pancakes. Surprisingly we found pancake mix at the supermarket. So equipped with dulce de leche, cream cheese, butter, and strawberry jam we prepared pancakes in the hostel. 

They actually turned out halfalright, I'm not much of a pancake person.. But I enjoyed these ones, maybe because it was a little taste of familiarity. :) 

So after pancakes, we set off to go rent bikes. $5 for the day.. Not too bad of a price, but the (lack of) quality of the bikes really showed.

We followed a road, ruta de las cascadas, but didn't see as many waterfalls as advertised, but it still felt great to be on a bike exploring the natural beauty of equator. 

 

 

Well, that was until I taco'ed the rim of my back tire in the first mile. Somehow after kicking it a few times it bent back to 'rideable' more or less.. I thought for sure the rim was just going to sheer in half going down one of the hills, but amazingly it stayed intact and the girls that had joined us decided to catch a truck back to baños. I was able to switch out my bike and continue on with the three other guys. 

 

The heavy downpours eventually turned us back as well, and we retreated to the hostel to make the rest of the pancakes for dinner and have a little nap before going out for the night. 

 

5 pancakes covered in random condiments later, I passed out in a food coma for 3 hours. Felt amazing. 

 

The next day, we had to catch our bus at 10am back to otavalo. Just as we had gotten on the bus in banos, a guy and a girl followed us to the back of the bus. And after pretending to ask us for our tickets and saying random things in Spanish, Johan realized they had gotten his camera out of his bag and snatched it back as they took off out of the bus before we could even realize what they had tried to do. 

We were tempted to go after them, but the bus was about to leave so we were just relieved that Johan had noticed and saved his camera, which at the time had my 18-200 lens on it.. 

 

So that's mainly all the excitement from this weekend. Long bus rides, and nice bike rides!

Onward.

 

 

Ugh. Hah

So not too big of a shock to me.. But the coke didn't do too much for me. Well, aside from the caffeine keeping me up until 3:30am.. Awesome. O well, it was worth a shot I guess?

Running on 2 hours of sleep today at school. Today hasn't been all that bad though, I told me kids I wasn't feeling too well and they've been pretty easy on me. 2 are absent today which also helps.. 

Heading to a pharmacy today to see what kind of ecuadorian potion they'll sell me.

Need to get better by next weekend. Baños: adventure capital of Ecuador!

Weird remedies..

 So I've been developing a worse and worse chest cold/cough over the last few days.

Tonight I mentioned it to my host parents because its gotten to a point of coughing every 15 seconds.  Instead of cough syrup or something, they sent me down to the market for a bottle of coca cola. 

Thought I was mistranslating or something, but they poured a mug of coke, put it in the microwave for 2 minutes and sent me upstairs to my bed. With these instructions: put on a sweater and sweatpants.. Drink the hot coca cola right before you go to sleep and you'll feel better in the morning. 

Well, guess its worth a try?  Bottoms up!

Something different..

 Today was the first day since I've been here that the clouds have cleared off Cotacachi. 

This picture really doesn't do it justice. Absolutely spectacular mountain. This is looking up at it at from 13,000 ft. I believe it sits at about 16,200 feet.. 

Stuff and stuff.

 So this has been my first week teaching on my own. The other volunteer that was training me left on saturday. So it's just been me and the kids this week. 

This past weekend, took a little day trip up to Ibarra. 

Interesting little excursion.. Some good surrealism. Blah blah blah..

 

Haven't really been in the journaling mood lately. 

 

My days are pretty repetitious which in my opinion don't make for good blog entries.

School, then back for lesson planning, then home for dinner, sleep. 

Last night I watched toy story before I went to bed. 

A good childhood reminiscence.. 

It hasn't been long since I last saw it, but everytime I watch a pixar movie I notice new things and understand more innuendos. I guess that's what I enjoy about those movies. Easy on the brain after a long day, but still humorous. 

 

I think my body has finally adjusted to the altitude.. Less headaches/backaches.

 

I'm enjoying this trip and this experience, but some days I wish I could go skateboarding around Portland or Santa Cruz... Or go snowboarding with my friends... All in good time.. 

 

For now, enjoying the moment.

 

Oh ya, made some kick ass guacamole with Johan. 3 aguacates for 50 cents?