Copacabana - Bolivia

On Friday morning we left Puno to go to Copacabana about three hours by bus in Bolivia. Despite warnings that crossing the border could be tricky it all went smoothly. We had to get off the bus in Peru and go through immigration (small little room with a man sitting at a desk) and then walk a few hundred metres through the gate and into Bolivia an go through their little immigration with another man at a desk. It was then a short trip more on the bus when we arrived at Copacabana. My first impression was the buildings are so colourful and then you the lake and huge mountains surrunding the town and it makes a pretty great sight. Parts of the town itself are quite dirty and dusty but it all adds to the character and charm. I never imagined a little town on a lake could be so interesting, but it is. On that firs t day after arriving i dumped my bags and then climbed the mountain next to the town. It was a strenuous climb (you end up at 4000m at the top) but so worth it because i could see out over the lake and to islands and mountains beyond. Also, the lake itslef is so still and flat. The body of water looks so big that you keep thinking you are out over an ocean but then there are no waves and it is calm. I stayed at the top of the moutain for quite a while just enjoying the stunning view and perfect blue sky sunshine. Explored the backstreets for a while and encountered lots of pigs lying about the place as well as some really scary chicken gangs. Before sunset met with others from the group and i climbed the moutain again in time for sunset. This sunset was so beautiful. I sat on a rock on top of the huge hill and watched as the glistening ryas of light on the water got smaller and the wobbling ball of sushine slowly descended behind the darkened moutains in the far distance. Then climbed back down in the twilight with bluish orange sky on one side and starlit sky on the other.

Just when i thought that was my best day yet, i had an even better day the next day. I got up at 6.30 (from the top the whole lake was pink in the morning light) and went with Stephen and Ross for a day trip to the Island del Sol (Island of the Sun). The ferry ride was 2 hours long but that in itself was so spectacular. Once again it was a clear blue sunny day andi sat on the edge of the boat watching the different mountains and cliffs as we very slowly putted by. Then about an hour into the trip, unexpectedy, we past some more mountains and as we passed then end of them a huge mountain range came into view across the lake in the distance and it was totally white and covered with snow. From there the mountains were visible for the rest of the trip. No wonder it was cold though as the wind must have been blowing straight off the snow and over the lake. The boat took us to the north side of the island from where we intended to walk the length of the island. It took us the whole day and was one of the most straining but spectacular walks ive done. The actual distance was about 9km but felt longer because there were so many massively steep hills and they just kept coming. At the northern port we walked a bit further north and saw some old Inca sites, one where they used to sacrifice virigns on the edge of a cliff. The landscape was very interesting - the northern end of the island and most of the interior was extremely arid and very few trees. This is a strange constrast to being in such a big body of water and looking out to endless water and green islands in the distance. All along tyhe way we came across stone forts and buildings. At the early part of the walk we walked across a long white sand beach where it met the lake the water was turquoise. As we left the beach and walked up higher and looked down and also across we could see both an almost tropical looking beach, backed by massive snow-covered mountains. Once again it was a very strange constrast - one of those things that reminds you that you are somewhere totally different! The landscape continued to change as we gradually passed terraced hillsides, corn fields, lush grassy areas, forests of gum trees and eventually the southern port itself perched on hillside with a misture of mud-brick huts and small rendered houses with stone paths that wind their way down to the wharf where the boats and tourists are waiting. I got back on the boat exhausted but so happy with the day and sat and soaked up the last of the afternoon sun and watched the same view in reverse. The whole boat trip reminded very much of the Bay of Islands in NZ. I had a great early dinner with Emily and Naomi - we found this rooftop terrace restaurant place and had a really hearty meal and watched the sunset over the lake and the bright twinkling come out.

This morning we didnt leae Copacabana until lunchtime so i had time to wander around and look in the markets and walk down and do some sketching by the water. I had an early morning breakfast while people were still sleeping and enjoyed the quiet early morning and yet more sunshine. Copacabana was definitley more than i expected and i had some of the best days there of the trip so far. We arrived back in Puno a few hours ago. I need to buy some supplies for Amantani Island as we leave tomorrow morning. The ferry ride will be 4 hours and we will meet our host families when we get there. Once i am there i will not have internet access for 20 days...but i am sure i shall write all about it when i get back. Bye for now!!!

Puno

Left Cusco on Wednesday morning to get the 8 hour bus ride to Puno at Lake Titicaca. About three hours into the trip the huge double decker bus hit a big rock on the road and it blew out the whole front tyre making a loud bang and smashed the drivers side window. Suddenly the bus was swerving all over the road and it felt totally out of control. We were right next a steep drop down to a river and as it happened i thought we were definitely going over the edge and into the river. It was really terrifying. After a few hundred metres of swerving the bus finally slowed down and stopped - much to everyone´s relief. We all got out for quite a while as they changed the tyre. Apart from that the bus trip was uneventful although it was a fascinating bus ride seeing parts of Peru we hadn´t seen yet. There were many many mud brick towns and eventually we began driving past massive snow-capped mountains. Puno is almost 4000m compared to Cusco at about 3300m, so we were gradually climbing much of the way.

I was prepared for Puno to be uninteresting as have been told by several sources but i was very pleasantly surprised so far to find that it is really interesting. It is set at the edge of the lake with moutains all around. The houses are all very incomplete looking but this makes for an interesting overview of the city from above. The lake view is great and the inner city area is full of character with a tourist element but at the same time a bustling local culture that you don´t see in Cusco as much.

Today i spent the day doing a lot of sight-seeing starting with a walk up one side of the city up to Kuntur Wasi lookout meaning ¨house of the condor¨. which is a large statue of condor overlooking the city and the lake. Stephen and me tried racing up the steps but at 4000m you soon realise that that is suicide so stoppped halfway out of breath and virtually crawled the rest of the way. Also walked down to the port area where you can look out over the lake and mountains beyond and the green algae bright green in the harbour area. After lunch at the bakery got a taxi up to the big Puma overlooking the city on the other side. The puma itslef wasnt much - like a big pineapple,. but a puma, but the walk back down was really cool as we walked about half an hour through the outer neighbourhoods where everything is really hodge podge including the steep dirt roads and incomplete houses.

Leaving first thing tomorrow to get the bus to Bolivia (Copacabana) for two dyas so we can renew our visas and see the sights.

Easter in Peru

We have finally finished our work on the reception of the Hacienda. It turns out we have been the most successful group of any of the programs as we have got so much done. After scraping off the first mural and starting again we finally finished it after working many extra days over our easter rest time. It looks very colourful and cool. We also finished the front path, the garden and the reception. Someone in our group even donated a new computer and printer to the community so they can run the hostel with a computer. It was sort of sad to leave Huaran after living there for five weeks but i was also ready to leave and discover the next place. We left yesterday and at the moment i am in Cusco again and getting ready to leave tomorrow morning for the 8 hour bus ride to Puno at Lake Titicaca. We´ll also go to Copacabana on the Bolivia side of lake Titicaca and then we´ll go to Amantani Island where we stay for 3 weeks. We have been told to prepare to be unclean and cold for three weeks. I´m a bit nervous about it now because there are no toilets, no showers, no taps, no lights. We have to wash in the lake if we want to get clean but then we can´t actually swim because it is way too cold! Actually i am looking forward to the challenge and seeing the place. Also there we will be building a school lunchroom which is apparently quite important as it will encourage parents to actually send their kids to school to get a meal instead of keeping them home to work. We will be living with families there so it should be very interesting and challenging. Well i guess i will update on that when i get back and see how it went.

Easter here has been quite fascinating. I have not seen a single easter egg or hot cross bun but i have seen lots of processions and jesus statues. The biggest one i saw was on Good Friday night we went to Calca (a nearby ¨largish¨town) and all the central streets were lined with colourful designs on the roads made of coloured sawdust in all sorts of pictures and words. As the procession slowly moved the colourful designs got trodden on and all mixed up and then swept up. There were so many people there despite the freezing weather and there were families there and lots and lots of young people all so enthusiastic and fervent about singing and praying.

On Good Friday day we had a 12 course lunch as part of the tradition. Well, to be honest one of the ocurses was popcorn and one was biscuits and there were about three or four different desserts so it wasn´t as filling as it sounds.

Last week after our last official work day we came to Cusco for a night to watch the Cenciano versus Sao paullo (Brasil) match as part of the south america cup. it was a freezing cold night and i was so cold and hungry that i very nearly bought an anticucho which is a popular snack at the game. That probably doesn´t sound bad until i tell you that anticucho is a bbq´d kebab type thing which consists of three alpaca hearts on a stick with a whole potato plonked at the end of the stick. it actually smells really good but so far i can´t bring myself to eat alpaca heart - although i have had alpaca steak which is so good.

The person next to me is smoking and talking really loud on the net and coughing on me so i´m going to leave and maybe write an update in Bolivia or so.

First week of April in Huran

Ok I just spent a million years putting up two photos on the blog and it took so long that i think i will just write some stuff instead. I have so many photos to put up as i have finally managed to burn my photos last week after running out of memeory on the cancha cancha trip. There is even a stroy about getting my photos done. Actually there is a story about everything here because everything is an event. I think the main reason is becasue of time and the Peruvians idea of time. For example, it is perfectly acceptable to turn up an hour late somewhere, to give an idea. So, the other day when i walked into a shop to get my photos burned and i was about to aks the man whether he does it he shook his hand at me as if to say don´t speak and just pointed at the chair. Well there aern´t too many photo burning optionds in Urubamba so despite his rudeness i waited...and waited and waited while he developed some guys whole roll of film. Then finally he finishes and i ask whether he can do my digital photos to CD like the sign says outside. And he said something about being too busy today. Oh my gosh, i could not beleive it. If he had let me ask him in the first place i would not have waited 20 minutes!! So i went somewhere else later that afternoon and i get taken to some backroom which is actaully a whole family bedroom and the computer is wheeled out and switched on and the lady looked very unsure about using a computer and tried to get me to trnafer the pictures but it was all in Spanish and confusing. So then she tells me to come back in 20 minutes and i had to come back several times and in the end i just took the card and said don´t worry about it. They even locked my memeory card and i thought it was broken. But anyway, the point of that is everything is a thing if you know what i mean.

The other thing that was a thing was when i was teaching yesterday at the Collegio and the classes officially start at 3 every day for the english classes we are doing. And without fail people are late every single day. But yesterday was the most late. Some of the women turned up 45 minutes and just swaggered into class and took their seat. Then they asked us for paper (which is okay i guess - but geez) and all their kids followed them in and started running around. So we continued with adjectives and pronunciation and i was already so tired and and then when 4.30 came they wanted us to stay for another hour because they came late!! how rude is that!! turn up late then tell the teachers to stay back. hmmm anyway, everyone always says that that is the culture and we must respect it but i think there should be some attmept to respect our value of timeliness, especially if they are wanting to learn about tourism etc. western travellers are going to expect a hostel to be run on time. Anyway, enough ranting about that.

On monday four of us (the design team) and the Maestro had to go to Cusco to get paint for the Hacienda. After many many arduous meeting last week we finally agreed we could paint the interior red. Even all the old ¨powerful¨ men like the idea of green. They don´t just like the idea of green they are obsessed with it. And the obsession was proved on Monday morning when we were intercepted by the director without our coordinators to help us and forced to accept green. All this was done within minute sof leaving for Cusco and he told the maestro to get green and maestro had no clue what was happening and we couldn´t fully express ourselves in Spanish and we had to show ¨respect¨ to the director. So off we go to Cusco to buy paint, after hours of designing our colours for the interior within a few minutes all our work is thrown out the window. We were quite angry but by this stage resigned to green and really unenthused about the whole thing. The bus to Cusco a very large lady sat on my arm rest (as people do) and the result was (unbeknownst to her becasue she so big) that she was actaully sitting on jme the whole way to Cusco, which is an hour and a half. To make matters worse she had very frizzy big hair and it was in my face the whole and my arms were pinned by her so i couldn´t fluff it away!! Above me was a smelly man eating an ice-block and dripping on me. There is also a smoky, corn smell everywhere here and especially on the bus becasue everyone is crowded in and the windows were closed. So, all in all i couldn´t wait to get off the bus. We bought the paint and pi8led into a taxi with four of us in the back (no seatbelts of course) and drove back to Huaran. There was a big fuss when we got back becasue by then Bonny had returned na dhad heard all about the ambush and i was called into a big meeting with all the directors where they all apologised profusley and said they didn´t know anything about it. Well, we´ll see what happens. So far, the latest compromise is to buy red and green and let them choose and donate the leftover paint to them!! It is such a joke now, i really am at the stage where they can just go ahead and paint it green. But i can´t be seen to be ¨negative¨and just giving up. Some battles are not worth fighting.

I won´t be able to leave Huran on the weekend. Nooo! On saturday we are playing the Huaran Cup. Amy has organised that we play the locals in volleyball and soccer and have the community come and watch. Amy is making flags and Bonny is getting a kangaroo mascot outfit made in Cusco based on a really crappy drawing i did of a kangaroo. As i sit here there are many cars driving around and announcing on loud speakers all sorts of election things. They play music out the car really loudly and all sorts of things to attract attention. There are signs painted on walls everywhere about who to vote for. On satruday no one in Peru is allwed drink becasue of the election on Sunday. We have been told that we are having a lockdown on Sunday and for the day after the election until we know the situation and whether it is safe. There could be some backlash depending on the results, so we are preparing for that and no one is allowed to go to Urubamaba on sunday or anywhere. Hopefully everything will be fine by wedndeaday becasue we are officially finishing work that day and then going to Cusco for the day and night to watch the big Sao Pallo v. Centiano match in Cusco as part of the South America Cup. We have heard that if there is trouble it could be at the game so we will have to decide whether to go or not.

Well, i am finally starting to feel better i think after over a week of being unwell and not knowing what. I ended up taking medicine for Giardia, so hoepofully that has solved that problem. Other people have had similar problems and haven´t taken medicine for Giardia and they are still persisting. Everyone is staying for dinner and trivia night but two of us are going back. I´m still not 100 percent so i don´t want to be out in the cold and i still have little energy. Actually my ulterior motive is that the house will be so quiet...and i will be able to cook what iwant and sit around a have a nice quiet time. Everyone has gotten to the stage of getting sick of everyone needing space. Not that everyone is not getting along. But after a month of living and working with 11 people it gets very close and you need SPACE!!!

Rob went away for a couple of days to organise the rest of the program. He spent a few days on Amantani Island (where we are going next) and he said it is absoltuley freezing there. So, combined with no running water or electricity i am not looking forward to it!! Even all the locals say mucho mucho frio when you mention amantani island...meaning very very cold!! aggghh

well, i better go, i have to head back before dark (yeh right...who will know?? hehe) but i want to go to this ice-cream place first. Someone went there yesterday and said for 4 soles you can get two scoops and condensed milk on the bottom and choc and fudge on top. I am really exctied at the prospect of this and simply must investigate!! I think i think about chocolate too much here...everyone talks about chocoalte all the time...i think becasue we are so tired and use our enbergy all the time. Anyway...ice-cream here i come : )

photo at Pisac

The other week we went to Pisac and i went to the ruins and walked back. It was a very steep climb but some really great views and old Inca ruins to be seen. This is me almost at the bottom back to Pisac. I got lost and started climbing back up accidentally and i passed some local women on the way and said the usual polite greeting and wondered why they were all sniggering at me...obviously because i was walking on a dead end!!

the house in Huaran

This is the house in Huaran where we are living. As you can see the view is amazing. There are mountains on all sides of the house. This is the courtyard where you enter the house off the dirt road. We also hang all our washing here that never dries. On the left the building is the dining room and the kitchen. There is a two story section behind me and my room is on the left ground! The mountains look spectacular in the afternoons when the sun shines on them

random stuff..

There´s not much to write for the last few days day. After i wrote on wednesday afternoon we all went to a pub trivia night at the Muse Too in Urubamba. The guy who owns it is Autralian but he live here and runs the cafe. There are always volunteer people in there eating and hanging out. They are mostly British people with ome group called tapas or something. They look way more volunterrish than we do what with their scruffy hair and Peruvian clothing! hehe. Anyway the trivia night for that night was run by one of the British kids and the ¨general knowledge¨ questions were more like English knowledge (they weren´t expecting non-englih ppl to turn up). My table came second last - it was quite disgraceful! But it was quite fun and they make the yummiest choc brownies, one of which i ate with glee!

I headed back with the first bunch of people as i was sick and had the usual late night pitch black walk along the road past the corn field. I´m getting used to that walk now...the good thing is when you step in something squishy you really have no idea whether it is mud or poo so you just walking and keep stepping in it!

On wednesday we presented our design to the community leaders and ended up with quite a compromise. It´s very interesting that we are continually reminded to be respectful to these old men who it and eat our lunch everyday and turn up late, but sometimes i wonder where the respect for other people is?? for example the women in the community who, as far as i can tell do far more work than some of the men who should be so respected.

The end result is that the old men want to keep the exisitng mural which i literally just an amatuer painting of a big corn, an onion, a carrot and a fist. It is history to it though because they painted it in 1970 when the community rose up and reclaimed the Hacienda back from the governement. Apparently a short film has been made of the story and was played at many film fetivals around the world. I can´t remeber the name but will try and see it while i´m here.

On thursday afternoon some did teaching english through sport at the Collegio. I chose that one becasue i thought it was most likely i would get to run around outside and have fun. At first a whole bunch of kids turned up and did flash cards for a while and then the teenagers turned up and we did englih outside and then after a while we couldn´t resist the pressure any longer and of course ended up playing soccer for an hour. I had not run around so much since being here and i was so puffed out. But it was a lot of fun and good practice for our gringoes versus locals Cup Challenge on the last weekend in Huran.