"Dia de la estudiante" (Day of the Student)

23rd September is the Day of the Student in Peru. Most kids get the day off from school, not our school.... we took our kids to spend the day at a local swimming pool. I have never seen kids so excited as when we told them we were taking them out for the day at the pool. Their little faces lit up. Even Edwin, who never shows up to school, put in an honourary appearance and came to school for an entire week, as he wanted to be included in the day trip!



We took our kids to the local pool/ garden. The place had 2 pools - the kiddie pool and the adult pool. As our kids dont really know how to swim, they all ended up in the kiddie pool (along with 5 other schools). The kiddie pool was overflowing, but they loved it nonetheless.








The girls came along all excited in their shorts (most didnt have swimming costumes) and the boys jumped in their shorts. The 1st grade boys were amazing to watch - they had never seen so much water before in their lives!

We also took our Inicial (kindergarten) kids along. This is a picture of little Mauricio. He is only 3 years old and new to our kindergarten (joined 10 days ago). GVI sponsored lunch - the kids got chicken, which is a real treat. Little Fernando was so excited to get a chicken lunch, that he kept storing it in his bag and coming back to eat more every 20 minutes.






We sponsored a round of icecream... and suddenly we were surrounded by kids from other schools, all wanting some icecream. The kids were amazing, so well behaved and so full of awe... watching them was so inspiring!







And this is one of the kids - he performs street tricks for money. Chris was giving him some good competition.

And lastly, us in our sombreros...

Down, Up, Down and all the way Up!!!

... that was the itinerary of our 3 day, 2 nights trek to Colca Canyon. And if scaling a 3200 metre canyon wasn´t hard enough, we also had our heavy backpacks and a difficulty breathing to test our strength and endurance.

the start of our trek

Colca Canyon is a canyon of about 70 km. It is about 3000 metres deep and is more than twice as deep as the Grand Canyon in the USA. Unfortunately, that also makes it inaccessible, but also incredibly beautiful. Last weekend, Chris & I, along with other volunteers treked to the bottom of the canyon.

Our goal: To get to the village on the other wall of the canyon to spend the night, then spend the morning sunbathing in the oasis at the bottom of the canyon.

Day1:

Treking commenced with 5 brave women, 1 man (Chris), 6 heavy backpacks and 1 trek guide. We set off on Friday morning around 3.30am for a 5 hour drive to the top of the canyon - Cabanaconde, little town about 3200 metres above sea level. At midday, we began our trek from Cabanaconde and walked 3 hours downhill. The scenery along the way was simply breathtaking.... and when we got to the bottom, we crossed a very rickety suspension bridge.

The village, where we were meant to be spending the night was about half way up the canyon. So, we started treking all the way back up to get to the village - about 2.5 hours uphill.

The village was amazing. We caught the most amazing sunset in the canyon - it almost appeared like the sun set at the spot where the walls of the canyon met.

We had a simple room with a mud floor (no floor really), and we ate a basic meal of soup, rice and omlette. Our poor tour guide (she was about my height) had to carry all the food supplies with her for the trek! The village was very tiny, probably about 10 families. As the village is not easily accessible, everything needs to be carried down and up to the village by mule twice a week...


















the village were we stayed - notice the open air cooking








Day2:

The next morning, we all woke up sore from the previous day, but ready for the day ahead. Day 2 had a reputation for being the toughest day of the trek (we had to climb back up to 3200 metres)...

We started walking downhill for 2 hours. Again, the scenery was amazing and we were getting more excited the closer we got to the oasis. The oasis at the bottom of the canyon is paradise for tired trekers, who simply want to lay in the pool and cool down. Then lunch at the oasis, then the the ascend back to Cabanaconde @ 3200 metres....

Chris was determined. He was going to achieve the 3 hour trek in under 3 hours, while carrying his own backpack. Me, on the other hand, simply knew I had been beaten... I opted to ride a mule back to the top. Little did I know at the time, that "the mule option" meant trusting your life to the mule and praying not to die for 2 hours. Let me explain.... we ascend to the top in 2 hours. The trek paths are narrow, about 2 ft wide and full of dust, rubble and large stones. If the mule slips once, he and his precious cargo could fall to the bottom of the canyon. My mule slipped about 3 times, tried to race his fellow mules all the way to the top, decided to bite other mules and totally had no regard for my life.... :-).


Chris treked to the top in just over 2 hours. I "muled" back to the top in about 2 hours. Chris had endurance, I had courage. I will never be riding any animal, in any canyon, ever again...!!!



Day 3:

We were back safe on solid ground. We walked to an amazing lookout point to see condors. And we saw them!!! Amazing bird, about 3 meter wing span and totally graceful.

And other quick stop at the hot spings of Chivay and we set home.... back to Arequipa to teach our kids.
The Canyon was amazing.... it made us work hard to see the beautiful sights, but it was so worth it....

Lizelle

Chile

One of our goals of this trip was to make the most of our time in South America, and as of a couple of weeks ago we had accounted for every remaining day in Peru. Of course, it would be a shame to spend every day in Peru, and we planned to visit a beach-side town called Arica, in Chile.

Up until a few days prior, we weren't sure if we were going to go. We believed the cost of flights to be prohibitive for such a short trip, and I wasn't sure that a visit to the beach justified 6 hours (each way) on a bus. As it turned out, the flights were entirely reasonable, and we assembled a group of 6 volunteers to take the 21 minute flight.

So following the Inicial Olympics on Friday, we darted for the airport in a taxi. The flight was mostly pain-free, except for the landing! I'd barely turned on my iPod when the announcement came that we were descending to land. The next clue that we were landing was a giant thud on the tarmac. Apparently, because the flights were so cheap, they didn't bother to put wings on the airplane! But no harm done, except for a few innocent passengers abruptly torn from their dreams.

We were in Arica! We dropped off our things at our hostel, then headed out to see the sights. We weren't exactly sure what to expect from Arica, other than beautiful beaches, but even they didn't seem to want to show themselves. Our first attempt at finding a beach yielded a shipyard, after which we wandered for 30 minutes in the wrong direction on the drunken advice of some German locals.

Ordinarily, this would have made for a pretty disappointing evening, but something happened next that put a smile on all our faces. Or perhaps I should say someone. Let me introduce Francesca. She is a fellow volunteer with a passion and a flair for language. She speaks fluent Italian, which pretty much means she speaks fluent Spanish too! Anyway, Franny decided to approach a woman to ask for directions, and to track down a mythical restaurant that had been recommended to us. What transpired next is a mystery, but their conversation ended with the 6 of us squeezing into a car the size of a Mazda 1 and driving to our restaurant.

We were greeted by 2 guard dogs stalking the entrance to the restaurant, which appeared closed. We retreated to the street, disappointed and hungry. At this point, Debra, who recently arrived in Arequipa but has spent the last 6 months volunteering with GVI throughout South America, warned us that she would transform into a monster if not fed before 9pm. Then Franny stepped up again. This time she approach a couple of guys with a Ute, and we applauded the choice because we'd have more room to sit if they were to offer us a lift. And they did, but this time we declined. There were more than a few jokes flying around about approaching a bus driver next time. We ended up finding a walkway with a bunch of nice restaurants, and enjoyed a great night that also featured an outdoor performance from a local jazz band.

Saturday was our only full day in Arica, and we planned to spend it on the beach. This time we walked the other way, and soon we spied the beach in the distance. The morning was overcast and gloomy, but we'd been told by the hostel owner that it gets nice at 12pm. As we walked, we joked that the clouds would part at 12pm, that the trees that seemed so lifeless would stand up straight, and that the city would miraculously transform into a wonderland. As funny as it seemed, it pretty much happened.

But before that, I have one visual that I must share with you. As we headed for the beach, we followed an old railway track. The track passed over a bridge, and in a classic Stand By Me moment we walked on the railway tracks over the bridge. Then looking down through the track, we saw a dead bird (that's not the funny bit). So the bridge came and went, and there were jokes about the bird coming to life at 12pm. Then we approached a fence, with 5 posts. On 4 of the posts were birds, but one was eerily empty. Needless to say there was lots of laughter and a mock conversation between the birds pondering why their friend hadn't returned from the bridge yet.

So 12pm came and went, and the surroundings came to life. The beach was quiet, but we had a nice relaxing day doing nothing.

Arica has a huge hill from which a lookout provides beautiful views of the city. We had planned to go there, but in the late afternoon we were running out of time before sunset. So out of desparation, we walked up to the freeway to survey our options. What time is it? Franny time! That's right - she was able to get a bus to stop in the middle of the freeway to give us a lift back into town so we could get to the lookout. At this point, we decided that Arica might be home to the most friendly people in the world.

The views from the lookout were great. As is customary in most South American towns and cities, there was a large statue of Jesus watching over... the ocean! I should mention that Peru and Chile are not the best of friends. So much so that, when erecting a giant statue of Jesus, the Chilenos opted to face it out towards the ocean rather than into their city (and Peru).

On Sunday morning, we checked out the local church, constructed completely from iron. Having been painted, its style was not as unique and endearing as the name might suggest, but we had to see it for ourselves. After that, we headed back to the airport, recharged and ready for another week.

And here is Debra's perspective on the weekend, complete with Churros and Jordan references:

http://debrafiterman.blogspot.com/2008/09/chile.html

Chris

Inicial (AKA kindergarten) and the Olympics

Every Monday at 11am, we head over to a local Inicial (kindergarten) for basic English classes and physical education.

In a number of ways, this is quite different from what we do the rest of the week. For starters, Inicial is about a 10 minute walk from our primary school. In recent times, the local council has been installing a sewerage system, which is great for the local community, but it has meant that our walking path has come to resemble a war zone. We even had to wait to return to our primary school a few weeks ago because explosives were being set off along the road.

The class itself is pretty basic. We often begin with flash cards, saying the Spanish and English words and getting the class to repeat them. We also try to make the classes fun and interesting, for example this week we got each child to act out a scene with us where they shook our hand and said Hello, accepted a gift and said Thankyou, and finally waved and said Goodbye as they walked away.

With PE, tears are guaranteed. If one child doesn't smack another in the face or throw dirt in their eyes, someone is likely to stumble over a rock or get hit in the face with a ball. The play area is a small area blanketed with dirt and riddled with large stones, but these kids don't know any different and they're always eager to get out and run around for a while. I normally start PE with a warm-up, and get the children to copy everything I do. I randomly drop to the ground and yell Abajo (down), and spring into the air and yell Arriba (up), and it is always fun watching the kids second guess when I'll do it.

Last week, the local district held their Olympics for Inicial schools, and it was a blast. The children love to run, and after each race every child wore a winner's smile. It was great to see.

There were individual races, relays, sack races, and even crawling races. But my personal favourite moment was in the relay. Early in the race, one team established a clear lead, and by the 3rd runner the result was a formality. However, the 3rd runner (as were all the runners) was facing his oncoming teammate, and after receiving the baton started running in the wrong direction. That's right, he forgot to turn around. Needless to say, by the time he recovered, his team was clearly in last place. But with the spirit in which the Olympics were contested, he walked away as happy as everyone else, and received nothing but warm hugs as reward for his error. Imagine seeing that in the real Olympics!

Lizelle and I had the honour of being the Godparents of our Inicial school in the Olympics, so we got to lead our school in the opening ceremony march.

Once the Olympics were over, we flew to Chile for the weekend, and...

Chris

The Halfway Mark

In some ways, it doesn't feel like we've been here for 5 weeks. 3 months sounds like a very long time, and it doesn't feel like we've lived half of that already. But aside from a week and a bit of frantically hitting the major tourist stops after we compelte our project, we're officially at the halfway mark.


I say "in some ways", because in other ways it feels like we've been here forever. This isn't a holiday, where every day you're going somewhere different and doing something different. No, we're following the same routine every day, just like if we were at home. So after a while, you get used to it and come to expect it. For a short while, it is our new life.


A lot has happened in the past few weeks. But rather than listing it in a single undigestable form here, stay tuned for a wave of posts covering the latest from the school, Chile, and the world's deepest canyon (except for the deeper one that is harder to get to :).

The one thing I will mention, because it doesn't really warrant its own post is horseriding - Peruvian style. You see, in Peru they don't believe in safety equipment such as helmets, and the fact that we had a first-timer only seemed to inspire our guide to give her the fastest first ride in world history. Don't get me wrong - it was heaps of fun, although I felt a tad guilty when my horse began hauling me up really steep hills scattered with rocks.

And to finish, a few pictures of Arequipa by night.

That's all for now.

Chris