Travelling

Hi, again sorry for such a long time for an update. It has been INCREDIBLY busy for the past few weeks. I cant get photos either so sorry for that!

The past few weeks since we left Arequipa has been made up of sitting on buses for amazingly long periods of time over considerable distances! Ben and I have gone from Arequipa to Puno, Puno to Copacabana, Copacabana to La Paz, La Paz to Sucre, Sucre to Potosi, Potosi to Uyuni, Uyuni to Calama, Calama to San pedro, San Pedro to Calama, Calama to Santiago, Santiago to Mendoza, Mendoza to Rosario, Rosario to Buenos Aires!!! That is nearly 80 hours of Buses over four massive countries and three land border crossings and two time zones!! Crazy!!!!

Arequipa to Puno-

     We left Arequipa in style. After saying by to Amy (the first to leave and first to come back haha!) and Eva the housemaid, we got a taxi to the bus station. Ben accidentally dropped some money behind the seat and put his hand in to pull it out, next thing the taxi driver is shouting and screaming at us for damaging his car, he shows us the dents in the doors we had apparently done and threatened to call the police!!! That's one way of saying bye to Arequipa!!! We next went to get the bus to Puno, we are used to Peruvian time, but when we turned up and saw the Julsa bus saying puno we jumped on and sat down, next thing we know we are told to get off as this is the hour and a half late bus and ours is equally late behind it! Never mind we thought, we can just wait. We finally got our bus and realised that we had got the slow one, our 4 hour bus journey turned into an 8 hour bus journey!!

     We arrived in puno, looked for a bus to Copacabana and were told that the next one is 6am tomorrow morning, so we decided to stay over that night in the inca´s rest we had been in just three weeks before hand! The funniest part was getting this tiny tuk tuk to the hostel watching constantly that our bags hadn't fallen of the back while he was whizzing us along the streets around sharp corners! I love Peru!!!! Hungry, we went straight out for a Chinese like we had again done three weeks before, we knew it too be good. I was happily eating my noodles when I felt a little light headed (taking into account we are very high and I had felt ill the last time), so I said to Ben I was going to get some air, on the way out I just saw blackness and then I awoke on the floor with a lot of people around me pulling me outside, apparently I had collapsed into a wok!!!!! Luckily I guess it had just been put on with no oil in it.....very lucky!!! The next morning we got up early, had breakfast and went straight to the bus station.

Puno to La Paz-

     From Puno we bought a ticket to Copacobama then onwards to La Paz, this we did primarily for time and because we wanted to see the famous town from the song!!! but first, we ahd to cross the border. We had been told a lot about this border crossing about how people are kidnapped on the border, mugged, shot, murdered etc etc so I was quite frankly scared about it! We came up to the border, got off the bus, got a stamp in the passport, walked through a gate, got another stamp then onto the bus.........not what we were led to expect, I imagined a dingy hut in the middle of no where with crooks watching us! Not a beautiful hillside town with views of Lake Titicaca and clean warm air!!! Basically, if you want to do the border crossing, do this one as I'm not sure on the other, but it was really good! We then headed to Copacabana which was really nice but hilly, which normally isn't that big a deal, but that high up its a killer!!!! Staying just an hour, we then headed to La Paz- capital of Bolivia!

     I did not know what to expect at all of the capital of Bolivia, but I certainly didn't expect to dislike it so much! It was disgusting in many parts, with lots of slums, homeless people, people selling on streets everywhere, traffic everywhere and almost witchy things such as dead dried llama babies and potion shops!!! Horrific isn't the word. The main plus though was how cheap everything was! That night me and Ben decided to cheer ourselves up with a nice meal, we went to a very nice restaurant with waiters and table linen, very nice place, and had a massive cheese board with 15 cheeses, a glass of wine each, bottle of water each, a coffee each, plus a main course each, all served very well etc.......for 20 pounds!!!!!!! I could honestly live with the horrid environment etc if its that cheap!!!!!!

     We spent most of the next day there, looking around and eating for cheap, and in the evening we got a night bus to Sucre in the south of the country as its nearer the border to Chile.

La Paz to Sucre

     Sucre is a quiet town in the South of Bolivia, it is similar to Arequipa in that is primarily of a white building material though it is substantially quieter than elsewhere we have been. The hostel wasn't too nice though the person running it was helpful and nice to us, the toilets were sheds and showers cold but at least it is a bed to relax in (apart from the massive cockroaches haha!!) It was similar to La Paz for prices with a good priced meal available in most places and fast food was pennies in comparison to the UK. There isn't as much to report of Sucre except that the taxi which was arranged for us the next morning for a two hour ride to Potosi (highest city in the world) was a nightmare!!!! Bumpy, no seat belts, and the nasty evil woman next to me STOLE MY MOBILE!!!!! I would kill her if I saw her again! But never mind, it was near the end of my contract and I want an iPhone anyway lol! Potosi was boring! Ben has always wanted to go as it is the highest city, but there is nothing there except the opportunity to say we have been........no oxygen!

Potosi to Uyuni


     We left Potosi straight away and headed towards to the Chilean border, the nearest town to the border is Uyuni located in the massive salt flats of Bolivia. The journey was possibly the bumpiest and nastiest journey of my life, but fun at the same time, I was bouncing about 10 inches of my seat and I can say that Ben and I were battered and bruised. It was a long journey during the heat of the day and we were looking forward to getting to Uyuni, but we arrived at the top of a hill and spreading out before us was the salt flats which were HUGE, and the town was there like a scene out of Star Wars though I cant remember which one. We got closer and saw it was a literal dump, a rubbish/trash tip and it stank. We got off and booked into one of the worst hostels I have ever stayed at and booked our bus to Calama, Chile. The pizza that nice was lovely though, and big, just what you need in Uyuni!

Uyuni to Calama

     After a terrible night, we awoke to the coldest weather ever, it was 3am and had to head over to the bus station, the bus had no heating and I am not joking when I say I was numb head to foot, I had a t-shirt, shirt, jumper, coat and trousers on and yet was shivering.....Ben was cold as well so it was VERY cold! SOOOOO COOLLLLDDDD!!!!! We got to the border which was a stretch of the Atacama Desert and at that time was still COLD! I couldn't cope so I was jumping on the spot and made so many walks whilst waiting for the immigration office to open. When it opened a really fat man came out and met us, took us in and said "right, that's 15 bolivianos please", we weren't aware there was a price and paid it, got stamped out and then got told we shouldn't have paid as it is a scam! Never mind though, its only like 15 pence! We then had to wait two hours for the bus to turn up to take us over the border. When over the border we then had to be stamped in, searched and go through customs which took FOREVER! It is the worse of the three border crossing we have done so far and so cold even at midday. Getting on the bus we saw it was super dusty, but we fell asleep with the rising warmth and awoke in the Atacama Desert near the city of Calama, when we awoke we were so dusty, my glasses I could hardly see through and there was a film of dust over us! But we are in Chile!



I will leave the blog at this point and do some more about Chile and Argentina at a later date =D Thanks for reading!

Colca Canyon, Cusco, Machu Picchu and more projects

Hola, como estás?

It has been a very busy and exciting few weeks for us and so I have had very little time to update this blog, sorry for this =S My Mum has been reminding me to do it for everyone lol

PROJECTS

So the projects first. We are now coming to the end of the projects in Arequipa, finishing Thursday night onwards to our future travel plans so I guess I can sum them all up;

Casa Hogar de Nino Jesus- our original project here in Arequipa has been of a mixed review, the children are fab and brave for everything that they have been through, but the project has been a disappointment in the view that it is not what I had in mind for Peru. All we have done is clean and redesign the play room and watched the kids for an hour a day messing the room up, this is a far cry from the english and cooking teaching that was expected.

Nueve Esperanza- Lauras original project which Ben and I have been helping in. This is the opposite to the Jesus project in that the kids are watnign to learn, but they have so many chores and so much to do that they are unable to commit to the whole time of learning. Overall a good project but it could do with some work in the form of the administrative team.

The School- This was chosen for us by our hosts after we explained our unhappiness with the projects we have been placed. This is FAB!!! Who would ever have imagined that I, James Pearson/ Elliott, would have been able to stand in front of a 30 pupil class and teach!!! But the kids are amazing and they relish the work I give them, they ask questions until they are correct and are so well behaved that it puts our system into context. Overall my favourite project.

MMI- Medical Ministry Internation is a physiotherapist charity whereby trained and trainee physios come to disadvantage communities to donate their time and expertise to help people with issues. Using donations they provide simple equipment such as canes and walkers, to advanced wheelchairs and strollers to help ease the people with everyday woes. Such an inspiring project which we got involved with due to the fact that we lived with the physios, many of whom I hope will become very dear friends for years to come.

To provide a general outline of what we do on a daily basis, and how busy we are, see below;
7 to 12- MMI
12-14.30- School
14.30-16.00- Jesus
16.00-17.00- Esperanza


COLCA CANYON

     The Colca Canyon is twice as deep as the Grand Canyon, though not as wide, and is therefore the worlds deepest at 3000m! We departed at 6am on Saturday morning with the three of us and two physios, Beth and Christina, all ready for our immense trip to the Colca. Getting onto the bus we realised that perhaps it wasnt going to the most comfortable, Ben and I basically sat on top of each together with seats barely wide enough to support him, never mind me haha! But we settled into the ride and listened to the guide explain the history of the mountains and the environment (with a few corrections from me and Ben, thats the geographer in me- apparently the whole of south america was formed by a volcano =S) we then chewed Coca leaves- pre prepared cocaine leaves which apparently help altitude sickness, I can honestly say that I wont be doing that again, imagine chewing grass for 15 minutes!!!!!! I think it worked though as we got off the bus at a mountain 5000 m high and there was frankly no air at all up there, two steps would leave you breathless!

     The journey down to the little town of Chivay was great, the views quite frankly amazing and the town tranquil. Dumping our bags in the hostel we went to a local natural hot spring to watch the sunset over the canyon in 37 degree waters....lovely jubbly! The next morning at FIVE AM!!!!! we got up to go to the Condor Pass, the condors have a wingspan of 3-5 m making them the largest flying birds in the world, but they fly only with the first thermal currents flowing through the canyon and hence we could see them only then, at 9am the first condors passed and for an hour Laura and I sat fascinated as these huge buirds soared over us and towards the pacific, again this was AMAZING and for that hour I can truthly be called a bird watcher =D

MACHU PICCHU

     Now for many people, the perfect ending to the time in Peru is a visit to the historic city of Cusco and a tour to Machu Picchu, one of the modern seven wonders of the world. I can honestly say that for me, it was the most breathtaking, astonishing, amazing and fulfilling moments of my entire life. Beautiful and mysitifying it came into focus through the fog on the moutain as we approached until the whole of the city lay before us, people were so emotional at the sight of it. We arrived into Cusco after an 11 hour bus jouney and was greeted by the man we were staying with; Mr Ochoe who, I dont mean to sound rude, reminded me of Bathilda Bagshot in HP, with a sign that said Ben Goodlies he pointed at us, then at him, then led us to the car without uttering a word!!!!! But after a coffee and some breakfast we realised that he was lovely, as was his wife, daughter and granddaughter. Heading into town we hit the markets, buying too much as per usual but the prices are so good! Meaning to meet up with the physios as pre arranged, we realised that just saying "we are at the Midori" was not enough to find them as Cusco has 12!!!!!!! So on the Saturday we were unable to meet them, but on the Sunday at Machu Picchu we could as on Monday also.

     Sunday morning began early again, getting up at 5am and with a taxi at 5.30am to take us to the bus terminal for an hour and a half journey to the train station, for a two hour journey to Agus Caliente, for a 30 minute bus to Machu Picchu =( harder work than it sounds lol! We had arranged a guide which was a good thing as there are so many mysteries surroundding Machu Picchu that just walking was not enough! I cant utter enough by word or pictures the immensity of the location, knowing it to be the best preserved Incan city in the world, 2400m above sea level with shear drops on all sides, and walking around the streets knowing that 1000 years ago there were incan builders, families, farmers, priests and sacrificial ceremonies all in the one area! The atmosphere was strong and wonderful, frankly the best place I have ever been!

     The journey back was funny, the coach we were meant to take after the train had a burst tyre, 30 of us were meant to be on the coach, so they sent a tiny minibus which would normally fit 20 and squashed us in sitting on floors and stools, no seatbelts or anything, in a  thunderstorm!!! That was fun haha!!!! I have made so many friends int he one trip it is unreal, being squashed in a tiny bus is noe way to get to know people!!!!


     So on Friday we finish, we must say goodbye to Laura =( and Lilia and Jorge =( and the kids =( then its onwards to Bolivia for Ben and I. We beleive we are to travel Arequipa to Puno, Puno to Copacobana, Copacobana to La Paz, La Paz to Potosi, then onwards to Chile. The next update may be in a weeks time, see you soon =)

Hasta Luego

Arequipa

Hola!!!

I have more time now so will start updating more often. We are presently in Arequipa, and have started working in our projects. There were small issues at the start with them placing us not in a project working with disadvantaged children, but instead doing cleaning and DIY!!!!!!! (me doing DIY!!!!!), the project is called Hogar de Nino Jesus, and in the first day Ben and I put windows in the play room, fixed wires onto the wall and cleaned the entire room which was about 2cm deep in dust!!! I have never felt so dirty in my life! As this was not the project we had signed up for, we spoke to the wonderful Lilia who we live with and she has reorganised our projects; now  we work 2-3 hours at the Hogar, 2-3 hours in a girls school (giggling girls who seem to LOVE Harry Potter!!!) teaching English, and 1 hour in Laura's project which is a refuge for abused children. This has worked out a lot better for us overall.

Arequipa is lovely; old buildings and massive rivers with massive mountains in the Andes!! There are parades almost daily and a sense of Peruvian pride in such a beautiful city;

 

In the Hogar, we met a young boy called Juan, he is a street kid who was found three months ago. He is just 4 years old and has been beat by his alcoholic father who blinded him in his left eye. Because of his traumas he has been left with limited education i.e his only word is ´me´, he is very astute but when introduced to toys such as lorrys and blocks he returned to being a normal kid;

We plan this weeked to go to Lake Titicaca so this blog will not be updated until next week, take care =D

 

Lima/ Arequipa

Hi, I'm so sorry for late updates, it has been a super busy week!!!! We are at the minute in Arequipa, a beautiful city in the South of Peru, 2500m above sea level (the air is soooo thin!!)

After three days of intense travelling; Newcastle to London Heathrow, Heathrow to Boston, Boston to Miami (Pilot got ill so had to detour, BUT at least Ive seen Boston =)), Miami to Bogota, Bogota to Lima!!!!!!

In Lima we arrived to the intense sounds, smells and sights of traffic, slums and food. We were picked up by Edwardo, the husband of our Lima host, who drove us for half an hour to the prinicple of Miraflores (there were no seat belts in the back of the car!! and I have NEVER seen so much traffic in my life!!!). Arriving at the apartment of Giannini, we immediately felt at ease as the family was wonderful;

Giannini and her friend Maribel were wonderful  to Ben and myself, they provided local knowledge, language and very good local food (Chicha Morada probably takes a bit of getting used to as it is a sweetcorn drink, but Pisco Sours & Inca Kola....yum!!!). We met Laura our fellow volunteer on the first day, and consequently went on a Lima bus tour (hilarious!!!) and went around museums on the search for Inca mummies.....found none!!

We left Lima with a heavy heart, it was a fascinating and exciting place, but we were looking forward to getting to the warmer Arequipa (Lima was freeezzziiinnngggg!!!) to start our local projects, but first had to go on a 15 HOUR journey, although the bus was luxury, beds and food on board!!!!

Arequipa dawned a new day, with the white buildings sitting in the Andes, and the massive Misti volcano sitting over the town, we are looking forward to our adventures here!!!

Sorry this is so short, we are a bit rushed haha!!!

Destination Three- Argentina (Buenos Aires)

Hi, now that its getting closer to me going away (flying out on Monday =O) I felt that I should get on with the updates.

Ben is leaving on Saturday 17th September, leaving me in Buenos Aires by myself for five days. I have dreamed of going to the Big BA since I was tiny, and to be fulfilling this dream is amazing;

Argentina has an amazing history which has left it with a rich culture including the famous Tango and, of course, red wine and beef!!! I am looking forward to seeing the Tango shows in Teatro Colon and street dance at the Avenue Florida, although it doesn't sound like the friendliest of places for vegetarians!!!

Argentine history is well known for Eva 'Evita' Peron whom to me is a major influence and intriguing figure, she dies in the 1952 at the age of 33 from cancer having risen from an illegitimate family in the Patagonia, to being the first lady of Argentina and heading the still in power Peronism party. The peronist party believed that the rich should share with the poor, and her beliefs lead to the then largest social reforms seen on a global scale, she earned the nickname of 'Evita' (Little Eva) for her seemingly angelic intentions, in the long run the name spawned the theatre musical Evita. Her death led to one of the most weird posthumous political histories whereby her embalmed body was stolen by the following dictatorship, hidden in attics and cinemas before finally being buried in Germany under an assumed name. Finally in the 1970's her husband came back in power and brought home her body before he himself died. She is now buried in the Recolata cemetery where I will be visiting on my journey, and I will also be visiting her home and museums;

 

I am now packed for my travels, and will hopefully get enough time to update the blog for Costa Rica, Bolivia, Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay and Atlanta before I go but I dont think I will get through them all (sorry =(!!!) however I will update properly what I am up to as soon as I go, with photos and stories of my time in Arequipa etc.

Speak Soon Guys =D

Destination Two: Peru

So, Ben and I are spending the largest portion of our time in Peru and therefore most of our touring will be in the massive, yet sparse country. Geographically the country is fascinating for its changing landscape; Desert, Rain forest, Mountains and Oceanic area are all there with their associated climatic differences.

We land first in Lima, the capital city of Peru and will spend a number of days here with the hope of acclimatisation to the climate and to the massive culture shock of the fact that Lima has one of the worlds largest shanty towns and hence this wealth difference will be an issue which will be presented to us throughout our stay in Peru, as the pictures shows, in one city you can have the lowest and poorest people near the highest and wealthiest people;

After a few days in Lima we will then be getting a TWENTY-FIVE HOUR bus to Arequipa in the south of the country. Here we will be spending around 28 days. Arequipa is Spanish for 'White City' as a result of the use of volcanic rock for building material; the city lies at the base of three huge active volcanoes!!! Probably not a good idea with my track record in Geography and already having one disrupted holiday due to the Icelandic volcano last year =(. Arequipa has a more reliable climate with nice temperatures of around 25 degrees (Celsius) all year round, and is located just hours away from Colca Canyon (worlds deepest canyon) and around six hours away from Cuzco; the entrance to the Inca Trail;

I expect we will work in the project five days a week, and spend the weekdays on tours around some of Peru, I plan NOT to walk the Inca Trail as it would probably kill me!! But we are going to get a steam train with a glass roof to the one day trail (relatively flat) which will be better for time and will not leave me ill ha ha!!!! To see Machu Pichu is a dream I've been waiting for years to do, and I hope to spend quite a long time there when we eventually get to it. Ive just found out that it is 100 years today since Machu Pichu (the lost city) was rediscovered, quite an apt time to go I think lol!!

After the project and hence the homestay finishes, we head to Bolivia, which will hopefully be my next update =D See you soon!!

Destination One: Miami

So, I have four and a half weeks till the travel adventure begins and I thought it would make sense to go through some of the main places I am going to and what I want to do there.

Miami, Florida is my first destination and through the three months I am going there three times (mainly a gateway to other places). I have been to Miami twice before, 2010 being the last time with my Grandad, Shana and Larry, it is a very fun place to be with a constant buzz of people primarily around the South Beach area with people on rollerblades and a lots of motorbikes around the front promenade;

When I went it was quite wet and humid, but the temperature was nice allowing us to hang on the beach even with the rain clouds (something I could never EVER do with the north sea lol!). When there we went to Versaces house, although I had my photo taken there, I didnt realsie he was actually shot there, so here I am laughing and taking photos in the place a poor man was shot dead =S;

When Ben and I go, we plan to simply head to the promenade, have a walk, grab some pancakes with Maple Syrup (yum yum) and head back for our very very early 7am departure to Lima, Peru =D. But when I come back late Septemberm heading to my Grandads house, I plan to spend  a little more time there; I have been invited to look around the Miami Childrens Hospital where they have a Radio Lollipop branch (a charity for which I work) and I also want to have a look around the university (never hurts to have a look around, assess potential future opportunites ;-) lol). The cruise ships there are huge! the new Freedom of the Seas (worlds largest passenger ship) is moored there so I fancy goign to see her and have a brief look around....one of my dream hols! All in all I am not going to be in Miami for long, just a few visits but im looking forward to them as Miami is a very exciting and interesting city =D (32 days to go!)

Next Update- Destination Two: Peru