Today I packed all my gear to leave for Chachapoyas tomorrow. I'm once again in the feeling of leaving my new found world behind and going out to find something new. When I look back over the month it seems strange. The month seems to have passed so quickly, but as I go over all that I've experienced, it seems like I surely must have been here for so much longer. Today is the reunion for Casa Hogar, the place that I've been based at, and tonight is yet another fiesta to celebrate. I've been invited to spend one last night with them, I glad that I get to end on a great note. I warn you that this is once again going to be a long drawn out post. I have so much to tell, but I'll do my best to condense it down to just the best bits, whilst keeping it slightly interesting.
Week three began with the realization that for half of this trip, I won't be doing what I came here to do. As I realized this, I thought back to one of the conversations I had with Meibel and Padre Diego (two of the main people who run Casa Hogar.) It was all in Spanish and I remember them telling me that that there would be a fiesta coming up in which I wouldn't be able to teach the current schedule that I had. I clearly understood this point at the time, but the thing I miss understood was that fact that it was to last for eleven days. They asked me if there was any other way I would like to help out or change my schedule during my stay, but with my understanding at the time I just replied saying, "naa not really, I would just like to teach English, play some sports and do a wee bit of music with them, I'm more than happy to stick to this schedule" (thinking that my schedule would only be interrupted for one day.) They both looked at each other slightly puzzled, as that meant that for half of my stay I wouldn't really be helping out at all. Its funny how as each situation unfolds, my mind seems to accurately recall the conversations I had relating to them. It has happened to me many times and I have ended up learning a lot of Spanish through reminiscing.
With this realization I was forced to reassess how I was going to spend my time here. It turned out that the previous week I met a group of Americans who had come here to do some volunteer work for a couple of weeks also. They were a group of families who had started their on non profit organization together and every year they come here to do various projects. A couple of them were teaching English and helping out in the local schools. After telling them that I have quite a surplus of spare time they offered for me to come and join them in the primary school teaching them how to play dodge ball and a few other traditional American PE games. It turned out to be great fun; however they assigned me as being "the person who has to explain the rules in Spanish." I've become confident in holding an English class speaking nearly all Spanish now, but I hadn't really learnt any vocabulary for teaching Physical Education, so it ended up being more of a demonstration than an explanation.
The following days of the week involved exhibitions during to day, and parties of some sort during the night. During the days the exhibitions involved horse displays, and the Thursday was the big climax. At four in the morning after a church service, they paraded the Virgin statue around the square before returning it back into the church. This was quite a big deal for the locals and the occasion only ever happens once a year. Unfortunately I didn't see it because I wasn't that keen to get out of bed that early, that didn't stop be from being woken up though. At four on the dot it seemed every second person was letting off fire crackers, and it wasn't long before the local brass band started booming around the streets of Leymebamba. I guess they had to make sure that even the deep sleepers here didn't miss this rare opportunity. They also had a parade in the afternoon. I managed to catch this one and found it very interesting to see everyone dressed in their traditional festive outfits.
Everyone seems to have their own rooster here also. But these roosters are not like those back at home. Instead of the nice seven o'clock wake up call, these ones seem to have a dysfunctional body clock. At any hour of the day, morning, or night, any one of these damn things has the potential to go off, and when one goes off it becomes a chain reaction. The streets of Leymebamba become a symphony of squawking roosters, most of the time they time it to happen just when your about to fall asleep. Most of them don't have a nice squawk either. The majority of them either sound like they have laryngitis, or that they haven’t been able to take a shit for seven days. This can last from anywhere between five minutes to forty five minutes. I was never able really develop a tolerance to it, but I've now accepted that I asked for the full experience of living in a small Peruvian community, and this is just a part of that experience.
As I came to the end of the week, I decided that it was time I got out and see some of the many tourist attractions around this area. I made the decision to go back to Chachapoyas for the weekend and do some of the touristy stuff. After sleeping through the 5am bus on Friday morning I found another that left at 2.30pm, so by 5 I had arrived in Chachapoyas. I never really had a plan when I arrived, figuring that I could just make up my weekend as I go. When I initially arrived in Chachappyas I had made a few friends whom helped me get started on my project, one of which owns a cafe, so I made that my first stop, looking forward to a decent coffee for once. While discussing travel ideas, I met a group of travelers in the cafe who were also doing some of the sites over the weekend, two of which were Kiwis. Within about half an hour of arriving I'd found myself a group of mates and my itinerary for Saturday was made. As I said goodbye, I realized that I didn't know which tour company they were going with, or what time they were leaving. The morning was going to be yet another one of those "just go with the flow" moments.
While having breakfast the following morning, I found that all the tours left from that plaza at either 8 or 8.30am. This made things a lot easier for me. I was determined to find the group because they'd made a cheap deal due the numbers in the group. While walking back to my hostel after breakfast, I noticed a van outside one of the buildings. I'd run so short on time that I thought, "oh well, I'll just have to pay a wee bit more and go by myself." After making an enquiry to the man outside, he gestured for me to come in. As I walked through the door, there they were, all the guys that I'd met from last night, waiting on the last couple of people to arrive. It turned out to be yet another example of how things just seem to work out in the end.
The weather looked to be pretty fine as we drove off out of Chachapoyas. I never really even considered rain as a possibility, as ever since I've been here has been nice hot sun. However as we got closer to the village, the clouds got darker. The rain was holding off but it was starting to look like I mite be getting wet for the first time in Peru. We all arrived at a small town where the walk began from. After paying for a a guide we were on our way. It wasn't long before the rain had well settled in. It made it nearly impossible to take decent photos, but I still did my best. I managed to stay reasonably dry on the way there, but as I approached the waterfall to get a better view it was as if someone was constantly throwing a bucket of water on me, leaving me with nice wet jeans for the two and a half hour return journey. By the end of the trip I had become good mates with the crew of people. That night they invited me to join them at a restaurant, where I was to have my first opportunity of trying Cui (Guinea Pig.)
The name of the place was "El Paraiso." As I walked in it felt more like an outdoor function center than a restaurant. It was basically just a massive concrete courtyard with a huge stage and a few plastic tables & chairs set up for our group. When I got close to the stage I noticed musicians getting their gear set up. I immediately became excited at the prospect of once again seeing some live Latin music. I was especially happy to see that this band had a real horn section. Hearing synth horns is worse than fingernails on a chalk board, and I seem to hear it everywhere here! The menu was very basic, if you didn't want Cui then there wasn't really many other options, but I was eager to give this ago so I wasn't to worried about the limited choice. I went for the "half cui for 15 soles" option.
When the food arrived the first mental hurdle I had to get over was the presentation of it. It was in this position as if they'd cooked it alive. The body was placed straight in the middle of the plate with a couple of bits of potato scattered around it, and the head was detached, but they did their best to place it in a realistic position. There were no nice neat fillets; instead I had to bite through the tough crunchy skin before I actually got a taste of what the meat was like. As soon as I bit into the skin, it immediately reminded me of pork crackling, the majority of the Cui experience ended up being chewing through crunchy skin. When I finally got through to some meat it actually tasted quite nice (I'm resisting the urge here to say it tasted like chicken.) It was actually in fact quite different from chicken. It was a lot greasier than other meats and it had a very unique flavor. At the end of the meal I came to the conclusion that I would probably eat it again, the only thing making me reluctant being the price.
The following day I decided that I would make the journey to Kuelup. This is considered to be one of the most spectacular ruins sites in Peru, beaten only by Machu Picchu. I ended up taking this journey on my own. As I organized it with the tour guide in my hostel, I decided that I'd see what it was like with a Spanish speaking guide, I was interested to see how far my Spanish comprehension had come. This time as we headed towards the site there were now clouds to be seen anywhere. It was quite a journey through the mountains. Unlike Gocta, the access to this site was easy with just a 20 minute walk required. After winding up and around the hill from the car park, the ruins revealed itself as an intriguing structure built from cream colored bricks. It was unlike anything I'd ever seen. All that was visible from the outside was a gigantic wall, leaving me curious as to what it may be holding inside.
As we gathered around the information board, the guide did his first explanation on the history and the layout of the site. It was at this point that I realized a Spanish guide was in fact out of my depth. The only other guy that wasn't a native Spanish speaker was a Canadian guy which I naturally gravitated towards. After every explanation from the guide we'd look at each other and say, "hmmmm yeah well I think he said...... I duno.. well I kinda got the bit about the round houses.... umm didn't he mention something about Incas as well?" Towards the end of the tour I decided that I'd spark up a conversation with one of the Spanish speakers. One of the girls was from Spain so I asked which area she was from and what she was doing in Peru. The conversation went quite well, and then as the Canadian guy asked her a question in English, I quickly realized that she spoke perfect English as well. "You speak English?" I said to her surprised. "Yeah... but I didn’t want to translate everything for you." I guess it was fair enough, but I felt like a bit of an idiot as I remembered she was standing next to me many of the times as I thought out loud, trying to translate some of the guides explanations.
After a very long day, spending many hours in mini vans, I was finally back in Leymebamba for start of my final week. The fiesta was now over so I was going to have my first and only full week of teaching to the kids, but the guides were still busy so that part of the schedule was pretty much wiped. I enjoyed the few opportunities that I got, but I never really felt like I was able to get fully involved and engaged with the kids. When I look back now I can't believe how completely different the experience was from any idea I had that it mite be. As I got close to the end of my stay there was still one more thing that I wanted to do here before leaving. Several people had highly recomended a three day trek near by called "Laguna de Los Condores," (Lake of the Condores.) I got a quote from a local guide, but really wanted to do it with at least one other person so that I could get it for a much cheaper price. A couple of days before the weekend I met a Swiss whom I'd met the previous weekend in Chachapoyas. I asked him if he would like to join me, explaining that we could probably get a good price with the two of us. He agreed, and after a few negotiations we had the trip organized for a very good price. We had arranged to leave early in the morning on the Friday and return late on Sunday afternoon.
I was very excited on Friday morning. I'd barely ridden a horse in my life, and now I was going on an epic three day journey. By the time we finished loading the gear and getting the final things organized it was about 7.30, and we were finally on the road. I'd been told that this is a very challenging journey to be made by foot, so I was surprised to find that our guide would be walking with us for the whole time. It didn't take me long to build up a bit of confidence with my horse. It felt great to be traveling these tracks in the true traditional way. The weather set the stage for a great trip, and as soon as we started climbing the views where clear every where we went.
There were three stages to the first day. The first was from Leymebamba to the pass, which we would eventually be heading over. This was very typical Peruvian farm country. From high up in the hills it looked like a tapestry of different shades of green, with pockets of trees scattered around here and there. The tracks were very basic and weren’t really maintained because horse is almost always the mode of transport used. As we passed through the small pockets of farmland and moved higher up towards the pass, the scenery changed. It was now more open tussock land which very much reminded me of home with it's open tussock fields, very similar to the mountains of central Otago. As we crossed over the pass and edged closer to our destination, the scenery changed once again. I now felt like I was searching for lost treasure as we traveled through tracks that were so rough, even the horses struggled at times. The scenery here was very much like the rainforests of an Indiana Jones movie. The forest surrounded us, and then as I looked up it tapered off into a series of rugged cliff faces which towered over us as we rode through the valley to the final point of our destination. The site of our cabin was a very welcome site for me. I never realized that nine hours on a horse was so physically tiring. By about five o'clock we had finally arrived, and after an early dinner and some broken Spanish conversation it was time for bed.
I didn't really know what the second day would hold in store for me, all I knew was that it involved a walk to the main attraction here, the lake and the ancient ruins site where recently,(1996) 200 mummies were discovered, still in tact. I also heard hints that we may be having a go at catching our lunch. Waking up at eight was a nice little sleep in for me and energized me for ended up being a very challenging physical day.
The cabin was located at the foot of a hill which we had to walk over before we could get a view of the lake. When I got to the top of the hill and saw the lake for the first time, I couldn't believe how something this spectacular could be this far out in the middle of nowhere. We continued to walk all the way down to the foot of the hill where we finally got to ground level with the lake. Walking around the lake felt like we'd gone into a different world. As soon as we got to our first clearing the guide got out his fishing line and tried his luck at catching some fish. All he had was a line with a luir attached to the end. The technique involved throwing the full length of the line out onto the lake, then pulling it back at the right speed in which to deceive one of the fish. After trying a few different spots with the same technique and no results he went on to plan B. He now took the luir off and swapped it with a big hook. For bait he removed a small bag from his backpack, then pulled out the biggest worm I've ever seen (about 20cm long and 1cm thick!) After wrapping it around the hook and throwing it into the lake he said that this technique required a bit of a wait so he proposed that we go and see the ruins, then return to see if we have any luck,(which he was quite sure of.)
After a challenging walk we'd reached the site of the ruins. It was a very small site perched on the side of a cliff. There was barely much room to walk around so it was intriguing to wonder how they would have constructed something like this in the time it was made. I also found it hard to get my head around the fact that there were 200 mummies found in here. After a small snack and some time to catch our breath it was time to return back. Upon arriving at the fishing spot we found that plan B hadn’t worked either. We deiced to return back to the cabin and try a few different spots on the way back. We ended up catching two, and I even had a go myself. It looks very easy but I quickly discovered that it's one of those things that's very much harder than it looks. The rest of the day involved a lot of rest and relaxation. My body hadn't been put through this much exercise since I'd started traveling so I was more than happy to recharge for the trip back the following day.
The final day began with a very early start. Being higher up in the mountains meant that the mornings were very cold. It was the first time that I'd seen frost on my trip and it gave me a bit of sympathy for how everyone must be feeling back at home right now. With a quick carbohydrate fix for breakfast we were out our way back out. This day ended up being faster than the journey in. Once we get out of the freezing valley to sun soon warmed us all up. I was glad to arrive back to Leymebamba, 18 hours of balancing on a horse seemed to give my whole body more than a good workout.
The end of this trip also signaled the end of my stay in Leymebamba. So much has happened that I feel like it has been a "trip within a trip." Now is also a significant stage in my travels because for the first time I have no commitments ahead of me. I've now passed the pre-planned stage of the trip and I can't wait to just let go and see what comes out of the rest of my time. From here I'm heading to Iquitos, deep in the Peruvian Amazon. I initially never had a purpose for this, just following my curiosity. But a few days ago I met an American girl who is going there also. She is doing some volunteer work with someone whom I'd come to know of through a very inspirational movie some years ago. She said that I would probably be more than welcome to join in if I wanted to. This has potentially opened an opportunity for me to meet and work with someone whom I never thought I'd ever meet in this lifetime, let alone this trip! Who is it? Well I'm going to keep that one a secret for now, lets just say I may be doing a bit of "clowning around" for a while. ;-)
Rock formations on The Carretera
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Livin’ It Up In Leymebamba – Weeks 1 and 2
It’s been two weeks since I arrived here and the initial fear of arriving in an unknown place has subsided, allowing me to really enjoy this experience. Living in a small community in the mountains has been an humbling experience so far. Everyone seems to acknowledge you as you walk by, and the pace of is very much on the back foot here compared to the bigger cities.
One of the things I really love about this place is the contrast to not only back at home, but also to all the other places I’ve traveled to so far. Even though I’m from a small town back at home, this is completely different. No one really has cars here, the selections of transport are horse, walking, motorbike, or a taxi if you really feel you need one, (you can walk nearly everywhere within the initial town in a space of 10 – 15 minutes.)
As I walk down the streets, I feel like I’ve been thrown back in time. Most of the streets are paved with cobblestone with narrow concrete footpaths. From the street most of the houses look the same, all they reveal is a couple of windows and an old wooden door which is so low that you have to duck under to get in. Old country folk seem to hang out on every corner, and every street you go down you see young kids running around kicking ball about, or singing songs whilst playing together with a skipping rope.
I only have to walk for ten minutes in any direction before I’m surrounded by rolling green hills, with no sound but the distant daily life of the small town. This really is the perfect place to come to escape the frantic energy on the city. But I’ve also found it to be very challenging at times. With once again being nearly surrounded by Spanish, developing strong relationships with people has been difficult. For me spending long periods of time alone though is something that I enjoy, so over the last couple of weeks I’ve taken advantage of the opportunity to spend some time with me, myself, and I.
The volunteer project that I came here to do has turned out to be very different to what I was expecting. As I was arriving here, I was mentally preparing myself for a very challenging project with a high workload. Originally there was an American guy who was meant to be staying here during the same time as me and helping me out with the work, but two days before arriving here I found that he would no longer me here during my time, and that I’d be taking on the project by myself.
I did however talk to him when I was in Chachapoyas, and he was able to give me some great advice as to what I should be expecting. I even took the same schedule that he worked by so I didn’t have to change much around when I arrived here. As I met the kids for the first time, I was reassured by their friendly & respectful nature, I knew that no matter what happened, this was going to be a lot smoother running that my Amazon teaching experience. My schedule was as follows:
Monday: 2.30 – 3.30pm: Sports
3.30 – 5pm: Teach English (11-13 years)
9 – 10.30: Teach English (local tour guides)
Tuesday: 2.30 – 3.30pm: Sports
7.30 – 9pm: Teach English (11 – 13 years)
9 – 10:30pm: Teach English (local tour guides)
Wednesday: 2.30 – 3.30pm: Sports
7.30 – 9pm: Teach English (14 – 16 years)
9 – 10:30pm: Teach English (local tour guides)
Thursday: 2.30 – 3.30pm: Sports
7.30 – 9pm: Teach English (11 – 14 years)
9 – 10:30pm: Teach English (local tour guides)
Friday: 2.30 – 3.30pm: Sports
7 – 8pm: Music class (teach them all a song in English)
8 – 9:30pm: Watch a movie
This seemed like the perfect schedule for me. It had enough to be a good challenge, I was now teaching an easier age group, and it contained a bit of creativity and fun. But what I didn’t realize before I came here was that the time I’d chosen to be here was also the time when they have their huge community annual fiesta. This is a celebration that goes over eleven days, celebrated through fireworks, a singing competition, religious rituals, exhibition days, and much more (We’re still only halfway through so I’m still yet to know exactly what else.) The result of this has been that many of my classes have been changed or cancelled.
It’s also meant that I’ve had a couple of unexpected surprises. One of the days off they had here was celebrated as “The Day of The Teacher” (they seem to have the day of everything in these countries.) For this I was asked if I wanted to join all the kids on a walk. I gladly accepted the offer, and the following day I was off in the morning with all the kids. Being completely unaware as to where we were actually going, I asked one of the children how long we would be walking for, and he replied, “ahhh not long, only an hour.” About three and a half hours later we arrived at a grass clearing next to a river, just in time for lunch. I didn’t even know we were going to be walking for this long so I never prepared any lunch, but they must of read my mind earlier, because as I thought that, a girl came up to me my lunch that they’d packed for me earlier.
After lunch we went for a swim, kicked a ball around for a while, then it was time to return back. I found it very interesting to note that these guys had come on this trip all by themselves; I was the only “grown up” there. The independence of these kids was something that struck me straight away. Even the twelve year olds here have a sense of maturity to them that I’ve never seen before. I’m sure this has something to do with the amount of responsibility they’re given at such a young age. Every single child is expected to be responsible for themselves. They live in an environment very similar to a boarding school, their food is provided for them, but they’re responsible for doing all their own washing (by hand,) and keeping the whole place tidy & clean.
After that day my schedule became very broken up, and all of a sudden it started to become a day to day thing as to what I’m actually going to be doing, and also when I’ll be doing it. I’m yet to take a class with the guides, and most of my evening classes are now off because the kids are always participating in some sort of celebration in the evening. This has been both a good thing and a bad thing for me. The good thing is that I’ve had a very unique opportunity to see how passionately a small town celebrates its culture & heritage, and I’m having a full on rural fiesta experience. But on the other side of that, I feel a wee bit like I’m not doing what I came here to do. I’ve come here to offer my services as a volunteer but so far actually done very little volunteering.
As my third week has kicked into gear, I sit here unsure as to how I’ll really be participating this week. Whether I participate as a volunteer to their community, or a guest to their celebrations, I think it will still be equally rewarding so either way I’m sure I won’t regret being here.
One of the things I really love about this place is the contrast to not only back at home, but also to all the other places I’ve traveled to so far. Even though I’m from a small town back at home, this is completely different. No one really has cars here, the selections of transport are horse, walking, motorbike, or a taxi if you really feel you need one, (you can walk nearly everywhere within the initial town in a space of 10 – 15 minutes.)
As I walk down the streets, I feel like I’ve been thrown back in time. Most of the streets are paved with cobblestone with narrow concrete footpaths. From the street most of the houses look the same, all they reveal is a couple of windows and an old wooden door which is so low that you have to duck under to get in. Old country folk seem to hang out on every corner, and every street you go down you see young kids running around kicking ball about, or singing songs whilst playing together with a skipping rope.
I only have to walk for ten minutes in any direction before I’m surrounded by rolling green hills, with no sound but the distant daily life of the small town. This really is the perfect place to come to escape the frantic energy on the city. But I’ve also found it to be very challenging at times. With once again being nearly surrounded by Spanish, developing strong relationships with people has been difficult. For me spending long periods of time alone though is something that I enjoy, so over the last couple of weeks I’ve taken advantage of the opportunity to spend some time with me, myself, and I.
The volunteer project that I came here to do has turned out to be very different to what I was expecting. As I was arriving here, I was mentally preparing myself for a very challenging project with a high workload. Originally there was an American guy who was meant to be staying here during the same time as me and helping me out with the work, but two days before arriving here I found that he would no longer me here during my time, and that I’d be taking on the project by myself.
I did however talk to him when I was in Chachapoyas, and he was able to give me some great advice as to what I should be expecting. I even took the same schedule that he worked by so I didn’t have to change much around when I arrived here. As I met the kids for the first time, I was reassured by their friendly & respectful nature, I knew that no matter what happened, this was going to be a lot smoother running that my Amazon teaching experience. My schedule was as follows:
Monday: 2.30 – 3.30pm: Sports
3.30 – 5pm: Teach English (11-13 years)
9 – 10.30: Teach English (local tour guides)
Tuesday: 2.30 – 3.30pm: Sports
7.30 – 9pm: Teach English (11 – 13 years)
9 – 10:30pm: Teach English (local tour guides)
Wednesday: 2.30 – 3.30pm: Sports
7.30 – 9pm: Teach English (14 – 16 years)
9 – 10:30pm: Teach English (local tour guides)
Thursday: 2.30 – 3.30pm: Sports
7.30 – 9pm: Teach English (11 – 14 years)
9 – 10:30pm: Teach English (local tour guides)
Friday: 2.30 – 3.30pm: Sports
7 – 8pm: Music class (teach them all a song in English)
8 – 9:30pm: Watch a movie
This seemed like the perfect schedule for me. It had enough to be a good challenge, I was now teaching an easier age group, and it contained a bit of creativity and fun. But what I didn’t realize before I came here was that the time I’d chosen to be here was also the time when they have their huge community annual fiesta. This is a celebration that goes over eleven days, celebrated through fireworks, a singing competition, religious rituals, exhibition days, and much more (We’re still only halfway through so I’m still yet to know exactly what else.) The result of this has been that many of my classes have been changed or cancelled.
It’s also meant that I’ve had a couple of unexpected surprises. One of the days off they had here was celebrated as “The Day of The Teacher” (they seem to have the day of everything in these countries.) For this I was asked if I wanted to join all the kids on a walk. I gladly accepted the offer, and the following day I was off in the morning with all the kids. Being completely unaware as to where we were actually going, I asked one of the children how long we would be walking for, and he replied, “ahhh not long, only an hour.” About three and a half hours later we arrived at a grass clearing next to a river, just in time for lunch. I didn’t even know we were going to be walking for this long so I never prepared any lunch, but they must of read my mind earlier, because as I thought that, a girl came up to me my lunch that they’d packed for me earlier.
After lunch we went for a swim, kicked a ball around for a while, then it was time to return back. I found it very interesting to note that these guys had come on this trip all by themselves; I was the only “grown up” there. The independence of these kids was something that struck me straight away. Even the twelve year olds here have a sense of maturity to them that I’ve never seen before. I’m sure this has something to do with the amount of responsibility they’re given at such a young age. Every single child is expected to be responsible for themselves. They live in an environment very similar to a boarding school, their food is provided for them, but they’re responsible for doing all their own washing (by hand,) and keeping the whole place tidy & clean.
After that day my schedule became very broken up, and all of a sudden it started to become a day to day thing as to what I’m actually going to be doing, and also when I’ll be doing it. I’m yet to take a class with the guides, and most of my evening classes are now off because the kids are always participating in some sort of celebration in the evening. This has been both a good thing and a bad thing for me. The good thing is that I’ve had a very unique opportunity to see how passionately a small town celebrates its culture & heritage, and I’m having a full on rural fiesta experience. But on the other side of that, I feel a wee bit like I’m not doing what I came here to do. I’ve come here to offer my services as a volunteer but so far actually done very little volunteering.
As my third week has kicked into gear, I sit here unsure as to how I’ll really be participating this week. Whether I participate as a volunteer to their community, or a guest to their celebrations, I think it will still be equally rewarding so either way I’m sure I won’t regret being here.
Monday, July 5, 2010
Phase Two: Peru!
It seems like an eternity since my last post. I've been to busy to really get anything out, and the few times I tried, I never quite felt the motivation so hopefully this will catch you up to where I'm at now. I'm also sorry to say that I have almost no photos to show for these weeks, I got lazy with my camera so you'll just have to use your imagination whilst reading this, or if you really want you can do a Google image search to satisfy your curiosity.
These recent weeks have involved spending many hours on buses, eating some great seafood for next to nothing, drinking beers whilst watching sunsets, playing beach soccer and watching world cup games with extremely passionate fans from all over the world, trying to keep my dignity whilst attempting to dance salsa in clubs in front of locals, but perhaps the best part of it all, meeting many more new amazing people at every step along the way. I've found many times now that the down side of this is having to say goodbye to people nearly as fast as you meet them.
Every time I meet a fellow traveler, it only takes one brief conversation before we find a common ground, forming a friendship and trust for each other which would take weeks to form back at home. Everyone just seems to be grateful and enjoying their own unique experience of what their travels are bringing them. There have been many times where literally within minutes of meeting someone, we're talking about where our travels are going, and whether we can find a way to spend some time together on the road later on. Everyone I meet brings me something in some way. They mite have some great advice about the next place I'm going, they mite have a contagious sense of humor when I'm missing the basics of home comfort, they mite have a voice or a musical talent that I can collaborate with, or they mite put me in the vulnerable situation where I have no choice but to put my Spanish knowledge to practice. The city of Cuenca was my first point of arrival after leaving Banos. I'm finally ready to begin telling my story now so I guess I’ll lead off from here. Once again I have a lot to catch up on so I'm sorry if this gets a wee bit long.......
I was hoping that I'd arrive in Cuenca before dark, it’s a big city and I'd already learnt that big cities are a lot more intimidating when you see them for the first time during the night. I'd also learnt that bus schedules in Ecuador can't always be relied upon, so it was now looking inevitable that this was going to be my experience once again. However this ended up being a lot smoother than my Quito experience. A friend of mine had arrived a few days earlier and given me the address of a good hostel, so all I had to do was jump in a taxi and point him in the right direction. It was a place called Hostel Cigale, which also had a restaurant which was popular for the locals.
As I stumbled through the door with all my gear, everyone briefly stopped their dinner conversations to watch me struggle to the counter whilst juggling all my gear. The staff here were also locals, and only one of them spoke any English, but I'd stayed in enough hostels by now to know the lingo on making reservations. This hostel had a real social vibe to it which I was happy about. I'd just left behind some people whom I'd become close friends with in Banos, so I was looking forward to finding some new people to hang out with for a wee while.
My original intention was to stay about three days in Cuenca before moving on to see some places further south, but it seemed to suck me in. I quickly found myself a bunch of guys to hang out with, and also the city was by far the most beautiful out of all the other places I'd been in Ecuador. I even became mates with one of the locals that worked there. Apart from my Amazon experience, he was the first friend that I'd made that only spoke Spanish. He had a lot of patience with me when it came to those moments of searching for the right word to use in the middle of a conversation.
One night we all went out to one of the clubs together. It was me, a bunch of local guys from the hostel, and a few girls that were also staying there. As we approached the bar the local boys went straight up to the bouncers, shook their hands, and wondered straight on in. "How good it is to be hanging with the locals I thought to myself." The girls all went on in getting a kiss on the cheek from the bouncer as they went by, then as I approached he looked at me and put out his hand saying, "you have to pay three dollars." I tried to refuse to pay, but everyone pretty much told me that I had no choice, it just so happened to be one of the things that comes with being a gringo guy. I handed him the money, which was going to be my two beers for the night, carried on into the bar, and stood there, stewing in my anger & frustration. I was able to somewhat forget about it later on, but you can only have so much fun when every song is Regaton. I've learnt that in many situations you need to put your music standards aside if you want to have fun in Ecuadorian clubs.
The following days in Cuenca involved just enjoying the freedom of traveling. I had two weeks in between projects so I decided that I would spend the time going with the flow, having no agenda in mind. I didn't even know where my next destination was going to be. After thinking about various options I decided on Mancora in Peru to be my next destination. I never managed to get to the beach in Ecuador, so the idea of sitting on a beach with some hot sun for a few days strongly appealed to me. I ended up taking an early morning bus. My original plan was to take a night bus, but as I arrived at the bus station at half past ten on my final night, I found that they’d cancelled that bus, so I spent one more night at the hostel and took an early morning bus instead.
As I sat on the bus I acknowledged that the first stage on my journey was over, I'd past through my first South American country and I was about to yet again go somewhere new. The first two months seemed to have flown by so quickly, even though I hadn’t seen a huge amount of places, I felt I was ready for my next taste of South America. After six hours we'd reached the boarder, the crossing was a lot easier than I thought it would be. As we pulled up in the immigration there was a bunch of small offices, but they only had one guy doing the passports for a big bus load of people. After filling out the form, he simply took my passport, stamped it with ninety days, then handed it back to me, no questions asked.
I'd been told by several travelers in Ecuador that going from Ecuador to Peru shows a very big contrast in landscape. I noticed it for myself nearly as soon as we got across the boarder. In Ecuador there was always green everywhere, whether it was the Amazon in the low lands, the Cloud Forest & farms of the mountains, or the banana plantations close to the boarder, but in Peru there was very little green to be seen anywhere. As soon as we crossed the boarder, we went straight into desert land. Even though it wasn't as "pretty" as the lush greenery, it still seemed to fascinate me, I really enjoyed to remaining two hours of my bus ride. When I finally arrived in Mancora, it was completely different to what I'd left behind in Cuenca.
I was freezing when I jumped on the bus, but now the sun was the hotter than anything I'd felt so far. Everyone was wearing jandles, board shorts, and most guys didn't even bother with the top. The taxis were now tuk tuks, or "motor taxis" as the locals called them. It was my first experience of a South American beach town, and I was looking forward to digging my toes into the sand. I'd chosen a hostel called "The Point." This place was meant to be a good party hostel, I figured if I'm only going to be here for a wee while, I mite as well get in with the party scene. When I rocked up, I was welcomed by the site of a pool, a beach volleyball court, and an outdoor bar & pool table. After checking in, I made my way straight to the beach. As a sat there I realized that this had been one of the simple pleasures that'd missed from home. Once again, my original plan was only to spend three days here, but I knew immediately that it would probably end up being a week.
Like every other hostel I'd been in so far, this ran on a tab system. Everything from your room, to all your food & drink, is put on a tab, which you don't have to worry about until the end. This is always good during the time of the stay because you never have to dig around for loose change, but it's always a shock to the system when its time to check out. From the first night I arrived, I knew that my liver was going to take a wee bit of a hammering this week. Each night had a theme of some sort. The first nights theme was the beer Olympics. This involved three drinking games; beer pong, flip cup, and Roxanne. However everyone got so involved with the first two games, that the third one wasn't really necessary. Some of the other nights included a camp fire, an ABC party (anything but clothes), and a chilled out movie night. There were also a lot of very passionate soccer fans here, from around the world, England in particular, so every morning the big screen TV was showing all the world cup games.
As I predicted, I did end up spending a week here. It was just too relaxing and to fun to leave. But after all the drinking, not eating properly, and getting only a few hours sleep a night, my body really started to feel it, so I decided that I had to move on to my next place. I was meeting the team from my next volunteer project in Huanchaco so I made my next destination Trujillo, a city just a short distance away. I'd been dreading the time of paying my bill, and when I found out the amount, I was indeed shocked, and happy that I was now moving on, spending about three times more than I'd hoped to spend. I did however make many more great friends, and it was the first real "party week" of my trip, so I convinced myself that it was money well spent.
After spending a stop over night in Trujillo, I was finally on my way to meet the team of Otra Cosa. I'd organized this project many months prior to going on this trip, so it was a crazy feeling knowing that in a few days I'd finally be beginning the project. Huanchaco was also a beach town, but it had a very different vibe to Mancora. Where I'd come from was very hot, and it had many tourists looking for a place to party in the nights, and sun bath in the afternoons, but being a lot further south, here was to cold for sun bathing, and it had more of a very relaxed surf town sort of feel. There weren’t so many tourists because of the off season, but after being in Mancora I was more than happy to chill out for a couple of days before heading to the mountains.
The day of my orientation involved meeting up with the team who were working on various projects in Huanchaco and Trujillo. It didn't take long before I felt part of the team, even though I knew that in a few days I’d be all on my own. I was really looking forward to getting into a bit of work again. The last couple weeks had been a lot of fun, but I was now happy about being faced with a new challenge again. I also felt that I was ready for another Spanish immersion. My Spanish had come a very long way since staying at The Amazon, so I was eager for the opportunity to take it to the next level. One of the down sides to the last few weeks was that I got very lazy with my Spanish. When staying at hostels there is almost always at least someone that speaks English, and naturally, of course I tended to gravitate towards those people.
After spending my final few days by the beach, it was finally time to make my journey to Leymebamba. When I applied for this project, I had no idea that it was so far away from everything else. It started with my longest bus ride yet, a thirteen hour ride northeast from Trujillo to the main city in the area, Chachapoyas. From there the plan was to stay a night, then go the next two and a half hours the following day. I'd become so used to spending a lot of time in buses now, and it's even become something that I enjoy. When I'm sitting in the bus, I always have the strongest sense of really being on an adventure. I never know the terrain that I'm covering, so every moment on the bus is always new and exciting, even if there are times where you have to put up with a screaming baby for a couple of hours.
This was an overnight bus, so I never got to see any of the scenery on the way. I arrived in Chachapoyas at about five in the morning. I had a person to meet me so all I had to do was phone a number, and then wait to be picked up. The scenery was completely different to the dry, barren landscape of the coast. It was nice to once again be surrounded by the green bush. This area was also no where near as touristy as the coast either, which is surprising. There are a wealth of pre-Incan archeological sites here, yet because it is so far away from everything else, people seem to leave it out of their itinerary. Upon arriving at the hostel, I meet a guy who had just finished his stay in Leymebamba, who had finished doing what I was about to start. He was very helpful and gave me a lot of great advice on what to expect during my stay. He assured me that the kids were great to work with, and that they absolutely love music.
As the day of departure rolled around, I felt a wee bit nervous, as I thought about the prospect of once again going into full Spanish immersion. I knew I was as ready as I could be, yet as always when faced with a new challenge; I really had no idea as to whatwas ahead for me. I got a few contacts in Chachapoyas, so unlike the Amazon trip, I had plenty of support close by for this one. As I jumped into the small van, there was no turning back. I was surrounded by town folk of Leymebamba. They all looked at me wondering what this guy mite be coming all the way out to their little town. I introduced myself to an old lady next to me, and as she noticed my guitar, she asked if I could get it out and play a song. I asked her if they had any traditional songs of Leymebamba, and when she replied yes, I said to here, "well if you sing it for me, I'll play along some music for you." She started singing it, and we had a wee jam together. It's just as well I have music. There have been so many times on this trip where it's been the only way that I can purely express myself, and have my expression felt.
The journey to Leymebamba was the most scenic that I'd yet seen in Peru. It was a very windy shingle road, which put everyone asleep after an hour, but I was once again fascinated with the ever changing landscape, and the little villages that we occasionally passed through. As we got closer, my nerves got stronger. When we finally got to the town, I realized that this is it. When I got dropped off on the street, my next step was to find "Casa Hogar," the house where I was to meet the man who was to help me out during my stay here. After asking five different people the same question, I finally found the house.
When I met Meibel my nerves settled a wee bit. He led me a few blocks up the street, to where I'd be staying for the next month. I was going to be staying in the same area as about six other people, they were all owned by a friendly old lady. As I opened the door, I realized that this next month was going to consist of very basic living. My room was quite big, but only had an old wooden slap bed, a table, and two chairs. The showers were cold water, and there was no washing machine. I sat down on my bed and thought back to when I was at home organizing this trip. The idea of living in the mountains with a small town grabbed me straight away, I don’t know why, but I guess I’m about to find out over this next month.
Well there it is, your somewhat caught up to where I'm at now. I'll try and keep the posts a bit more frequent over the following weeks so I don't have to make them so long. Hope you enjoy.
Rob
These recent weeks have involved spending many hours on buses, eating some great seafood for next to nothing, drinking beers whilst watching sunsets, playing beach soccer and watching world cup games with extremely passionate fans from all over the world, trying to keep my dignity whilst attempting to dance salsa in clubs in front of locals, but perhaps the best part of it all, meeting many more new amazing people at every step along the way. I've found many times now that the down side of this is having to say goodbye to people nearly as fast as you meet them.
Every time I meet a fellow traveler, it only takes one brief conversation before we find a common ground, forming a friendship and trust for each other which would take weeks to form back at home. Everyone just seems to be grateful and enjoying their own unique experience of what their travels are bringing them. There have been many times where literally within minutes of meeting someone, we're talking about where our travels are going, and whether we can find a way to spend some time together on the road later on. Everyone I meet brings me something in some way. They mite have some great advice about the next place I'm going, they mite have a contagious sense of humor when I'm missing the basics of home comfort, they mite have a voice or a musical talent that I can collaborate with, or they mite put me in the vulnerable situation where I have no choice but to put my Spanish knowledge to practice. The city of Cuenca was my first point of arrival after leaving Banos. I'm finally ready to begin telling my story now so I guess I’ll lead off from here. Once again I have a lot to catch up on so I'm sorry if this gets a wee bit long.......
I was hoping that I'd arrive in Cuenca before dark, it’s a big city and I'd already learnt that big cities are a lot more intimidating when you see them for the first time during the night. I'd also learnt that bus schedules in Ecuador can't always be relied upon, so it was now looking inevitable that this was going to be my experience once again. However this ended up being a lot smoother than my Quito experience. A friend of mine had arrived a few days earlier and given me the address of a good hostel, so all I had to do was jump in a taxi and point him in the right direction. It was a place called Hostel Cigale, which also had a restaurant which was popular for the locals.
As I stumbled through the door with all my gear, everyone briefly stopped their dinner conversations to watch me struggle to the counter whilst juggling all my gear. The staff here were also locals, and only one of them spoke any English, but I'd stayed in enough hostels by now to know the lingo on making reservations. This hostel had a real social vibe to it which I was happy about. I'd just left behind some people whom I'd become close friends with in Banos, so I was looking forward to finding some new people to hang out with for a wee while.
My original intention was to stay about three days in Cuenca before moving on to see some places further south, but it seemed to suck me in. I quickly found myself a bunch of guys to hang out with, and also the city was by far the most beautiful out of all the other places I'd been in Ecuador. I even became mates with one of the locals that worked there. Apart from my Amazon experience, he was the first friend that I'd made that only spoke Spanish. He had a lot of patience with me when it came to those moments of searching for the right word to use in the middle of a conversation.
One night we all went out to one of the clubs together. It was me, a bunch of local guys from the hostel, and a few girls that were also staying there. As we approached the bar the local boys went straight up to the bouncers, shook their hands, and wondered straight on in. "How good it is to be hanging with the locals I thought to myself." The girls all went on in getting a kiss on the cheek from the bouncer as they went by, then as I approached he looked at me and put out his hand saying, "you have to pay three dollars." I tried to refuse to pay, but everyone pretty much told me that I had no choice, it just so happened to be one of the things that comes with being a gringo guy. I handed him the money, which was going to be my two beers for the night, carried on into the bar, and stood there, stewing in my anger & frustration. I was able to somewhat forget about it later on, but you can only have so much fun when every song is Regaton. I've learnt that in many situations you need to put your music standards aside if you want to have fun in Ecuadorian clubs.
The following days in Cuenca involved just enjoying the freedom of traveling. I had two weeks in between projects so I decided that I would spend the time going with the flow, having no agenda in mind. I didn't even know where my next destination was going to be. After thinking about various options I decided on Mancora in Peru to be my next destination. I never managed to get to the beach in Ecuador, so the idea of sitting on a beach with some hot sun for a few days strongly appealed to me. I ended up taking an early morning bus. My original plan was to take a night bus, but as I arrived at the bus station at half past ten on my final night, I found that they’d cancelled that bus, so I spent one more night at the hostel and took an early morning bus instead.
As I sat on the bus I acknowledged that the first stage on my journey was over, I'd past through my first South American country and I was about to yet again go somewhere new. The first two months seemed to have flown by so quickly, even though I hadn’t seen a huge amount of places, I felt I was ready for my next taste of South America. After six hours we'd reached the boarder, the crossing was a lot easier than I thought it would be. As we pulled up in the immigration there was a bunch of small offices, but they only had one guy doing the passports for a big bus load of people. After filling out the form, he simply took my passport, stamped it with ninety days, then handed it back to me, no questions asked.
I'd been told by several travelers in Ecuador that going from Ecuador to Peru shows a very big contrast in landscape. I noticed it for myself nearly as soon as we got across the boarder. In Ecuador there was always green everywhere, whether it was the Amazon in the low lands, the Cloud Forest & farms of the mountains, or the banana plantations close to the boarder, but in Peru there was very little green to be seen anywhere. As soon as we crossed the boarder, we went straight into desert land. Even though it wasn't as "pretty" as the lush greenery, it still seemed to fascinate me, I really enjoyed to remaining two hours of my bus ride. When I finally arrived in Mancora, it was completely different to what I'd left behind in Cuenca.
I was freezing when I jumped on the bus, but now the sun was the hotter than anything I'd felt so far. Everyone was wearing jandles, board shorts, and most guys didn't even bother with the top. The taxis were now tuk tuks, or "motor taxis" as the locals called them. It was my first experience of a South American beach town, and I was looking forward to digging my toes into the sand. I'd chosen a hostel called "The Point." This place was meant to be a good party hostel, I figured if I'm only going to be here for a wee while, I mite as well get in with the party scene. When I rocked up, I was welcomed by the site of a pool, a beach volleyball court, and an outdoor bar & pool table. After checking in, I made my way straight to the beach. As a sat there I realized that this had been one of the simple pleasures that'd missed from home. Once again, my original plan was only to spend three days here, but I knew immediately that it would probably end up being a week.
Like every other hostel I'd been in so far, this ran on a tab system. Everything from your room, to all your food & drink, is put on a tab, which you don't have to worry about until the end. This is always good during the time of the stay because you never have to dig around for loose change, but it's always a shock to the system when its time to check out. From the first night I arrived, I knew that my liver was going to take a wee bit of a hammering this week. Each night had a theme of some sort. The first nights theme was the beer Olympics. This involved three drinking games; beer pong, flip cup, and Roxanne. However everyone got so involved with the first two games, that the third one wasn't really necessary. Some of the other nights included a camp fire, an ABC party (anything but clothes), and a chilled out movie night. There were also a lot of very passionate soccer fans here, from around the world, England in particular, so every morning the big screen TV was showing all the world cup games.
As I predicted, I did end up spending a week here. It was just too relaxing and to fun to leave. But after all the drinking, not eating properly, and getting only a few hours sleep a night, my body really started to feel it, so I decided that I had to move on to my next place. I was meeting the team from my next volunteer project in Huanchaco so I made my next destination Trujillo, a city just a short distance away. I'd been dreading the time of paying my bill, and when I found out the amount, I was indeed shocked, and happy that I was now moving on, spending about three times more than I'd hoped to spend. I did however make many more great friends, and it was the first real "party week" of my trip, so I convinced myself that it was money well spent.
After spending a stop over night in Trujillo, I was finally on my way to meet the team of Otra Cosa. I'd organized this project many months prior to going on this trip, so it was a crazy feeling knowing that in a few days I'd finally be beginning the project. Huanchaco was also a beach town, but it had a very different vibe to Mancora. Where I'd come from was very hot, and it had many tourists looking for a place to party in the nights, and sun bath in the afternoons, but being a lot further south, here was to cold for sun bathing, and it had more of a very relaxed surf town sort of feel. There weren’t so many tourists because of the off season, but after being in Mancora I was more than happy to chill out for a couple of days before heading to the mountains.
The day of my orientation involved meeting up with the team who were working on various projects in Huanchaco and Trujillo. It didn't take long before I felt part of the team, even though I knew that in a few days I’d be all on my own. I was really looking forward to getting into a bit of work again. The last couple weeks had been a lot of fun, but I was now happy about being faced with a new challenge again. I also felt that I was ready for another Spanish immersion. My Spanish had come a very long way since staying at The Amazon, so I was eager for the opportunity to take it to the next level. One of the down sides to the last few weeks was that I got very lazy with my Spanish. When staying at hostels there is almost always at least someone that speaks English, and naturally, of course I tended to gravitate towards those people.
After spending my final few days by the beach, it was finally time to make my journey to Leymebamba. When I applied for this project, I had no idea that it was so far away from everything else. It started with my longest bus ride yet, a thirteen hour ride northeast from Trujillo to the main city in the area, Chachapoyas. From there the plan was to stay a night, then go the next two and a half hours the following day. I'd become so used to spending a lot of time in buses now, and it's even become something that I enjoy. When I'm sitting in the bus, I always have the strongest sense of really being on an adventure. I never know the terrain that I'm covering, so every moment on the bus is always new and exciting, even if there are times where you have to put up with a screaming baby for a couple of hours.
This was an overnight bus, so I never got to see any of the scenery on the way. I arrived in Chachapoyas at about five in the morning. I had a person to meet me so all I had to do was phone a number, and then wait to be picked up. The scenery was completely different to the dry, barren landscape of the coast. It was nice to once again be surrounded by the green bush. This area was also no where near as touristy as the coast either, which is surprising. There are a wealth of pre-Incan archeological sites here, yet because it is so far away from everything else, people seem to leave it out of their itinerary. Upon arriving at the hostel, I meet a guy who had just finished his stay in Leymebamba, who had finished doing what I was about to start. He was very helpful and gave me a lot of great advice on what to expect during my stay. He assured me that the kids were great to work with, and that they absolutely love music.
As the day of departure rolled around, I felt a wee bit nervous, as I thought about the prospect of once again going into full Spanish immersion. I knew I was as ready as I could be, yet as always when faced with a new challenge; I really had no idea as to whatwas ahead for me. I got a few contacts in Chachapoyas, so unlike the Amazon trip, I had plenty of support close by for this one. As I jumped into the small van, there was no turning back. I was surrounded by town folk of Leymebamba. They all looked at me wondering what this guy mite be coming all the way out to their little town. I introduced myself to an old lady next to me, and as she noticed my guitar, she asked if I could get it out and play a song. I asked her if they had any traditional songs of Leymebamba, and when she replied yes, I said to here, "well if you sing it for me, I'll play along some music for you." She started singing it, and we had a wee jam together. It's just as well I have music. There have been so many times on this trip where it's been the only way that I can purely express myself, and have my expression felt.
The journey to Leymebamba was the most scenic that I'd yet seen in Peru. It was a very windy shingle road, which put everyone asleep after an hour, but I was once again fascinated with the ever changing landscape, and the little villages that we occasionally passed through. As we got closer, my nerves got stronger. When we finally got to the town, I realized that this is it. When I got dropped off on the street, my next step was to find "Casa Hogar," the house where I was to meet the man who was to help me out during my stay here. After asking five different people the same question, I finally found the house.
When I met Meibel my nerves settled a wee bit. He led me a few blocks up the street, to where I'd be staying for the next month. I was going to be staying in the same area as about six other people, they were all owned by a friendly old lady. As I opened the door, I realized that this next month was going to consist of very basic living. My room was quite big, but only had an old wooden slap bed, a table, and two chairs. The showers were cold water, and there was no washing machine. I sat down on my bed and thought back to when I was at home organizing this trip. The idea of living in the mountains with a small town grabbed me straight away, I don’t know why, but I guess I’m about to find out over this next month.
Well there it is, your somewhat caught up to where I'm at now. I'll try and keep the posts a bit more frequent over the following weeks so I don't have to make them so long. Hope you enjoy.
Rob
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