Sorry for the lack of updates, but with the CIS group being here, it has been quite a busy week. The day CIS got here, the areas water decided to call it quits and we were left without running water for 48 hours. With a new group of 20 CIS people in the building, the lack of toilets quickly became a problem and we had to stay away from the house as much as possible for our own sakes. These are just some of the conditions we have to just take with a pinch of salt and move on from. Also had the electricity die on us a few days ago, so its been a tough week to get through.
CIS has been working all week on building a house on the school grounds for Fernando and have gotten surprisingly far with an almost completed house standing as proof. None of them were picky and got straight down to work with mixing cement, carrying blocks and painting bits and pieces all over. Was very cool to see, and it was equally fun to show them around the school. The volunteers almost got a weeks break as the kids were more excited to see 15 blonde young kids walking around their school, not surprisingly. Unfortunately, a few of them were hit by salmonella and guardia, resulting in doctors visits and hospital visits too. As a matter of fact, every single volunteer, including myself, were hit with guardia (parasites). This being our cusco weekend, its a shame our medication says no drinking. AC has unfortunately, unlucky as she is, been hit with more than just the guardia and is now, again, hospitalized with a fun mix of salmonella, guardia and amoeba. She is doing well considering the circumstances, though and plans to leave already later today. She did however miss out on a Cusco city tour yesterday.
Found out just 2 days ago that next week there will be no school at all. Easter is massive down here, and celebrations go on for weeks. Either way, we plan to use the time to travel to Arequipa and Ica to see volcanoes and go sandsurfing, as well as the Nazca lines. Will come back and update more frequently,
Alex
Mar 27, 2010
Mar 20, 2010
New volunteers, Rainbow House and Cusco night out
Wednesday we went to pick up a new volunteer, Andrea, in the airport. Went back and gave her the grand tour of Urubamba, and since it was Sct. Patricks day, Mary had decided to cook for all of us, and it was really great. It was also wednesday, night for going out in Urubamba, so of course we ended up at Tequila Bar.
Thursday there was no school, because there was a strike in town, so Alex and I went to help out Mel with some pictures for the Rainbow House. We went to the Rainbow House later as well, and helped the kids with their homework and watched some of Avatar in Spanish. Interesting...
Friday was spent preparing a song with the kids that they are supposed to be singing for the CIS people. After school we went to Cusco to go out. Checked in at the hotel and went to have dinner at Fallen Angel, the most amazing place in Cusco - the tables are bath tubs with fish covered by glass, and there are couches and puffs and funny light. Best place ever! The food was amazing as well.
Afterwards we went to a place called Mushrooms at Plaza de Armas, where we had a couple of drinks - we had been going out a bit early, so we decided to spice things up and make a race of who could finish a beer first. I won by far!
We went to have some salsa lessons after playing some pool, good fun. Then we decided to go barhopping for some free drinks - and I had the weirdest experience ever. I litterally had three people pulling my right arm and four pulling my left - all of them from different clubs, promising us two, three or four free drinks each if we just came to their club. So we did manage to get tipsy and have a great night out in Cusco without psending too much money.
We got up saturday morning to have breakfast at Jack's (of course!!!), and to head of to some markets. Alex and Mary went back to Urubamba after about half an hour of shopping, and Becky, Andrea and I stayed in Cusco to buy ourselves some gringo shirts...
The CIS people have arrived, and we'll be 8 people in the volunteer house and the students living next door, so it's going to be busy there!
Thursday there was no school, because there was a strike in town, so Alex and I went to help out Mel with some pictures for the Rainbow House. We went to the Rainbow House later as well, and helped the kids with their homework and watched some of Avatar in Spanish. Interesting...
Friday was spent preparing a song with the kids that they are supposed to be singing for the CIS people. After school we went to Cusco to go out. Checked in at the hotel and went to have dinner at Fallen Angel, the most amazing place in Cusco - the tables are bath tubs with fish covered by glass, and there are couches and puffs and funny light. Best place ever! The food was amazing as well.
Afterwards we went to a place called Mushrooms at Plaza de Armas, where we had a couple of drinks - we had been going out a bit early, so we decided to spice things up and make a race of who could finish a beer first. I won by far!
We went to have some salsa lessons after playing some pool, good fun. Then we decided to go barhopping for some free drinks - and I had the weirdest experience ever. I litterally had three people pulling my right arm and four pulling my left - all of them from different clubs, promising us two, three or four free drinks each if we just came to their club. So we did manage to get tipsy and have a great night out in Cusco without psending too much money.
We got up saturday morning to have breakfast at Jack's (of course!!!), and to head of to some markets. Alex and Mary went back to Urubamba after about half an hour of shopping, and Becky, Andrea and I stayed in Cusco to buy ourselves some gringo shirts...
The CIS people have arrived, and we'll be 8 people in the volunteer house and the students living next door, so it's going to be busy there!
Mar 16, 2010
Marco's birthday and Chinchero
Another update!
Marco's birthday yesterday went really well. After school, Alex and I went to buy him a present - a schoolbag, a cap and a volleyball. And, because we thought he ought to have a piece of his favourite cake, one of those as well. Ended up giving about 80kr in total.
We went to dance with the kids because Marco wanted to listen to his favourite song "te amo", so we played "stopdans" a couple of times. Good fun!
When we finished playing, it was time for some cake - the substitute mother had made a massive cake for all of us. We had to give Marco his presents first, though. His face turned into one massive smile when he saw the piece of cake we'd brought him, and was about to get up and thank all of us, when we told him we had more. Seeing the bag, he was almost smiling to much to be able to say "gracias profes", and was about to get up again when we told him to open the bag and wee what was inside - the volleyball and the cap. He thanked us all like a million times and wore the cap and the bag immediately. It was amazing to see how happy a 15-year old boy can get when having a 80kr birthday present - at home, he probably would have been asking where in the bag his iPod was...
This morning I went to Chinchero with Becky and Mary. Got there at 9 and waited an hour and a half before any kids showed up - apparently the kids couldn't get to school because of the rain, imagine how that would be at home... :D
Becky and Mary helped out with class, and I went with Iris and Miguel to Proyecta de Vida. We went to visit some families whose kids were at school. In Chinchero, the outreach project is about teaching the parents how to improve their lives and the lives of their children. They've been going to the houses before and told the parents to make their houses better, and if they improved, the would get some food from Kiya Survivors. The first house we visited was the house of a boy called Carlos, who lives alone with his mother and grandmother because his dad left them. They have no toilet and share a tiny room with a stove and two beds. However, the mother had made a great effort to improve the house, so she got some pasta, breakfast and milk, and she was so happy.
Afterwards we went to the house of Alex and Martin, two little boys attending the school in Chinchero. They have two sisters attending a regular school, and they all sleep in the same bed with their mother. Imagine 5 people in a bed for 1! Their dad left them for another woman long time ago, and so Alex, about 7 I'd think, is the man of the house, in charge of everything with the house and the bit of farming they have.
However, the mother was not home, probably because she had heard the car coming and left because she didn't want to talk to Iris since the house looked the same as last time they were there.
We went back to Chinchero, dropped Iris off and then I went back to Urubamba with Miguel. It's a 40 minute drive from Chinchero to Urubamba, and I thought it was going to be boring sitting in the car with the driver and PE teacher of the school, but I actually managed to have a bit of a conversation with him in Spanish. AND! I got to drive the van!!!!!! I drove from about ten minutes outside Urubamba on the small mountain roads that leads to the town, in a van with breaks that do not work properly and where it is almost impossible to change gears. It was so funny though, and when we got into Urubamba, Miguel spotted the police and told me to stop, 'cause I didn't have my license with me. Good thing I just managed to pull over and switch places with Miguel, wouldn't have liked to be caught by peruvian police...
Tomorrow a new volunteer is arriving, and we'll be 5 in the house. It'll be great! Alex is missing some male company though, so he¡s looking forward to the arrival of CIS.
Marco's birthday yesterday went really well. After school, Alex and I went to buy him a present - a schoolbag, a cap and a volleyball. And, because we thought he ought to have a piece of his favourite cake, one of those as well. Ended up giving about 80kr in total.
We went to dance with the kids because Marco wanted to listen to his favourite song "te amo", so we played "stopdans" a couple of times. Good fun!
When we finished playing, it was time for some cake - the substitute mother had made a massive cake for all of us. We had to give Marco his presents first, though. His face turned into one massive smile when he saw the piece of cake we'd brought him, and was about to get up and thank all of us, when we told him we had more. Seeing the bag, he was almost smiling to much to be able to say "gracias profes", and was about to get up again when we told him to open the bag and wee what was inside - the volleyball and the cap. He thanked us all like a million times and wore the cap and the bag immediately. It was amazing to see how happy a 15-year old boy can get when having a 80kr birthday present - at home, he probably would have been asking where in the bag his iPod was...
This morning I went to Chinchero with Becky and Mary. Got there at 9 and waited an hour and a half before any kids showed up - apparently the kids couldn't get to school because of the rain, imagine how that would be at home... :D
Becky and Mary helped out with class, and I went with Iris and Miguel to Proyecta de Vida. We went to visit some families whose kids were at school. In Chinchero, the outreach project is about teaching the parents how to improve their lives and the lives of their children. They've been going to the houses before and told the parents to make their houses better, and if they improved, the would get some food from Kiya Survivors. The first house we visited was the house of a boy called Carlos, who lives alone with his mother and grandmother because his dad left them. They have no toilet and share a tiny room with a stove and two beds. However, the mother had made a great effort to improve the house, so she got some pasta, breakfast and milk, and she was so happy.
Afterwards we went to the house of Alex and Martin, two little boys attending the school in Chinchero. They have two sisters attending a regular school, and they all sleep in the same bed with their mother. Imagine 5 people in a bed for 1! Their dad left them for another woman long time ago, and so Alex, about 7 I'd think, is the man of the house, in charge of everything with the house and the bit of farming they have.
However, the mother was not home, probably because she had heard the car coming and left because she didn't want to talk to Iris since the house looked the same as last time they were there.
We went back to Chinchero, dropped Iris off and then I went back to Urubamba with Miguel. It's a 40 minute drive from Chinchero to Urubamba, and I thought it was going to be boring sitting in the car with the driver and PE teacher of the school, but I actually managed to have a bit of a conversation with him in Spanish. AND! I got to drive the van!!!!!! I drove from about ten minutes outside Urubamba on the small mountain roads that leads to the town, in a van with breaks that do not work properly and where it is almost impossible to change gears. It was so funny though, and when we got into Urubamba, Miguel spotted the police and told me to stop, 'cause I didn't have my license with me. Good thing I just managed to pull over and switch places with Miguel, wouldn't have liked to be caught by peruvian police...
Tomorrow a new volunteer is arriving, and we'll be 5 in the house. It'll be great! Alex is missing some male company though, so he¡s looking forward to the arrival of CIS.
Mar 15, 2010
A little extra..
I know Alex just wrote here, but I feel like I have to tell you guys about friday and monday.
Friday, I went to Proyecta de Vida ("life project") with Iris, our social worker, Miguel, our driver, and Mary, another volunteer. We went to visit the families of some of the kids that are not attending school and ask them why they're not coming.
We first went to Javier's house, a 17-year old boy with downs syndrome. His parents couldn't really give us a reason for him not being in school, but apparently they had a lot of problems in the family - the dad, 68, having trouble with his hearing, and the mother, 64, having severe back problems. They had 9 kids, and 2 of them died. Having a kid with downs syndrome on top of it cannot be very pleasant. Iris told the parents to visit a clinic to get a hearing aid for the dad and some physiotherapi for the mother, but they seemed very sceptical. She also told them to get a health insurance and to give her a copy of it - very strict lady, she is!
Afterwards we drove to a nearby town called Ollantaytambo to visit Jose Alberto. His mother works in a restaurant and might let her go soon because of the lack of tourism in Ollantaytambo. His dad is currently in a hospital in Cusco because he's got cancer - another very sad case that really made me appreciate the life I live!
Today has been a very interesting day - I was sitting in Mel's office when a 16-year old girl comes in - apparently she was waiting for Eli to come talk to her. She starts crying and tells me that yesterday her mother hit her on her thigh and pulled her hair, and that she was in pain. It was quite strange not knowing what to do, seeing as I am not used to speak to 16-year old girls about their problems with their mothers in Spanish, but I think I managed to make her feel a bit better. Eli comes in, and I walk off to help with Inicial. After about 10 minutes though, Eli wanted me to come to the office again to take pictures of the girls bruises. She had two huge bruises on her thigh, and when Eli told her that we were taking photos of it to have proof, she told her not to talk to her mother, 'cause she would get mad at her and hit her again. She couldn't explain why her mother hit her either. Quite a different experience compared to what I'm used to!
I'll find out what the school's going to do about her mother... In the meantime, we'll go celebrate Marco's birthday at the Rainbow House.
Friday, I went to Proyecta de Vida ("life project") with Iris, our social worker, Miguel, our driver, and Mary, another volunteer. We went to visit the families of some of the kids that are not attending school and ask them why they're not coming.
We first went to Javier's house, a 17-year old boy with downs syndrome. His parents couldn't really give us a reason for him not being in school, but apparently they had a lot of problems in the family - the dad, 68, having trouble with his hearing, and the mother, 64, having severe back problems. They had 9 kids, and 2 of them died. Having a kid with downs syndrome on top of it cannot be very pleasant. Iris told the parents to visit a clinic to get a hearing aid for the dad and some physiotherapi for the mother, but they seemed very sceptical. She also told them to get a health insurance and to give her a copy of it - very strict lady, she is!
Afterwards we drove to a nearby town called Ollantaytambo to visit Jose Alberto. His mother works in a restaurant and might let her go soon because of the lack of tourism in Ollantaytambo. His dad is currently in a hospital in Cusco because he's got cancer - another very sad case that really made me appreciate the life I live!
Today has been a very interesting day - I was sitting in Mel's office when a 16-year old girl comes in - apparently she was waiting for Eli to come talk to her. She starts crying and tells me that yesterday her mother hit her on her thigh and pulled her hair, and that she was in pain. It was quite strange not knowing what to do, seeing as I am not used to speak to 16-year old girls about their problems with their mothers in Spanish, but I think I managed to make her feel a bit better. Eli comes in, and I walk off to help with Inicial. After about 10 minutes though, Eli wanted me to come to the office again to take pictures of the girls bruises. She had two huge bruises on her thigh, and when Eli told her that we were taking photos of it to have proof, she told her not to talk to her mother, 'cause she would get mad at her and hit her again. She couldn't explain why her mother hit her either. Quite a different experience compared to what I'm used to!
I'll find out what the school's going to do about her mother... In the meantime, we'll go celebrate Marco's birthday at the Rainbow House.
Back to work
This weekend we decided to stay home or at least in the near area. One of the teachers, Elizabeth, wanted to visit a student who lived in the valley somewhere and we all went together on mountain bikes. It was amazingly beautiful to bike around in the valley, and fun, but with the altitude and our bad shape in mind, it was also extremely hard. We biked the whole morning from 8 till 2 in the afternoon and took the bus home. Stopping the bus when its already on its route is harder than it sounds, and after finally finding one and strapping our bikes to the roof, we were squeezed into a bus with no room for more people. Without a doubt the most uncomfortable bus ride of my life. Saturday night we went out to town in Urubamba but returned relatively early (around 2). For my part, it was because I had decided on getting up at 6 to watch the formula one grandprix with a local restaurant owner, also the owner of the only satellite television in town. It all went very well until power in the city died an hour into it. It didn´t come back for another 3 hours, and so I had missed the ending to my race despite getting up so early. However, I did manage to convince the tv owner to let me come by more often for the rest of the season as well as to watch football games at my own leisure = easier than going to Cusco.
After finding out that FCK-Broendby were playing, I found an internet cafe and managed to watch it online. The girls had in the meantime taken the bus to the Pisac market, a town around 45 minutes away from here with a supposedly huge market on sundays. Well satisfied with the result of the game, I hit the hammock for a few hours and did absolutely nothing for the rest of the day.
Today is Marco´s, one of the boys of the rainbow house, birthday and we plan on heading over there after school. Tried to find him an atlas or globe as a present considering his overwhelming knowledge of geography. On one of our first days, he surprised us danes by claiming that Denmark was indeed one of the largest countries in the world considering we had greenland to take into account. How does a 14 year old peruvian boy know this? Since then he has rambled on about countries, civil wars and knows far more than any of us about the world we live in, in terms of geography.
Speaking on my own behalf, i´m really beginning to miss certain aspects of life back home despite having a good time out here. Friends, family, living in a big city with constant electricity and most importantly, food. Rugbroed, leverpostej, haribo, lakrids, vingummier... CIS, you know what to do if you have any left over room in your luggage ^^.
Alex
After finding out that FCK-Broendby were playing, I found an internet cafe and managed to watch it online. The girls had in the meantime taken the bus to the Pisac market, a town around 45 minutes away from here with a supposedly huge market on sundays. Well satisfied with the result of the game, I hit the hammock for a few hours and did absolutely nothing for the rest of the day.
Today is Marco´s, one of the boys of the rainbow house, birthday and we plan on heading over there after school. Tried to find him an atlas or globe as a present considering his overwhelming knowledge of geography. On one of our first days, he surprised us danes by claiming that Denmark was indeed one of the largest countries in the world considering we had greenland to take into account. How does a 14 year old peruvian boy know this? Since then he has rambled on about countries, civil wars and knows far more than any of us about the world we live in, in terms of geography.
Speaking on my own behalf, i´m really beginning to miss certain aspects of life back home despite having a good time out here. Friends, family, living in a big city with constant electricity and most importantly, food. Rugbroed, leverpostej, haribo, lakrids, vingummier... CIS, you know what to do if you have any left over room in your luggage ^^.
Alex
Mar 11, 2010
Kids, disease and new volunteers!
Getting back from Mancora meant having to change attitude significantly. The constant lying on the beach was traded in for a more regular day at school, which as bad as it sounds, is really something we were looking forward to. Seeing the kids again on the first day of school was great, and this time with even more kids we hadn´t met yet. Because summer school was more about the fun and games, regular school has allowed us to get more one on one time with the kids which is really the most enjoyable part of it all. AC was as usual paired up with Benjamin, a 5 year old with downs syndrome and weak chin muscles. Work with him usually consists of making him exercise his muscles by blowing up balloons or just attempting to make him talk. I was given a student named Robert, also with downs syndrome. He has a hard time socialising with the other kids, so my job was primarily to play games with him and make him feel more appreciated before returning to class with him. We´ve both been attending the regular classes as well, trying, and not always succeeding, to keep the kids under somewhat control. Went to rainbow house after school yesterday as well, was as always a pleasure to be there with the rainbow house kids who mostly don´t attend the regular school at the rainbow centre. One of their substitute moms decided to leave recently, and so we had to go also to see how the new "mom" was coping with having 6 kids run around.
We now have two more volunteers at the rainbow centre, both girls. CIS, I really look forward to your visit, especially for some male company. Nobody dares take the trip to cusco with me to watch football anymore, for example. Nevertheless, both new volunteers are very nice and sociable. Because we´ve been quite busy recently, the only chance we´ve had to really get to know them has been around the dinner table where it´s getting harder by the day to cook with no oven, forcing you to really be creative with the stove.
My day today was not the best i´ve ever had. Experienced a hurting stomach and some nausea last night, and at school this morning when my stomach wasn´t feeling the best, AC forced me into a collectivo to Cusco in order to see the doctor. She insisted on coming with me in case something happened on the way, but I felt bad for ruining her day at the school. Got to the doctor, took some tests and found out I have 4 different kinds of salmonella, one strong kind and the other 3 either on the way up or dying out. On top of that, some parasites as well. Already forgot the name of it, but it was much less serious and easily killed with some pills supposedly. I have had to buy a bag full of antibiotics which, probably for the good, means no drinking or unhealthy eating for the next 10 days. I feel perfectly fine today, making it quite frustrating, and unless I feel significantly worse in the next few days, I don´t have to drop by hospital. In denmark, salmonella is made out to be the worst thing since cancer, but down here it really isn´t as serious. They know how to deal with it, and it´s very common. There are no serious symptoms in my case at least.
Will be back to update soon,
Alex
We now have two more volunteers at the rainbow centre, both girls. CIS, I really look forward to your visit, especially for some male company. Nobody dares take the trip to cusco with me to watch football anymore, for example. Nevertheless, both new volunteers are very nice and sociable. Because we´ve been quite busy recently, the only chance we´ve had to really get to know them has been around the dinner table where it´s getting harder by the day to cook with no oven, forcing you to really be creative with the stove.
My day today was not the best i´ve ever had. Experienced a hurting stomach and some nausea last night, and at school this morning when my stomach wasn´t feeling the best, AC forced me into a collectivo to Cusco in order to see the doctor. She insisted on coming with me in case something happened on the way, but I felt bad for ruining her day at the school. Got to the doctor, took some tests and found out I have 4 different kinds of salmonella, one strong kind and the other 3 either on the way up or dying out. On top of that, some parasites as well. Already forgot the name of it, but it was much less serious and easily killed with some pills supposedly. I have had to buy a bag full of antibiotics which, probably for the good, means no drinking or unhealthy eating for the next 10 days. I feel perfectly fine today, making it quite frustrating, and unless I feel significantly worse in the next few days, I don´t have to drop by hospital. In denmark, salmonella is made out to be the worst thing since cancer, but down here it really isn´t as serious. They know how to deal with it, and it´s very common. There are no serious symptoms in my case at least.
Will be back to update soon,
Alex
Mar 9, 2010
Back from Mancora...
Thursday we went surfing almost the entire day, got up at like 5 am to get ready. When we got back we met some danes at the hostel (locos!) and went out for dinner with them and some canadian friends. Decided to buy a lot of rum and coca cola and get drunk, and so we did. Went to check out Mancoras nightlife, and it turned out to be pretty good! Got back way too late and we were both hungover in the morning. Scrambled eggs and a lot of shopping saved my day though.
Took the bus back to Lima and checked in at the Point in Lima. Turned out there was a lot going on there, so we went out in Barranco though we were tired after 18 hours on a bus. Went to a nice club, and Alex ended up singing karaoke in Spanish, as weird as it sounds...
None of us had any sleep since our flight was at 10 in the morning, so we went directly to the airport round 8. We were sitting in the airport leaning over our table eating a crappy McDonalds toast, but finding it to be quite funny anyway. Had the shortest flight ever - when we were boarding, Alex almost yelled "shutgun for the window seat", and we sat down in the plane and fell asleep immediately. We don't even remember taking off, just woke up when we hit the ground in Cusco. Went to Jacks to get a big fluffy pancake (it was GREAT!) and went back to Urubamba.
In Urubamba a new volunteer was waiting for us, Becky. Went to bed early... Woke up to go for the first day of regular school. A lot of kids were missing since it was the first day, but other than that it was great. When we got back another new volunteer had just arrived, Mary, and we went out for lunch with her, Eli, Manu, Becky and Mel. Went back for Spanish and are now planning to go home for some dinner...
Took the bus back to Lima and checked in at the Point in Lima. Turned out there was a lot going on there, so we went out in Barranco though we were tired after 18 hours on a bus. Went to a nice club, and Alex ended up singing karaoke in Spanish, as weird as it sounds...
None of us had any sleep since our flight was at 10 in the morning, so we went directly to the airport round 8. We were sitting in the airport leaning over our table eating a crappy McDonalds toast, but finding it to be quite funny anyway. Had the shortest flight ever - when we were boarding, Alex almost yelled "shutgun for the window seat", and we sat down in the plane and fell asleep immediately. We don't even remember taking off, just woke up when we hit the ground in Cusco. Went to Jacks to get a big fluffy pancake (it was GREAT!) and went back to Urubamba.
In Urubamba a new volunteer was waiting for us, Becky. Went to bed early... Woke up to go for the first day of regular school. A lot of kids were missing since it was the first day, but other than that it was great. When we got back another new volunteer had just arrived, Mary, and we went out for lunch with her, Eli, Manu, Becky and Mel. Went back for Spanish and are now planning to go home for some dinner...
Mar 4, 2010
More Mancora
Woke up at 8 this morning to go to the Mama Cocha center here in the area. Unfortunately, there were currently only 2 kids there as the rest are either attending regular school or on vacation. This meant that as much as we loved spending time with Jose Antonio in his wheel chair and Hector, we only spent about 4 hours there. I managed to check out the whole place again - it has changed massively since the last time I was there with CIS. A huge wall surrounds the main building, next door is now another classroom, swings, shaded areas, a physiotherapy room and a climbing castle. It was almost unrecognizable. However, the sign I helped put up two years ago was still there along with the drawings we painted inside the house. The danish flagged fish, the mischievous looking turtle etc. Don´t think either of the two kids remembered me specifically, but seemed happy to have company no matter who we were.
Managed to book us in for an intensive 10 hour surfing trip tomorrow with 7 hours of surfing included, along with 4 other hostel guests. Felt exhausted after the last 2 hours so this should be a good workout. Really looking forward to it.
We walked down the beach for todays sunset and found horses to ride, so saw the sunset riding on horses down the beach. Although not my preferred method of transport, and never will be, it was fun. AC has definetly missed horses back home and enjoyed it alot. The sunsets "up" here are really amazing, plenty of photos taken :-)
Alex
Managed to book us in for an intensive 10 hour surfing trip tomorrow with 7 hours of surfing included, along with 4 other hostel guests. Felt exhausted after the last 2 hours so this should be a good workout. Really looking forward to it.
We walked down the beach for todays sunset and found horses to ride, so saw the sunset riding on horses down the beach. Although not my preferred method of transport, and never will be, it was fun. AC has definetly missed horses back home and enjoyed it alot. The sunsets "up" here are really amazing, plenty of photos taken :-)
Alex
Mar 3, 2010
Mancora
We try to upload as many pictures as we can, but it takes a good computer to upload pictures down here, and its hard to find those around, sorry. Doing our best, and thanks for the interest :-)
Coming to the end of tuesday here in Mancora after a few relaxing days. Feels like we have been super active, and I wish I could say we have, but weve spent most of our time by the pool. and the beach. with a beer. with good food. in 35 degrees. Anyone say snow, cold, depressing weather in denmark? Yesterday we went to town and got a surflesson for a couple of hours. Managed to stand up on quite a few waves and overall very satisfied with myself for a first timer, and I think AC can say the same. However, the waves were at the least 2-3 metres tall, and when youre lying down on a surfboard and about to surf for the first time, its a little scary when your instructor just turns your board around and pushes you into the wave. The trick, as we quickly discovered, is simply just not looking back. Had a lot of fun, and planning on going back for some more hours both thursday and friday. Will be heading to Mama Cocha, the other Kiya centre here in the area, tomorrow. Looking forward to seeing how that has changed since the last time I was here.
The hostel were staying at is definetly meant for the younger crowd - loud music into the night and backpackers all around. Its definetly entertaining and you get to meet a lot of new people, but frustrating not to have anywhere to turn away to when you want just a minute of quiet and peace. Enjoying our days here without a doubt though, and despite looking forward to getting back to Urubamba already, I wish we could stay here for a few days extra with a few bucks extra in our wallets as well. Its not particularly expensive, but backpacking leaves you with a budget, unfortunately.
Coming to the end of tuesday here in Mancora after a few relaxing days. Feels like we have been super active, and I wish I could say we have, but weve spent most of our time by the pool. and the beach. with a beer. with good food. in 35 degrees. Anyone say snow, cold, depressing weather in denmark? Yesterday we went to town and got a surflesson for a couple of hours. Managed to stand up on quite a few waves and overall very satisfied with myself for a first timer, and I think AC can say the same. However, the waves were at the least 2-3 metres tall, and when youre lying down on a surfboard and about to surf for the first time, its a little scary when your instructor just turns your board around and pushes you into the wave. The trick, as we quickly discovered, is simply just not looking back. Had a lot of fun, and planning on going back for some more hours both thursday and friday. Will be heading to Mama Cocha, the other Kiya centre here in the area, tomorrow. Looking forward to seeing how that has changed since the last time I was here.
The hostel were staying at is definetly meant for the younger crowd - loud music into the night and backpackers all around. Its definetly entertaining and you get to meet a lot of new people, but frustrating not to have anywhere to turn away to when you want just a minute of quiet and peace. Enjoying our days here without a doubt though, and despite looking forward to getting back to Urubamba already, I wish we could stay here for a few days extra with a few bucks extra in our wallets as well. Its not particularly expensive, but backpacking leaves you with a budget, unfortunately.
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