Hey everyone...
Well since the last time I couldnt really be arsed writing much.... theres just too much stuff going on and I dont even have time to sleep... not getting any sleep for 36 hours is getting to be normal...

So much has happened that I cant possibly write it all, Iv taken busses and planes and met squillions of people . I think its only been about 4 weeks but Iv fitted in enough for about 5 holidays....

so, continuing....
from Huancayo I got a night bus to Lima and then flew to Cuzco, where I met this scottish guy who was going to become my best friend for the next 5 days or so (which is a long time when youre travelling..) Cuzco is very nice, it was packed with tourists because the Inter Raymi was on. (Peruvian version of Paddys Day... except with Inca stuff and sun gods etc. but generally the same, parade, drinking, and everyone out in the streets) Theres big theaterical production though in one of the nearby Inca sights, it was cool, but after about half an hour it was enough.... Camron Diaz and Bill Gates were there and everything... woo, very exiting...
But Cuzco is pretty cool, quite touristy and plenty of going out etc, but defintly a must in Peru and a great base for exploring. I didnt do the Inca trail, a. dont like climbing mountains, (but Id gotten pretty good at the hill walking at that stage and was able to tear past most people with my fine sturdy legs...) b. too expensive and c. didnt have the time.... dont really feel like I missed out too much... wouldnt be arsed going back and doing it or anything....

With me only having a week and a half to `do` Peru and Liam having to be in Chile in a week, we were on a pretty tight schedule... So we did Machu Piccu in 1 day on the train, got back to Cuzco for about an hour and hopped on a very crappy night bus to Puno (Peruvian side of Lake Titicaca)

Machu Piccu is cool, dont get me wrong... its one of the most fameous places on earth and has a cool and mysterious history and its very impressive and pretty breathtaking, but its just the way you do it is a bit of a pain.... a) its very commercalised = expensive for gringo tourists = E100 for the day, (train is $80 for forigners and 10 soles, which is about $3 for Peruvians, and a Peruvian tourist was really annoyed over this and was trying to get us on the cheap tickets, but they told him that the forign tourists had to pay extra `for security`, never mind that we all got the same train!) not that I ever would think of not going, but when youre travelling thats about 4 days budget... and as Liam aptly put, we´re not tourists, we´re travellers.... (my defination being that tourists leave tips in restraunts, travellers steal extra napkins to use as emergency toilet paper in the next bus station toilet stop... Ive got lots of funny, as in weird toilet stories... rural Peru is not the place to have a kidney infetion...) anyway.... this was even doing the whole thing the super cheap way and buying dodgy train tickets with funny names off some guy that was selling them to the queue for the real train tickets... With our strict timetable, (cause wed stupidly already bought our bus tickets for that night), stupidity cause we didnt book the tickets earlier, and some `sure feck it we may as well try it`, we decided to be Emma Simionoto and Jacob Flueling for the day (those were the names on the dodgy tickets, in case some people didnt understant ie.the people who want to donate money to the Mute Tourette's Syndrome fund.... you know who you are..... )..... It was sortof funny that we did buy them in the end because we met this crazy Argentinian couple, who were obvioulsy big eejits like us, cause they bought the dodgy tickets too. But she was an `actrice` from BA, (and had all the dramatic hand movements to go with it) and looked mental too.... as in really reallllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllly bad blond wig, fake mole (yes seriously with like eyeliner or something, ala Madonna in the 80´s, it totally looked real.....) makeup that youd need a shovel to take off and of course about 6 inch platform boots, just what you need for Machu Piccu.... but she was nice in fairness, and told me loads of places to go in BA .... but we spent the whole day taking the piss out of her...

so our day was; up at 4 to try and buy real train tickets; (I fell on the dark hostel stairs too with all my bags on, and had bruises on my knees for the next 2 weeks from it, there was a lot of moaning) bought dodgy ones; got a taxi to another train station about 2 hours away; got train for about another 2 hours to aguas caleintes (town outside Machu Piccu) with lots of oldie, Italians, who kept offering me cake shouting in Italian, because of course our seats wernt together; the whole town is just one big market practically, where we had to run around, literally, after out tour guide (who we never paid for our tour!) to get our entrance tickets, got the bus to Machu Piccu; did the tour; (there was this stupid american woman on our tour, Im not insinuating that all americans are stupid, just this one... and all through out the tour she kept asking stupid questions, like `so they had to lift every single stone up to build that wall?` and it was like, em no, just a few and then they majiced the rest up.......) then we had about 40 mins to run around and take lots of silly photos; and did it all in reverse.... it was about 7 when we got back and then got the crap night bus.... and of course I had to do it all on 1.5 hours sleep.... (there was this really cool bar the night before where they just had a free for all jam session and it was really cool and I couldnt leave!)

So anyway, arriving in Puno at 5 in the morning = absoutly farking freezing like youve never known, (4000m +) and its also a total hole, so while having breakfast in the bus station and trying to warm up we watched the coolest sunrise ever... then did the floating islands for 3 hours, very touristy but you gotta go and met loads of people on the boat, and then beat these 2 annoying girls to the last 2 seats on the bus to Bolivia... (in which two seats were just stools in the aisle!) the Bolivian side, the town is called Copacabana, is much nicer then the Peruvian one, and cheaper too, went out with some crazy aussies, ate lake trout, mmm, went shopping in the morning for about an hour and then got the bus back to Peru... Liam stayed in Bolivia to do the salt flats... and I got the bus from Puno the Arequipa... if youre in Peru dont get a Destino bus, 4 hours = 8 hours trip, and not much fun with a 15k backpack on your lap.... Arequipa was a nice place, with lots of things to do, but after everything, I just wanted some time to myself to do silly things... Im sure some of the people in the hostel thought I was a bit of a weirdo, but sometimes its nice just to have some time to do things you want to do without feeling obliged to do something else...

So from Arequipa I went to Nazca, I took an expensive night bus this time with beds, but which I left a bag on, with presents and other things....pain... I went straight to do the nazca lines flight, which was absoutly amazing and then straingt to Ica and Huacachina... which is an oasis in the middle of the Peruvian dessert where you can do sandboarding & was finally somewhere hot, but of course the next morning it was raining, but I went sandboarding anyway... the actual dune buggy that took you up there was more crazy then the sandbording... I think the driver was still drunk from the night before and he was absoutly tearing it.... as in you have these special seatbelts that go over your sholders because the car actually does aires off the top of the dunes..... it was like being on a roller coaster without any of the safety features and a very high possability of rolling, but the sandboarding was good too....

Theres loads of Isrealies there, for some reason they all come to south america after thwir 3 years in the military service.... even though none of them seak spanish ir even try to... but they all love smoking weed and there was this Isrealie hostel that atually gave you weed when you bought food there...

Its terrible to steryotype people and or nationalities, but sometimes theyre very true.... I suppose the steryotypes have to be based on something....

From there I went to Lima, spent about 4 hours in a shopping center and flew to BA...no sleep again because it was a night flight, that lasted about 3 hours, and after eating and using all the cool things on the lan planes sure we were in BA at 5.30 in the morning... BA was pretty cool, a totally different experience because its a huge cosmopolitian city and espicially after Peru, and I was just staying in a hostel and was there for 6 nights, well 5 and a half.... on the last night I didnt bother booking a bed (with this other a bit mad Australian girl who I will be going to visit in Melbourne sometime....) cause there was no room at the hostel... we just went out to Pascha, which I sort of knew would be crap, cause I dont like techno, but everyone was going and I was a sheep and sure I thought Pascha in Buenas Aires, it has to be a bit cool, well, it wasent.... there was about 3 squilion people (in relaity about 10,000, but it felt like 3 squillion) squished in and they were mostly after taking something and being there made me feel very old.... I was thinking about stuff like ...if there was a fire wed never all get out of here in time.... hehehe, but the Aussie girl fell asleep! so at least I wasnt as bad as her... but we stayed till 6 ... went back to the hostel, had a shower and I went straight to the airport to go to Iguazu...

But Buenas Aires is cool, but I think its a city for living in, to get to know it properly... theres lots of cool concerts and gigs and little bars... and the food is amazing... oh my god the steak... I was never a steak fan, but there I ate steaks that were about triple the size of what youd get at home, they were so good... we were all the same ans ate steak every night, and in really posh restraunts and it was like 10euro... BA is also slightly European looking, and almost everyone is decended from Spanish and Italian immigrants.... everyone is quite white and I totaly didnt look like a forigner there. Its definatly somewhere I could live for a while, I think Argentina deserves a whole other visit just for itself... but it was fecking freezing there too, it even snowed after I left, the first time in 80 years...... but I got to know the city pretty well when I was there and got the subte and busses everywhere... it was cool, but Id like to get to know it with argentinians and not just hostel people.... not that the hostel people wernt nice or anything, its just that I can meet loads of Irish people at home. there were fecking millions of Irish people in BA, Id say about 60% of the hostel was Irish people.... like people walking around with CIT GAA jerseys on, all they were missing was their hurleys...

So Iguazu (Argentinian side... ) of course it was raining again when I arrived, and I missed the bus into town and had to wait 2 hours for another one, and there was the bigest thunder and lightning storm Iv ever seen, it sounded like there was bombs going off inthe building, people actually screamed a few times when there was thunder it was so loud... but the next day I went to the falls and met these crazy argentinians who I went around with for the day... The park is absoutly beautiful and really well laid out, but very touristy... the falls themselves are ridicusiously imoressive... you have to see them, I cant describe it... like theres just so much energy and the total shear force of nature is increadable... but they were cool anyway

The next day I got a taxi over the boarder to Brasil and flew to Sao Paulo... there I met Bia and all her friends and stayed with her family.... I thought I would only stau one night or two but ended up staying a week! Everyone was so unbelieveably nice and kind.... I cant say enough good things about them! Sao Paulo is a really cool city, for living, I m not too sure for just touristeying, maybe thats why I liked it so much too... but because I was with Bia it was totally different. After my week there I felt as if I had friends there too... and I had known everyone for way longer then just one week! I will definatly be going back at some stage and seeing them again... I know it! m definatly very happy to be back in Brasil.....

Well, after that I flew to Rio, from Sao Paulo... (the same airport that the crash was in... 24 hours before and the weather was just as bad.... was a bit surprised by the lack of are you alright emails.....but it was slightly unbelieveable when I heard about it) but Rio is indescribable, I think it has to be one of, if not the most beautiful cities Iv ever seen, granted I only saw about one quarter of it, and mostly just the beautiful touristy parts, but they were amazing..... I went up the sugarloaf for sunset one of the days and the actual sunset itself was amazing, but over that fameous backdrop of Rio, I think it was the view of my trip... something I´ll never forget...but I felt the safest in Rio out of anywhere I was before, and probably got the least hassle....after staying with Brasilians and only speaking portuguese, the whole hostelling scene was a bit bleaghhhh, but hey, I was in Rio.... I wasnt complaining... for people that havent been to Brasil before, I think the best way of describing it is probably a feel of New York with beaches....hehehe, Im sure Brasilians would hate that, but theres just that cool big city vibe....the Panamerican games are on there too at the moment.... and theyre like the olympics theyre so big, so the atmosphere was really cool, we got to watch some of the beach vollyball on some of the big screans just outside the stadium (which was on Copacabana itself) at night, there was loads of people and it was really cool...... But Rio i definatly highly recommended to anyone who can get there, but of course when I was there it was raining...... not all the time, but a good bit... typical...

After that it was straight to Salvador where finally it was sunnyyyyy!!! Really cool there too, lots of amazing beaches, I didnt get time to have a look at a quarter of them, I think its somewhere a car would be really handy.. theres definatly a different feel there though, its the afrobrasilian capital, but there was more `lighter?!` people there then I thought there would be, definitaly would go back there too.... nothing too crazy happened there, beached it, explored a bit, drank some caiprihinas and beer and ate some nice food....

But anyway, thats the end of my travelling around, Im back in Recife now.... I didnt get to do everything I would like to have done, but I think everything I could have... but sure theres always next time..... Im sort of glad to stop the hostelling and the living out of a bag... it will be really great to be with brasilians and all my friends again.... but Im a bit apprehensive about being here agian.... just because its never going to be the same as last time, but I think thats a good thing too.... I suppose its just something that I have been thinking about since I left the last time that Im nervous and excited now that its here..... you know the way that you just know some things.... well, I knew that last time when I left I would be back, and now I am.....

So, Id say this is probably the last of the blogs, except for a few bits here and there, cause I think my time here is going to be pretty busy, and Iv got to throw myself into the learning portuguese, no more english allowed.... so, back to volunteering.... back to Recife..... and we´ll see what happens from here!

hugs and kisses to everyone, hope youre all well....

from me xx

Mi ultimo dia de español, y estoy triste de parar hablarlo.
Me encanta este idioma y aprendarlo, y tengo que volvar outra ves un dia para perfecterlo.
Despois dos meses, puedo hablar castillano mas u menos, no con fluida, pero hise amigos, touve familias, trabajei, conversei con muchas personas, pegei con personas tambien!, viaje en muchos paises, hablei con personas con muchos differentes accentos, hise muuuuuchas cosas increviles y importantes en mi vida con español (todavia no puedo deletrar, pero no puedo en ingles tambien.... es una outra historia!) voy a estrañarlo mucho, pienso...... pero voy a practicar quando regresso......

Agora tenho que mudar todo minhas palavras em minha cabeza.......
mas eu vou a (probar a!) falar portuguese com tudo meu coraçao, e vou a brasil amanha!!!!
o momento que estive esperando para muito tempo esta chegando, espero que o tempo que vou a passar ali sera bom, mas com amigas como minhas, penso que sim!!!!

ate amanha brasil!!!!
beijosss

Huancayo cntd....

Well, since the last time, Iv been working loads, teaching classes, buying stuff for the school, collecting things....

The altitude here is really making a huge difference, I have to go to bed at like 10 at night because Im just so tired...

Also I was sick the other night, those who know me will know that Im never sick (Im not talking about drink related sickness) so this was a hugly traumatic experience that I feel I must tell everyone about! The mothers, who being unbelieveably kind and wanting to give the volunteers back something in return for our work with them and their kids, they cooked us a meal last Thursday. (Theres another volunteer, steve, 19 from UK, hes very nice) The dinner was only potatoes and sauce (but the volunteers got half an egg each too, when I say meal, I mean we were all sitting out on the grass taking turns using the plates and spoons and washing them in the stram in the meantime) But afterwards I woke up the poor english guy throwing up in the middle of the night...Its four days later and Im still not right and still havent eaten enything else then bread.....

Otherwise, me and Steve made a BBQ for everyone on Sunday (it was decided before the sickness, which later hit Steve too) so it ended up being more of a sedate affair then we had planned because neither of us were able to drink more then one beer and we were in bed by 10.30...

But today we started work on the school in Matapukio, see photos.... Its a "storage room" in one of the mothers houses (mud bricks of course) so this morning we spent filling in the holes in the walls with more mud.... when I say mud, I mean out with our shovels and pick axes by where the cows were to get the earth to mix with water. I have to say, Im quite handy with some mud and a spatula, my part of the wall was definatly the smoothest, and Steves was all lumpy!!! So if anyone needs their mud walls touched up when I get back, Im yer woman.... it will cost you the use of your donkey for 2 days though and a sack of potatoes...

I know that obviously some people wouldnt be into that sort of thing, but as experiences go, I think that that one is going to be up there with the Manchu Piccu type ones for me....

Everything Iv seen here for the past 2 weeks has given me enough to think about for about another 2 months, about poverty, about development, about education....

Not to say that everyone here is destitute or anything, theres a lot of people that lead comforatble lives and have money, but theyre mostly in the cities and big towens. Where Peru Luz de Esperanza works, in the villages, its different there. But thats not to say that they donth ave the exact same hopes and dreams that we do, they want whats best for their children and they love eachother just the same and want to make as good a life as they can....

but its so obvious being here just how lucky we are. I know Ireland and a lot of other countries arnt perfect and a lot of the time not that exiting, but as the world population goes we really are at the top of the pyramid. I know we all know this, but I dont know to how much of an extent we realise it....We have so many opportunities and advantages. I mean some of these people will never see an airport, never mind go on a plane. and here i am on the other side of the world from home (and not even for nearly the first time) and I basicially have to owe it to my education... its the key to development and the solution to a lot of the problems in the world.... Im not just talking about university, obviously thats the major one, but any knowledge...

Today the government in peru announced (theyre obviously a stupid assface government) but that they couldnt afford the public schooling system the way it was, because the teachers wanted more pay (probably like 150$ a month or something) so they have shut down the public school system indefinatly. Shit as it was it was way better then nothing.... to make all the schools essentially their own entities, or fee paying....

While this dosent effect a lot of Peruvians, because they go to private schools anyway, it makes a huge difference to the people in the villages, who cant afford more then potatoes to eat, never mind paying to send their kids to school. So everyone is arranging marches to protest in the main towens. Its really shit because it just makes the gap bigger between the people who have some money and the people who dont have a chance. and I only know a few villages in a tiny part of Peru, you can bet that theres millions that its going to effect. Thats why organisations like Peru Luz de Esperanza are so important..... at least theyre doing something positive.
Things like that must crush some peoples hope, some of the parents arnt too bothered about sending their kids to school because they reakon that theyre just going to end up working in the fields anyway and they may aswell help them in the fields now and earn some more money... and then theres other parents who would give their right hand for their kids to be educated and to make a better life for themselves.... There was one woman, Señora Vilma, she was the lady whose house we had the school in. she was only 28, but was the president of the area, which is quite an important role and unuasual for a young woman... (Here some of the husbands wont let their wives go to the Peru Luz de Esperanza classes bcause theyre home late and dont have lunch ready on time.....) but she learns her kids homework to try and learn english and trys to speak english to the volunters and from that has a pretty ok vocabulary..... but still her family dosent have their own fields, they work in other peoples, but she still has dreams that one day she will mover her family to Lima and have a better life... I had great admiration for her, theres just some people you meet and have to admire....

Im sitting in the airport in Lima writing this and I hope my flights going to be ok because I bought it from the cheapest airline....but it was better then th e 24 hour bus journey, on top of the 8 hours back to Lima....BUt the past 2 weeks have been really packed in, we managed to finish the school in 3 days, not bad considering the state of it before hand and me and Steve had a decorating the place/sports day for the opening day (and my last day) so we had potato and spoon and sack rases and twister (home made of course!) and some wall signing...altogether I think we managed a good job on t he school, I was quite proud of the team! I even managed to put the lights in! Cause Im an "electrical engineer" they were like, woo, you can do the lights....I was abit aprehensive because I havent actually wired lights for a house before, even though the theory isnt hard or anything, but I seemed to manage ok and the lights worked and noone was electricuted! see photos!!

Being there and seeing all the different stories of people it makes you think what poverty really is.... Is it not being able to afford to educate your child, is it not having enough food to eat, is it working all day and still not having enough? is it when you´re trapped in a situation that you cant get out of because you cant afford to or you cant because you dont think you can or you just dont have the will power.... not all have to do with money, but I hope those of us who dont have to deal with these things never will....

Being in the airport its strange to see all the forigners, theres hardly a peruvian face in the place. Going from being the only forigner (and Steve, who Ihave to say made a huge effort at spanish) to Cuzco, which is ment to be totally gringolandia, is going to be a bit of a difference. But this is now my time for travelling .... Im going to be a backpacker and stay in hostals and meet other travellers and be in charge of what I eat!! (which is going to be meat and salad...no more potatoes and rice for me) and where I go and when I want to go.... South American people are great and look after you loads and are really nice, (even getting the taxi to the airport the lady I was sitting next to on the bus helped me get a good one with a good price!) but sometimes it can be a bit suffocating when you just want to do your own thing and its like Im nearly 25, I can do things by myself....but its also really great sometimes...

Otherwise Im off to Cuzco and Manchu Piccu...I dont really have a plan, Im just going to see when I get there...but I think its going to be pretty exiting...
Its strange because you´re sad to leave somewhere, but they you have so much more to look foward to....

Anyway, hope Im not boring everyone with my ranting, I want to email you all, but I just dont have the time to write to everyone individually.... but that dosent mean that I dont miss everyone!!! Thank you to all the people who wrote to me and left messages, keep them comming, theyre really nice to get when you´re away alone! I have never been lonely yet, but sometimes I wish one of my friends was here to so I could share the experience with them too....

anyway, hope youre all well and everythings good with all of you in your respective homes...... keep writing to me and telling me your news!!

kisses from Peru!

Peru Luz de Esperanza....

Well I have to start this one telling you about the place Im in now and the organisation Im with....

http://www.peruluzdeesperanza.com/

Its in a place called Chupaca about 30mins outside Huancayo (which is a big enough city of about 500,000 people) The organisation is called "Peru Luz de Esparanza" (Peru light of hope) and the name might sound a bit cheesy but its actually really true for the people that they work with. The organisation is run by Elizabeth and Neilton (a couple, 28) and Elizabeths mother Eva. Elizabeth and Neilton have a son, Andre whoes 3, who is really a part of it all because he has to put up with different volunteers comming in and living in his house all the time. (Everyone works and lives together in this big house, theres space for about 10 volunteers, but it was just me for the first few days and then another guy from England came for my last week and a bit...) There are other people who come and teach too, Jovana and Antonio, but they dont live in the house. Well, Peru Luz de Esperanza works with the people from the villages in the surrounding mountains. There is really no rural development here with some people not having water or electricity. There is no running water in the town that Im in (Chupaca, 100,000 pple) but luckily the house were in has a pumped water tank and hot showers (very rare). They work with children teaching the basics, children who in some cases dont get to go to any other school. The teacg english and basic primary things and also dynamic games and values, to teach the kids a sense of right and wrong etc. These kids parents, if theyre lucky enough to have both or one of them work in the fields for like 14 hours a day. and if the kids are not big enough to walk they just go with the mothers on their backs and if they can walk they either just play with the other kids or help their parents in the fields... theres no childminding or any of that sort of thing here.... This place is really poor, like mud brick houses and hole in the ground toilets... but still the kids are so enthuastic and want to learn and love that theyre getting the attention. Peru Luz de Esperanza also works with some of the mothers in the area, to try and teach them new skills and english and they set up a mini company, to give the women independance, from the failure of crops (the super cold this year killed off loads of the corn) and also to give them their own form of income. But its also an excuse for the mothers to meet up and discuss problems, a womens life in rural peru is very different to mine, they are expected to lead the life of a slave in some cases and basicially what ever the man says goes.... so this is really important to some of them because its theirs and its for themselves and their children. Theres also projects where we visited houses to teach basic hygine and first aid and how to look after your baby for new mothers.

All the work they do is compleatly free to all the people they offer the services to. What little money they do make from the volunteers goes straight into paying the rent for the schools or buying some materials for the mothers minicompany. They even have a christmas appeal, where they get people to donate presents so that they can give each one of the kids something at christmas. Some of the stories they have to tell of the peoples lives that they help are unbelieveable and some of the places that they plan to work in. Im only here for two weeks, but this is their lives and theyre doing it out of a sense of just trying to help some of the people of their own coutnry because no body else is....



So well Ive been here for 3 days and its all just been so compleatly packed in that I feel like Iv been here for 3 weeks already. The poverty here is absolute. In quito it wasent so apparent, there was no favellas and it was a lot more unuasual than I thought it would be to see street children. But then besides the remar homes I wasnt really in the places where there was extreme poverty. But since I arrived in Peru its a lot more apparent and I knew this existed but to actually see how hard the lives of some of these people are uo close, its a concious effort not to let it get to you... but then if you did you wouldnt be of any use to anyone and youre just getting upset for yourself, its not going to help anyone... But I think that above all its important to show people in general respect and not pity. I dont want to sound like I think Im great or anything, believe me I did enough going out in Quito and Im sure I will again in Brasil, but Im only here for two weeks ans I hope that I can help them a bit while Im here....
Next week were going to try and turn what can only be described as a "full of crap" stable/storage room in someones house into a school.... so that should be good fun....

Otherwise it was straight into work on Friday, I went to one of their schools in a town called Ahuac, when I say school, its actually a roof with 1 table and 1 bench and some planks of wood for the kida to sit on. But the kids were great and of course I was a compleate novelty....
Its also 3500m high here, the cant keep my eyes open after 10 is kicking in again... its much higher then Quito, but with a much more regular climate. Freezing at night and roasting during the day. But this cold is the type that you cant remember what its like to be warm and the het is like you never think youre going to be cold again. Needless to say this is definatly not my favourite part (next to climbing the mountains) and I will definatly not miss the freezing nights.... (literally it was ment to be -2 the other night) and theres no heating anywhere. The air is also really dry and my hair is gone straight and your skin goes really dry too, some of the kids have such bad skin, their cheeks are cracked from the change in temperatures and the no cream....(its not high on the list after food etc)
But all these things just remind me of how the other people must survive while Im here with my four fleece blankets and my fancy clothes and my hot running water....
But not to make it all sound terrible all the time, the people are really nice and everyones curious about me and Im called the gringita around the town by the old people. But I really dont think that there are much tourists here so white skin and green eyes are enough for people to stop and stare. I even got asked could someone have their picture taken with me in a shop, which was pretty embarassing....

Well, to all the people that gave me money again, you have no idea how far ir went here, with the help of lots of people some fancy bargining, lots and lots of looking, some fancy bargining, and some shear blood sweat and tears Peru Luz de Esperanza managed to get and deliver the following:
Enough wool for 60 scarves/hats (all in cool colours of course)
24 sets of knitting needles and chrochet hooks
(all for the mothers minicompany for them to sell in the market)
80 rubbers
200 pensils
40 pearers
750 sheets of coloured paper
50 sheets of card
12 sets of crayons, colouring pensils and markers
2 sets of "12 in 1 games" of BINGO!
4 abacus and clocks and wooden number sets
Huge pot of glue
100 copies
6 tables (some huge, some not so huge)
12 big benches for the kids to sit on
200 baloons
paint and brushes for the school
four flourescent lights and cables
nails etc.
plastic sheets for the roof
jigsaw puzzles games, dominos, jenga, chess etc.
scissors
books - encyclopedia, english books, art books
etc, and probably loads more other things that I cant remember....!

So, considering there was nothing before, all these things make such a huge difference. So thank you for your support and everyone here is ridicously greatful and keeps saying thank you about a million times a day and thank you to everyone for supporting me too!

Its funny, this travelling thing, I thought that the volunteering would be a nice cushion before i started my real travelling, but after this the idea of just traipsing around all these cool places in South America and picking which hostel I should stay in for the best party dosent really sound that scary at all!!!!

Novel contd....

This is about 3 weeks behind...... so you have to imagine this happening ages ago.... but hopefully I{ll get up to date ish soon!

Well, on the bus to Puerto Lopez and travelling around I got to see lots of rural towns and villages in Ecuador along the coast. Lots of houses made of bamboo, they had electricity and you could see tvs in a lot of them, but I was thinking of how different their lives must be.... Im sure there are many aspects about their lives that I couldnt even begin to understand, and that comparabily iv got so many more opportunities for education etc. but it really dosent mean that their way of life is bad, it looked like there was solid communities and Im sure very strong family units. Its funny how lives can be so different but I would hate to be thinking how much better my life is and how much more privilaged I am...where in some ways you just cant help but think that I am........

Well puerto Lopez is a small fishing village thats not very touristy, I think its popular because of its location and closeness to Isla de le Plata.. (The poor mans Galapagos, apparently its very similar to the galapagos, but only costs about 1/20 of the price to get there) But I relly really likeed it. We stayed in a really pretty little chilled out hostel. But Jenny, the girl that I was with felt sick the whole time we were there, so she missed out on most of it. The town was also really close to the national park machilla, which the island is part of, there was this really cool beach nearby called "Los Fryles" but we didnt have enough time to go to it. The people in the village were really nice and friendly and everyone said hello and wanted to talk to us, which was really cool. I met some columbian and Spanish people the night we were there and we stayed up listening to Pink Floyd till we got kicked out of the bar.
The next day I went to Isla de le Plata. It was compleatly different then I thought it was going to be, I thought it was going to be this lush tropical island, but it turned out to be all grey and not lush at all.... theres no fresh water on it, so when it dosent rain everything basicially goes into hibernation and looses all its leaves, but aparently when it rains, it does turn into this amazing tropical paradise....(just not when I was there) But it was still cool and it was partly the most amazing time ever and on the other hand I was wishing it was a lot shorter... I got to see some blue footed boobies and loads of other really rare birds and got to go really close to them and see thir babies and them sitting on their eggs..... I felt like I was in some national geographic vidoe or something....But after 5 hours of walking andlots of mosquitos I was definatly ready for snorkelling....
We got to see the most amazing fish, that you would be amazed at in an aquarium and even sea turtles... They all came really close and it was unreal to see them in real life in their natural habitat....
That night we decided to leg it to Montañita (total surfer town famed for partying) for the one night we had left before we had to be in Guayaquil to get my flight to Peru....but we missed the last bus so ended up getting a lift in the back of a truck for an hour (again) and nearly choked on the exhaust fumes.... but after a shower it was worth it when we got there. Althought it was midweek there was loads of things going on and we ended up partying with the Ecuadorian national surf champion and a few others from the team for the night!!
So after another rainy/cloudy day at the beach we headed to Guayaquil...... even though we only had less then 24 hours there it seemed like a really cool nice city. Compleatly different to Quito, its warm and on the coast and there is this really nice walk along the waterfront that is like a park with restraunts and shops and playgrounds, Im sure we probably only saw the fancy part of the city, but I would have liked to have more time there...
So anyway, I flew with LAN, for the first of my south america flights.... its a really cool airline and I would recommend it to anyone whoes travelling around south america. I arrived in Lima and got this crazy taxi driver (who I found out charged me double) brought me round all the bus companies to look for one that would bring me to Huancayo while telling me that god was my owner and I was only there because god had decided it...needless to say, I didnt entertain that crap for very long.... none would bring me to Huancayo that night so I had to wait till the next morning which was an expensive pain.....the bus the next day was better then any ryanair plane Ive ever gotten.... they gave you real food and had movies, (well one was bout a vollyball playing and diamond robbery stopping dog) but they did try... I thought that an 8 hour bus journey would be soo boring, espicially during the day, and I had loads of stuff to do, like study spanish (the time with Jenny wasnt very conducive to speaking spanish, but we managed a little bit) and to try and make some sort of plan or list of things that I could do in Peru.... But the sceanary was just so amazing, there was so many waterfalls and indigenous people walking up mountians to god knows where...... it was also finally sunny (in the mountains where its cold of course) so, that was the start of my time in peru....


Other Random Things...
I finished a book about an Iranian Lawyer, Shirin Ebadi, who won the nobel peace prise. Its one of the best books/stories/memoirs that Iv read and is an amazing story of an amazing and strong person and just goes to show that the way your life turns out is up to you and how you can choose your own path. I think that the problem is that most people just dont know their path yet...but hopefully we{ll find it

And Id just like to say that I had a great tiem with my friend Jenny, you meet loadsa people travelling, but I think that we are actually going to stay friends.... shes done a pretty good job at convincing me to go to San Francisco anyway! But weve done loads together and I know shes one of those people who is going to do great in what ever they do....Im really excited to be meeting her later today in Cuzco for a few days... woo woo!

so thats it for the moment
keep writing and leaving comments
kisses and hugs to everyone at home
hope its not too boring!!!

Ecuador Contd...

Well, in the weekends I did some travelling around Ecuador. The third weekend I was there I went to the cloud forrest. Its sort of like the rain forrest but not in the Amazon & has its own ecosystem and climate and species specific to the area. Theres even specific species of hummingbirds for specific flowers that are about the size of a big bee, theyre amazing to see them in real life, and then theres butterflies that are the size of birds.... It rained the whole time we were there but it was great still. From the photos that I put up you can see that the place is pretty amazing. We stayed in a mariposaria (butterfly farm/sanctuary) which was really nice and we did lots of cool stuff there too. On Saturday, when we arrived, we hitched a ride on the back of a truck (that´s how people get around there...it was quite an adventure...extremely bumpy!) to our hostel, which was a few kilometers outside of the town. We went to this thing called¨el canopy¨....we really didn´t know what to expect, but the guy at the hotel recommended it. It turns out it is a series of 10 ziplines that go across very long and deep valleys (some are 500 meters across), the views were amazing from the middle of the lines but you had to use both your hands to break so you couldnt take any photos. On the last one though I got my harness clipped backwards so I got to do it upside down & it really felt like I wasnt been held on by anything....

After that we got some "chicos" to bring us "rafting". The chicos were really niños and the raft was actually the inside tubes of tires tied together with rope!! But it was really good fun and they seemed to know what they were doing. We managed to do all of this with two Ecudorian girls, who were really nice and gave us lifts into town which was about a 2.5k walk away, we didnt bring our cameras rafting so Im hoping theyre going to send us theirs soon...

The next day we did a "walk" up one of the mountains through the cloud forrest. This was one of the "I dotn like climbing up mountains" moments, but we wanted to get to these waterfalls & thought the muddy track through the forrest through lots of tree roots was the only way up. Of course being the optimist and the ever irish person who at the slightest glimpse of sunshine decides that its going to be a great day and gets ready in their beachiest clothes, decided because of about 1/2 hr of sunshine that flipflops were the best thing to go climbing up the mountain in. Of course when we actually reached the top after much sweating, and climbing and sore legs, (I have no idea about how Im going to manage the Inca trail....) where there was actually a road before you got to the waterfall and it had started raining. I didnt fall or anything, but for future reference its hard to climb mountains in flip flops, however I was the only one with clean dry runners for the trip home....

Well, the waterfall was amazing it was really big and I did a 12m jump into the extreamly narrow very fast moving pool below. It was really really scary and it took me about 30mins of 1,2,3 no, no I cant do it..... before I actually managed it. I knew I wanted to do it, but there was no chance that the others I was with were going to do it, so it was harder to get the courrage up alone, but they were really good and waited for ages while I did my thing of scardyness... The guide there was really nice and did the jump with me and there was these other two guys who got a great laugh out of me for a while. Of course they had to do it to show me how macho they were, but they were really nice and gave us a lift back to our hostel in the rain after.

It was a great weekend, but we were wrecked when we got back to Quito!



The next weekend we went to this place south of Quito called Baños. Its called this becuase of the hot baths in the town that are heated by the volcano thats just beside the town (Tangurahua). Its like the adventure sports capital of Ecuador and its ridiculiously touristy, we arrived late on a friday night and walked straight into crouds of drunk tourists on the streets and the equivalent of a gravy train except in a cartoon caterpilar shape...carrying lots of the drunk tourists...honestly they were mostly americans, but Im afraid to say they were all comming out of the "Leipreachan Bar". But the next day, in the sunshine, the place looked much nicer and we could actually see all the mountains around the vally that the town was in. We decided to have a relaxing day after our week of work in Quito, the weather was really nice and we actually hung out in the park for a few hours and ate some lychees and grenidias, but that lasted about 2 hours and then we went canyoning..... This involves climbing (again) up a mountain to get to the top of a series of waterfalls and then repelling down. This was absoutly amazing because Baños in on the edge of the Oriente, which is the name of the jungle where the amazon is. So we were in these waterfalls that you could only get to by clambering up over very very muddy tracks and through trees and it felt like the mioddle of the jungle to us! Each of the 5 waterfalls was 20-30m high and the force of the water in the main route was enough to knock your legs from under you, which happened to one of the others a few times and she was black and blue for weeks... but after the first drop over the side it was way easier to stick to the rock face to get down.
I didnt manage to take any photos, but when I get them off my friends Ill put them up.
The way home was interesting again because we were so wet and the transportation outside Quito or the big cities normally involves being thrown around in the back of a truck, we were all frozen going on these "roads" and when we got back it was great to get into the baños and get warmed up. One of the pools was 48-50 degrees, this was ridiculiously hot and extreamly hard to get into but was really nice to sit in at night, and I cant imagine what our muscles would have been like without it!
Well we went out for dinner and the other two girls were sensible and went to bed at a reasonable hour because we had booked a mountain bike tour for the next morning at 8. But of course I decided since I was in Ecuador and when would I be going out in Baños again that I could totally manage with out sleep. So I went out with another girl from Quito and needless to say we managed to meet lots of guys and went dancing. So after getting in at 5.30 and up at 7.30 we started off our super mountain biking adventure.... Luckily I actually remembered how to cycle, because besides being on the back of a bike in Holland a few times, I dont think I had actually cycled in about 10 years... the fact that I live up a big hill and bought my ladies style bike (I was to small to get a crossbar one) with my conformation money probably didnt help...
Luckily most of it was downhill or flat, just in case I didnt mention before I dont really like going up hills, this includes on bikes..... But the scenary was amazing and we got to see the volcano Tanguirahua smoking and with ash comming out of it.. which was really cool...

So, we arrived at these 2 bridges where you can jump off one while attached to the other, so its just like a really big swing. Its not like a bungee jump because the rope isnt really elastic, but it was enough for me anyway. I decided not to have a repeat performance of the waterfall wait, and just jumped when they said go! It wasnt half as bad because of the harness, the first second or two of freefall was brilliant, I ended up doing it twice more with the others, it was cool hanging out of a bridge in the middle of a river vally....
After the three jumps and the harness and the very tiny tiny saddle of the bike for about 4 hours the next 24-48 hours of sitting and walking and generally everything was absoute agony and I think that next time I go cycling Im going to get one of those big granny saddles...
We also went to these huge fameous waterfall called the Pilon del Diablo, more climbing was involved, but standing at the ledge at the side and getting soaked by the spray was definatly worth it.Needless to say after my very unrelaxing weekend in Baños I was wrecked and not ready to face into my last week of work and more nights out in Quito.

My family had a going away party for me, where Estella, my Ecuadoruian mother spent all day cooking a huge dinner for 13 of us, all friends and family & I recieved beautiful presents from them and then we all went out and did some salsa dancing... Well, I managed some "slasa"...
But my family in Ecuador was like my family and I hope that some or all of them can visit Ireland some day amd I can get to show them around my country too.....

So, Iv spent the last few days on the cloudy beach and on various busses writing this.... Its difficult to write it for everyone because theres obviously a lot more that happened in 3 weeks and I know Iv been bad for keeping people updated, but sure Im sure I{ll bore everyone with my stories when I get back!
Well, I was on my way to Puerto Lopez when I was writing this, a costal fishing village in Ecuador, with the "Poor mans Galapagos" nearby... Isla de la Plata, so called because Pirates used to use it to store all their treasures...

So after nearly 5 weeks in Ecuador I can definatly say I would love to go back.... Its a country of everything and I hardly got to see any of it.... Its not crazy, the people are laid back, but theyre really friendly and always ready to help. Iv never been stuck and the taximen always make sure you get in ok and get on the right bus! So far its definatly been a trip of seeing the kindness of people.... I cant believe that Im 1/4 of the way through my trip already and I just hope that the rest of it is as good as Ecuador!!

Cosas que me voy a estreñar de Ecuador:
deseyunar con Estella
estudiar con Diego Y Javier
Juegos de Uno y los errors de Cristobal!
los niños de la escuela, todos
musica muy chistoso en el bus
cocher el bus en el redondel!
el ajijon!
el rum!
ceviche
caminar a mi casa y mirando a todo en la via
encontrar amigos en la mariscal

Quero recordar todos mis momentos en Ecuador y todo la gente, no puedo olvidar ellos....

Encontrai gente marivilosa en Ecuador y espero que vamos a encontrar outra vez talvez alli, talvez in outra lugar in el mundo....


Random things:
Everyone in Ecuador is tiny, I was the tallest of my family & I was even tall in Quito, weird....but great for me!
my hair has reached new levels of curliness/frizzyness, I now have an afro and could give Sponge back in the day a run for his money

Hugs and kisses to everyone and next novel to follow soon....
Hope you´re well and please write and tell me your news....
and please, other people as well as my mother leave comments....

xx

News from Ecuador

Hey everyone,



I thought Id get to write this at least once a week. But I literally havenbt had the time, plus while Im here in South America, I definatly want to spend my time doing things and not on the internet all the time....

Well, Iv finally left Quito and Im finally at the beach. I had decided that after all the cold and rain of the mountains that I needed a few days of getting a tan and lying in the sun before I headed back into the mountains again for more volunteering, so I decided to cut into a few days of my travelling time in Per u and changed my flights so that I could travel with one of my friends here and go to the coast!
Well after a 9 hour night bus, which was surprisingly nice, the bus I mean not the journey, I woke up to ......................rain, lots of rain, and lots of clouds and no hope of it going away soon............Apparently theres this really weird weather at the moment where the whole of the Ecuadorian "Routa del Sol " is covered in clouds and thunderstorms for the next week compared to the normal 25-35 degrees and sun that theyre used to.

Its a total pain, but Im just glad too to be at the beach too, espicially after the pollution of Quito, to be able to walk on the samd in bare feet is really really nice..... I thin kits actually the longest that I havent been to the beach or co ast. I know Im not a big mad surfer or anything, but you really miss the sea.......

One thing I definatly learnt is that Im not a mountain lady. Mountains are lovely to look at and to ski down and the sceanary here is amazing, but I just dont like living in them, or climbing them. Give me the beach any day, rainy or not!

Well, ok, going back to the last entry.....
Working in the center for street kids was good, it was tougher then I thought though - totally different from Brazil. (Went with company Ecuador volunteer, www.ecuadorvolunteer.com, on the low cost social projects)
It was a hard week starting off... the center is pretty big, theres about 50-60 kids, from newborn up to 18, mostly girls, living there in the upstairs and theres a primary school downstairs, all run by the same organisation. www.remar.com Theres 7 centeres alone in Quito owned by this organisation. They do good stuff but is all a bit too much "we love Jesus, we´re here to serve Jesus bla bla bla" for me, but I just dont take part in the Jesus stuff. But, in fairness, they are doing good and the kids would probably not have anything if it wasent for them. Cause its such a big center, theres loads of commings and goings and different people there every day, and its a bit disorganised with the teachers doing one thing and the lady thats in charge of the house doing another and the director of the whole center arrangins something different so it was difficult to find my way. They do get other volunteers every now and again, and I think most of them just did what they had to do and got out of there, so i think some of the people that worked there were a bit sceptical about another volunteer. Not because they didnt want help or there to be someone else there, just because I imagine that they need you to see the situation from their point of view and to see the whole situation, not just the little bit of how things look. and I think that some of the volunteers just dont get that , not that Im great or better then the others, but I think because Im a bit older and I went to brazil.... But I definatly had to work hard to gain the kids respect and for them top listen to me. I worked in the school in the second grade in the mornings with 6-10 year olds.... and then helped out in the afternoons in the house, getting lunch, feeding the smaller ones and taking care of the babies, doing homework etc.
Its hard to put my experiences of three weeks in to a few paragraphs in a blog, there were some kids that were great and were really enthuastic and some that were impossible no matter what way you approached or delt with them. BUt they all came from cbackgrounds and in 3 weeks I couldnt really do anything to change anything or the situation.

Some of the kids in my class

sometimes I really felt and feel that what Im doing isnt really helping anyone, I dont know if Im achieveing anything. Sometimes I think that it would be better to stay in one place for the whole time, and really my travelling is just for selfish reasons, but then experiencing new cultures and learning new languages and seeing the world is never a bad thing.... I think it makes you more aware of what you are capable of and hopefully it will lead onto new and cool things in my life!

Well, for all the very kind and generous people that gave me money before leaving, thank you first of all and just to let you know that I am splitting it with that place in Quito and with the place in Peru Im going to. I bought a sound system for the center in Quito, which the kids spent every lunchtime dancing around the place to and also they got to use it for PE and with an integrated dvd player they were able to watch films too, which was cool, because you can get loads of pirate copies of dvds on the streets of quito for a doller so they got spiderman 3 and shreck 3 etc. I also bought small things that they neede just like pencils and pens and cups for their morning snack (before there was about 8 cups to drink juice out of between about 80 kids, you can just imagine.....) The other thing was that there was a huge hair lice problem..... Every single one of the kids had them and I was petrified of getting them and regularly got to stand in the bathroom at my house freezing my ass off with gross smelly hairlice shampoo just to make sure I didnt get them too. But with the money and the help of the very nice teacher that normally had my class (she was like 21 and was married and had a two year old, way to make me feel old) we went and god a special "discuento" in a pharmacy wholesalers for about 250 heads worth of hairlice shampoo. So we had a lovely day of de hairlicing in the center, which took aaagggessss and then gave enough out to the other centeres too for all their kids and to the kids that lived outside. So thanks to all the you guys there are now a lot of kids in quito with much cleaner heads....

Well, thats about used up my time here on the internet....

next installment to follow tomorrow, Iv got loads more to tell about Ecuador, which Im leaving on Thursday....... Sorry for the super novel like approach, but theres just so much to talk about!!!

Talk to you all soon, hope everyones well and please send me comments and emails, theyre always really nice to get.....

lots of love

Aoife