Big Brother in Trujillo - Gracias Skip!

It has been more than a month without updating our blog and the reason is that we were working during this period, working as a volunteer which is very rewarding.

Almost 5 weeks ago we arrived in Trujillo and it has been an amazing experience. We are living in the volunteers´ house; around 15 people live/sleep there plus 10 who also usually hang out there (the house works as an office). On the 4^th day of our stay we had to cook to all of them (every Thursday there are “family dinners” -  1^st was ours; 2^nd  Italian; 3^rd Israelian – Hannaka; 4^th Spanish - in order to try different cultural dishes since volunteers come from all over the world.

Skip (www.skipperu.com) is a British NGO that works with families and kids from Porvenir, Rio Seco near Trujillo. This village is really poor and its population of 140k almost doubled in 10 years, a lot of families emigrated there from the mountains. Skip has education programs (English, communication, math, arts, sports), psychology department, talleres (women get together in the school to make artesania – are sold later to shops), and Micro credit.

During the week we help in the micro credit department, where we, together with an Israeli, are trying to get things organized (now the NGO is going through a transition period as the last micro credit coordinator left). Here we got the chance to do some house visits to the families who borrow money (Business loans –kiosks, buy/sell used clothes, sell wood, sell menu del dia; Emergency loans – medicine; Construction – construct a toilet/room) and see the basic conditions and extreme poverty they live in (people live in houses with dirt floor and made of adobe instead of brick). We also got the opportunity to go back to a classroom but this time supporting the kids´ education in Mathematics (secondary) and Arts and Sports (primary). The experience of teaching and helping these kids has been really nice.

Murta and Paulo are known among the kids to be brothers (sometimes twins) with one difference –“ Murta no tiene poto (ass) y Paulo si”.

Sometimes coordinators have outdoor activities ideas and on the first Saturday we went to Huanchaquito with the kids to clean the beach. Another day we went to sell some calendars/chocolates to the beach/mall and also went to a volunteer fair in the downtown.

On the weekends we get together in Huanchaco beach to enjoy the day and surf a bit.

Regarding food, Peruvian food is …delicious! they have this yummy Menu del dia which brings a tasty soup, a second plate and a drink. Additionally, we do not remember how often we eat ceviche but probably every 4 days. For a snack, we always go next door and buy an apple or chocolate pie (thanks Lizzy and her mother for this opportunity eheheh). Mango and Maracuya pisco soar chi chi chi, really good!

Another curiosity of Peru, traffic! The priority goes to the bigger car, and (never seen before) the car entering the roundabout is the one with the priority.

On the second week, Ada (volunteer) who has Portuguese classes, invited us to her classroom. We end up in a University classroom with ~30 students speaking Portuguese (Brazilian ahahah) and making conversation with us, questions about our countries. Some of them invited us for dinner and we had a great time speaking Portuguese with local Peruvians.

During our stay in Trujillo, Murta went to Chimaca, the world´s longest wave. It was a full day of unbelievable lefties, long long waves that made him really happy.

We leave Trujillo really happy with this amazing experience. We met extraordinary nice volunteers and the work with the kids was touching. Thank you SKIP!!

We leave with the will of staying longer, but Paulo´s sister and Erick and Ana are waiting for us in Cuzco!

y..... Peru!!

We crossed the border to Peru and in Puno terminal we found our spanish friend, Ruth, who we met in Potosi and Sucre. She is travelling around the world for a year (so far 10 months) and has now the responsibility of taking care of Francisco and Paulo jajaja. We went together to Arequipa, a city that is very very interesting, with a beautiful center and nice sighs; mountains with snow (Misti and other volcanoes) all around the city. Our first judgment (positive) about Peru is “wooo so tasty food..” 

And about Pisco.. hm.. Pisco Peruano is good, very good; but since we lived one year in Chile (and we still have friends there) and since we are still in Peru, we cannot say which is better..

Our days in Arequipa were almost fulfilled by the municipality market (desayuno, almuerzo y snack there) and menus del dia. People from the juices, pastel de papa, dulce de leche already knew us and we all laughed together about our jokes. On the second day in Arequipa we went to Colca Canyon (the biggest canyon of the world, Gand canyon in US is the second) and hired Ruth as our guide. This time Paulo, that normally is relaxed, was even more relaxed (he often trusts Murta´s choices but now with Ruth, he was better off). Colca Canyon started at 5.30 am (we took a bus at 1am from Arequipa) at Cruz del Condor, where supposedly you can see condors, but no one saw them. Them the tour started, 4 hours going down until the river, a jump in the river, alpaca meat for lunch and 4 more hours to reach an oasis, where we ended up staying 2 days (we were too tired to wake up at 5am and climb up 3h). We stayed and it was really nice, we ended up being part of the group that was doing a tour and friends with them, played football with them, climb together and they gave us a ride back to Arequipa.

After 2 days, we took a night bus to Huacachina, an Oasis near Ica. Here, we just relaxed by the pool with dunes signs around. We took a tour with some other people, a buggy in the dunes and a bit of snowboarding. Paulo did a 360º maneuver and had his back a little bit hurt (he is already getting better Julinha jajaa), and because he was quite dizzy from the fall he lost his iphone in the sand (but later we recovered it – a girl found it). The sunset in the dunes was amazing; it looked as we were in arabic desert.

At this point of the trip, Murta had finally (after 2 months) a stomach conflict for about two days (Murta made a lot of jokes with Paulo when he had the same in La Paz “you are not use to spicy food, that’s what happens” jajaja). In Huacachina, we hang out with some Israelian friends (a guy and two girls), a spanish and a german that speaks portuguese.

Our Israelian friends were travelling in a different way than the majority of Israelians who often travel in big groups around South America and they normally doing the same route. In Israel, boys and girls have to do the army, 3 and 2 years, respectively, and after that (and before college) they usually go travelling. They are often the youngest travellers in South America.

Before leaving Huacachina, during the breakfast, Murta met (without any appointment ) his friend Catarina (they met in Poland 4 years ago during their exchange semester); a Portuguese that is travelling for 3 months in South America with Andre. Follow their trip on the website:
 http://www.sabado.pt/Dossies-SABADO/Dossies-SABADO/Aventura-na-America-Latina/Fotogaleria-(1).aspx

(after Paulo´s sandboarding performance)

The Unique Experiences (Coroico and Copacabana)

From La Paz, Paulo took a bus down to Coroico, in the region called Los Yungas and Francisco made the downhill on bike, the very famous Camino de la Muerte, which is the way buses used to do until 5 years ago - around 10 buses used to fall down the mountain per year - but in bicycle is not dangerous at all - a slogan to promote tourism,  however, Murta enjoyed a lot because the group was nice and he kept the pace of the guide. We basically got down about 2 km in altitude from La Paz. With a completely different view, very green, the region is maintained by its fertile plantations, especially the Coca´s Leaves.

We visited the city with a purpose: working as a volunteer in a community called Eco Yoga that we got to know from a German friend. When we got in the refereed address nobody was there and with no one around, no lights on the road, surrounded by green vegetation and in the dark, we thought about leaving the idea behind, but decided to wait a little bit. After 2 hours the family who runs the house arrived.

The house is run by Hare Krishnas,  a young Colombian couple that came to Bolivia 8 months ago. While staying there we helped with organic farming plantation, cooking vegetarian food and living the live just as they do. One curiosity during this week: can you imagine Murta without eating meat for a whole week? yes, we only ate vegetarian food. Really tasty soups, Quinua, salad, lentejas burgers (we learnt how to cook them), etc.  Event though we had to take a freezing shower at 6 am or sleeping with huge spiders and others bugs (each of us was a target of around 25 mosquitos), it can´t take away all the knowledge we had the opportunity to get there, especially related to the Hinduism. The family itself couldn´t be better. A father,  a mother and their little baby captivated us and also the practice of yoga brought a immense sensation of peace.

The lovely family and the outstanding view from the house

From Coroico we went directly to Copacabana, the famous small Pueblo surrounded by the Titicaca´s lake and where we stayed for 3 nights. The first view from the lake will take your breath away. The big endless blue lake could be a scenario from any Hollywood movie.

We also met a very nice Brazilian guy,Marlos, who travelled with us for these 3 days and who became really nervous while arriving in Copacabana. Apparently, he dreamed about this place some time ago without being there. The following day he convinced Murta to wake up at 5am and climb the mountain to see the sunrise (one of his dream´s images).

We do recommend the Truchas, seafood, fished from the lake and absolutely delicious (we ate it three meals in a row for 2USD). Also, we took a boat to the famous Isla del Sol, a beautiful island which had a great meaning for the Inca Empire and where lots of interesting ruins can be seen. The trecking around the island is very nice.

During those days we learned a lot, not only about the Pre-Colombian history but also about the Hinduism, Humanity, Local Culture, the beautiness of the traditions and others and we are sure that, this knowledge that is now part of us, will contribute to our lives wherever we are from now.