So last time I stopped on Christmas day, which was absolutly amazing! It was a seriously surreal, slightly un christmasy experience, but enjoyable. We spent the day on the beach, watching all the surfers and sunbathing-not my usual christmas day but still pretty fun! We took down all our presents (sent over from our family) and were sat on our deckchairs, chilling out under our little stripy umbrella opening all our presents, probably looking really stupid with all our wrapping paper around us but I had a really nice day. Speaking to my parents in the morning made me feel a bit more in the mood, but overall it was mostly just a nice relaxing day. Alex and I went out in the evening with some people from our hostel, there is this really cool little street called cocktail alley-literally just a street with loads and loads of stalls all making amazing yummy fresh cocktails so we had a bit of a party in the evening. I've also decided that after drinking all those amazing cocktails, drinks in England are just never going to be the same, they're nowhere near as big, or strong or have the whole fresh fruit grown around the area vibe going for them!
Right now we're back in Guayaquil, waiting in the bus station for our night bus back into Peru over to Mancora, which I'm pretty excited about because it's a 2 floor bus with beds!! Unfortunately we didn't make it onto the 2nd floor but still, we're going to be in a bed-on a bus!! Crazy stuff. We also realised last night that we managed to mess up our New Year booking for Mancora so we won't be staying in Loki with all the other Peru girls which I was really looking forward too. We'll hopfully find somewhere else that we'll be able to stay in over new year and then end up spending the night as a guest with all the other girls...should be eventful either way though.
We'll let you know how that one works out. Happy new year guys :)
Tuesday, 27 December 2011
Sunday, 25 December 2011
Lima, Montañita and everything inbetween
So I feel like I have loads and loads to write about but I'll try to cut down my rambling...so flew into Lima from Iquitos and stayed with Evie and Hannah in their aldea for the night which was pretty cool. It was really really interesting seeing their aldea and how much bigger it is, they've got 300 kids which was just crazy-especially compared to our tiny aldea of like 60 kids. It was also amazing spending time with friends and being able to chat in English! I'd completly not realised how much I miss having other english conversation around, it just made me even more excited for Mancora when we'll be together with all the other Peru girls.
So we flew from Lima to Tumbes on the boarder of Peru but decided just to get a bus straight out of it up to Guayaquil because it was just really deserty and there didn't look like it had a lot around it...We arrived in Guayaquil at like 1 in the morning and ended up in a hostel with hot water! That was completly amazing, our first hot shower in 4 months...not that you really want one in Iquitos but still it was awesome.
On the Monday we got in contact with Alex's friend who moved out to Guayaquil to live with her Ecuadorian boyfriend and invited us to stay with her for a night. We ended up staying with them for the rest of our time in Guayaquil and it was seriously incredible! They were both amazing, Alex and I loved every minute of it and we got to see so many more bits that I don't think we would have done on our own. I also really noticed an improvement in our spanish-just from talking it around people our own ages and not children all the time, we even learnt some new spanish swear words haha! So we pretty spent all the time from Monday evening till Friday with Rosa and her boyfriend Jaime but it was lovely, they took us out to spend time on the malecon and made us some amazing meals! It was such a change not eating rice for every meal, we've learnt a few things I'm pretty keen to try making in the aldea to have a break from the rice.
I fell in love with the city, we spent a lot of time around the malecon area which is like a pathway all along the river and it has this amazing like sunken garden with a bit of a river and everywhere was so so clean! There were guards or police men everywhere and they just keep an eye on everything which made it feel really you were being watched whereever you were! We had a bit of a touristy day on our own on Thursday and went up Las Peñas which was sort of a shanti town that you can walk up but all the houses have been painted loads of bright colours-paid for by the governement and you can walk around it and get an amazing view across the whole city if you climb right up to the top. It was seriously hot-probably because we started it at half 12 so it couldn't have got any hotter but it was definitely worth it!
We headed up to Monatñita on Friday by bus from Guayaquil and so far absolutly LOVING every single second of it here! So far so good! I still can't believe it's Christmas because it just doesn't feel christmasy at all. I'll try and get some christmasy pictures of it up next time...chao :) and happy christmas to everyone!xx
So we flew from Lima to Tumbes on the boarder of Peru but decided just to get a bus straight out of it up to Guayaquil because it was just really deserty and there didn't look like it had a lot around it...We arrived in Guayaquil at like 1 in the morning and ended up in a hostel with hot water! That was completly amazing, our first hot shower in 4 months...not that you really want one in Iquitos but still it was awesome.
On the Monday we got in contact with Alex's friend who moved out to Guayaquil to live with her Ecuadorian boyfriend and invited us to stay with her for a night. We ended up staying with them for the rest of our time in Guayaquil and it was seriously incredible! They were both amazing, Alex and I loved every minute of it and we got to see so many more bits that I don't think we would have done on our own. I also really noticed an improvement in our spanish-just from talking it around people our own ages and not children all the time, we even learnt some new spanish swear words haha! So we pretty spent all the time from Monday evening till Friday with Rosa and her boyfriend Jaime but it was lovely, they took us out to spend time on the malecon and made us some amazing meals! It was such a change not eating rice for every meal, we've learnt a few things I'm pretty keen to try making in the aldea to have a break from the rice.
I fell in love with the city, we spent a lot of time around the malecon area which is like a pathway all along the river and it has this amazing like sunken garden with a bit of a river and everywhere was so so clean! There were guards or police men everywhere and they just keep an eye on everything which made it feel really you were being watched whereever you were! We had a bit of a touristy day on our own on Thursday and went up Las Peñas which was sort of a shanti town that you can walk up but all the houses have been painted loads of bright colours-paid for by the governement and you can walk around it and get an amazing view across the whole city if you climb right up to the top. It was seriously hot-probably because we started it at half 12 so it couldn't have got any hotter but it was definitely worth it!
We headed up to Monatñita on Friday by bus from Guayaquil and so far absolutly LOVING every single second of it here! So far so good! I still can't believe it's Christmas because it just doesn't feel christmasy at all. I'll try and get some christmasy pictures of it up next time...chao :) and happy christmas to everyone!xx
Tuesday, 13 December 2011
Sunday, 11 December 2011
ONE week to go!!
So last Sunday we went to tía Carmen's house for that birthday party. We were both shattered by the time we got to the block where she lived, Carmen wasn't answering her phone so we were pretty much loitering on the street corner-the only gringas around and getting some very strange looks. We finally got through to her only to have my credit run out and being peruvian she just didn't ring us back! I had to go and top`up my phone to ring her back, at which point I was seriously just wanting to go home...Her daughter found us though and we got there all safe and sound. By the time we got there everything was in full swing (this is like half 5ish) the party started at 3 and basically the kids were just dancing around to music being played by a clown! they were still going at 7 and they all looked shattered, when we got there the birthday girl wasn't even there she was having a nap!! Haha, only here would that happen. But overall it was pretty cool, we got introduced to all the kids by the clown which was slightly embarrassing, then they kept offering us food and drink. The birthday cake was awesome I wish I'd bought my camera! It had icing to look like grass so it had strings of coconut on it and then all these little statues and a massive strawberry placed on little sticks so it all stood up, it tasted very nice too. yuummy :)
This week in the Aldea we've updated our christmas decorations around our house, to be honest though I'm still finding it really hard to get into the christmas spirit. I think because the atmosphere here is just so different to anything I'm used to, without the cold and seeing everything dark by 4 it's just not what I associate with christmas. Maybe also because I know that I won't be spending actual christmas here, aside from that I'm still really enjoying my time here and know that I'm really going to miss being around the kids when I go.
Thursday was a bank holiday here so all the kids were off school, Alex and I organised a sort of treasure hunt around the Aldea because it's so rare that the Sagrada Familia kids (from the private school) get a day off too we thought we'd make the most of it! We hid letters spelling out Santa Monica in 5 different colours around the aldea then put them in 5 teams to get them all to find them, and the winning prize was a massive 4ltr bottle of gaseosa-Inka kola which thhey all loved and were desperate to get their hands on. It all went down pretty well apart from a some sly cheating by the older boys which tía Carmen who was on the pink team got really worked up about! We also went out for a shopping trip for our holidays which was really cool. We found this huge shop-more like a warehouse where they had literally anything you could possibly want. Apart from spending lots of money we hada really good time, found a cute dress from the market for 15sol! and we both invested in some new beach towels because after nearly 4 months of continuous use and only handwashing ours aren't reallly up to sunbathing standards. Especially Alex's fibre one!
We bought some mangos from the market and went and sat along the boulevard where we could see the river and part of the Belen shanti town-it was beautiful, with the river really really high now. Sometimes I completly forget how amazing it is here and that I'm here in Peru 6000 miles away from my family because I feel so at home here, seeing the river just made me realise all over again!
Friday was a birthday celebration for the aldea kids from September up to December, which included lots of junk food, crazy spanish music, dancing and a clown! It was a really nice afternoon, the kid had an opportunity to let off some steam and just enjoy themselves without worrying about their homework or doing their chores, even if I was ridiculously full after it all. I also got to speak to both my aunty and my mum on the same phone call which was really nice as I think I've been missing home a bit more then I realised this week, so catching up on all the family gossip was just whtat I needed!
Saturday we had to be up and out our casa by 7 because they arranged for some fumigation of all the casa's. Who does that at half 7 I have no idea! But it meant everyone was sat together on the stands around the basketball court for 2 hours whilst they did every house, I think the Aldea has got really full recently but I only noticed it looking at all the kids running around then-even the likkle baby made an appearence! I got to look after my favourite new little girl, she's called Tatiana and she's about 1. She has seriously cute, fat little chubby cheeks and she's always so good although she's got a really hyper personality once she gets going! So that made the fumigation wait go by even quicker :)
We then took 5 of the olderish girls-between 10 and 13 out for Amanda's 13th birthday. I was pretty apprehensive about it at first because of the mixed feelings I had about our last outing, but it all went great. They were all awesome and you could tell they really sincerely enjoyed just being outside the Aldea. We went for ice creams where we gave Amanda her pressies-some bright pink scrunchies which went down well. Then we just had a walk around the boulevard and treated them to some popcorn. It was a really, really enjoyable afternoon and I'm so glad we took them out I feel like we've made their month!
Our Saturday night was spent in bed with some maduro (banana) crisps and chocolate milk-which I've rediscovered with a passion here! And a well needed early night/lie in. I can't believe this time next week we'll be in Lima on our holidays!! Absolutly buzzing and cannot wait.
So the next time you hear from me will probably be from Lima! Chao :) xx
PS. I did have some pictures to upload of our decorations but all the computers today seem to have it in for me-I've changed 3 times. So I really don't have the patience, you might have to wait till next time sorry! They are up on facebook though...
This week in the Aldea we've updated our christmas decorations around our house, to be honest though I'm still finding it really hard to get into the christmas spirit. I think because the atmosphere here is just so different to anything I'm used to, without the cold and seeing everything dark by 4 it's just not what I associate with christmas. Maybe also because I know that I won't be spending actual christmas here, aside from that I'm still really enjoying my time here and know that I'm really going to miss being around the kids when I go.
Thursday was a bank holiday here so all the kids were off school, Alex and I organised a sort of treasure hunt around the Aldea because it's so rare that the Sagrada Familia kids (from the private school) get a day off too we thought we'd make the most of it! We hid letters spelling out Santa Monica in 5 different colours around the aldea then put them in 5 teams to get them all to find them, and the winning prize was a massive 4ltr bottle of gaseosa-Inka kola which thhey all loved and were desperate to get their hands on. It all went down pretty well apart from a some sly cheating by the older boys which tía Carmen who was on the pink team got really worked up about! We also went out for a shopping trip for our holidays which was really cool. We found this huge shop-more like a warehouse where they had literally anything you could possibly want. Apart from spending lots of money we hada really good time, found a cute dress from the market for 15sol! and we both invested in some new beach towels because after nearly 4 months of continuous use and only handwashing ours aren't reallly up to sunbathing standards. Especially Alex's fibre one!
We bought some mangos from the market and went and sat along the boulevard where we could see the river and part of the Belen shanti town-it was beautiful, with the river really really high now. Sometimes I completly forget how amazing it is here and that I'm here in Peru 6000 miles away from my family because I feel so at home here, seeing the river just made me realise all over again!
Friday was a birthday celebration for the aldea kids from September up to December, which included lots of junk food, crazy spanish music, dancing and a clown! It was a really nice afternoon, the kid had an opportunity to let off some steam and just enjoy themselves without worrying about their homework or doing their chores, even if I was ridiculously full after it all. I also got to speak to both my aunty and my mum on the same phone call which was really nice as I think I've been missing home a bit more then I realised this week, so catching up on all the family gossip was just whtat I needed!
Saturday we had to be up and out our casa by 7 because they arranged for some fumigation of all the casa's. Who does that at half 7 I have no idea! But it meant everyone was sat together on the stands around the basketball court for 2 hours whilst they did every house, I think the Aldea has got really full recently but I only noticed it looking at all the kids running around then-even the likkle baby made an appearence! I got to look after my favourite new little girl, she's called Tatiana and she's about 1. She has seriously cute, fat little chubby cheeks and she's always so good although she's got a really hyper personality once she gets going! So that made the fumigation wait go by even quicker :)
We then took 5 of the olderish girls-between 10 and 13 out for Amanda's 13th birthday. I was pretty apprehensive about it at first because of the mixed feelings I had about our last outing, but it all went great. They were all awesome and you could tell they really sincerely enjoyed just being outside the Aldea. We went for ice creams where we gave Amanda her pressies-some bright pink scrunchies which went down well. Then we just had a walk around the boulevard and treated them to some popcorn. It was a really, really enjoyable afternoon and I'm so glad we took them out I feel like we've made their month!
Our Saturday night was spent in bed with some maduro (banana) crisps and chocolate milk-which I've rediscovered with a passion here! And a well needed early night/lie in. I can't believe this time next week we'll be in Lima on our holidays!! Absolutly buzzing and cannot wait.
So the next time you hear from me will probably be from Lima! Chao :) xx
PS. I did have some pictures to upload of our decorations but all the computers today seem to have it in for me-I've changed 3 times. So I really don't have the patience, you might have to wait till next time sorry! They are up on facebook though...
Sunday, 4 December 2011
mismatchy week
So quite a full on week this week, for those of you who are reading Alex's blog you'll already know about José-Carlos...But for those of you who don't, the baby José-Carlos who's been in and out of hospital since we got here, died on Tuesday night. We thought he'd been recovering but really suddenly when we were all eating tea they took him to hospital and he was dead within half an hour. All we really know is that he just stopped breathing and I guess his body just gave up. It was a massive massive shock for everyone in the Aldea, all the tías were understandably really shaken up and I just felt sort of helpless with helping them through it. They brough him back to the Aldea where they had like a big gathering for the body, all the staff, children, and the only family member he had-his grandma came and stayed till late together all eating and talking. It was horrible seeing his grandma suffering, especially in front of all the other children-knowing that some have gone through the same thing just made it even harder, but made me more determined to help as much as I possibly could.
The Aldea made the decision to bury him near the Aldea, so that was yet another life changing experience for me. We had a short mass on Wednesday morning at the aldea which I actually found pretty emotional, short as it was I think it really hit home. At 3 everyone from the Aldea plus his family made their way to the cemetary where there was a quick prayer there too. The cemetary was seriously like nothing I've ever seen before, there was absolutly no sense of order, you almost had to clamber over graves to get to José-Carlos's grave. They just seemed to be piled everywhere and whereever they had the space, all you could see in every direction were these tiny white crosses on every grave.
The whole thing was quite a humbling experience and I'm so grateful that I got to spend time with him, albeit much to short a time but I feel like he's at peace now. I've also realised how much a part of the close knit family we have become here in the Aldea, watching the tía's suffering made me realise already how much I depend on them and how much I'm going to miss everything here. This is my home (at least right now) and I'm just glad that we were here to help everyone here get through this. We're both fine, after the inital shock of it we're doing good-true Project style we've chatted about it and I've realised how much we depend on each other here.
In more upbeat news, we decorated our modulo yesterday! My collage christmas tree is in its pride of place outside and we hung paper chains literally every where we possibly could. Will try and get some pictures up soon... Feeling a lot more christmasy now too, we both got advent cards from Alex's parents to open every day. I did have an advent calendar too, which all the tías were really jealous of! But the ants got to it on the first day after I'd opened the first door so we had to eat all the rest of the chocolates before they got to them! Gutted that I don't have one to look forward to the whole time now but it definitely cheered me up at the time :) haha!
We went out for tea last night, which was lovely and relaxing. I don't remember the last time we were out on a Saturday night so we'd definitely earned it! It felt so good spending time away from the Aldea, sort of been feeling a bit penned in this week but it's also been a pretty full on few days!
We got to watch a bit of Home Alone yesterday too which made my day, wasn't the same without Macaulay Culkin's voice but still felt nice and christmasy.
We're off to that birthday party this week, turns out we'd got the date wrong! So when we rang tía Carmen to tell her we were on her street last Sunday she answered from the kitchen in the Aldea pretty confused, guess our Spanish wasn't quite as good as we thought. Second time lucky I hope!
Hasta luego xx
The Aldea made the decision to bury him near the Aldea, so that was yet another life changing experience for me. We had a short mass on Wednesday morning at the aldea which I actually found pretty emotional, short as it was I think it really hit home. At 3 everyone from the Aldea plus his family made their way to the cemetary where there was a quick prayer there too. The cemetary was seriously like nothing I've ever seen before, there was absolutly no sense of order, you almost had to clamber over graves to get to José-Carlos's grave. They just seemed to be piled everywhere and whereever they had the space, all you could see in every direction were these tiny white crosses on every grave.
The whole thing was quite a humbling experience and I'm so grateful that I got to spend time with him, albeit much to short a time but I feel like he's at peace now. I've also realised how much a part of the close knit family we have become here in the Aldea, watching the tía's suffering made me realise already how much I depend on them and how much I'm going to miss everything here. This is my home (at least right now) and I'm just glad that we were here to help everyone here get through this. We're both fine, after the inital shock of it we're doing good-true Project style we've chatted about it and I've realised how much we depend on each other here.
In more upbeat news, we decorated our modulo yesterday! My collage christmas tree is in its pride of place outside and we hung paper chains literally every where we possibly could. Will try and get some pictures up soon... Feeling a lot more christmasy now too, we both got advent cards from Alex's parents to open every day. I did have an advent calendar too, which all the tías were really jealous of! But the ants got to it on the first day after I'd opened the first door so we had to eat all the rest of the chocolates before they got to them! Gutted that I don't have one to look forward to the whole time now but it definitely cheered me up at the time :) haha!
We went out for tea last night, which was lovely and relaxing. I don't remember the last time we were out on a Saturday night so we'd definitely earned it! It felt so good spending time away from the Aldea, sort of been feeling a bit penned in this week but it's also been a pretty full on few days!
We got to watch a bit of Home Alone yesterday too which made my day, wasn't the same without Macaulay Culkin's voice but still felt nice and christmasy.
We're off to that birthday party this week, turns out we'd got the date wrong! So when we rang tía Carmen to tell her we were on her street last Sunday she answered from the kitchen in the Aldea pretty confused, guess our Spanish wasn't quite as good as we thought. Second time lucky I hope!
Hasta luego xx
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)