Before the weekend trip

I've already finished my work week! Tomorrow at 6am I'll start my trip to the Colca Canyon. We will go by bus during 6 hours and then we will start trekking. At the Colca Canyon it's posible to see very big Condors.I hope I will be able to take good pictures of it and then you can enjoy them here.
Tonight we will have a dinner/meating with all volunteers and the coordinator.
Due to my weekend trip I think I will not be able to write any post until next sunday... I hope meet you here, and your comments, when I come back. This way I will not feel alone, even being in the other side of the world.

Other pictures

This is the street where I live. My house is the fourth.



El Misti at the sunset

Traditional local workers

Picture taken from the school where it's possible to see other peak

Chachani at the sunset

Wishing to read your commentaries!

I think my posts are becoming bored because I have less and less commentaries from you... but I hope you will still come here and read waht I'm doing... Anyway, yesterday almost all volunteers went to see "The Departed". The cinema stays in a very modern shopping center and it has 9 rooms. The behaviour of the peruvians watching the cinema is terrible... they speak, they scream and they bring young children, incredible!!
Today we will have dinner out in Zig Zag, a very good restaurant. I've already been there once and I tasted a wonderful alpaca (similar animal to the Lama) steak. It's really very good.
Tomorrow it will be my last week day at the school as on friday I will leave to the Colca Canyon at 6 am.

Once again going to the cinema

As I couldn't see again "The Departed" last sunday I'm going with almost all volunteers, tonight to see that movie. Today the work at school was very demanding, as they were not concentrated. The teacher has left me alone with the pupils since last week, so now I'm completely in charge of the class. They fail to do basic things, that they were suposed to know already, that's why I must be very patient... sometimes it's not easy.
Next friday morning I'm going for a 3 day trekking in the Colca Canyon. It's a wonderful trip with gorgeous landscapes. You will see the pictures here!
I hope you keep writing your comments here!

Vulcano's pictures

These pictures were taken from the school. On the left you can see the highest vulcano - Chachani, and on the right is El Misti



This is Chachani

This is Pichu Pichu

And this is the famouse El Misti

Second earthquake

That's it! Today I felt the second earthquake since I'm in Arequipa. I was with the pupils in the classroom and everything started shaking as last week. We left and went outside. Today the earthquake was bigger and stronger but there was no panic. As I've already written here peruvian people are very used to it. Finally yesterday I didn't watch again "The Departed". When I arrived to the cinema there was a huge crowd because yesterday the ticket price was only 3,5 Soles (less than 1€). So when I got there tickets were oversold. I saw the movie "United 93" (Voo 93).

Normal sunday

Hi everyone! Yesterday night I went out and I've drunk Caipirinha. It was good. And then I went to the best disco in Arequipa. It was really packed and it seemed a normal disco in Europe. But there was also some salsa music (very popular here).
Today I've lunched with the family. The family's son was with a huge hangover because he drank a lot of beers yesterday night. People in general here drink a lot! Then I went to the city center and took a coffee and read the local "Caras" (socialite magazine).
Today I'll go to the cinema for the time here. I will see "The Departed" again. I really liked that film and I really wanted to see it again, and as the ticket price is only 2€ so I will see it again.
Tomorrow I will start my second week.

Horse riding

This morning I did my first outdoor activity managed by the NGO. It was the horse riding trip. I had never done that before. I may say that at the beginning I was a bit but then fastly I learned how to control the horse and I relaxed. The trip was very good.

Last night it was my first night out here in Arequipa. With the other volunteers, we went to have dinner in a "Chevicheria", that's where they have the peruvian national dish: Cheviche, a kind of sushi but cooked with lemon sauce. It's good. After that we went to a Karaoke (american typical thing :). It was very funny there, all the people sang seated and all those "pimba" (portuguese expresion for very bad music) peruvian music.

This is Miguel. He is 8 but he seems much younger mostly because of povertry and bad conditions. He really needs a lot of attention and care. But he's smart and learn fast.

This is Silvia with her little cat.

Other students

These are Pablo and Jorge. Jorge is the smarter student, but also the most problematic. But so far I've been able to manage it.

Some of my students

Theses are 2 of my students, Ruth and Elizabeth. Some of the kids here have american names.

Peruvian dances

Yesterday I saw this peruvian dancing festival in Plaza de Armas, the city center.

I took today this picture in the way between my home to the hotel ( 15 minutes walking) us every morning. Here you can see "El Misti". It's really impressive!

The pictures I posted here before were the school (the house in blue), the village where the school is (the village is Sachaca and the school's name is Maldonado) and the picture with almost all students showing their animals! That day all the students broght animals and the room seemed a real zoo as you can see in the picture. Yesterday we had a "parrillada" - barbeque, here in the hotel (as I've already told you works as an operational center of the NGO). The purpose was to celebrate the american Thanksgiving day, as there are many americans here.
I've already finished my first week and I can say that has been a wonderful experience. I'm doing ok in the classes. The oficial teacher doesn't appear oftenly now, so I'm almost all the time responsable for my class. Of course that there are some students that sometimes disturb the class. Today I had to talk seriously with one student, but he understood that he was not acting well and he changed his behaviour.
People here in Peru are very religious. Today I was very surprised when the students told me that there's a school near called (Senora de Fatima), all of them knew Fatima and the meaning of Fatima. I told them where Fatima is and all the story about it. They were very interested listening it. But when I got really surprised was when all the students strarted singing the Fatima song "A 13 de Maio..." in spanish.
I was tempted to climb 'El Misti' - the vulcano in the picture, by a Irish volunteer. The climbing is managed by a company. We go with guides and we must sleep one night in the middle of the montain. We should do it this weekend. But then I decided to postpone it, as I feel yet not ready to climb a montain over 5000 m. I think I will wait a coupple of weeks to do it.

... and more pictures

More pictures...

First pictures

One more day...

As you know yesterday I moved to the family house. The lady prepaired me the dinner. She seems nice. I spoke more with her son, he also lives there and he also seems a nice guy. I told them many things about Portugal. The average knowledge about Portugal here is very low. Work at the school today was a bit demanding. When I arrived to the city I could watch the last 20 minutes of the Barcelona Champions League match.
Thanks a lot for all your comments! Muito obrigado por todos os vossos comentarios!

Heathquake in Arequipa

This is not my picture but there you can see the vulcano "El Misti".

This is the link with the yesterday's hearthquake news:


http://www.rpp.com.pe/portada/nacional/55846_1.php

Finally I moved from the hotel

Today I moved to the family's house. The lady is nice but I still don't know how she cooks... I will try it later. Today I spent the all day at the school, morning with normal class and afternoon with "aulas abiertas" a kind of suplement. Today I took some pictures of the school I will put here later.

First day at school

Today I started working at the school. We left the hotel (I'm still in the hotel, that is like the operations center of the NGO, and I think only tomorrow I will move to a family's house) at 8:00 and a van picked the volunteers and drove us to the school. The school is outside the city, in a very poor neighborhood, like a "favela". All the people there ia very poor and there's only one teacher fo 25 students. There are 2 different rooms. In the basement stay the younger children (first, second and third grade) and up the older children. As the teacher can't be in both rooms at the same time she's usually with the older and the volunteers stay with the younger children, also because all the other volunteers can't speak fluently spanish. So, today I stayed watching how the teacher did it with the older students. She was teaching mathematics (the metric system) and I helped her. For the first experience I think I could that the children took attention of what I was saying. That room has 8 children and they all seem very nice. Tomorrow the teacher will not show up (as far as someone told me that is very usual) so I will be in charge of that class, but I know already what I will do: First some language excercises, then some maths and finally I will explain what democracy is :) (of course the teacher gave these orientations).
We were in the class and suddenly I heart the glasses and the walls shaking... it was a hearthquake and we left the room and went outside. It was the second hearthquake I have felt in all my life. It didn't seem very strong but when we come outside we saw clouds of dusty all around the vulcano (El Misti - an impressive vulcano) in front of us. It had 5 degrees in the Richter scale. Earthquakes are very usual here.
On mondays there's only school in the morning so we came back at 13:30.
Soon I will put here some pictures, I promisse!

First impressions

Finally I'm in Arequipa, Peru! After 3 flights I finally arrived yesterday afternoon. It was my first trans-atlantic flight, 12 hours from Madrid to Lima. It was not that bad, once I could sleep in the plain. The first impression about Lima was good, the airport is brand new and very modern. I made a deal with the taxi driver and he drove me to Miraflores ( a Lima's neighborhood) for only 10 $. Once I left the airport I saw the real Lima: a huge city, with 10 million people and the most cahotic traffic I have ever seen. It's unbelieveble... And then I saw for the first time the Pacific Ocean! I stayed in Miraflores, a nice neighborhood of Lima, and then took the "combi assessina" - the killer van, to the city center. It's the most popular transportation in Lima and in all Peru. The vans are always stopping and annoucing their way. Plaza de Armas is the center of Lima with a huge cathedral and the presidential palace. I visited Lima during the day and at night I was suffering the jat-leg. Then, the next day, on Saturday morning, I visited central Miraflores and went to the airport (with other "combi assessina"). Arequipa is in the middle of the desert at 2300 m altitude. From the sky the landscape it looks like the moon. Around the city there are 3 vulcanos, the most impressive is "El Misti" dominating the landscape.
Tomorrow I will start my work in the school with the children. I will tell you later how wasd it.

The day before

Tomorrow is the D day, when everything will start. My next post will be already from Peru... "al otro lado del rio"

Peru map

In the first 8 weeks I will stay in Arequipa, in te south

First step

This is the first step to tell you my stories and my adventures in South America... In the next few months I hope I will have time to write here often and tell you how's going with me in South America. On thursday finally, I'm leaving to South America.