Yanamilla Primary School update 6

I was keen to do regular updates on the school, but progress has been slow, and it's hard to keep in touch with details from such a distance. And the 6 weeks of public-sector strikes in June and July didn't help matters. But there IS some progress to report, so here's a summary of what's been happening since March. Thanks to Marisol, as always, who has sent me the information and photos, and has been coordinating the CCS volunteers’ work and liaising with the school.

New Principal!
Yes, there is a new Principal this year, which is good news. He is called Augusto Gómez Meneses and he has been working very hard to improve the school. There have already been some teachers' meetings, and things seem a bit more organised, though there is a long way to go ... His goal is to create a better infrastructure and for the school to grow so it can serve more children. He’ll be working at the school until December and after that, nobody knows what’s going to happen ...

New desks and chairs, teachers and parents, and the new Principal (middle)

Unfortunately, there is also a rumour that the former Principal wants to come back, but I don't quite understand how he can if there is a new one appointed!

New school ... or maybe not?
Early this year we found out that the new Principal had managed to get a proposal approved for funding (by INFES - instituto nacional de infraestructura educativo y de salud) to build a new school on the site. Details as to exactly what and when have been hard to come by, but this is obviously fantastic news for the future!

There was talk of things starting this August, but now we’ve found out that there are problems. The former Principal has the land title deeds, required for building permission as these prove the community owns the land, and he won’t give them to the new Principal, so the project is at a standstill. Ridiculous! The school is now trying to get a copy of the document from solicitors, but no more news as yet. I have a feeling this could take some time as paperwork is involved, and this is Peru! So maybe this is just a dream for the future, and in the meantime, there are lots of things that can be done to improve the current situation ...

Building progress
The walls are now complete and we have murals on some!

And 3 new classrooms have been completed, which has also helped to enclose things.


CCS volunteers fitting roof and window to a new classroom

One of the new classrooms (left)

And we have a gate!

Grand entrance gate

Now all that remains is to build a proper top for the walls, to protect them from rain. This is now a concern, as the rainy season is looming.

Apparently some of the old classrooms have also been painted and some have concrete floors, and a kitchen is being built, but there’s no roof as yet. And the school and teachers now pay a woman 100 soles/month to keep an eye on and clean the school, so things are more secure and wholesome!

New garden area outside one of the old classrooms

Since the earthquake some of the classrooms have developed cracks, but nothing too major, and Marisol tells me that the current priorities are to improve the latrines (they are blocked and are not used), build a proper sink, and to cover the top of the wall.

Playground equipment
The playground equipment that another charity was going to donate once the wall was complete still hasn’t materialised! Marisol thinks there was some kind of argument between the charity and the Principal, and she is going to try to find out more and urge the charity to donate the equipment. So this is still work in progress!!

Stolen furniture
Several chairs and desks were stolen earlier this year, and great news is that Marisol's sister managed to provide some replacement furniture, donated by the private school where she works. And another volunteer called Stacey White also donated some more desks.


Desks and chairs donated by Stacey White

Furniture contributions
Our 2nd lockable cupboard was donated to the 2 kindergarten teachers as a lot of their materials were being stolen. Apparently they are very happy!

Books
Last year CCS volunteers collected a number of second-hand books from private schools and while I was there last autumn I helped to sort them all out by level/age appropriacy. They have now been donated to relevant classes. A central library wasn't created in the end, but with lockable cupboards in some classrooms, there’s now at least somewhere safe in the school to store materials.

Help from mayor/regional government ... or lack of!
I'm sorry to report that there is absolutely no progress here, which is very frustrating! There has been no response from the regional government to our report submitted in January. And I was told in March that CCS was going to set up a meeting with the mayor after Semana Santa as everyone was too busy until then. This was important to establish how the mayor could help the school - he was very positive about it all last December and again when we met in January, but there has been no progress or anything concrete since. Marisol has tried to contact him, but with no luck. She says she’s going to try again, but I don't think we're ever going to get any help from the authorities. The school seems to get forgotten and alienated as it's out in a very poor, marginalised area of the city ... very sad.

Help from CCS volunteers
Great news is that other CCS volunteers have been helping the school this year ...

In April, Ronald and Ryan Rubbico plus some other volunteers, worked at the school for 2 weeks and they helped to finish one of the new classrooms, by providing funding for a roof and windows and fitting them.

Ron and Ryan Rubbico with some appreciative children

In July, more volunteers, Elizabeth Smith and Julia Schuchard, paid for stucco and put it on the wall and then painted a mural on one side of the wall. We also used 50 soles of our contributions to help pay for paint and brushes. The plan was then to get the children to paint the other side of the wall, but the strikes put a stop to that. A few children helped the volunteers, but apparently it got a little messy as the paint was such a novelty!!

In August, more volunteers helped the parents to dig holes to build new latrines and a sink. Then the argument with the former Principal blew up and at one point the school thought they were also going to lose the new Principal and so the parents got distracted by all of that. The new Principal is now staying and Marisol is hoping to make more progress with the latrines and sink soon. Next stage is to buy cement and other materials required.

Digging holes for new latrines

Contributions and plan of action
I've found it very hard to agree on a plan of action and implement it from a distance! I’ve asked what the school's priorities are - what the teachers and parents can do, what, if anything, the mayor and regional government can help with - so we can then decide what to spend the rest of our contributions on. We don’t want to just buy materials or make decisions on our own – it’s very important to involve the school, the teachers, parents, and children in making decisions on how to improve their school and for them to be involved in the work. But this is taking some time! I’m really hoping that our contributions and CCS’s work will eventually make things happen.

Marisol has had meetings with the new Principal and teachers and they have decided that the priority for the school is to improve the latrines, and build a sink.

We have plenty of contributions left to spend. Ex-volunteer Shelley King collected some money for the women in the prison and says we can use some for the school if we need it. And another ex-volunteer Gillian Keegan has sent money for a 3rd lockable cupboard. Without any further contributions from Shelley, and minus the 50 soles already spent on paint and brushes, we have about 800 soles and $140 left to spend – nearly £200 – that’s worth quite a lot in Peru!

So the current plan is to buy 4 bags of cement for the new sink (100 soles), plus any other materials needed to complete the latrines and sink (Marisol to find out what this will cost). Then we'll see what we have left to help with other things - here are a few ideas I've had and Marisol will discuss these with the teachers and parents and we'll get back to you with more soon, hopefully!

* Tiles for the top of the wall?
* A roof for the kitchen?
* Other materials for new or old classrooms?
* Another lockable cupboard for primary, using Gillian's contribution?

* A sign for the school or paint to paint one?
* More stucco for walls?
* Concrete to make a playground area for the equipment?

Thank you!

See below for an official thank you from the new Principal for the 2nd cupboard that we donated - nice to see that we are appreciated! (Click on the image if you want to read the text.)

Yanamilla Primary School news

Sorry folks! I had wanted to do regular updates on the school, but since early April I've been struggling to get information to be able to update you properly. It's becoming increasingly difficult to stay in touch with progress - I haven't given up, but I'm going to have to accept that this is probably going to take a very long time! We still have about £200 to spend on the school, but until I know more about the current situation, and what the school needs, it's impossible to move this forward.

I have had some information, but it's not a complete picture and I've asked questions about the 2nd cupboard we bought, the school's plans, the playground equipment, the wall, what we should do with the contributions, etc. on a number of occasions. Eventually I'll hopefully have enough information to be able to give you a proper update.

Sorry - it is really frustrating that I can't tell you more and that we haven't yet spent the money, but it's not for want of trying!

I'm off to Tanzania in June, and I really hope I'll be able to tell you more when I get back in July.

The Peru Support Group

I've just found out about the Peru Support Group. Take a look via this link - I've also added it to the useful links on the right-hand column.

THE PERU SUPPORT GROUP

Yanamilla Primary School update 5

I've been wanting to do this for a while, but it's much, much harder to keep on top of this from a distance - not surprising, really, is it?! Thanks to Marisol and Steve, I've now gathered some information on what's been happening since I left in January ...

The good news ...

• The additional 2,000 adobe bricks were made, as planned, in January. The parents' association paid 100 soles, and we used some of the contributions we'd collected to pay the remaining 400 soles and another 100 soles for the builder.

New adobe bricks being prepared (and back wall in background)

• Steve plus some new volunteers and our builder managed a few more wall-building sessions at the end of January and the wall is now almost finished. Click on the link to Steve's photos on the right-hand column for more photos - wall-building mixed up with a walk to the cross on the hill above Ayacucho, but it's all good scenic stuff! And here are some photos that Marisol has just taken:

Back wall and half-finished new classrooms as of end February

Front wall as of end February

• We finally have our 2nd lockable cupboard, another shelf unit, and about 15 tiny chairs that we collected last term. Though the 2nd cupboard that we'd ordered and paid for back in November never actually arrived! After months of chasing and dealing with loads of lies from the suppliers, Marisol finally decided to take drastic action at the end of January and went down to the shop to demand that they give us a different cupboard from their storeroom instead - so we now have a cupboard, plus another shelf unit to compensate for not getting the cupboard we ordered!

Lockable cupboard

Shelf unit (and some of the tiny chairs in background)

• We have 880 soles still to spend on the school, and there's more to come from Gillian (ex-volunteer) to buy more lockable cupboards.


• Piles of second-hand books collected by volunteers last year have been sorted and are ready to be donated to create a library.
  
• Playground equipment bought by another charity is still being kept for the school.

The not-so-good news ...

• Rumour had it that the Head was going to be replaced, but now it sounds like it's going to be the same one again for another year. Still to be confirmed.


• Although the wall has grown, it's still not finished! And the 2,000 adobe bricks weren't enough to finish it, so now we're stuck with no more bricks, and the payment that was supposed to only be paid once the wall was complete, was actually paid out when the bricks were used up. Not quite my plan, nor what was on the agreement we signed, but I guess that's one of the problems of trying to co-ordinate this project from a distance!
  
• 24 chairs and 14 desks were stolen during the school holidays - all the more need to finish the wall and make the school secure as soon as possible!


• Still no news from the regional government - still waiting for a reply to the letter and documents requesting help that we sent in early January.
  
• No news from the new mayor, though I've just found out that CCS hasn't yet given him copies of the documents we sent to the regional government. He's going to be given them now, so hopefully we'll get a response soon.

So what next?

Finishing the wall and making the school secure is obviously a priority, and I'm hoping that Marisol will be able to get something moving again with the teachers and parents once the school terms starts up next week. We may need to spend some of our money on more adobe bricks and a builder, though I'm waiting to hear what the parents' association comes up with - maybe they can make more bricks and complete the wall themselves? Wishing thinking???

Once the wall is complete, we'll need a lockable gate - hopefuly the mayor will supply this; rumour has it that he promised to donate one. And then, unless the regional government can help, we'll probably then need to spend some money on stucco and paint to finish off the wall.

I'm hoping that the mayor and regional government will come up with some support soon, but this could be a long process. The priority will now be to supply more chairs and desks to replace the stolen ones and to equip the new classrooms. I'm also hoping that we'll get a bit more support than that, and don't really want to make any firm plans re what we do with our money until we now how they can help. I'm hoping they'll be able to supply some of the following: stucco, paint, gate, more school furniture, rooves and windows for the new classrooms, floors, new toilets ... again, wishful thinking?!

We can now donate the 2nd lockable cupboard, the shelf unit, and the tiny chairs. I have suggested to Marisol that we give these as prizes to the school at about the end of March - maybe to the classes who have kept their classrooms the cleanest without any reminders.

The books that volunteers collected last year have all been organised and are ready to be donated to the school to create a library in lockable cupboards, once the school is secure.

The playground equipment is still available and will be donated to the school once the school is secure - the charity that is going to donate the equipment is insisting that the wall is complete and a lockable gate fixed before they hand over the equipment.

So that's it for now! A bit frustrating that the wall didn't get completed before the beginning of the new term and that we've still not had any response from the regional government or the mayor. Let's hope there's more progress and good news soon!

Many thanks to everyone who's been supporting this project - it's much appreciated!

Peru launches plan to combat lateness

I heard about this on the radio yesterday, and found this article today - it amused me, see what you think! Maybe we'll see some more efficient action at the primary school from now on?!

Peru Launches Plan to Combat Lateness

My last week in Peru ... for now!

I've now been back in Oxford for just over a week, and I'm slowly re-acclimatising, but it all feels a bit weird! For those mad people who are still following this blog, sorry I've been out of action for the last few weeks. To make up for it, here's a bumper entry on my last week in Peru which was spent whizzing round the country with Claire, another CCS volunteer.

You may need to have a look at a map to appreciate what we managed: from Lima, we headed for Cuzco, then into the Sacred Valley and down to Machu Picchu, then to Puno and Lake Titicaca, the Colca Valley, and finally to Arequipa, before flying back to Lima, and then home - all in a week!

I'd be very happy to fill you in on lots more detail in person and show you more photos (I have hundreds!) if you're interested, but for the time being, here's the short-ish version ...

Cuzco
I met up with Claire and Steve, CCS volunteers, in Lima, and even though their flight from Ayacucho had been delayed because of bad weather, we were lucky enough to still catch our Cuzco flight, which was moreorless on time. It was good to get back up in the mountains, and Cuzco is even higher than Ayacucho, so it was lucky that my body hadn't forgotten what altitude was like after being down in Lima for a week! We checked into our hostal, drank some coca tea to help with the altitude, and then it was straight out for an organised city tour for the rest of the day. It was a good way to visit a lot in a very short space of time, but I must admit that being herded around in a tour bus didn't really suit us! We weren't too good at being tourists; we'd got used to being volunteers!

We started off in the centre of Cuzco, in the main plaza, for a tour of the cathedral. The colonial style of the square and buildings reminded me a lot of Ayacucho, but it's all much bigger and grander here.

Cuzco's main plaza

This was followed by a visit to Coricancha, which was once a huge Inca temple, then a colonial church - though the Inca walls have better survived the earthquakes!

Coricancha (see Inca walls through glass)

Then we headed out of the city and managed a tour of a number of other Inca ruins - Qenko, Sacsayhuaman, Tambo Machay, and Puca Pucara - all in one afternoon!! The highlight for me was Sacsayhuaman (or 'sexy woman', as it's easy to remember like that!), up on the hill overlooking Cuzco. It was once a giant temple and zig-zag-shaped fortress on three levels, but sadly the Spaniards removed a lot of the stones to build houses down in Cuzco ... what's left is still very impressive though, and the view of the city from the hill is stunning.

Sacsayhuaman - what's left of it

One of the entrances to Sacsayhuaman

Steve, me, and Claire on hill overlooking Cuzco

Cuzco - the Incas built it the shape of a puma, but I couldn't see it!

That evening we went out for dinner (I had my first Alpaca steak - very tasty) and said farewell to Steve who was off to do the Inca trail very early the next morning. And I headed for the chemist to get anti-histamines, as I'd been eaten alive in Lima and was starting to swell up and could stand it no longer! At least the foot was now fine, fortunately.

Sacred Valley
The next morning we were up early, not quite as early as Steve, but it was early enough! And off on a tour of the Sacred Valley and more Inca ruins, with some shopping in markets thrown in ...

The Sacred Valley

First stop was in Pisac, first for some market shopping, and then to visit the Inca ruins just outside the town. We walked up a hill for about 20 minutes and enjoyed some very impressive views of Inca terracing. And then, soon after we reached the top and started to look at the ruins themselves, the heavens opened, and guess who had left her raincoat in the bus?! It was the rainy season afterall, so I was very stupid and I got drenched, and spent the next hour or so wringing out various garments in the bus!

Pisac and Inca terracing

Next stop was lunch, which was a pleasant surprise as we didn't know it was included in the tour, and the sun came out, so I managed to dry off.

Then another hour or so into the valley to Ollantaytambo, our next stop, and where we were to part company with the tour and do our own thing! We first went on the tour of the ruins though, and enjoyed yet more terracing, temples, Inca stone work ...

Ollantaytambo ruins

Ollantaytambo fountain

Ollantaytambo town

Then we said goodbye to the tour bus which was heading back to Cuzco, as we were planning on getting the train to Aguas Calientes that evening, so that we could visit Machu Picchu early the next morning. This was the first stage of the journey that we were to do on our own and it didn't exactly go to plan! We headed straight for the train station at the bottom of the town, to find that the evening train to Aguas Calientes was already full and that there wasn't another available train until 9.00 the following morning! Very frustrating as we'd got a hostal booked for us in Aguas Calientes that night, and we'd been planning on getting to Machu Picchu very early in the morning. But there was nothing we could do; the only way up to Aguas Calientes was either on foot or by train (no roads) so we were stuck! We cut our losses, found a cheap hostal near the station, and headed back into the town for longer than we'd originally planned!

In the end it all worked out fine, as it was good to see the town once all the tourists had left - after about 5.00 the buses departed and the town became quite serene. We had a drink in the square, and I then left Claire for a while to write her diary in peace and went for a wander round the old streets, still all laid out as in Inca times. We managed to find an internet cafe, but it was painfully slow, so then headed for a warm cafe to relax in, before heading back to our not so comfortable, not so warm, but very cheap hostal for the night!

Ollantaytambo plaza, nice once tourist buses left

Old Inca street

Inca entrance put to modern use

Claire enjoying our luxuriously warm hostal

Machu Picchu

The next morning it was up not so bright and early, but in time to catch the 9.00 train to Aguas Calientes, which is as close to Machu Picchu as you can get by train. It was a really scenic journey through a green valley that gradually got deeper and greener as we approached the jungle area.

View from train on way to Aguas Calientes

At Aguas Calientes, we had to go into the town square to buy our Machu Picchu tickets and then get a bus up the steep and winding track to the top of the hill, about another 20 minutes. The views on the way up were stunning in their own right ...

And by about 11.00 we finally arrived - not quite dawn, but never mind! And after a short climb, this was our first glimpse of Machu Picchu, peeking out from the mist ...

I'd seen so many photos before, that I kind of knew what to expect, so I can't say that the initial sighting was particularly powerful. But after spending a few hours walking around and appreciating the whole setting, the scale of it all, and the effects of the clouds and mists, I must say that it all grew on me - it was a fantastic experience!

One of the highlights for me was the climb up Huayna Picchu, the mountain that was initially hidden in the mist, but it appeared later on in the day. It's quite a scramble, and as it's on the edge of the jungle here, it was very hot and sweaty - I was, anyway. But the climb was really worth it, as from the top, where there is an unfinished temple (mad place to try to build it if you ask me!) you get a fantastic view of all the ruins and the shape of the eagle that they were built in ...

View from top of Huayna Picchu

Just to prove that I was actually here!

And I know you've seen photos just like this, but this one is mine!

If you agree that Machu Picchu should be one of the New 7 Wonders of the World, then go to http://www.n7w.com/ and vote! I reckon it stands a good chance!

By about 3.00 we had to head back to catch the afternoon train back to Ollantaytambo, followed by a bus back to Cuzco, where we had a hostal booked for the night. We managed a short walk round the plaza and stopped in a nice cafe that Francisco had recommended, but we were too tired to do anything else - maybe it was a good job we hadn't got up at dawn!

Puno & Lake Titicaca

The next morning we had a tourist bus booked to Puno and we were under the impression that we were to wait for the bus to pick us up from our hotel at 7.30. We waited until about 8.00 and then enquired at reception to find that in fact we should have been waiting somewhere else and that we had probably missed it! What was really frustrating was that I'd specifically asked the night before at reception if the bus was coming to collect us and we told that it was! Several phone calls and a mad taxi ride later, we reached the bus terminal to find that we had indeed missed our bus and that we couldn't have our money back as it was classed as a 'no show'. We weren't impressed!

In situations like these, it's impressive as to how much assertive and fluent Spanish seems to materialise from my mouth ... and I managed to persuade the bus company that they should pay for a taxi to get us to the first stop the bus was making so that we could catch up with it there! We squeezed into the smallest taxi ever (only just larger than a moto taxi) and suffered a very scary ride with far too much overtaking on bends and squeezing between other lanes of traffic, as the tiny taxi belted along trying to make up time and catch a very large and fast bus that had left an hour before! Luckily it was a tourist bus (for once I'm glad!) and so stopped to visit places along the way, so we caught up with it just as it was about to leave again after its first stop. We were very lucky!!

The bus was very luxurious and we slept most of the 9 hours to Puno, waking up for the various visits en route - all the excitement of Machu Picchu the day before had tired us out! And the road from Cuzco to Puno is very straight and paved, which was a bit of a novelty - it strectches across the high plain, with lovely views of mountains on either side. But it does get a bit monotonous, and seems to lull you to sleep!

By the time we reached Puno, we were in the middle of a massive thunder storm, it was very cold, grey and wet and our initial impressions were not good! At 3,800m, Puno is prone to extreme weather and we were experiencing plenty of it!

The next day, however, the sky was blue and the sun was shining. Lucky, but weird! We had booked ourselves onto a boat trip for the day, to explore some of the islands. At the first the lake was a murky green colour, not too healthy ...

But soon out of Puno bay, the water cleared and things became much more scenic, and we soon reached reeds ...

... lots of reeds, which are used by the Uros people to make floating islands! Here is a man chopping reeds - they have to regularly add more reeds to their islands, to keep them dry!

Our first stop was at one of the floating islands, which was a very bizarre experience! They are only about an hour's boat ride from Puno, but it's another world. The Uros people were itinerant Aymara-speaking fishermen, and up until about 18 years ago, just built very temporary islands to fish from, and then moved on. Then they decided to settle more permanently near Puno, mainly because they saw the potential of tourism, and now for the last 18 years, more permanent islands have been built, housing between 3-10 families on each, and now they are over 3o islands in the community, with a school, clinic, museum - and all made of and built on islands of reeds!

We spent about an hour on this island, which is about 2 metres thick! I was a bit concerned by the water that I could see seeping through, but we didn't seem to sink, and it had been there about 10 years, apparently, so I had to trust it!

And what a bizarre mixture - with basic reed houses, but with solar panels!

And I was extremely impressed with everyone's teeth - sparkling white! The rest of Peru could do with some of these reeds; they chew the white part from young reeds every day to keep their teeth clean ...

And we were given a ride across to another island on this reed boat - I was very comforted to hear that there were 4,000 empty plastic bottles inside the frame!

And Ana and Maya waved us off, as we headed off in a much safer boat for our next destination, Isla Taquile ...

Isla Taqulie was another few hours' boat ride out into Lake Titicaca, and at this stage we were out of Puno bay and right out into the main part of the lake, which no longer felt like a lake as it was so vast. You could only just see the edges, with a lovely backdrop of distant Peruvian and Bolivian mountains. And did you know that Titicaca is Quechu for grey puma, the shape and colour of the lake? The lake was a very special and sacred place for the Incas, and when the Spaniards invaded, legend is that the Incas threw one of their most scarded gold chains into the lake, to ensure that it was safe from the Spaniards, and it's never been found ...

We walked across Isla Taquile, and climbed up to the top of the island where there was a small village and a restaurant for lunch. Here the people are Quechua-speaking with a tradition of weaving and knitting - nowadays mainly for tourists. In the old days they only used to weave and knit one outfit a year - that was all they needed! And the men knit these woolly hats - I had a feeling they only wear these outfits for the tourists nowadays though ...

Unfortunately we had a bit of an argument with the tour guide and restaurant owner as we'd been told lunch was included in the tour price when we bought the tickets, but they were trying to make us pay again when we got there. We weren't having any of it, and my Spanish came into its own again, fighting for the rights of all the tourists who'd been ripped off in the past! We eventually won the argument, but it was only after the restaurant owner followed us to Puno, threatened to get the police involved, and eventually escorted us to the tour office where the manager sorted it out ... all a bit stressful, and made us want to be volunteering back in Ayacucho again, but we've put it behind us now!!

We tried not to let lunch spoil our day though, and we manged to enjoy the island scenery and the lovely boat trip back. It all reminded me a bit of Greece!

The path up to the top of the island

And back down again on the other side

Colca Valley

After our boat trip we had a very nice dinner in Puno, complete with live music, and the we took the night bus to Arequipa. Unfortunately, the paved road now makes this quite a fast jourmey and so after hardly any sleep as the bus was packed, and the journey bumpy (even thouh the road was paved), we were deposited in Arequipa at 3.30 in the morning ... or rather in the middle of the night! We should have arrived an hour later and I was hoping that this being Peru, we'd be late and arrive in time for an early breakfast! It was pitch black and cold, and definitely too early for breakfast! We took a taxi to the hostal where we were picking up a tour later that day and staying there the day after, and luckily for us they let us in and we paid half price for a room and got a few hours sleep. Then after hot showers and breakfast we were feeling quite civilised again! At 8.30 we headed off for our next adventure in a minibus to the Colca Valley ...

It's desert all around Arequipa, with high snow-capped montains and volcanoes - so our drive into the Colca Valley was very dramatic.

We drove through a huge nature reserve and managed to spot lots of vicunas, llamas, and alpacas - apologies for the not too exciting wildlife shots - not my forte!

Lone vicuna

Llamas

And we climbed up to a stunning 4,900m, and some people in the minibus had to take oxygen as they were suffering from altitude sickness! Then we descended into the Colca Valley and stayed in a lovely hostal in a little village near Chivay, and managed a trip to some outdoor hot springs in the evening, which was very relaxing.

The next morning, we were woken upn at 5.00 and had to be ready to leasve by 6.00 as we needed to drive into the Colca Canyon to be ready to spot condors by 8.00! All a bit of a shock to the system, but this view from the hostal of early sunshine on snow-capped montains and the valley helped me along!

By about 8.00 we had driven for about 2 hours into the canyon and along very unpaved and windy roads, which had certainly woken me up, and we reached the Cruz de Condor, an impressive viewpoint. If you're lucky, you can see condors here, as they nest down in the canyon below and glide up on the thermals in the mornings. I'm not much of a bird watcher, but this was fun, and it was a lovely spot to sit and watch the world go by.

After about half an hour we spotted our first condor, gliding up from the valley - very graceful and impressive as these birds are huge! We spotted 3 in all, and although they weren't really in the mood for much gliding, I did manage a few blurry photos ...

We then drove back through the valley and this time had time to stop and enjoy the scenery, in particular all the Inca terracing and irrigation channels, which is why the valley is so green.

And a special mention of our stop in Maca for Phil, whose father was born here. Phil - here's proof that Claire and I (and our new friend the donkey) were here. I asked an old chap in the village if there were any Apaza families here and he said there were lots, so you need to get down here and do your research; I'm sure you'll find plenty of distant cousins!

And another feature of this area is all the intricate embroidery on women's hats and dresses - there are various kinds of hats for different areas of the valley, and I can't remember which this one was, but it's very pretty!

Arequipa

We then drove back to Arequipa that evening, which was to be our last evening in Peru! We went out for a nice meal and even managed a trip to a bar after that, but we were too tired to stay out partying, and to be honest we were feeling a bit sad and subdued about leaving, and a bit nervous about going home!

The next morning we walked around the centre of Arequipa, which is very grand and attractive. The cathedral spans the whole of one side of the main plaza, and the plaza is very attractive and popular, full of people. It's known as the 'white city' as so many of the buildings are built of white volcanic rock.


Arequipa's cathedral

Main plaza in Arequipa

And we had time to climb up the hill a bit and admire the view of the Misti volcano that sits over Arequipa. And then we found a great place for our last lunch, to enjoy some sunshine, pisco sour, and ceviche before heading off for the airport early afternoon to catch our flight back to Lima ...

Last Peruvian lunch

And then followed the tedious 24 hours or so of journeying home, not getting any proper sleep, almost missing my connection in Amsterdam (but thank-you to the wind which delayed take-offs, so I was ok). And many thanks to Liz who heroically came to meet me at Heathrow - it was lovely see a familar face at arrivals!

And so that's it for now! Better get back to my unpacking and sorting my flat and life out ... will probably just start on the flat for now. And you never know, there may be a few post-Peru entries, if I get the urge to blog. I've already heard that there are some primary school developments to report on, so watch this space!

Thank you for reading this stuff - hope you've enjoyed it!