Jogar Clinica

On Wednesday the Spanish school took us to one of the clinics they fund and students volunteer at.
The clinic was for children with physical and mental disabilities, mainly from rural areas of Puru. I wasn´t really prepared for what we saw.

None of the children were able to walk unaided, most of them were in wheelchairs and some of them were visibly very physically disabled. The clinic was very liberal and let us play with the children, dress them, feed them and take them outside. I think most of the volunteers were completely overwhelmed when they met the children, but they soon let us know what we should be doing.

The children themselves were amazing! They never complained and they were very patient, with the clumsy volunteers who had to carry them to their wheelchairs or help them put their jumpers on. I spent most of my time with one girl, called Catrina, who would make me take my headscarf off because she didn´t like it and then pull my hair until she decided she didn´t like that either and made me put it back on again. I don´t blame her, my hair is completely ridiculous.

 Before I left I helped her put on her pyjamas and she had to hold onto me while I did. But when I finshed she wouldn´t let go. She was like a little limpit. I asked if I could take her home but the answer was a no. So I left her with a packet of crisps, which I think she preferred anyway...

La Selva (JUNGLE!!!)

¡Hola!

I´m fresh from the jungle and missing is already. It was exactly how you would imagine it, hot, humid and not another person for miles around.

The thing that surprised me most about it was that as soon as we got of the one hour river boat and stepped into the jungle it was full of noises and movement. The jungle is never still and it is certainly not quite. There is always something falling out of a tree (or a tree falling out of the sky) or an aminal scuttingly away into a bush. And the birds! The birds are loco! They have no fear in there they just hoot, swoop and coo...and fall out of trees.

The weirdest thing about the jungle was not the animals though, it was the trees. It´s like a ghetto out there. There are trees that strangle each other, poison each other, trees covered in spines, there are walking trees, WALKING TREES, this is what kept me awake at night. These and the "arboles erotica" ....don´t ask. Obviously the tree world is not as fast paced as the human world. But this just made it more scary, like they would only move when you are not looking.

I think my most native experience would have to be eatting the Suri on our pre-breakfast walk. The Suri is a large maggot like worm found inside these nuts that grow on trees. They are considered a tasty fruit by the locals. I´m not so sure about tasty, because I swallowed mine whole, but I now live in constant fear that it is living in my stomach  eatting all my peruvian papas.

My favourite thing about the jungle was the stars. There is a different set of stars on this side of the world, so you can´t recognise anything. That and the moon eclipses from top to bottom instead of side to side.
At night it was so dark we could see the milky way, so at night we would sit for 3-5 hours around a camp fire drinking rum and talking shaky spanish with our guide under the stars.

Unfortunately the jungle was a bit to naturalistic for my poor camera, which promptly melted upon entering it, so the photos are severly limited.

Aaaah Jungle,

xxxx

La Familia

Last Sunday my family came to pick me up from my hostel in the center of Cusco. Oskar and Sarita, the mother and father.... and Cheespa (the dog). I quickly realised that I was going to have to do a lot of talking in Spanish, because neither of them spoke any English and if they did they certainly weren't going to make it that easy for me. 

We drove out of the center of Cusco which is full of tourists (gringos) into the hills that surrounded the town. The scenery changed incredibly quickly. We soon lost the huddle North Face shops, llama print jumpers and ATMs and were plunged into a world of street sellers, stray dogs, men huddled around small tables in cafes and the native women in their layered skirts and giant top hats. So, in this dusty neighbourhood, you can imagine my surprise when we pulled up to a giant gated house. Their house was absolutely massive! They bundled me in quickly and showed me my room. It was small, painted white and absolutely covered in pictures of Jesus, much like the rest of the house. When I went to hang my coat up I noticed the coat hooks were made out of tiny goats feet, hooves pointing to the ceiling (not a vegetarian friendly house then).

I didn't have any time to unpack, because I was quickly escorted to the garden to help make traditional Peruvian potatoes. We built a fire in a small mud oven the dad had made that morning and after about an hour chucked in about 20 potatoes before pulling the oven down and reducing the it to a smoldering patch of dirt. And this, was apparently, how we cooked the potatoes. It turned out to be the mothers birthday so we had a big celebration with the whole extended family. 

The food here is amazing and every lunch is a 3 course meal so I'm coming back as round as Peruvian potato. The one thing I didn't realise is quite how cold it would be. "Dry season" evidently means winter :l So the Khaki shorts, and denim hot pants can go back in the rucksack. At night I sleep fully clothed under 3 alpaca blankets. The water runs cold so today is the 1st day I washed my hair since the hostel. But the day time is an absolute scorcher, it's very confusing.

I've been having Spanish lessons for a week and next week we have them in the JUNGLE! I will miss my family already but I couldn't really say no to jungle lessons.

Chow chow,

Mariam

PERU!!

Hello dedicated followers! (Mum)

I have just touched down in Peru and discovered the wonders of actual accessible internet, something which did not exist in Nepal.

I'm hoping to continue my travel blog here to keep the memories of my South American adventures, but also to keep in touch with people from home. In Nepal I found this the most effective method of keeping my friends up to date without having to send everyone mushy emails/postcards.

I humbely hope people will read this. I'm not planning to document my accessent over the unclimbed peaks of the Andes, but hopefully it will make interesting reading (or at least reassure people I haven't eloped to marry a local wool merchant).

Watch this space,

Mariam xxx

(p.s. If I have your address you will recieve a mushy postcard)