Tinkuy Peru

...We are on the third floor of a cement building-house, overlooking the poorest neighborhood of Huancayo, Peru. The desert highlands are in the distance and the weather cannot decide if it wants to be hot or freezing cold. It seems to change every minute. We are in a classroom filled with Peruvian kids from the neighborhood as well as Tino, the founder of Tinkuy Peru. Tino, the most accomplished weaver in Peru, decided five years ago that he needed to help the poor in his community. Tino has traveled to the US to display his artwork and weavings at prominent art shows, and he also has a weaving hanging in the National Geographic headquarters. By Peruvian standards, Tino is very successful, lives in a large home that he shares with about 10 family members, 2 young girls without families, and the volunteers that come from all over the world to work at the school...
Since we arrived we have been able to do some exploring around Huancayo. Mabel took us to visit a ruin sight that was owned by the Huancas, which is how this citys name came about. We walked through a little museum explaining the history of the Huancas, as well as other neighboring tribes. Then we visited the ruin sight just outside the museum where we saw how the Huancas lived and learned about there practices and beliefs. All very similar to other indigenous tribes, but never the less interesting to see. On Sunday, Huancayo has the largest Sunday Market in Peru, which sells many local arts and crafts, as well as wool or alpaca clothing. We both just fell in love with the warm sweaters, socks, gloves, and hats. The material is just so warm and cuddly it was hard to resist buying it all. At least we have stocked up a bit for our intense and possibly very cold Machu Picchu hike coming up in a few days. During our roam around Huancayo after the market we noticed lots of people selling Turron which is a famous Peruvian cake. Come to find out this cake is only made during the month of October, also know as the purple month, for their celebration of El Señor de los Milagros (Lord of Miracles). During this month they hold a large procession where people from the church carry a big figure of the Lord of Miracles around the streets till very early in the morning. Fortunately for us we were able to see this procession happen. The most interesting thing of all is that various people of Huancayo create these elaborate drawings and then draw them on the gowned of the path the procession will take. They draw the picture out with chalk and then fill it in with colored dirt or flower peddles. When it is done it looked like carpet, it was amazing. I had never seen anything like it before. I am glad that Marie, Gloria and Mabel took us out to share the experience with us. Everyone here is so nice and hospitable they are such wonderful people.
Enough about Huancayo let me tell you about our time here in Tinkuy Peru... Everyday both Heather and I get up in the morning eat breakfast and head out for our 20 minute walk to the mountains where we teach orphans and poor children who can not afford to buy school books and uniforms to attend public schools. Our first day was pretty relaxed because Brian and Judd, two other volunteers came with us and showed us the ropes. It was their last day so we had a little party in the afternoon and everyone was very sad to say good bye. As for the rest of the week, Heather and I were solo with the help of Tino, Mabel and Marie. In the mornings I taught a kindergarten/first grade class. We went over the names of body parts, food categories, shapes and colors and counting syllables. Heather taught English verbs to middle school aged children in preparation for there big verb test. Lets hope they do well since they had some 100+ verbs to learn. Once morning class was over we all headed home for lunch and then meet up again for the afternoon class. Our afternoons are much fuller then the morning, not sure why. For the afternoon, I taught English and math to 4,5 and 6th graders and Heather taught math to the junior highers. Lets just say, both Heather and I had to do some review on fractions and angles before teaching them to the class since it has been a while. Luckily it went smoothly even though we were a bit nervious. Our week here has gone by incredibly fast and we are both sad to have to say good bye tomorrow to all the children. Having come to realize how much the volunteers mean here I wish we had a month or more to stay and work with all the children. The investment Tino has put into the children and school is just amazing and such a wonderful thing for each one of these children. All the children are so excited to come to school everyday and just love being around the volunteers, Tino, and his family. If after reading about our experience here touched you at all we kindly ask that this christmas you donate a few dollars to Tinkuy Peru. You can visit the website by clicking on the link just left of the blog titled "Tinkuy Peru" where you can read more about Tinos plans for the future. Tino not only deals with the day to day happenings of the school, but he also has incredible hopes for the future of these children. Education is the number one most important way to change the future and this is exactly what Tino is working towards. Also if you ever care to travel down to Peru and want to volunteer we would highly recommend volunteering here in Huancayo with Tinkuy Peru.
I hope this blog has found each of you well. Our thoughts are with all of you as election time nears. We will be in mid hike up to Macchu Picchu but will await the results when we get back. May the best man win. Adios for now.

Ecuador, the best and the rest.

Our last week in Ecuador has flown by! We got back from the jungle and after some laundry and showering, we made the most of our remaining time in Ecuador. We spent one last night in Banos before getting on the bus to head to Mindo, a small city north of Quito. It turned out to be a long travel day,7 hours to Mindo. We also learned our lesson about the bus, even after many warnings about how dangerous it is, we still managed to get robbed. On the bus right outside of Quito, a couple of guys reached under Torianns seat and took her Zune and sunglasses! Irritating to say the least! But we managed to make it to Mindo, even if in terrible spirits. We checked into a ´recommended´ hostel, which was basically some guy named Juan's house, haha. It definitely had a special aroma, but we were too tired to look around town for something different. After checking in, we headed off to explore and as soon as we turned the corner, we were greeted by 3 of our friends from the Galapagos, Nick, Charlotte and Brad plus a friend of Brads that had just arrived from Texas. It was the best feeling, to come to a city and be greeted by friendly faces! It was what we needed to cheer us up! We vented to them about the frustrations of our day, and funny enough, Nick had had his Ipod stolen in Quito as well! That made 3 of us that had lost our Ipods in 3 days. Crazy. But life goes on, and so must we... Charlotte, an avid frog lover, convinced us to go to an evening ´Frog Concert¨. We were a little weary of what a frog concert would entail, but it included a glass of wine, so we decided to go. It turned out to be pretty cool. It was basically a man, who loved frogs, that had created a beautiful garden with a huge pond that had attracted 18 different species of frogs and toads. While we drank our wine, he played the noises that the frogs made and the frogs would sing back. We then, armed with our flashlights, wondered around the grounds to look for frogs. We did not see a ton of frogs but it was pretty cool when we did. Needless to say, if you are ever in Mindo, we would recommend the frog concert.
Afterwards, we headed to an organic restaurant near their hostel that had just opened. We met Zac, a peacecore from Texas (so many Texans in Ecuador!), that was friendly and extremely helpful in planning our next day in Mindo. Zac had originally come down to Ecuador to work with coffee, but the Peacecore had transferred him to Mindo to help kids learn how to sell chickens door to door, apparently a new project for them. Somehow, I don't remember the details, he is now managing a restaurant. After brownies and ice cream, we headed back to Juans house to get some sleep.
The next morning, we met up with the gang and caught a taxi truck to the waterfall Nambilla. My family, when they had come to Ecuador, visited this waterfall, which also has a water slide, and they highly recommended it. Quote from my mom, ¨don't worry, you may think you are going to die, but you wont!¨ The water slide, which actually did not look so bad, for Latin American standards, almost killed Brad. He thought he should lie down in order to go faster, but the slide was pretty fast itself. He flipped over the side before getting all the way to the bottom and almost landed on a boulder in the river. After that, everyone was pretty nervous to go down but we all did it! None of us did get up the courage to jump off the waterfall though...but, you have to leave somethings for next time, right :) After the waterfall, water park adventure, we decided since we were already freezing and wet to go tubing. Tubing turned out to almost be more intense than rafting, going down rapids on 6 tubes tied together with guides pushing us through.
Toriann and I had originally planned on leaving back to Quito that afternoon, but for a couple of reasons and to extend our time with friends, we decided to stay one more night. We hung out at the hostel and cooked a delicious steak dinner.
In the morning we took an early bus, well, semi early, since we decided to have the pancakes again at the organic restaurant (and i don't even like pancakes!), and rode to Minda del Mundo, the equator. We somehow got into the main compound with paying, but after taking a quick picture, we wondered over to the alternative´ museum that is apparently on the real equator. The story is that the Incas had found the real equator, but the French came and said that was wrong and moved it. GPS now shows that the Incas were correct and the museum on the actual equator is really cool, although some skeptics don't believe the tricks they show you, such as balancing an egg or water falling straight the drain.
After the museum, we got back on a bus and found our way to the Quito airport. It was really bittersweet leaving Ecuador. We both felt our time was too short here and really enjoyed everywhere we went. However, we are on our way to Peru to volunteer and hike the Inca trail, so we cannot be sad for too long!

The Jungle

Well, we have been traveling in Ecuador, or should i say the Galapagos for a week, and since then we traveled down south of Quito to a town called Baños, which is a few hours outside of the jungle. On our first day here we decided to do a little hike which ended up lasting about three hours. From the town you can hike up to this cross which also gives you an amazing view of the town. Once we made it up the steep mountain side which we were guided by this nice Ecuadorian man named Yofred. He told us we could follow the path to a town called Rundun which would take us in a loop and then lead us back to Baños. Hesitant because of the intensity of the first part, we were not sure if we wanted to but since we had spent the past two days traveling on the plane and bus we thought it best to get some exercise. The hike was a bit off the beaten path and we had some moments when we thought we were lost but in the end we made it to Rundun and saw the Volcano Tungurahua. From Rundun, we just hiked down the mountain following the sighs pointing to Baños. Exhausted from the hike we made dinner at our hostel and met some others cooking as well. They told us about some of their adventures and sold us on going white water rafting. They set us up with one of the hostel workers who also worked for a tourist company and before we knew it we booked our rafting trip as well as a three day, two night trip in the Jungle. That's right.... we went into the jungle and stayed with a Quicha indigenous community. Before i tell you about it, let me just say the rafting part was loads of fun. We did a class 3,4 and fortunatly no one fell out which was good. The rapids were intense and the trip went by so fast. Back to our jungle experience, right after rafting we left for the jungle and arrived to the community around 5pm. Our first night was relaxing. We played with the children, helped prepare dinner and just chatted with the Quichua family. This community has about 58 people living hear and they are all from one family. Our guide, Delfin, was the son of the grandfather in the community and he has 17 brothers and sisters. For our next two days Delfin took us on sever hikes through the jungle showing us different plants and fruits that grown here in the jungle. Our fist hike was to this look out point and along the way he made us crowns out of palm leaves, a basket/side bag out of branches as well as painted our faces with some red seed paint. That after noon the family did a traditional dance for us which we ended up participating in. After the dance Delfin took us fishing which was interesting. His technique for fishing is to get the fish drunk so they swim to the surface and then catch them. Apparently there is a this root from a plant that you smash open and when you put it in the water the fish drink the fluid that comes out of the root and it gets them drunk. We, or should I say Delfin and the three kids that were with us, caught about 15 hand size fish. Heather and I tried but were not very good at keeping the fish in our hands. Most often they would fling out and the children would then catch the fish. Over all the experience was interesting and different but i have to say we were not such a fan of fishing. For our last day we got up and headed for a more intense hike that we thought would never end to visit a lagoon and a little waterfall. In the lagoon we saw one cayman which is a little crocodile. I had never heard of them before but from the picture it looks like a crocodile. After the hike through the jungle were we walked through many spider webs, slipped down some of the muddy paths, walked through a little river, as well as tarzan swung to the other side of the hill we arrived back to the house/hut and relaxed before eating lunch. After lunch we packed our bags and said good bye to everyone. Our three days went by fast and i have to say it was sad to have to say good bye. Living in the jungle is hard with the bugs and most everything being very unsanitary but never the less i admire those who live with out electricity and very little belongings. Well we are back here in Baños for the night and then we hope to make it to Mindu for a few days before we leave for Lima, Peru. Our time here in Ecuador has been amazing and has gone by so fast. Its such a different feel traveling on our own with out a leader and just making decisions about what to do and where to go on the spot and at times very last minute. Plus we have meet so many nice people in the hostels as well as from our boat excursion in the Galapagos. We have come to realize that there are many people like ourselves who have taken this moment in there lives to spend some time traveling the world and seeing what life outside their own has to offer. I hope all is well at home, we are thinking about all of you lots as election time nears. Feel free to keep us posted on the economy and politics since its far and few times in between that we catch any news.

Life in the Galapagos!

Sorry we haven't written for so long! We have been so busy, we have not had a chance to write... We flew to Ecuador after writing the last entry, left the next day for the Galapagos for a week, flew back to Quito (after getting delayed for 6 hours) and after dinner in Quito, the power went out in our neighborhood, and we have been on the road and in the jungle ever since!! Sorry it is so long, but we have a lot to tell...read on...love, Heather and Toriann
Galapagos
We had not even considered the possibility of going to the Galapagos Islands while in Ecuador, but we were slowly persuaded by some friends we met in Central America, Nick and Charlotte. They flew down to Quito a day earlier, and searched the city for the best deal. We flew down last Friday and as soon as we dropped our stuff off at the hostel, we headed to their hostel to find them. Before we even arrived, we saw Nick running down the street, saying ¨we found the best deal, you have 10 minutes to decide!¨ After a few panicky moments of how much this was going to blow our budget, we decided to go for it!
Words cannot explain the Galapagos. I don't know what I was expecting, but I was surprised by the vast desert that we landed in. We signed up for a 5 day, 4 night boat trip, so we were met at the airport by Freddy, our driver. Freddy led us down from the airport, which is at the north end of Santa Cruz island down to Porta Ayora at the southern tip. We had lunch with Nick, Charlotte and an American couple that were also joining us on the boat. Our first stop after lunch was the Charles Darwin Center, where we learned a bit about the history of the islands and saw our first batch of GIANT tortoises. We got to see the famous Lonely George, the last tortoise of his subspecies. He is like, 150 years old and for a long time he wouldn't mate...but, good news, he has 2 eggs! (He was bred with the closest genetic subspecies). We couldn't find the albino tortoise that supposedly lives somewhere in the center, apparently no one had heard of him but us :). These tortoises are amazing, they seem almost dinosaur like. Apparently Steven Spielberg came here and based the movie ET off these amazing creatures!
After cruising through the CD center, we boarded the boat we would spend the next 4 days on. In a marina filled with huge yachts, we pulled right up to a pirate ship! The ship was small, there were only 12 of us on board plus the crew, and it was built in 1901. Although it was cramped and at times I thought we were going to tip over or I was going to fall out of my bunk, it proved to be a great ship. And our group was really nice as well, our guide told us this was the first group he had had in a while that was under 60!
Over the next 4 days we visited Floreana, Isabella, and Santa Cruz Island. We snorkeled just about everyday, and it was so different than any other snorkeling I have done! It was cold and we would go out in place with fairly strong currents, so you really had to work to one, stay warm, and two, try and stay with the group. But, when you saw something, it was breathtaking, amazing, surreal! We saw huge sea turtles, sting rays, manta rays, parrot fish and tons of other amazingly colorful fish!! My favorite thing was that all over all the islands, there were sea lions! And you could get so close to them, you just wanted to pet them! A couple of times while snorkeling, the sea lions would swim by right next to you! It was so great, if I could take home any animal, it would definitely be a baby sea lion :) orr, orr!
Besides snorkeling, we saw a lot of the islands, and the climates alone were unique. We did a horse back riding trip up Volcano Sierra Negro, and when we started, it was lush and green, cold and cloudy. As we rode, it suddenly changed to dessert where it just proceeded to get hotter and hotter. We saw the huge crater, where it the volcano had last erupted in 2005, eh! We then hiked further to Volcano Chico, where the land was desolate, covered in volcanic rock and cactus's. We also hiked across another beach where in a small cove, we saw about 15 white tip sharks resting. On that particular beach, you could hardly step without seeing a huge mound of marine iguanas. They were everywhere, and definitely not as cute as the sea lions. They spit constantly to get rid of the salt they swallow while feeding in the ocean. They are the only breed of iguanas to feed underwater. Unfortunately, we never got to see any of them underwater but we saw more than plenty on the beaches!
Apparently tortoises (and their conservation) are really important to the Galapagos. Other than the Charles Darwin center, we visited a tortoise farm, a tortoise breeding center, and a national park filled with tortoises in their natural environment. Needless to say, I have a lot of pictures of tortoises!! The best sighting was while we were driving into the national park and there was a huge tortoise in the road. It was up to our guide to try and move him, which he did unsuccessfully for a bit, but we eventually just drove around him.
Our boat trip ended on Wednesday and we got off and headed back to Puerto Ayora. We got off the boat, and set off to find a place to stay and sign up to dive the next day! The lodging was fairly expensive, 10 dollars with no hot water, boo!, but we found a great dive shop! We signed up to dive the next day and asked the lady if she knew of any cheaper places to stay. She said, uh, my house...she apparently rents out a room, but her sister in law was also out of town, so we stayed in her house for very cheap! It was really cool because we were out of the touristy part of town and back in the neighborhoods. We found amazing street food and got to see how Galapageans live.
The next day we went diving...I (Heather), was SOO nervous. The diving in the Galapagos is supposed to be amazing, some of the best in the world, but also fairly intense! But, with Toriann at my side (and a dive master!), we went down in our full wet suits, hood and all, and it was amazing! By the time we finished our second dive, I did not want it to be over and can not wait for the next opportunity we get to go! We did two dives, the first one we saw sea lions, a sea turtle, more amazing fish, eel gardens, and the shadow of a black tip shark! The second dive we saw all of the same but also got about 10 ft from a sleeping white tip shark and passed by 2 hammerhead sharks (we missed seeing them by about 15 seconds!!)
Overall, the Galapagos was super cool and once in a lifetime! One of the girls on our ship had been there 15 years earlier and she said it is not the same place as it was then. They are doing a lot of conservation and protection for the plants and animals, but some of the damage done is irreversible. Invasive species, both plants and animals, continue to endanger the endemic species that make the Galapagos so special. Hopefully, the work that is being done will continue to be successful and the Galapagos will an amazing place for decades to come!
Here is the link to some of our pictures...too many to put in a slide show!

heather

Together we can-Curundu!

Hola! We have spent the past two days living the life of our friend Rachel. Rachel moved to Panama to be a teacher, and this year has moved from being a teacher at an international school to working at a community center in one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in Panama City- Curundu. We spent two days at the center, one day teaching Bible, the next teaching English. It is 'tranquilo', very laid back, kids coming in and out, and amazing teachers and volunteers who oversee it all! The kids are soo cute, and so well behaved! Today, their school was cancelled (school is apparently sporadic, kids often released early or teachers just cancel classes) so there was 40 kids there for the morning session! The center is small, 2 rooms, a patio, and kitchen, but the kids are respectful and have a great time despite the cramped spaces. The kids get breakfast and lunch, all made at the center. Rachel is amazing, connecting with the kids who have so little, giving them something to look foward to in their day to day life. She has such a heart for the children of Latin America and it definitly shows through her work. The first morning we were there, we got to walk back further into the neighborhoods to visit a new baby. Even while we walked back, we were warned...'you know its dangerous back there'. The houses were built on stilts over basically a swamp filled with garbage. It was dirty, and although I did not feel threatened or nervous, apparently the local gangs war with each other, thus making the area very dangerous. It breaks my heart to think that most likely the 11 and 12 year old boys at the center will soon (or already have) drop out of school and be pulled into the gangs.
Thank you Rachel for allowing us to be a part of your life for a few days, letting us crash on your air mattress, and showing us a different side of Panama!
Below are pictures of Paradise Gardens, El Valle, Playa Palmar, Panama City and Curundu...Enjoy!

Panama...

Good bye GAP. We are here in Panama City and have just said good bye to the four girls we have been traveling with since Mexico City, as well as the rest of the group and our leader Micheal. Its hard to believe that we have crossed six boarders, visited seven countries, and have been traveling for two months. We have seen so much and meet so many people, yet it feels like we are just starting our travels after saying good bye to the group.
This past week has been slower but, we have seen and enjoyed each place we visited. From Bocas del Toro we traveled to Boquete where we stayed at a cozy hotel which had the feel of a hostel- communal kitchen, TV room, and balcony. The best thing about Boquete, and maybe our whole trip was our visits to a place called Paradise Gardens. A couple from England retired in Boquete and brought with them a few Macaws that they owned in England. Since moving to Panama, their home has turned into a rehabilitation house where threatened, poorly cared for and/or abused animals are taken in, cared for and then, if possible released back into their natural habitat. Paul and his wife Debbie showed us all the animals and told us the stories of how they ended up here. Some of the few animals they have or once had in there home are geoffroys, tamarins, kinkajou, margay, sloth, tucans, macaws, monkeys and much more. During our visit we were able to feed Niki the kinkajou a banana, pet the margay, scratch/pet and hold Precious the scarlet macaw, go inside the cage of the white faced monkeys and play with Billy and Montey, hold Tember the 3 month old sloth and talk with the birds. Our fist visit was great and we loved it so much we decided to go back the next day and it was just as a amazing. Its so great to see Paul and Debbie be so welcoming to what was unspokenly set out before them. Their plan was to retire, have a beautiful garden and butterfuly house, but instead they have spent the last three years creating Paradise Gardens. The have already helped so many animals, and are showing no signs of stopping! They truly love their life and are so thankful to be caring for the animals! The volunteers we met who help them really seemed to enjoy their work as well. One of the girls from our GAP tour is actually heading back to spend another week volunteering there. They are working on their website right now, but if anyone is looking for a great place to contribute to the environment and play with animals, we have their contact info! If time had elated Heather and I both would love to have stayed and volunteer but sadly we had to continue on.
From Boquete we traveled our last long day to a town called El Valle. El Valle is a town inside the crater of a volcano. Apparently millions of years ago the volcano erupted and created a crater lake. An earthquake happened and cracked the moutains and the water ran out and now people have been living here for a few hundred years. If living inside a crater isnt strange enough this town is surounded by mountains and the most famous mountain is the Sleeping Indian Girl. The legend goes that when colonizers came to El Valle there was a prince who fell in love with an indian girl. The prince went back to his father to ask if he could marry the girl. The king said no because he was obligated to merry someone of royalty. The indian girl did not like this decision, and then killed herself. According to legend, she now lays in the moutain side wating for her prince to return. Once her prince returns she will wake up and they will live happly ever after. This is just one version of the story there are many more but the outline of the indina girl dose layout on the moutian. During our time here we took a day excursion to a beach town called Pelmar where we learned how to surf and layed out on the beach. Micheal, our guide rented a surf board gave us a little lession and then took us out into the Pacific ocean and attempted to teach us to surf. After a few attempts, both Heather and I succefuly stood up on the board and it was great. Who knows, maybe we will take surf class while we are in Australia to better our skills. Either way, it was loads of fun and it was a great last day at the beach with everyone before our last stop, Panama City.
We started our trip in Mexico City and we are here in Panama City ending it. Panama city has been a great place to end the tour, an amazing city with a rich history. Before saying good bye to everyone Michael took us around town and showed us Casco Viejo, The Canal, and the View Piont. Panama has two down towns- "the new town" which is filled with modern sky rises, and "the old town" which is called Casco Viejo. Casco Viejo has become Panamas historical site where you see vintage buildings, churches, plazas and the first university. It was really interesting to see the contrast of old and new, and take in the impact the canal has had on this city, its people, and the surronding land. The next day we spent the morning at Miraflores Locks- one of the engineering wonders of the world. Toriann and I thought it looked a lot like the Ballard locks (other than it had a HUGE freight going through holding 5000 or so Japanese cars, haha). The Panama canal has been open for 94 years now, and has been hugely successful. It has shaped a large part of Panama Citys history, impacting the people to the politics. The US handed over control in 1999, with many fears about how the Panamanians would handle the switch. But the canal is more efficient than ever, and an expanded portion is currently being built.
So, we are now transitioning to being on our own, being without the group and a guide. We have a few more days in Panama City, staying with Torianns roommate from SPU, Rachel. She has been kind enough to let us stay in her apartment that she shares with 3 other girls! Tomorrow she is going to let us tag along to the community center where she tutors inner city children!
We hope all is well at home!
Much love, Heather and Toriann