Mini break!

The February cycle at school finished last Sunday and we took advantage a our two days off by taking a trip into the mountains to a place called Cajamarca.

For the first time on our trip (and possibly in the history of Peru) the bus left on time, it actually looked like the picture in the bus station AND there were seatbelts - amazing! However, shortly after left the traffic of Chiclayo behind we realised none of that mattered because our driver was clearly insane.

Not only was it the usual story of driving too fast and overtaking on blind corners of mountains but he seemed to be playing some version of ´chicken´to see how long he could drive on the wrong side of the road before something came the other way. What fun! We had also made the mistake of picking the front seats at the top of the bus, just to make it that bit scarier. Then, just when you think driving around mountains 2,000 meters above sea level at break-neck speed, on the wrong side of the road can´t get any worse...we hit a patch of fog so thick we could only see a couple of meters in front of the bus. but did the driver slow down? What do you think..?

Ater about three hours we stopped for a break to go to a filthy toilet and calm our nerves. However, As soon as we stepped off the bus little insects started attacking us from every direction. But we were hungry, so as we shovelled tamales in our mouths with one hand, we slapped away flies with the other and hopped and yelped as they kept biting us. It was quite funny to watch everyone doing the same.

We arrived in Cajamarca at 11pm and it was cold. We´d thought it would be colder than Chiclayo, being that it is nearly 3,000 meters higher, but as usual we weren´t fully prepared. We got a taxi to the main square and tried to find a hostel. The first two were full and we thought we wee going to have to spend the night huddled together for warmth in the plaza, but we found a room on the third try.

Cajamarca is beautiful and it was lovely to have a break from the car horns and hissing men of Chiclayo. We wandered around the cobbled streets of the town, walked up a hill to get a view of the surrounding area and then headed out to the Banos Del Inca (the thermal baths). As usual, what should have been a simple journey turned out to be an annoyance. For what seems like the fiftieth time, after clearly asking for where we needed to go, the driver and the guy who takes the money let us sit on the bus until the end of the line without telling us where to get off. So, back we went on a different bus and finally found it.

The baths were nice but, unlike Cusco and other places, they hadn´t built any outdoor hot pools for bathing. Instead, you can only walk around the natural hot springs outside and you have to hire what look like big bath tubs for bathing inside. We had a look, but it seemed just like taking a bath together, which is a bit weird, so we skipped it and headed around the corner for a beer instead.

The people in Cajamarca were just the right amount of friendly. There were the usual questions´-´how long have you been in Peru?´, ´where are you from?´etc. But, there was little to no hissing, kissing sounds, shouting or grabbing. The next day, we had the best ice cream ever at Heladeria Holandia and then headed back on the death bus. A short but sweet trip to see a different side of Peru.

It´s Candice´s birthday today and we´re having a party soon. I´ll tell you all about it in the next blog!

School, stalkers and stealing

We´ve finally sorted out our fight and our official return date is 2nd June! It´s very strange to think we´ll be home in three months! There are so many things we´re going to miss about being here, but also lots we´re looking forward to...like food!

We´ve properley settled into life in Chiclayo now and we´ve nearly finished our second cycle (term) at the school. The teaching has been great so far, but, like any job, it can be frustrating at times. It can also be very entertaining as well, especially when you receive strange letters from your students (Candice), your students point blank refuse to work and when there are some pronumciation issues (¨I shat on my computer¨ instead on ´I chat´).

In other news, I have aquired an admirer/stalker who has been sending flowers and notes for the past few weeks. Apparently he lives across the road from our apartment but I´m yet to rfind out who it is. The flowers are a welcome addition to the apartment though. The only bad thing is the slightly worrying tone of some of the notes - I NEED your friendship!

We were also the victims of a mugging In January. A couple of guys followed us home o a motorbike and snatched Candice´s bag as we were going in the door to our apartment. Typically, the bag had Candice´s last S/50 and our house keys. It was a pretty horrible experience but it all happened so fast and it could have been much worse. Apparently, muggings are pretty common here and we´ve actually seen another three happen in the last week or so. The problem is that everyone in Chiclayo get paid on the same two days in the month and they always get paid in cash. So, on those days the motorcycle theives spend their evening robbing people of their wages. Nice. In my opinion, they should ban motorbikes after 6pm in the evening. They did this in Cartagena and it seemed to work. In fact, everyone thing Colombia is a dangerous place but, having lived both in Colombia and in Peru I´d say tha there are certainly more dubious characters in Peru. But, it´s still safe (don´t worry mum).

Apart from teaching, we spend our days going to the beach, sunbathing on our roof terrace and enjoying English films at the cinema at the mall. We´ve also joined a gym that has machines from the 70´s. Nothing is electric. You have to actually push the belt round on the running machine! There´s also no air conditioning which makes for a very beefy and very funny workout session. Every time we go the people in there are constantly telling us what to do and how to do it. Either they are trying to practice their English or they think we don´t have gyms in England.

We have a little break from school on Sunday to Wednesday so candice and I are heading up to the highlands to a city called Cajamarca. They are having a festival at the moment which involves lots of water throwing, dancing and drinking. Cajamarca is also said to have the best cheese and the best ice cream shop in Peru. Thier local speciality is cow brains - if I´m feeling brave I might try it and let you know what it´s like. The only problem with this trip is that hostels are said to book up weeks in advance during the festival and we haven´t booked anywhere yet. In the LP it says hundreds of people end up sleeping in the main square - I hope we don´t have to!

Christmas fun and back to reality

It been ages...sorry about that.

Candice and I headed six hours up the coast of Peru to a little surfer town called Mancora. We'd been there before on our first trip through Peru so we knew what to expect. The beach there is lovely and we stayed in a really nice hostel called Loki which had a swimming pool. However, because the hostel had a swimming pool and a bar, we ended up only going to the beach twice which was a bit lazy of us. But, after all the stress of moving countries we just wanted to sunbathe, chill out and drink cocktails. We also met some really cool people people which made the evenings fun.

On Christmas Day we treated ourselves to a speacial seafood lunch and an ice cold beer in a restaurant overlooking the beach. Afterwards, we thought we'd walk back along the beach to our hostel. When we were almost there we tohught we'd take a little nap on the sand before heading to the party at the hostel. Unfortunatly for us, just as we started to nod off, a huge wave came and soaked us both - and everything in our bags! Candice's phone was the only casualty, but it took me three days to get the sand out of my hair. It was funny though.

The only bad thing about Loki was that for the first few nights we had to share a room with two dirty Australian boys who stank, stole Candice's water and half a pineapple and seemed to feel the need to have very loud conversations when they came in at 6am. God, that makes me seem really old...but it was very annoying. Luckily they left before New Year.

On New Years Eve Candice came down with a terrible bout of food poisoning and spent most of the day throwing up and....going to the toilet. But she pulled herself together and still came out to the yelow and gold party at the hostel. Did you know in Peru it's traditional to wear yellow underwear on for New Year!?

We came back to Chiclayo on the bus journey from hell on the 2nd. Not only did it seem like the driver was trying to kill us (as usual) but the people in front of us had their chairs so far back that our knees were bruised for days - idiots!

We've now started teaching at the school and after a few teething problems - which you probably all know about - things seem to be going well. But, if we've learnt one thing from living in South America, it's that nothing is ever straight forward. So, we'll have our guard up until we have the money in our pockets.

I'll put some pictures up on Facebook soon. xxx

Busses, beaches and birthdays!

We have arrived in Peru! We´ve been here just over a week now and have started our training at the new school. The journey here was certainly an experience, but not something I´m in a rush to repeat. We left Cartagena around 5.30am Wednesday morning and headed to the airport to catch a flight to Bogota. In Bogota we were meant to havc a three hour wait for the next flight down to the south of the country, but the flight was delayed another four hours, so we had seven hours to kill. Considering Bogota is the capital of Colombia, there is NOTHING there apart from a few fast food places. So, in seven hours we managed to consume a McDonald´s breakfast, a Dunkin´doughnut, an ice cream from Crepes and Waffles, another Dunkin doughnut, some curly fries and....another doughnut. I´m sure we gained about two stone in those few hours!

Once we reached Popyan in the south, we stayed over night and had the looooong bus journeys through Ecuador to look forward to. It took about three busses and over 40 hours to reach Chiclayo - we arrived at 2am on the Saturday!

Chiclayo is a nice place, not as beautiful as Cartagena but I don´t think many places are. It´s a bit calmer and there are not as many hsssssssssss-ers. Although, as I was coming out of our apartment the other day a man was staring and hssssssssing so much that he tripped and fell over the curb right onto the floor. If it wasn´t for the fact that he was about seventy, I would have told him it served him right. We have made friends with a fellow teacher at the school who carries round eggs that she throws at people who annoy her too much with their hissing and what not - might have to start that ourselves if it gets too bad!

We found an apartment on the second day we were here, which is an improvement on Cartagena. It´s lovely, three big bedroom, two bathrooms, a nice kitchen and everything is nice and clean.

I had a lovely birthday here. We went out with some of the other teachers on the Saturday night to one of the bar/clubs here which was fun. On the Monday Candice and I spent the day at the beach, eating seafood and drinking sangria. I also got an assortment of gifts from her and our neighbour/lanlady also suprised me with a birthday cake in the evening - it had my name on it and everything!

We´re in the process of booking something for Christmas and New Year. I think we´re going to head up the coast to a nice beach town called Mancora which should be fun. It´s going to be very strange not being at home though! Can´t imagine what it feels like to be cold anymore!

xxx

Next Stop Peru!

We tried our hardest to make it work. We pounded the pavements of Cartagena, wrote emails and made telephone calls, but in the end it was just to hard to get the Work Visa. So, about a week ago we decided to try to get jobs at a school in Peru that the lovely Ria suggested to us. They responded within two days (a new record for South America) and offered us the jobs!

We weighed it up and although we love Cartagena, it's going to be so much easier to work in Peru - and they have nice food there! We made up our minds and booked the flights on Wednesday. Typically, I then got an email on Thursday offering me a job at the University AND a free Work Visa! So annoying. It would have been great to work there but it's all just a bit too little, too late. So we're off to Peru on Wednesday morning.

We're actually pretty excited about it now. We've had an amazing time here and made some great friends, but it'll be good to explore somewhere new. Lots of the people we've met here are leaving in December as well so we had a little leaving party on Saturday. We started at a friends house, then headed to a club and then went drinking 'Colombian style' until 9am. Needless to say, Sunday was mostly spent in bed, with a brief visit to the Hard Rock Cafe for burgers and milkshakes.

One thing I'm not looking forward to is the journey to Peru. We are leving Cartagena on Wednesday morning and flying to Bogota, and then on to Popayan in the south of Colombia. We'll stay overnight there and then leave on a bus in the morning to cross the bus into Ecuador. From there it'll take us two busses to cross the whole of Ecuador and get into Peru, then another bus will take us to our new home in Chiclayo, Peru. A mere 30 hours on freezing cold or sweltering hot busses - I can't wait! We should get to Chiclayo on Friday or Saturday depending on the times of the busses.

Here are a few things we'll miss about Cartagena;

1. Our friends. in particular, Ian and Angela from the Aussie Cafe who been so good to us. The beautiful Angelica who is so much fun and who we'd like to smuggle back to England with us. Latvian Linda who we met at a job interview and who has shared our visa frustrations. One of the funniest people I've EVER met - Norwegian Carolina. And, of course, the lovely Iva.

2. It's beautiful. Probably the most beautiful city we've seen in South America.

3. The people (for the most part) are really friendly, fun and always willing to help (unless it's about a visa).

4. The parties. Everyone is always up for a good here and we've had some great nights out.

5. The beach. Nothing like spending the day sunbathing, taking a dip and drinking fresh juice from a coconut!

And the things we won't miss...

1. The driving. In a car or walking on the pavement you can never be sure you're safe from a lunatic driver.

2. The food. Fresh fish and coconut rice excluded - the food here could be improved.

3. Hsssssssssssssssssssssssss - as previously mentioned, it's annoying!

next blog will be from Peru!

Thoughts and musings

Now that we've been in Colombia for a few months, it feel like home. It doesn't feel like 'Colombia' however that is meant to feel. There are some quite big differences though...

1. To use a cash machine on the street, you have to go into a little room and lock the door behind you.

2.The police carry guns...BIG GUNS. And there are soldiers everywhere - also carrying BIG GUNS.

3. Normal rules of the road don't apply. There are no lanes. Instead of using breaks to avoid crashing or running people over, you just beep your horn and continue to travel and break-neck speed.

4. You ALWAYS have to look where you are walking. Otherwise, you could end up with your foot in a soggy pile of sewage or worse still, actually fall down an open drain - as Candice found out.

5. Hsssssssssssssss - if you're a women, this sound follows you around everywhere you walk. Men hiss at women all the time, it's meant to be a compliment I guess but it's actually very annoying...and kind of creepy, but you get used to it.

6. You never dilute spirits with a mixer. If you decide to drink rum or Aguadiente (the local spirit that tastes a bit like Sambuca). You buy a bottle between friends and drink shots of it until it's finished. BEWARE: this can be a recipe for disaster!

7. In bars and clubs, everyone dances in couples. Apart from on the rare occasion they are playing 'pop' music people always dance in boy/girl couples - and the men can really dance. In fact, everyone here can dance. Sadly, salsa as well as our Spanish doesn't seem to be improving much. But we try and trying is fun!

8. Whether you're doing a food shop in the supermarket, buying an arepa con huevo (street snack) or paying for a taxi - nobody EVER has any change. I don't know what happens to the coins and small notes but they never seem to have enough.

9. People talk to each other. Whether they know you or not, people are interested to know how you are, where you're from etc etc. On my journeys to the bus stop, to the laundry,to the beach and to the Aussie Cafe I say hi to the people I see there all the time, pass the time of day with them and it's nice.

10. The weather. It's sunny and hot (apart from the last week or so when Hurricane Tomas brought rain). but in general the weather is awesome and I love it!

In other news...

Visa - we might have made one small step forward but we'll have to wait and see. Will update soon.

Work - same situation. Not much has changed here.

Carnival!

November is party time in Cartagena! Today is their Independence Day and also the day they crown Miss Colombia. We're heading out in a bit to see what it's all about. Yesterday was the gay parade. We only caught the end of the parade which consisted of a few drag queens on top of floats. However, we did see some EXTREME butt implants - they were huge! I'm not sure the crowd was really in the right spirit of things last night though, they seemed to be jeering at the participants rather than cheering them on. Not a fan of that.

There seems to be a different parade everyday this week and no-one seems to know what they are for. The only constant theme is that people throw water and flour at each other and buy cans of foam to squirt in people's faces. It's really fun except i'm not sure if i'll ever get a brush through my hair again! Typically, for Colombia there are no kind of barriers to stop people running into the parade like you'd find at Notting Hill and they don't even bother to stop the traffic so it's absolute chaos. Fun chaos though. Luckily for us we're about two feet taller than any of the Colombians so we have no problem seeing the action.

Also, some of the kids in the poorer neighbourhoods cover themselves in oil or paint and then ask for money - if you don't give it to them they smeer you with the paint. Kind of like blackmail...well exactly like blackmail actually. They also hold ropes across the road and don't let the cars pass until they give them money. But it's all in good fun. I'll take some pictures of the festivities over the next few days and put them up.

In other news...we've moved apartments. We moved out of our lovely but very expensive apartment and into the Aussie couples flat for the month. On the job front...nothing's changed and if w don't get the visa soon, we're thinking of relocating to Peru.

Ok that's all for now.