Blogs from El Callao, Callao, Peru, South America

Ft. Lauderdale to Manta, Ecuador We successfully boarded our ship and found our luggage in our stateroom, and all is well. The seas were a little rough between Ft. Lauderdale and Cartagena, Colombia and dinner that evening was sparsely attended although we were able to make it. There are seven people at our table – one couple who cruises all the time, and another who cruises slightly less, and the tour director for American Express customers on board. He has been all over, too. So, it is an interesting group. The staff is wonderful. They are very helpful and charming, too. Most of them are Indonesian and are looking forward to stopping there to see relatives. Our first stop in Cartagena was brief. We took a tour around the town stopping at a fortress and the ... read more

Hello everyone, Well I was quite exhausted on Monday but content non the less, have to make the most of things in life. Things seem to be coming along excellently with the projects, I was hoping to finish our construction this week but as always with construction we are waiting for items we need. Things are going well with the Workshops, English is fine as is Boxing and football. I noticed some of the kids no longer come along and dont go to college, they help there parents make braids to go around people wrists instead, didnt want to say anything but oh well. I have started applying for some jobs in England , knowing the jobs market is bad I guess its a good idea to make a start to do it know. The next ... read more

Estes Bien? Good I hope! Well this weekend was funny, if not slightly intense. It looks like Machu Pichu is totally off the cards as its been washed away and so are the Chan Chan temples which are North. I might still be able to see them though. Anyway, we headed south to somewhere called Ica. It was nice to have a weekend off and get away from the project. It’s pretty intense a lot of the time and there is one hell of a lot to see in Peru. We travelled straight down the Pan American highway on Friday night. Cheap bus journey (30 sols) it’s the one all the Peruvians take and we got it from a dodgy part of Lima, we actually blagged a police escort to the bus station and they told ... read more

Hola Amigos, Today was the day we went to the recent history museum. It was quite interesting for me as I had to do essays on recent Peruvian culture and more importantly economics in my degree. To eventually come and see it face to face was really good. The project at the museum was ran by the truth and reconciliation commission and focused heavily on the atrocities committed by both sides. Initially by Alan Garcia´s government and then by the Fujimori government subsequently elected. During the 1980´s a man called Abimael Guzmán began an armed Maoist insurgency in the Andes. Economic mismanagement at the time encouraged this insurgency to take hold and an intense war lasting over 12 years killing over 60,000 people. Alan Garcia transferred power to Alberto Fujimori who proceeded to employ quite brutal ... read more

Buenos Noches, Well I was wrong about today. Yesterday we worked very hard, digging out the hole, mixing cement and moving loads of stuff. I then went to the gym (please see pictures attached, its like rocky 2). One of the girls made the silo wall collapse, so I went in and sorted it out and finalised the depth and breathe of it, its really pained me to do so. Rewarding none the less. We laid some foundation bricks and decided manana (tommorow) it. We went to the local frontier town called Ventanilla, this was mainly due to one of our project team being very very ill, it was some sort of poisening I think, he´s getting his stomach pumped and drips put in ect........the waters great around here. Finally had a nice cool ceveza ... read more