Blogs from Callao, Peru, South America - page 2

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

Manta, Ecuador Our tour in Ecuador took us to Monte Cristi, a small town near the port. We learned that Panama hats are not made in Panama, but in Monte Cristi, and some other towns in Ecuador. It is here that agave is used for hats, sacks, and other woven items, not tequila. The plant is stripped of the outer covering, dried, and processed into fine threads for weaving. We entered a rather smallish building where the strings are beaten and made thinner before weaving. All of the machines used are run on gasoline motors, so the fumes permeate the place. One light bulb, held by a worker, was the only artificial light in the place. Workers, mostly women, earn about $200 a month working six days a week. The twine, or thread, is then taken ... 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

hola, Well firstly I should apologise about the last post, I didn´t include the fact that we played football against a load of Peruvians yesterday, it was quite strenuous as its so high, the view is uttery epic. If you imagine for a moment 277000 people living on the side of a massive sandy mountain range, stretching ever further up the hill as more impoverished indigenous people arrive (always higher up the mountain, thus the higher up you are the poorer you are). The view beneath you stretches all the way to the ocean, it looks to be about 4 miles away. If you have seen Top Gear recently, you know the one where they all cross South America. When they reach the end of there journey they have to race down some sandy hills to ... read more

hola, Quite a peculiar day today, i´ve never been affected by jetlag or unsettled sleeping patterns before. I woke up very early this morning after being awake for about 30 hours, I thought I was early for the alarm so showered and got ready expecting it to go off, it didn´t and i gave up and went to sleep again, it was 5 hours later that the alarm woke me up, what a tool. consumed a small breakfast and loads of Coco tea, yeah ladies and gentleman, Coco tea (not the chocolate variety), its not stimulating and tastes of grass, but the novelty factor is pretty good. Went to the main Injen (charity centre) to do country orientation, rules and guidelines and all that crap, Dont drink, be in at 8 and dont travel by yourself, ... read more