Day 7 - What's the capital of Canada? Brasil!

Ami here,

Today was our first day volunteering at the Aldea Yanapay Project. Unfortunately, Mondays are slow days for the school and there were more volunteers than kids, so we weren't able to be actively involved in the classes. We did participate in a group circle at the end of the day where all of the children and volunteers sat together and discussed what they learned, what the common rules of the school were, their favourite moments of the festival that happened on Saturday and the new volunteers got a chance to introduce themselves.

When Pravin and I introduced ourselves, one of the first questions was "De donde eres", meaning "where are you from?". After we told them we were from Canada, the next question was "Hace calor o frio"...and Pravin answered "mucho frio" (very cold lol)...the kids were then asked to guess what the capital of Canada was, to which we got a bunch of raucous shouts of "Brasil! es Brasil!"...umm no...and then "Allemange...Allemange"...no it's Germany either lolol...we were quite amused. We know Canada's a big country, and maybe the kids think other countries fit inside it...who knows, maybe one of the things we can teach them is geography?

Tomorrow is Day 2 of our volunteering. We're also waking up at 8am to hopefully get a warm shower (today was mucho mucho frio!).

Buenas noches,
Ami & Pravin

Some Interesting Things

Ami here,

So South America has certainly had it's fair share of odd/interesting things that we've come across so far. Rather than blog them separately, I figure I'd keep one post that captured all of these moments.

So here it goes:

1. Toilets - the lack of toilet seats and appropriate plumbing. I understand that there are areas in the world where toilets are not available, but why have a toilet and no toilet seat??! That is the most awkward thing in the world. It's like having a plate of spaghetti, but no utensils to eat it with. To top it off, you can't flush toilet paper down the toilet as it'll clog up the system...so instead you're forced to throw your used toilet paper in a garbage can next to you. Needless to say, the bathroom facilities do not smell great here.

2. Random Cabbie in Lima - So we took a cab last Wednesday from the Museo de la Nacion to Pachi's work (Renzo's mom). The guy was speaking to us the whole way (in Spnaish of course) about booking a trip with him to see the Pachacama ruins (These are Inca ruins that are IN the city of Lima). Of course we had no idea what he was saying and ended up saying "Si" to everything (that's our standard answer when we don't understand people, actually not the greatest strategy, but whatev). It ends up that this Cabbie waited for us to call him the next day, which we only found out when we saw him again the day after (on Friday) in a completely different area of the city. What are the odds of that? 1 to 8.2 million (that's the population of Lima).

3. Mate de Coca - to get over altitude sickness in Cusco, they recommend that you drink Mate de Coca, which translates to Coca Tea...and yes, it is THAT coca from which a famous white powder is made...not cocoa as I originally thought. I was a little nervous to try this tea because I wasn't sure what it do to me, and if it was safe...like really, you want us to drink a tea made of that??! My fears were completely unfounded though, the tea is made from the leaves of the coca plant and does nothing in terms of altering your mood/perception. It actually tastes a little like green tea. I'm now wondering if I should bring some back home with me and spread the love haha.

4. Museo Larco - so this Museum is in Pueblo Libre, which is a section of Lima. The description in the guide book for it is "ancient pottery and one of the most historical collections in the world"...I read it and thought BORING. We went anyway and to my surprise they had a temporary exhibit of "erotic pottery". The exhibit was basically like 1700 year old porn, and quite explicit at that. The funny part is, things really haven't changed after all those years. Oh those Incas...

5. Shah Rukh Khan - when we arrived in Cusco and were leaving the airport, one of the first things were asked was if we were Indian...which always brings up the confusing point that we're Canadian but yes have Indian roots. When we confirmed we were Indian, the security guard immediately started saying "Shah Rukh Khan", "Kal Ho Na Ho", oh we love him here....wha??? Bollywood has made it to Peru?
To our surprise, we've continually had people come up to us to ask if we're Indian, to which we get the same reply..."Shah Rukh Khan"!!! We also got "Hrithik Roshan" the other day. Apparently, Bollywood is big here, and the locals love hindi flicks. We even walked past a store that was playing hindi film songs, so of course we had to go in and there were pictures of pictures of Krishna and other gods on the walls. Even thousands of miles away, we're getting a taste of home.

Day 5 - Peru begins...Lima and Cusco

Ami here,

So it's been a hectic 5 days in Peru so far.

We landed in Lima on Tuesday morning (May 11th) and arrived at Renzo's parent's place (Pravin's friend from Queens who's from Peru) quite early. We were a bit disoriented, but when we awoke the next morning, we found ourselves in an amazing condo that was a top of a mountain and over looked Los Incas Golf Course. Needless to say, neither of us were expecting to arrive into luxury. For the next few days, we awoke to a breakfast that included fresh squeezed orange juice (there was a maid) and a gorgeous view of the golf course across the street.



The city itself was busy and extremely congested. Traffic was loud and nonstop and red lights/stop signs are more of a suggestion than a rule. I tried not to look out the window too much as the proximity of other cars and crazy driving would have given me a heart attack lol. The pollution is also another story, at the end of one of our days, I smelled Pravin's hair and pretty much inhaled a load of cancer, not to mention black stuff coming out of our noses at the end of the day.

It was nice having a comfortable place to come back to where the toilets have toilet seats (don't ask I don't understand it either). We were also treated to some incredibly food (both home cooked and a lunch at the yacht club). I've fallen in love with certain Peruvian foods: cancha (roasted corn that is made from special peruvian corn), tamale (this green paste like looks like you ground up a lizard, doesn't look great but tastes amazing), yuca (yellow peruvian potato) and INCA COLA! It's this bright yellow fizzy drink that kind of tastes like cream soda...also only sold in Peru.

Those first few days were certainly anything BUT backpacking.

We've now left the comforts of Lima and are in Cusco which is the stepping stone for Machu Picchu. Cusco itself is a wonderful colonial city that sits 3400M above sea level.

The hostel we're staying at is a community project called Aldea Yanapay that helps to improve the lives of local Peruvian children. We arrived on the day of the 'festival of peace and happiness' which they had been preparing for 2 months. It was a celebration in a local park for the children. It was really nice to be there, and there were soccer tournaments etc. We helped with the cleanup a bit afterward but had to slow down because it was our first day of being at high altitude.

Speaking of altitude, Pravin hasn't been affected by it but I certainly have. I developed a massive headache yesterday (our first day here), and have been feeling nauseous on and off. Not to mention a bit of a strange giddy spell after dinner tonight where I was laughing at everything and anything, including Pravin's corny jokes (that's when he clued in that something was amiss haha). We're learning to take it slow and rest and hopefully I'll be acclimatized soon.

It's also pretty chilly here and there's no heat in our rooms. There's supposed to be a small stove to heat the room, but they're out of fuel for now...so we'll see what happens tomorrow. It's going to be another night of sleeping in our thermals and sleeping bags. Hot water in the shower is a bit of a gamble...actually last night when we got back there was no running water at all so like tooth brushing? nope.

It's a total change in pace from Lima...we just went from a luxury condo in a choked metropolis of 8m people (most of whom do not speak a word of English) to a small city in the mountains filled with backpackers and a Sunday market. It's been a great 2 days in Cusco and we're both really looking forward to the start of our volunteering tomorrow.

Ciao for now,
Ami & Pravin

T-minus 2 days

Hi Everyone,

There's been a bit of a silence since the last blog. Last weekend on Friday we had a small going away at Scallywag's, one of my favourite neighbourhood spots. It went great, and ended up with a late night Sobey's run. $4 for a pie AND free ice cream! But even more importantly, Ami got to see an actual photo of Michelle Obama (thanks Shaheen!). Thanks to everyone who made it out.

The weekend was a bit downhill after that though. During the day on Friday I noticed some itchy spots on my arms which I didn't think too much about. By Saturday I had broken out entirely in hives, and was starting to get some major swelling in my hands and feet by late that night. Sunday we went to the clinic and got a Dr to look at me, and the best he could say is that it's an allergic reaction. My only guess to the source of it is that I had started putting flax seeds in my smoothies....lesson learned. We now have an Epi-Pen in case something like this happens on the trip, and we learned that Benadryl is a great sedative.

The rest of the week has been the expected and unexpected last minute errands. We're in Brampton right now with Ami's parents doing our last minute packing, and trying to make everything fit into our packs. It's nice to have some space to open our packs out and play with the contents, and as always the good food helps too.

I'm also getting excited about finally meeting Renzo's family. They have been nice enough to offer us their hospitality in Lima, which is the first stop of our trip. I lived with Renzo for three years - one year in....close quarters - and then we worked together for one year out of school as well. Somehow in all that time timing would have it that I was never around when they visited. It looks like my stint as Polkaroo is coming to a close.

Well that's it for tonight. It's time to sign off and get back to the packing.

Best,
Pravin and Ami