In the Andes with Alpacas: First week of activities and Huanchaco

This week was our first week of scheduled activities so we were a bit scared about how it would go! Monday was group 1 with the youngest kids aged around 5-10. We weren't sure whether we'd have tantrums or what but thankfully the colouring in sheets went down a treat, which really we should have expected since they'd been asking for "dibujos, dibujos" pretty much every day since we'd arrived. Tuesday with group 2 (10-12) and Wednesday with group 3 (13-15) went surprisingly well with drawings for them too. Then Friday came, we still didn't have a clue what we were meant to do with kids our age so we brought paper and instructions to make paper planes along with games like checkers and bingo. None of the older kids came haha so that was a bit of a disapointment but some variously aged children did come instead so we played a couple of games of bingo.

On Tuesday I went to the hospital with Fabricio. Fabricio is this adorable little 3 year old boy in casa 5 but since he has brain problems he can't speak or walk. I wasn't really sure what I'd be doing but I just kind of helped with taking him places and picking him up since he's so heavy! Tia Marta also told me that he'll be going to a home in Cajamarca for children with special needs at some point in the near future. I'm so sad he's going, especially since this is only the start of our year and he's such a sweet boy. I saw him laugh and smile for the first time that day and it was so wonderful, the tias and children don't have time to spend time with him on his own to help him develop so the home in Cajamarca will be really beneficial for him.

On Friday we helped Tia Marta in the enfermeria making cotton wool swabs and gauze pads which was nice as we actually felt like we were being helpful. We had planned to leave for Huanchaco after lunch at around 2-3 but Amy had since been told that there was going to be a football game between all the casas at half 2, and we had to play too. Brilliant. So for once things actually happened on time, we all went up at half 2 and found that football had turned into volleyball. We then played multiple games where I either ran away from the ball or tried to hit it which always resulted in me almost breaking my hand because the ball was like a rock.

Afterwards we managed to escape to get a Combi from outside the aldea to town to get another Combi to Huanchaco. Our first holiday!! Thankfully Marta had given us detailed instructions on how to find where the Huanchaco bus leaves from so we (surprisingly) had no problems whatsoever getting our buses and arriving in Huanchaco which is this gorgeous (even if somewhat touristy) beach town which is where we are now. Today we treated ourselves to a lie in (haha, we got up at half 8) and hot showers which were SO GOOD. You never truly appreciate a hot shower until you have 2 weeks of cold showers beforehand. Yes, so unfortunately in the aldea we have no hot water since a while ago someone broke it from using it too much. Yippee for us. Although we have found that it's best to have the cold shower at the middle of the day when we think the sun must heat the water tank up a tiny bit, plus we've been up and doing things for a while, instead of it rudely jolting us awake at 6am.

Sorry, back to Huanchaco. Last night after my restaurant meal of chicken and rice which I really shouldn't have ordered since it was pretty much identical to what we eat in the aldea and our first taste of pisco sours (yummy), we headed back to our hostel and the restaurant below. We were then beckoned over by some young-ish Peruvian guys who sat with us while we ate our pancakes and they had their dinner, we all attempted a conversation in Espanglish whilst watching Peru play Uruguay in the world cup.

Today whilst looking for a nice place to have lunch we were heckled by about 5 different men trying to get us to go to their restaurants. After escaping them and avoiding any awkwardness by going to one of their restaurants we found a cheapish place where I had the most yummy thing ever. It was called "sudado de tollo con arroz y yuca" which was basically like fish and vegetables in this really delicious slightly spicy sauce, with rice and yuca which is kind of like potato (looked it up in the dictionary later and it just said yuca or cassava) but not as nice. Very weird. But oooh the fish. Too good. All seafood here is meant to be amazing since it's right on the coast so I should probably have some ceviche tomorrow.

Another thing I should mention is that I just went out to take a nice photo of Huanchaco at night, and this guy asked me in Spanish if I spoke English, I said yes and I found out he was from Germany at which point I got really excited because it meant I could actually practise my German on him! We proceeded to have a conversation in mixed English, Spanish and German. It was a complete nightmare. I was speaking German like a first year which is so embarrassing since I've only just finished advanced higher. I guess it just goes to show how much my Spanish has improved since I got here. I found myself wanting to speak Spanish more than even English as I wasn't sure how good his English was and I felt just as comfortable if not more comfortable speaking Spanish. I kept saying "pero" in the middle of a German sentence and then realising I should have said "oder". And I'm only less than 2 weeks in, goodness knows what I'm going to be like at the end of the year and trying to relearn German at uni!

Anyway that's enough for now, I recmembered to bring my camera cable this week so you can all enjoy some photos!!

Ciao