Journal Entry Ten in Peru - 07/03/10

Highlight of the day: Meeting some of the sweetest kids ever.
Discovery of the day: 12 year-olds have the shortest attention span imaginable.
Feeling right now: Happy, but finding it difficult to grasp the fact that a whole week has gone by.
Nooooo.... : Being nice to some classes is no longer an option.



It's been a long silence from me, I am aware, but it has been a very busy week and if I don't get a grip on my schedule very soon, this journal might very well become a weekly one. I must try to live as well as work.

Last Sunday, amidst fears of a tsunami, I joined a van-ful of strangers (apart from one who is a teacher at school) on a 3-hour journey to the beaches to the North of Lima. I am told the truly great beaches in the North are a 15-hour journey away, but we day-trippers settled for these, which I later found out are beaches for lovers. Fortunately, we didn't run in to any of these miscreants as the tsunami-scares provided us with a deserted beach. The tsunami, the one that was happening in Hawaii, also meant the sea-level had dropped, exposing a layer of starfish-covered rock. It was possibly the most awesome thing I have ever seen on a beach. There were also accompanying sea cucumbers and sea urchins, but the starfish outshone them with their bright orange glow. I feel a Wordsworth-esque poem coming on and if I wasn't in another jolting van, I would probably indulge. Yet, it is not to be. I shouldn't forget the swarms, really there is no other word, of orange crabs scuttling out of our way. And, I thought there were no orange crabs...





This exposure of sea-creatures turned out to be a veritable buffet for the hundreds of seabirds, and some not quite of the sea, who had collected around. I'm not aware as to whether the birds are usually around in such large numbers, but their presence made the main section of the beach untenable as it was covered in bird droppings. However, the section we had was just fine. The majority of beaches in Peru, or at least the ones I have seen, are surrounded by very high cliffs, which led me to be quite unafraid of a possible tsunami. Probably not completely justified, but it is rather reassuring if you live, as I do, on top of said cliffs. It also means you get a fair bit of privacy, apart from possibly the eager ramblers very occassionally crossing the cliffs. Looking at these high cliffs, I saw a triplet of vultures. Unfortunately, I was too far to see if they were the elusive Lammergheier type. I doubt it, but was hopeful.

After spending way too much time at the beach - the Peruvians do like their sunbathing and frolicking in the sea and banana-hammocks are far too fashionable for my liking - we went to a nearby home/restaurant for a local meal of papalahuancaina (papa-la-wun-ca-eena - a boiled egg in a yellow sauce with potatoes and an olive) and chicken and rice. Dessert was an almost unmentionable slice of watermelon. It was a pleasant meal and heartening to see the two youngest kids of the family, probably no more than 10 years old, helping their mother out by providing the table service.

Lunch over, we proceeded to spend the next hour or so at the Pre-Incan burial ground nearby. I don't know what it was like when it was in use, but presently it seems to operate on some sort of exchange system; the locals and tourists take ancient pottery, and bones for those with morbid tendencies, in return for garbage. Seriously, it is a weird mixture of a graveyard and a rubbish dump. All the valuables once buried with the bodies having been taken a very long time ago, it must have no value to archaeologists and has been abandoned to its fate. You can clearly see the 'graves' as slightly raised holes in the ground cocooned by woven leaves and a random mixture of bones and skulls lie here and there, after the weird have had their picture taken with said remains at the most attractive position. The earthenware must also have no value as they lie scattered around, mostly broken, with the occassional tourist picking one up as it matches his garden ornaments perfectly. I couldn't get out of there fast enough.

Never ones to let morbidity get the better of us, the next hour was spent at another lover's beach, this one aptly named Quita Calzon, which means "remove underwear"! Unfortunately, the climb down was rather a steep one and the odds of breaking my ankle outweighed the pleasure of another beach and possible nudity, so I stayed atop the cliff watching vultures and checking out the scenery, which varied between the Pacific Ocean and desert. Of course, I would be sitting half-way down the steep path feeling pleased with myself when none other than a kid on crutches starts climbing back up. To be fair, he did have the aid of the crutches. I probably could have done it if I had a pair of them too...

The homeward journey was uneventful, although we witnessed a beautiful sunset over the Pacific from atop the mountains, as we had to drive through mountains to get to the beaches. It's strange country this. On the way out, we passed through an area warning of mist and it was truly magical mist. You could've expected Gandalf to walk out any minute and ask you for the ring. Only difference being that we were surrounded by desert rather than mountains or forest. In fact, it felt a lot like driving through the Sahara at 4am before the sun had come up, with the only difference being that the top soil of the desert in Peru was a dark black rather than the Saharan orange dust.

That was last weekend's trip and this weekend's was quite the opposite, with a leisurely 1-hour drive to the South of Lima with the family I stay with. Naturally, we left an hour later than we planned - collecting family is not an easy thing to do, especially as quite a few of them had packed to stay for the entire week and the rest had done the same. Eventually, we made it to a little house they had rented for a week, 10-minutes walk from the beach. After a quick clean-up, the first item on the agenda was getting the inflatable pool filled up. Yes, we were 10 minutes from the ocean, but a pool in your house is the ultimate goal and the grandmother is old and some members prefer a pool to the ocean. I'm pretty sure the aunts took turns to watch me while they sunbathed and I "braved" the Pacific. It was a lovely beach - just the right amount of waves and not too deep, although I was a bit worried when the lifeguards rushed in at one point. I still don't know what it was about, but they didn't pull anyone out and they didn't seem too bothered about having let someone drown, so I imagine it was a false alarm or a drill. Although, a drill on a crowded beach seems unwarranted. The beach being crowded was rather a negative, but it wasn't too crowded that it wasn't pleasant. I think I'm almost back to my 15-year-old tennis colour now, even with sunblock. I'm still working on the washboard stomach though...

Anyway, the weekend was a very leisurely layabout in the sun finishing up Garcia Marquez's autobiography, which I recommend for anyone who wants to be a writer. Saturday evening turned in to a bit of a party with the whole family arriving at some point with their other halves and the free-flowing of beer. Even the dog got to drink some beer, which ended with her throwing up all over the place, but then that was to be expected. I slept on the top half of a bunk-bed and prayed it wouldn't come crashing down on the grandmother sleeping below me, not for any other reason than that the double bed had already broken. I think it was the son-in-law and he does have a tendency to dive in to things, as experienced first-hand with the mini-pool at the grandmother's house, so maybe it wasn't entirely the bed's fault.

The beautiful cousin, who turns out to be a surfer AND an artist (OMG, get me a fan!), turned up on the Sunday afternoon, but my joy was short-lived as we all travelled home in readiness for another week of joyous teaching. More on the teaching in the next entry, as I have to head home now to go shopping. It has been ascertained that I need a beach towel.


Hasta Mañana!

p.s. - If you want a link to more pictures, drop me an email.