Colán

With left over pizza in our packed lunches, our first proper travelling experience of the year began.

To get to Colán you have to get an hour long bus to Paita which is a very very dusty little town with not much there, you then get into a minibus/taxi kinda thing to Colán and they literally drop you off by the beach and drive off! (Our entire journey from the aldea to Colán cost us S/18 for both of us, which is aprox £4.50ish!)

Mototaxi ride to the Bus Station

Paita

It was so beautiful to go from dusty streets to a stunning beach!

 There was so much wildlife on the beach, there were birds and ducks and so so so many crabs!

Heres a crab making a quick get away!

There were also locals pulling in their fishing nets and sorting out their fish.

I also made a friend, turns out she just wanted my pizza though

After stumbling along a pretty empty beach, (it’s currently winter here so no locals are at the beach and no tourists as it’s pretty much undiscovered) we began to get thirsty and came across a little small resort area with colourful beach ‘bungalows’ and what looked like a bar/restaurant. We decided to go in and ask if we could buy drinks there. Straight away the manager, Miguel, introduced himself and told us to use the pool as much as we would like and spend the day there; so we did so! It was so nice after a very stressful and busy week to have time to relax.

We managed to practise our Spanish too! We got speaking to some of the locals, including a gentleman called Ruben who has a small apartment he rents out to people visiting Colán, which was handy to know in case we plan a weekend trip up there! After making friends it turned out a couple were also heading back to Piura as they live there and kindly gave us a lift back, which saved us money and a lot of time as it only took 45mins in car!

Us on the Beach

The drive back was like being on tour; we saw the new motorway being built and the oldest church in South America which was pretty cool too! We learnt what a lot of the industrial areas were, including a cement factory and sadly learnt that the tiny rickety shacks in random fields are the homes of some people.

The Oldest Church in South America

After an incredibly good day the only thing left to say is, not only should you wear sun cream but you should also REAPPLY IT!  

The 4th week!

Wow my 4^th week in Peru already….only 48 more left!! It’s going so quickly, with so many more things I want to do and places I want to visit!

This post will be more photos than talk of just what we’ve seen this week, as there will be two exciting posts being published this week about the travelling done this weekend, so keep a close eye out!

This week has been extra tiring with most days doing 11-12 hours work with only a small break for lunch, so a lot of my, very little, spare time has been spent asleep or in my new favourite comfort zone.

Yes yes yes, I know you all want to see the photos of the ‘adorable kids’ (not so adorable when they throw their food at you, or throw it up on you, trust me!!) so here they are….

 Yamile has really taken a shine to me this week, which is rather heart-warming, if you say ‘nariz’ to her she’ll now do an eskimo kiss which is super-duper cute.

As always I seem to be a climbing frame

Ariel has attempted to set off a new fashion trend….don’t think I’ll try it personally.

We gave the kids beetroot and orange juice and this was the outcome

‘Oooo is that MAC? What shade?’

To end the super long week we had a shower in Casa 5 (A PROPER SHOWER!!!! Not a bucket of water and a jug, I’ve never felt so clean!) then went to dinner, here is us looking mega cool and clean.

Also, here’s a little shark (probably not a shark but still looks cool) in the Supermarket.

I’d love to hear what you’re thinking about my time in Peru! Do you have any questions? Want to see some pictures of particular things? Leave me a comment below…

Lets Learn

This week in Casa 5 we have been doing some lessons with the kids, especially Pepe and Yumi; who both do not speak yet (apart from ‘agua’ ‘ya’ and ‘no’)

The kids are really clever and pick up things really quickly, which is lucky saying as they pay attention for approximately 20 seconds, so our lessons have been more like workshops with them, with lots of active things to do so they don’t get bored.

First up, with all the children, numbers from 1 to 9. The children all got to colour in a number, and we have now hung them up in their play area and point and count with them whenever we can.

Next, we did colours! Using colours on paper we got the kids to match the coloured stools with the colour on the sheet given to them. They were surprisingly very good at this; here’s a rare occasion where Ariel isn’t eating the paper.

We’re also working on an alphabet wall with Pepe and Yumi, so we’re slowly giving them letters to colour in with an image of something beginning with that letter, I shall post a picture when the wall is fully done; for now have a picture of the chicos and their work.

Behind this wonderful artwork is a Yumi

y Pepe

Finally, we did our hands! We got the boys to colour in hands and then we counted our fingers and kept asking them ‘where are your hands?/¿Donde son tu manos?’.

It’s so much fun teaching the kids, I’ll keep you updated on how they’re doing too! It’s really rewarding when they actually point to your nose when you say ‘nariz’ and not just poke you in your eye or laugh at you confusingly. 

3rd Week In Peru

This week we have had a very long week, most days we’ve had to go into work at 7am as some of the young ones in Casa 5 have been ill so the Tias have been taking many trips to and from the hospital all week.  This also meant we haven’t had our usual 2 hour nap time break most days (which has really caught up with me now it’s the weekend!). It really does show how much hard work goes into being a Tia in the Aldea, they are such hard workers, especially when babies wake you up at 1:30am and you don’t get any sleep and have to deal with cheeky children for the rest of the day too! To treat ourselves after a long week we bought a toilet seat, which has made us feel very happy however I feel I deserve another treat after the amount of effort and ‘ews’ it took to put it on the toilet.

Even we can’t manage a nap in Casa 5, if you try it becomes ATTACK OF THE CHILDREN!!!

Despite work we have also been able to spend more time in the aldea, many more of the other children have been speaking to us, despite us being very confused on what they’re saying!

On Thursday evening we attended a fiesta which turned out to be a baby shower of one of the workers in the Aldea. It was actually pretty funny, we rushed to get ready for 8pm (when it began) however hardly anyone turned up until 9ish, typical Peruvian Manana Manana attitude right there! All the staff played games, including 3 pairs racing to feed the other a pot of baby food,

a race to crawl to ‘mama’ and drink the bottle of juice 

and a race to put a nappy on a doll and get it dressed the quickest too! 

We thought we had got away with not having to take part in such humiliating but hilarious activities until Luis and Ronan were called up for a game and we were picked to play too! Hannah and I had to put our nappy training into good use and raced to put a nappy on them both. It involved many many many fits of laughter but everyone was really encouraging of us taking part-it’s lovely to feel so welcomed.

Also this week we have said our goodbyes to one of our children, Luana and her two older brothers have been adopted and left for their new home! It wasn’t long until a new little one arrived though; meet Já, once he stopped crying and realised he was in a safe place now where he can play with toys and be loved dearly I snapped a few pictures of him! So far all I can say is he’s 1 year old and loves his food; he will eat his dinner even quicker than Ariel (which is incredibly impressive!).

In our free time this week we also decided to go do further exploring in Piura. After spending some time in the local park the other day we returned to see what was going on there today. There were stalls selling items and food, with entertainment from dancers, which were very impressive. Hannah and I would love to be able to do some traditional dancing whilst in Peru, despite having two left feet! At the park there is a skate park, I felt like I was 13 again, spending my time at the local skate park with Hannah Beech watching everyone do their impressive tricks.

 

As we couldn’t tell what meat was being cooked we went elsewhere for lunch!

To practise our Spanish we decided a trip to the cinema would be a good idea too, we saw ‘Vacaciones’ which was hilarious, despite not understand what they were saying, I really recommend seeing it for those who love a good comedy!

Our Giant Popcorn!

Here are some other pictures from our Sabado exploring and an exclusive mototaxi ride in Piura…. 

LOOK HOW TALL I AM HERE!!!

A Church in Piura