Sally´s figured out how to use the blog!

Hola from Ayacucho, high up in the Peruvian Andes! I´m coming to the end of the three week project staying in a house with local and international volunteers and working with over 40 boys in the local orphanage. Ayacucho means ´The Soul´s Home´in Quechua, the indiginous language and the town is really pretty and colourful with lots of traditional markets and panpipe music. It´s bizarre that (cold!) water and electricity comes and goes to our house but we can pick up Wi-fi in the bedroom! On our days off we´ve been on some amazing trips into the mountains, really off the beaten track.

Working with the boys has been fun but hard work! Due to their backgrounds and huge number they are often completely out of control. Quite a few of our activities have decended in chaos and trips out involve trying to stop them running in front of trucks and climbing onto the roofs of three storey buildings! On the other hand, in smaller numbers they can be very sweet and always want to play. I´ve also enjoyed taking few older boys for english classes every morning. They find it hard but are keen to learn so they can get jobs when they leave the home.

It´s been great getting to know a place and people for more than a couple of days but I´m really looking foward to hitting the gringo trail again with Monica. (he he only kidding - in fact Amy´s hair usually looks great! Sorry if she´s had to use the blog as an outlet for her hair anxieties, but I had to ban her from describing it´s problems to me after about a week!)

Lots of Love, Chao, Sally x

Quilmes - home to the Salvation Army children´s home and the biggest brewery in South America

Hopefully this picture has worked and you´re seeing a pretty picture of some beer bottles with Quilmes written on them - if not google ´Quilmes cerveza´ and you will!

This is only going to be a quick post, (I´m mainly doing this for you Sophie to say that my blog is a lot better than Greys Anatomy!)and will properly update when I can charge my camera battery (note to anyone travelling South America don´t be so stupid as to forget to take an adaptor)in a week.

My volunteering at the Salvation Army Children´s home is going well - the officers working there are really lovely, and there is another volunteer who is German and speaks English which is a huge relief! My spanish skills have really been tested (and mostly failed) as noone else speaks english and I´ve had to rely a lot on the international language of....pointing and exaggerated gestures! No I find that I understand a lot of what they´re saying and can pretty much follow a conversation, but am so bad at communicating what I want to say!

Umm meant to write more but got carried away looking for the beer picture and now got to go - sorry! more soon x

Uruguay

Just spent a great week travelling along the Uruguayan coast! We´ve witnesssed an all time low in cheapness - due to the foot and mouth crisis a few years ago their economy (which previously had been strong) crashed, and so it´s really cheap for travellers. Lots of Argentinians go there on holiday - it´s a bit like France for us, you just hop on a ferry and in an hour you´re lazying in the sun!

We went to a few different places in Uruguay, so here are a few of the best snaps!

For Semana Criolla (aka easter week/week of turism as its known in Uruguay!) we followed the locals to a rodeo fayre thing. It was cool and quite scary as the gauchos (cowboys) tied unbroken horses heads down and then tried to stay on for the longest time. Here are some gauchos for you!



Another highlight for us was Montevideo (the capital to those not familiar with South America). We were expecting just another city, but it really surprised us - there was a relaxed vibe and good food!
Strolling through a park one day we came across some impromptu park performers:



There was lots of time for relaxing


And a few strange sights

Yes you´ve seen right - this artwork is called ´Los Dedos´ which literally means the fingers!

And finally the intrepid travellers on Easter Sunday after our egg hunt!


Well this is the last entry before Sally and I leave for our separate voluntary adventures for three weeks - she´s off to Ayacucho in Peru and I´m venturing out to the Buenos Airian suburbs. Don´t worry though Sally has promised to give at least one account of her time, and I´ll update when I know what I´m actually doing there!

Chao! x