Macchu Pichu and Bolivia
Right, I guess we are not the best bloggers... Anyways just wanted to say that macchu Pichu the lost city of the incas was AWESOME! It was insane, so much more than what I had expected. Just to watch the sunrise over this majectic city was magical. We spent a few days in Cusco after that horseback riding, which was amazing and just chillin. We then headed down to Bolivia and Lake Titicaca. We spent a night on Isla del Sol and I can only say...Gorgeous. Although they tried to overprice us with everything it was pretty cheap. Then we took a 3h bus ride to La Paz which ended up being four and a half hours. It felt that the bus would topple over and we didn´t really see any roads...interesting! I guess it´s just the beginning... Oh and also on that bus ride we were all forced to get out of the buss and on to a small boat in the middle of the night when it was 5´C outside. We could see our bus on another boat further away, a very peculiar feeling!
Now we are in La Paz and will be doing the pampas in a few days. Pink dolphines and jungle tours etc. La Paz is a super poluted city but with a pretty good vibe to it and LOADS of Alpaca stuff. Just trying to figure out how we can avoide food poisoning and a bad stomach...Only time can tell =)
We really miss Peru though and Horizon. But Bolivia is pretty sweet, so far so good...!
Now we are in La Paz and will be doing the pampas in a few days. Pink dolphines and jungle tours etc. La Paz is a super poluted city but with a pretty good vibe to it and LOADS of Alpaca stuff. Just trying to figure out how we can avoide food poisoning and a bad stomach...Only time can tell =)
We really miss Peru though and Horizon. But Bolivia is pretty sweet, so far so good...!
One day left....
I'm just about to leave for class, I have two 5th grade classes with about thirty students in each class... Silencio por favor, seems to be my standard phrase. Well now there's only one day left in Trujillo. Time has reall flown by quickly, I can't believe that we have been here for two months... TWO MONTHS! Insane! At the same time it feels really good to start a new chapter and to explore Peru a bit more. We leave for Lima tomorrow night, spending 9h on a bus and then spending a few days in Lima before heading to Cuzco and Macchu Picchu. We are also meeting a Swedish friend in Lima, yes for you who know him Daniel is coming...Wihii! Going to be awesome.
It's funny how we call Trujillo our home now, it was really been a wonderful experiance and it has given me so much. Just want to say: Thank you to the city of Trujillo for this time!
Gotta go now, class starts in 15min....
It's funny how we call Trujillo our home now, it was really been a wonderful experiance and it has given me so much. Just want to say: Thank you to the city of Trujillo for this time!
Gotta go now, class starts in 15min....
Ecuador and busses
Right I think I suck at having a blogg, it's been a really long time since we (meaning mostly Louise) wrote. Just got back from Ecuador today it was really cool! Ecuador is different from Peru. Sometimes it felt like we were in Europe, it was quite cold and the city we we're in (Cuenca) was really pretty and clean. Kinda like Switzerland or Germany somewhere. We had AWESOME coffee and dark choclate. We also had a cool Cuencan drink Canelasi... NICE!
We visited Ingapirca, which is kinda of the Machu Pichu of Ecuador. Such a beautiful bus ride and we got to see small towns on the way, with Ecuadorians wearing really cool clothes! We also encountred quite a few Llamas. They we're pretty cool... haha!
But the downside was the bus rides, which took ages! We did 20 hours on the way up and decided to break up the journey on the way down in Mancora, a beach town in Peru. We kinda forgot that it was easter and that it would be croweded with holidaying Peruivians... So we got a really CRAPY room with a single and doubble bed sleeping five people... Very crowded and warm. Our bed sheets hadn't been changed for about five years or so it felt and there were insects and sand everywhere. But we got through the night and had a really nice day at the beach...!
Now we are back in Trujillo and time really flies! We only have 13 days left here at Horizone. We are going to make the most of it! Trust us we have quite a lot planned in our busy week schedule...
We visited Ingapirca, which is kinda of the Machu Pichu of Ecuador. Such a beautiful bus ride and we got to see small towns on the way, with Ecuadorians wearing really cool clothes! We also encountred quite a few Llamas. They we're pretty cool... haha!
But the downside was the bus rides, which took ages! We did 20 hours on the way up and decided to break up the journey on the way down in Mancora, a beach town in Peru. We kinda forgot that it was easter and that it would be croweded with holidaying Peruivians... So we got a really CRAPY room with a single and doubble bed sleeping five people... Very crowded and warm. Our bed sheets hadn't been changed for about five years or so it felt and there were insects and sand everywhere. But we got through the night and had a really nice day at the beach...!
Now we are back in Trujillo and time really flies! We only have 13 days left here at Horizone. We are going to make the most of it! Trust us we have quite a lot planned in our busy week schedule...
Peruvian sushi...and fresh Mango juice
So we finally got our sushi although it was very different... Mine was with passion fruit =) Interesting to taste but kinda not the "real" deal. Otherwise another weekend of surfing and some pretty cool ruins and sunburn. Actually it was the best ruins so far... Pretty cool!
Our new favourite thing is fresh mango juice. Recipe? Two mangoes and ice seriously soooooo nice! Another funny story involving fruit was buying avocado. We almost flipped when we had to go to another store and the avocado cost 1 sol... we we're like: What!? Wow expensive... Then it struck us that it cost 0,30 EUR. Hahaha! We are are sooooo LOVING the fruit here and that it is soooo cheap and AWESOME.
Tomorrow sandboarding, more on that later!
Oh yeah we are also now immune against yellow fever... Got our shots today. Haha, hope we didn't contract anything else =) Anyways a visit to a Peruvian hospital is always a new experience!
Our new favourite thing is fresh mango juice. Recipe? Two mangoes and ice seriously soooooo nice! Another funny story involving fruit was buying avocado. We almost flipped when we had to go to another store and the avocado cost 1 sol... we we're like: What!? Wow expensive... Then it struck us that it cost 0,30 EUR. Hahaha! We are are sooooo LOVING the fruit here and that it is soooo cheap and AWESOME.
Tomorrow sandboarding, more on that later!
Oh yeah we are also now immune against yellow fever... Got our shots today. Haha, hope we didn't contract anything else =) Anyways a visit to a Peruvian hospital is always a new experience!
B'days, injections and Ecuador?
So now we've been here a month, a month!!! Wow time has sure flown by quickly - INSANE!!! Our workload isn't too much but the weeks have been hectic. This weekend was spent in Huanchaco with a whole lot of surf and sun and once again AWESOME seafood!
Oh yeah, we have had a a couple of B'day celebrations here. I (Louise) celebrated mine on Wednesday and Katha had hers on Friday, so we joined our forces together and had a fiesta on Friday night - with a lot of salsa and a Piñata (the piñata was kinda a let down, but that's an entirely different story). But we had a really good time!
Otherwise topics of the week have been:
-Ecuador
-Sandboarding
-Injections
-Pick up lines in different languages
-No ice cream, churroz (awesome Peruvian street dessert) and other stuff which we like constantly eat
-Gym, yes we have actually started working out
We have kinda started planning our route so we have a vague idea where we are heading.. We know that it'll atleast be Ecuador for a couple of days during the Easter holidays. Oh yeah and we are actually progressing in our Spanish, well atleast we hope we are! Teaching is also going well, love my class and I think Johanna does the same...kinda =)
Oh yeah, we have had a a couple of B'day celebrations here. I (Louise) celebrated mine on Wednesday and Katha had hers on Friday, so we joined our forces together and had a fiesta on Friday night - with a lot of salsa and a Piñata (the piñata was kinda a let down, but that's an entirely different story). But we had a really good time!
Otherwise topics of the week have been:
-Ecuador
-Sandboarding
-Injections
-Pick up lines in different languages
-No ice cream, churroz (awesome Peruvian street dessert) and other stuff which we like constantly eat
-Gym, yes we have actually started working out
We have kinda started planning our route so we have a vague idea where we are heading.. We know that it'll atleast be Ecuador for a couple of days during the Easter holidays. Oh yeah and we are actually progressing in our Spanish, well atleast we hope we are! Teaching is also going well, love my class and I think Johanna does the same...kinda =)
Awesome Seafood!
Right...
We just got back from a weekend in Chiclayo. A city 4 hours north of Trujillo. We visited some ruins and a pretty cool museum with a lot of gold and stuff found in the ancient tombs of the Mochica. Pretty impressive stuff. The city was also close to the beach so there was a bit of just chilling there.
We also tasted the nicest coolest sea food ever. Why coolest? We ordered four different dishes of sea food and it came in a really cool way. One dish with octopus in garlic sauce came on a plate of shells on fire... Everything just looked and tasted great!!! We ate for like three hours and just enjoyed the meals...yum!
Otherwise back in Trujillo our week of teaching has begun. It's going to be a challenge but I think it's going to work out well (hopefully). The eight of us are divided into four groups, teaching different grades. I have grade 5 and 6 and Johanna grade 1. Today the beach and spanish lessons at the beach....wihii!
That's it for now!
Mario and us... An Awesome guy that we met in Chiclayo who also made the greatest seafood =)
Outing at Simbal
Johanna goes "Mochi" on us in Chan Chan...
We just got back from a weekend in Chiclayo. A city 4 hours north of Trujillo. We visited some ruins and a pretty cool museum with a lot of gold and stuff found in the ancient tombs of the Mochica. Pretty impressive stuff. The city was also close to the beach so there was a bit of just chilling there.
We also tasted the nicest coolest sea food ever. Why coolest? We ordered four different dishes of sea food and it came in a really cool way. One dish with octopus in garlic sauce came on a plate of shells on fire... Everything just looked and tasted great!!! We ate for like three hours and just enjoyed the meals...yum!
Otherwise back in Trujillo our week of teaching has begun. It's going to be a challenge but I think it's going to work out well (hopefully). The eight of us are divided into four groups, teaching different grades. I have grade 5 and 6 and Johanna grade 1. Today the beach and spanish lessons at the beach....wihii!
That's it for now!
Mario and us... An Awesome guy that we met in Chiclayo who also made the greatest seafood =)
Outing at Simbal
Johanna goes "Mochi" on us in Chan Chan...
Weekend: tsunami warning, gunnea pig, and surf
So this weekend didn't really turn out like we planned. After soooo looking forward to the beach and bbq we were just about to leave the house until one of the volunteers said that there was a tsunami warning issued along the whole coast of the pacific. We decided to not take a chance and so our beach plans kinda went down the drain... Instead we took a trip more in land which was alright. Tried out guinnea pig. Felt kinda weird eating pets but it was actually really good! We also swum in a "river" which out host told us was really big... it was more like a stream. But, hey it was good to cool ourselves, got pretty warm there. Plus there were some really nice views.
On Sunday we hung out at the beach, tried a bit of surfing and just chilled... Very nice. We also got to try out our Pisco sours, which consists of: lime, suger, pisco and raw egg. Very nice!
We have also found out that we will be helping out a school nearby with their English classes. We are the main teachers for the primary section and will be helping out the local English teachers with the higher grades. Organizing a curriculum for the whole school year is kinda tough. But I think it will work out... and it sure helps us practising our team work skills =)
Now it's lunch time and as for this weekend I think we are planning a trip to a town up north: Chiclayo. More about that later!
On Sunday we hung out at the beach, tried a bit of surfing and just chilled... Very nice. We also got to try out our Pisco sours, which consists of: lime, suger, pisco and raw egg. Very nice!
We have also found out that we will be helping out a school nearby with their English classes. We are the main teachers for the primary section and will be helping out the local English teachers with the higher grades. Organizing a curriculum for the whole school year is kinda tough. But I think it will work out... and it sure helps us practising our team work skills =)
Now it's lunch time and as for this weekend I think we are planning a trip to a town up north: Chiclayo. More about that later!
No Aqua!
Life becomes soooo much harder without water. It started out yesterday evening when we found out that there was basically no water in the city... yeah! So bathroom visits were kinda limited and having a shower non-existent. It felt a bit like back in days in Sri Lanka when there were water shortages. Anyways our spirits weren't brought down because of this. We ended up at a Karaoke bar and sung our hearts out untill 2 am in morning.
Now there are seven vounteers in the house. The two of us, three Germans (Katha, Mauritz and Simon) and two American girls Arielle and Grace. We are expecting one one volunteer on Saturday. So in other words we are going to be 10 people sharing a toilet. The other two being Luz and her daughter Emma who live here. So I sure hope this water problem gets sorted out...
Otherwise we just finished another sports class (dance) with the kids from ages 5-11. And we can only say that ALL Peruvians got groove! Yesterday we also visited a slum area that is only a few blocks away from our house. It was really interesting to see and put our thoughts and life into perspective.
Well otherwise this weekend there will be surf, bbq, pisco sours (traditional peruvian cocktail) and a whole lot of beach. We might be able to squeez in a salsa lesson. We are having an awesome time in Trujillo!
Thank you so much for the comments, it means a lot!
Johanna with friends
Singing our hearts out...!
Word of the day... flexibilty!
Right, so one thing that you have to be here is flexible. Yesterday at nine p.m I (Louise) got to know that I would have to have an English class with the students... and Johanna would accompany Luz (our hostess) and Arielle to collect the names of the children. The school is organizing a day where the kids get free hair cuts and we have to kinda see to that everything goes as planned. Later today it's sports class and dancing which they really seem to like = a happy Louise and Joahanna.
Otherwise we've been able to go to beach (whre I think we'll be spending most of our weekends), had Spanish lessons, had a peruvian bbq, figured out the transportation system and hung out with a few other volunteers. It's all good!
Otherwise we've been able to go to beach (whre I think we'll be spending most of our weekends), had Spanish lessons, had a peruvian bbq, figured out the transportation system and hung out with a few other volunteers. It's all good!
Thus the first day of "teaching" came... No hablo español!
Hmmm, not such a good way to start the first day of teaching. Last night we ended up salsa dancing till 3am. But it was soooo worth it. At the club we also apparently got to see one of the most famous playboy models of Peru... Right... Thank god that salsa came to rescue.
Anyways the classes went well, although it is not easy to have a class that only speaks Spanish and we don't... But we've got a feeling that it is going to be a lot of fun!
We have also signed up for Spanish lessons twice a week with our spanish teacher David. A really cool guy that can surprised us with his Norwegian... So soon we might be able to communicate a bit better. Otherwise we tried Ceviche today, a traditional Peruvian dish made by Luz (our hostess) mother and us. We can only say WOW!!! Kinda like sushi but with a lot of lime and spice.
Tomorrow vamos ala playa, wohoo! Which we've been dying for, gets pretty hot here
!
Anyways the classes went well, although it is not easy to have a class that only speaks Spanish and we don't... But we've got a feeling that it is going to be a lot of fun!
We have also signed up for Spanish lessons twice a week with our spanish teacher David. A really cool guy that can surprised us with his Norwegian... So soon we might be able to communicate a bit better. Otherwise we tried Ceviche today, a traditional Peruvian dish made by Luz (our hostess) mother and us. We can only say WOW!!! Kinda like sushi but with a lot of lime and spice.
Tomorrow vamos ala playa, wohoo! Which we've been dying for, gets pretty hot here
!
Lima was sweet!
Why don't ppl like Lima? It's beyond us, the city is nice and I guess it's excellent coming from Cuba. Everything tastes good here (the food wasn't the greatest in Cuba) and their is quite alot to choose from. And the best part is everything is soooooooooo cheap! The hostal we stayed at was the coolest ever, with a beautiful interior, live parrots and tortoises... hahaha loved it. Met some awesome ppl too.
We stayed two nights in Lima and then took a bus to Trujillo, where we are volunteer working. But this wasn't just any bus. For 200 (23USD) kr it looked like business class on a plane, with HQ flatscreens, air con, FOOD! and kinda of a bus stuart. AWESOME! 9h felt like nothing. It was really nice driving along the coast, beautiful scenery. Now we have arrivied in Trujillo and our home for the next two months, we are loving it! Tomorrow is our first lesson with some of the kids... Wish us luck!
We are having a really nice time... So far LOVE, LOVE, LOVE peru! Wohoooo!!!!
We stayed two nights in Lima and then took a bus to Trujillo, where we are volunteer working. But this wasn't just any bus. For 200 (23USD) kr it looked like business class on a plane, with HQ flatscreens, air con, FOOD! and kinda of a bus stuart. AWESOME! 9h felt like nothing. It was really nice driving along the coast, beautiful scenery. Now we have arrivied in Trujillo and our home for the next two months, we are loving it! Tomorrow is our first lesson with some of the kids... Wish us luck!
We are having a really nice time... So far LOVE, LOVE, LOVE peru! Wohoooo!!!!
Country no.1 Cuba
Yes we finally got this blogg going, last time we tried to logg in, it didn't go too well... Here's a quick summary of Cuba.
Very interesting and special country! Took some time getting used to the two currencies, got PRETTY fooled the first day.. But we are gringas (= Loved the music and Viñales! B-E-A-U-tiful. We will try to upload a few pics. 10days was a bit too short to see the whole country and we would love to see more! Love , love,love the casa particulars (cuban homes) we stayed at!
Cuba for us:
-Che, Che, Che and Fidel
-Only Spanish
-White bread, Rice, Black beans
-Excellent music and Salsa
-Horseback riding through valleys
-Turist stomach
-Cigarrs
-Beach
-a whole bunch of patience
-Expensive
-Awesome cars and mojittos!
That's it for now... More on Peru later!
La Playa
Viñales..B-E-A-Utiful!
Johanna in Havanna!
Why?
Why cinnamonisland? Because we love cinnamon and we come from two islands...hihi!
Snart dags...
Då bär det snart av, efter många avsked och mycket packning...Cuba here we come!
