My First Odyssey

I am sitting in an internet cafe in Lima, staring at the computer, trying to waste time before my flight back to the UK, and thinking how strange it is that some ´barrios´ in Lima can be so far removed from Peru, so Americanised ,so rich.
Last night i stayed in the Roosevelt Hotel in Miraflores, Lima. It, with its cable tv, huge buffet breakfast and rich important business men clients is only part of something much bigger that seems to have affected this district in Lima.
I walk out of the hotel and head to the restaurantes for lunch. I pass bookstores selling hardback copies of arty novels and fashion photography books. I pass by large houses with huge metal gates and security men. As i walk alone i do not pass wormen and children in traditional Peruvian dress, old men with no teeth asking for money. I instead come across men in smart suits, shiney shoes, women in designer clothes, not a hair out of place, full makeup. When i reach the restaurants i do not find a range of Peruvian dishes, Cerviches, Saltados, but posh Italinas, a McDonalds, TGI Fridays, Chilis and Starbucks. Instead of the usual Peruvian platers i get Big Macs, Fajitas and Mochaccinos. The cars that drive past aren´t taxis, all small and bashed up, but Land Rovers, BMW´s and Mercs. I have stepped out of Lima, Peru into North America.
I decide that out of my chouce i will go to Chili´s (the only one that we don´t have back home - i don´t think). I sat there, huge glass of coke, chips, onion rings, over friendly waiters, half expecting to be spoken to in American English and having to order English named food, ´Cajun Chicken´ for example, with a spanish accent. I look around and see that everyone here must be spending at least 30 soles on a meal each, families 200 plus, an amount of money that could easily feed a family for 2 weeks. I conclude that this is anywhere but Peru.
Because i am a gringa (the word they use in South America for westerners) and on my own, people seem to have been given the license to stare at me. I look around at the staring eyes. No one in this room looks Peruvian. No one in this huge restaurant looks remotely related to an Inca or other native culture. The man standing outside as i came in, asking for money, looks Peruvian, and this here is the issue!!
I hereby ask the question, a question that has come to light many times over my time in Peru, a question that is only asked with thought and reflection: why are the Peruvians who are rich not REAL Peruvians? Another question: why on Peruvian tv, Peruvian shows, are there not REAL Peruvians? Let me clarify that by real Peruvians i mean indiginous Peruvians, Peruvians who don´t look like they could have recently moved here from the States or Europe.
I don´t actually have answers to these questions, and they are not rhetorical, i would like answers, i would like someone to explain to me why this happens, what is going on, why the Peruvians seem to be hidden in their own country!?!
If anyone wants to shed some light on this, feel free to do so!
Right, i´m off to a Pre-Inca pyramid ruin, hopefully there i can find what i am looking for (dead or alive) a real Peruvian in Peru!

Hey!
Right, its my last week in Peru, not even that, and i am starting to HAVE to think about going home. It is a really scary prospect, let me tell you that. It doesn´t seem like it has been 5 months at all. Last night i was looking at my passport. Every in and out of any country in South America is documented in there and it is something that will remind me where i went and how far i have really travelled.
So yeah, coming home. I am really not to sure about it. I have been joking for weeks that i will have to be dragged on the plane kicking and screaming like a little child, but now i am not too sure...very difficult. As i have said before, half of me wants to stay in Peru, continue working with the kids in the market and in the school, keep improving my spanish (and my tan) and continuing to not really have too many responsabilities. The other half of me wants to see my family, my friends, just random people i see regularly walking to work or while walking down Sutton high street. That part of me is the same part of me who sent a long list of food to my mum as a HINT of what i was craving...that part of me does want to come home. Think of it like a Jekyl and Hyde kind of thing, only i don´t know which one is good and which is bad, if either. But all in all i am torn!
Enough about that...still got a few more days to decide...i come back on the 17th of this month for those of you who didn´t know or were wondering.
Oh... just as a travel up date, i left Cusco for a few days to visit Nazca, Ica, Huacachina and Pisco. This places are all near the south coast of Peru (in the Peruvian desert). Its winter over here, but of course being a desert its BOILING here. I will put the pictures up soon, when i find my camera cable, which hopefully is somewhere in Cusco!
Right, i better go, i think this will be be penultimate blog post, or at least my last in Peru most probably. The next one will be all the things that i have learnt in Spanish, expect a long one!!! Take care, see you all soon! Emsxxxxx

I really really can´t believe i am back in Peru and back in Cusco. Its a really wierd feeling to know that i have done a round trip and almost ended back where i started. It also doesnt feel like it has been nearly 4 months and that in about a months time i will be back in England and back into my life back home. This feeling doesn´t (to be honest) fill me with a lot of joy, but i think people would be slightly confused if i didn´t get off the plane that i am to take!
I am now at the end of my travels, as this next bit is the volunteer work part of my trip. It feels really strange to be able to put my clothes in a draw or hang them up, and to actually have a place to sprawl my stuff.
At the moment i am living with a Peruvian family. Marta is the mum (she also organises everything for the new volunteers), Alipio is the dad and he is bonkers and really funny, and then they have a 10 year old daughter called Paula, who is also really lovely. The whole family are really sweet and really welcoming, which has been really good. Also the fact that i am living with a family who can´t speak English has done wonders for my spanish - even if my spanish teacher has not!
My volunteering is brilliant! For anyone who ever even considered volunteering for 2 minutes i would strongly recommend it! I have two jobs out here. Some mornings i go to a school to work as a classroom assistant. The school i work in is really rough as the kids are really poor, some have lost parents and many have some sort of behaviour or learning problem. Even though they are little monsters and the words no fighting, sit down and be quite are used regularly they are really cute and normally sweet. In the afternoons i go to a market called Molino and work in a govenment run project helping the kids whose parents work in the markets to do their homework. It also lets them have a safe place (that is not a street corner!) to draw, colour in and play games and also talk to Marta, who is a psychologist, about any problems they might have. It is really really good and really necessary! Last week i heard about a girl of 14 who was taken advantage of by a guy of about 19/20 and got pregnant. She had the child but is too young to breast feed so has to buy powdered milk (which she can´t afford!). Now her mum is pregnant and soon the whole family won´t have any money as the mum is the main earner. You hear stories like this all the time and realise that projects like Molino may help to make some kids lives better, at least that is what i am hoping! So if any of you want to do volunteer work, donate money, anything, just think that there are people out there who do really need it, its not just stories made up by big companies trying to make money out of your kindness! Right, thats the rant over. So yeah....loving the volunteer work, and the people i have met through it! Thats it for now, will update you all later!
Take care... Emmsxxxx

I was really sad to be leaving Argentina as over the last month and a half i had had some of the best times and i knew that i would miss the place! My last couple of weeks were really good and really fun!
After coming back to Argentina from Chile i took a couple of buses to Frias...a little town in pretty much the middle of no where in the center of Argentina. Frias is where my friends Diego and Naty live, who had very kindly invited me to stay with them. The town itself is small and really quite, so i had a really good week of relaxing and not spending money which was sorely needed after my week in Chile!
While in Frias i learnt how to make Empanadas, Milenesa and this stuffed pumpkin that was delicious! I also met some of Diego and Natys friends and drank an awful lot of Mate (a herby tea like drink).
When i left Frias i was really sad, i had had a really good week and had met some really lovely people, who made me feel really welcome!
After Frias, i took a bus to Salta, where i had to wait a couple of days for another bus to the top of Chile, to a place called Arica. While in Salta, i went back to the hostel i stayed in before. The people who worked in the hostel were shocked to see me!
On the Sunday morning at 7am i took a bus to Arica in Chile (something like 25hours), then a bus to Tacna (just over the border), a bus from there to Arequipa (11 hours) and then a connecting bus to Cusco (9 hours). Half of that time on the buses i was burning up with a fever and a cold, it was not pleasant! I was so relieved to be back in Cusco, i familiar place and a place where i could sleep and get better!

The original plan was to spend 2 days only in Santiago and then go back to Argentina. The main reason for this is money. Chile is about as expensive as America and pretty much English prices. It nearly killed me to be spending all that money after 3 months of being a South American and spending very little money! I needed to go to Santiago in order to change my flight ticket so that i could have longer in South America and actually do some volunteer work.
I arrived in Santiago at about 10pm and was utterly disorganised as usual so had no idea where to go and find a hostel. Imagine someone turning up at Victoria bus station at night not knowing where they were going in London! Luckily i met some English guys on the bus and they insisted on helping me find a hostel. They knew of a really good one so off we trundled. To my suprise and i would say luck as well the hostel that the guys showed me too was brilliant.
I stayed in Santiago for about 4 days, just hanging out and walking around the city. It was a really good 4 days of chilling but i felt like the money was coming out of my bank faster than it has done before.
While in Chile, i rented a car with people who were from my hostel and we drove down to Viña Del Mar, on the coast. In the summer months this is the Chilean beach to be on, but as it was nearly winter there was no swimming in the Pacific for us sadly. Very beautiful views though, so it was worth it.
All in all Chile was expensive and Santiago was just a big city with loads of evil dogs! Chile has helped me realise though that it is not necessarily the place but the people that makes things special!