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Hi everyone!
It´s been a long time since we last blogged so we´ll try to be brief.
After we last wrote, we left Cusco to go to Puno, a city on the shore of Lake Titicaca. After a hilarious journey to the port in "taxis" which were essentially benches attached to the front of a bicycle, we ventured out by boat onto Lake Titicaca. Our first stop was the island of Amantani where we spent the first night with a local family, in a house without electricity or running water. All the people there were so welcoming and friendly, and they threw a party for us in their community hall for which we had to dress in their traditional clothing (as you can see in the photos!) It was great fun dancing with all the locals, and seeing everyone dressed up!
The next day we visited another island before arriving at Llachon, where we stayed the night with another family. They took us fishing in the lake (we discovered that none of us are destined to be fishermen), and we helped them to harvest yams. Once again the family was lovely, and this time we had the novelty of a flushing toilet! Our last day on the lake was spent at the Uros floating islands which are made entirely of reeds, as are all their houses and furniture. We played volleyball with the locals and then headed back to Puno.
Our tour of Peru ended the next day in La Paz, Bolivia, which took six sweltering hours to get to and included a very confusing border crossing. La Paz was very busy and intimidating at first, but we had a great time wandering the markets, including the Witches´ Market which contained delights such as dead llama foetuses and stuffed armadillos.
We spent the next 2 weeks in Buenos Aires (after missing our connecting flight in Lima and having to wait in the airport for 10 hours). Our hostel was awesome and had a pool table so we could hone our skills, as well as being in a great location. Again we spent a lot of our time in various markets (the most exciting purchase being Hatti´s leather jacket for the equivalent of only 58 pounds!) as well as visiting different districts around the city. We visited El Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes where we saw Rodin´s sculptures, and paintings by artists such as Picasso and Van Gogh which was great. The same day we also went to Recoleta Cemetary which is massive and where many famous Argentinians are buried in very ornate tombs. La Boca, another district, was full of tango dancers and colourful houses, and it felt like we were in a fairground. One afternoon we had coffee in the oldest cafe in Buenos Aires, Cafe Tortoni, which was quite posh so we felt a little our of place in our well-travelled clothes! On our last day we had an interesting visit to the zoo, which we were really excited about (especially as it was Emma´s first ever visit!). However, the conditions in which the animals were kept were not exactly luxurious, and it was really sad as they all looked so depressed! Luckily we did not have much time to dwell on this trauma as we had to catch our 13 hour bus to Posadas that evening.
On arrival we were taken to our homestays and discovered that we were going to live in neighbouring houses, as our homestay mums are sisters. They are lovely but also insane (so we fit in well!) and were really welcoming. That night we met the other volunteers who are all very friendly, and went bowling with them. We started work at the orphanage on Monday; we work 9-12 every day, which doesn´t sound like a long time but is so tiring! There are around 30 kids of various ages, and our job is mainly to entertain them before they go to school in the afternoon. So far we have taken them to the park every day which they love, and we have already learnt a lot of Spanish from playing with them. There are quite a few that we´d like to smuggle home with us, but all of them are really affectionate and seem to love us!
We are here for another 3 weeks before stopping off for a few days in New York and then heading home. Hope you are all well (and good luck to everyone doing exams!) Miss you all and see you in less than a month!
Lots of love,
Hatti, Jess and Emma xxx
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