Huacachina y Ica

Vincent told me that my blog's got too much text and not enough photos so no one's going to look at it. I better start being more disciplined and adding the travel pics! Here's the spring at Huacachina near Ica, Peru.

Here we are getting blown away in the buggy on the dunes! It was so much more exciting than I thought it would be!

The obligatory photos jumping and leaping. It's so much fun doing them and a bit addictive...

I didn't jump high enough

Desert mermaid... I feel a bit beached like her, too, sometimes living in Lima with no rain...

Go Vincent!!!

Turtle living in the hostel garden

We did a pisco and wine tour on the Sunday... looks a bit wild west...

The "rustic" wine making

Microbus Driver (4 Febrero 2011)

Catholic images
First aid kit
Stickers of Jesus and Mary
Fading away
An ancient dash board cover
The brown carpet faded to camel
A bottle of water for the engine
Sticker peeling off and jaggered
A newspaper with lurid images
A screw driver
Ready at the steering wheel
Jesus swinging
Off the rear view mirror
The gear stick long
And covered in tubing
A prayer
A ball mirror in the corner
To see distorted passengers
Dust in all the seat corners
Duct tape holding up the steering wheel
A dropping seatbelt
We stop and start constantly
So he reads the newspaper as well

Javier Prado, one of the busiest roads in Lima, looking quite peaceful in this shot. 

(We arrived one month ago.)

Why the Chameleon?

Ok, so this is a toad, not a chameleon, but you get the idea... (Vietnam, 2010)

A chameleon is an animal that's an expert at blending into it's environment.

I was travelling in Turkey for a few days at the end of 2006 and a fellow traveller adorned me with the name "Chameleon" after a few days travelling together. 

I won't pretend to be the world's greatest chameleon, and it's pretty bloomin' hard to be a chameleon when you're a rubia gringa (blond foreigner) living in Lima. But, the ability to be a chameleon is something I value in travellers and people who work abroad. My guru of the idea would have to be Paolo Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Not the easiest book in the world, but if you read it it will change your attitude towards poverty and community development forever. I strongly recommend it. The key point is that you don't travel to try to change the world, it's better to try not to impact on the culture's you encounter. And the best leaders for change need to come from within the community, not from some external expert. That's not to say there's not a place for best practise community development. (OK, this is where I don't want to go, I don't want to start preaching, because you never know where this sh*t will end up...) 

Being an Aunty

Well, I've been an aunty for almost a year now!
I'm trying to be a good aunty and send postcards.
Angus learnt to crawl a few days ago.
I think I'm just a typical, proud aunty!
If I come back to Australia sooner than later
Then it'll be because it's hard to be a far away aunty
Everyone's so far away
And I've been so far away for so long
But I'm an aunty now
I have to take the responsibility which isn't much

Just to give a little love...

Too many luxuries too fast (23 Enero 2011)

Caption: This is a picture of my mum and I in Sapa, Vietnam January last year

Marakuya* juice seduces my taste buds                   *Passionfruit
The maid does all the washing and cleaning
The taxi or bus takes me to work, chauffered
I have a three course meal every lunch
For small change in my country
I'm busy at work and they speak English for me
Because my Spanish is useless
In the wealthy suburbs
They're hosing the dust
And watering their desert oasis gardens
Whilst a few kilometres away
People don't have water pipes
I relax on leather lounges in the cinema
And enjoy our luxurious penthouse
Where the doorman lets me in everyday
Even with the elevator
Ready and waiting
The mangos are less than 50c a kilo
And my life's as juicy as them
If I don't take the little changes
For granted too quickly
It's my mum's birthday today

First Week at Work (21 Enero 2011)

                                              View at Miraflores, Lima, Peru

The air freshener
Gives me headaches
A guy hammers marble
A few feet from my desk
Construction of the building
Hasn't finished
The pollution makes me oily
And my eyes red
I sprained my ankle on the uneven paving stones
The fluroescent lights
Hurt my head
And highlight the pollution's damage
To my skin
When I go home
The hammering doesn't stop
There's another construction site
Neighbouring us
And in the evening
My housemates hammering on

First Impressions (18 Enero 2011)

                                  My first site of the outskirts of Lima, welcome to South America!

Lima
New sites, sounds, tastes
Rich and poor, tooting, construction
Cebiche, potatoes, pollo*                                                          *chicken
Immaculate women and women with high cholesterol
Too much pollo y papas fritas**                                                **Fried potato
Machismo men stare at you
Like you're a piece of meat
Being ripped off
And bargains you're ashamed of
American music and all other kinds
Taxis with crosses
Taxis who drop you off in the wrong place
For entertainment
Diarrhoea, constipation
Running late for everything
Nothing sleeps
You struggle to sleep
As the outside world
And a flood of Spanish words
Crowd your thoughts
And you struggle to find direction
Welcome to the New World