Adios Ecuador - Hola Peru!!!

So in a couple of hours we fly from Quito to Lima and then tomorrow head by bus to a small town on the west coast of Peru called Pisco.

In Aug, 2007 an earthquake (7.9 on the richter scale for the A Level Geography students!!) devastated the town, destroying 80% of homes and killing around 600 people. We are going there to work with a charity called Pisco Sin Fronteras who work to improve the living conditions of the families affected by the earthquake by building houses, building and working in schools, building sanitation units and they are also working on a bio-diesel project. They have a website - www.piscosinfronteras.org - where you can find out more info on the organisation and the town if you want :o)

We are going to be there for 2 weeks and we are not sure how the internet access will be so we may not be able to contact you until start of dec.

So as we leave Ecuador - a few observations:

- The people are very friendly and helpful even if language is a barrier, when we braved the local bus to try and get to the 'Mittad del Mundo' a few women on the bus could see we were a bit lost when we had to change buses and practically took us by the hand onto the right bus - they just looked so happy to be helping!!

- There is no such thing as sexism here - the woman do as much work as the men and the whole family pulls together to get things done. In the markets we saw men and women selling animals and carrying heavy loads and when we stayed with Delphins family in the Jungle every member of the family was helping out to feed us and make sure we were happy!!

- People are very industrious and entrepreneurial - they make and sell what they can from local materials and crops to make a better life for themselves. There was lots of small businesses and innovative ways of doing things.

- The country is so varied in its landscape. The fact that we were in the jungle, climbing volcanoes, sailing the seas, chilling on beaches, relaxing in natural hot springs etc etc etc was amazing. So many totally different experiences in one country!! 

- The cities are pretty developed - internet is fast, most people have mobiles and the cars are pretty good!! When you head to the country things look a bit less developed but most people still have mobiles and Coke is everywhere!!!! Cuenca was the most affluent looking city that we visited. Its where the Spanish landed first when they invaded and they built some very impressive buildings that you dont see in other cities!!

- Health and Safety clearly hasnt hit Ecuador!! When we went to the fireworks in Cuenca the display was huge. The picture (right) shows the structure that the fireworks were built into and people stood only about 1/2m away from it!! A piece fell off and came pretty close to us but there didnt seem to be that much of a fuss!!!
There was also lots of travelling in the back of pick up trucks - clearly no seatbelts required and we saw lots of trucks with as many kids and animals as you could pack into the back of the truck on the way back from the market!!

- Tom spotted a useful trick for referees when we were watching a few matches which he thinks would go down well in the Premiership!!! When a free kick was awarded outside the box the first thing the referee did was spray a circle around the ball at the location of the free, he then sorted out the wall and sprayed a line for the players to stand behind - all very clear and efficient and no room for cheating!!!