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I can’t believe it’s already been a month in Huanchaco. In some ways I guess I can because it’s starting to feel very familiar. It seems to me that it must be hard as a local making friends with volunteers just to have them leave. When we walk down the main street in town it takes a long time to get to the other end because we’re always running into people we know and then we have to stop and chat. We know all the local bars and restaurants pretty well. We’re even getting better at surfing. However, it’s time for a change. We may come back later, but by that time hopefully the weather will be sunny and warm. I still don’t understand how a desert town, near the ocean and so close to the equator can be as cold and cloudy as this town is. Anyway…

Neil’s Espaanglish Class

We’re pretty sure we’ve got another volunteer opportunity lined up in a very small town called Leymebamba. There was some miscommunication with the Otra Cosa volunteer coordinators. They thought there was something for us to do in Leymebama when it turns out there’s already volunteers there for the next month. Fortunately the guy who actually organizes the volunteers in Leymebama was in Huanchaco to meet with us. He’s going to find something for us to do, so we could end up teaching English or we might work on developing a recycling project for the community. We’ll find out when we arrive around November 8th. Until then we’re going to go to Cajamarca and some of the surrounding areas to see some touristic stuff.

As far as the last week goes it’s been busy and fun. Otra Cosa had a Halloween party. There was a fun mix of international volunteers and Peruvians. We decorated, danced, drank, talked and had a great time. We went to a local brew pub called Hops that actually had a dark beer, a dunkel. Pretty much all Peruvian beer is Budweiserish – light in color and taste. It’s not bad, but it’s not what I’ve gotten used to living in Seattle. After the beer we went out dancing until 5 in the morning at La Barra. There’s been a few small going away parties for other volunteers too. Overall, a lot of excuses for partying.

I’ve gotten some work done too. I taught my last class today. I took my three students to lunch to have them practice ordering food in English. They all ordered fried chicken, I think because they thought it was easier to just say what the first person said. I’ve done a bit more work on the espaanglisch page, although I may want to change some more things about the look when I have time. David should now be responsible for updating all the content on his own. I even got a little work done for my former U.S. employeer over the internet. Hopefully the start of my career where I can work from anywhere.

After our next volunteer project we’re considering taking December to go to Iquitos in the jungle. From there we’ll head down the Amazon river to border of Brazil, Peru and Columbia. Turns out we need visas to enter Brazil and they’re $100 each, so we’re going to try to catch a flight to Bogota, Columbia, from there. Then we’ll explore Columia a bit and work our way back down through Ecuador, finally returning to Peru and probably making a stop in Huanchaco to see how people are doing. Of course, this is a tentative plan and anything could change.