Picchu Alto

Picchu Alto is a shelter in the High Andes of Peru. Their are volunteer women that take in children, many whom have been abandoned, and ensure they have food and shelter. These shelters are in the homes of very poor families whose homes are dirt floor and one room, not a one room house but JUST one room to do everything. These houses are made of adobe and have no running water and everyone sleeps in one bed. Even though it sounds awful, at least these children have shelter from the streets and creeps.

This is the court yard for about 6 different families, you can
see the houses on the sides, the roofs near the top of the

picture are different places.

This is the toilet for all the families to share. YUCKY!

and this is way cleaner than usual because they cleaned it

before we came so it looked nicer. They usually don't clean them.



Here are some of the kids. Ones a day they come here to eat a meal.
The volunteer ladies said they get about 70 children right now.

70 CHILDREN  have to come here to eat their one meal a day because

their families can't afford it! This is not a goverment funded project, these

women just started it up between themselves and we have started to help them.

Here are the women and children as we make crafts with them and
give them shoes and little toys.

We also did face painting. I sucked at it but they loved it!

  

This is at the beginning when there was not so many children
getting their faces painted. Dakota rocked at face painting.

These are some hats the kids made as well

Who couldn't love these kids?!?!

The boy in the red is a little handicapped and he is so
awesome with all the little kids. He makes sure
all the kids are taken care of. The boy with the dog
has a skin condition due to malnutrition. All the kids treat him
the same at the shelter though!

Repelling 3rd World Country

So I over heard a Paul mention him and his friends were going repelling in Peru, so of course I had to accompany them, and since I was going everyone else wanted to come.
So 2 days later we are all heading out to this villiage about 4hrs away. Little did we know that it would be the guide/instructors first time.
After the nice 4 hrs drive stuffed in a little van, we make it to this villiage and start climbing the mountain. Now this appears to be a simple climb but may I mention we are like 3 billion times higher in altitude than Canada. It was the hardest hike of my life! I could not breathe most of the hike, and I was the one of the people more fit.
After making it about half the way up, we hear yelling so we turn around and one of the Peruvians is telling us we are going the wrong way, ok so that would seem normal, but, its not because we are following the guy who is going to drop us over the edge with our lives in his hands!

So if you ever feeling like its a good idea to kill yourself, or tempt fate, go repelling in a 3rd world country with a guide that has never brought a group before, and does not speak English (and you don't speak Spanish). After you do that, we still beat you because our guide also took over from a different guide that quit because there was a "bad accident" and he walked away from the repelling and gave it to our guide. Ya it was deadly!

I'm the white dot against the rock near the middle

Just as I'm walking over. I was the first one to go and at this point, no one really
knows if the ropes are really set up right.
p.s. nice bike helmet eh?

This will give you a little idea on how high this cliff is, but then again,
it does not do it justice.



Heres a pretty good one but theres a problem, I can not rotate it because I'm not that smart.

Maternity Ward

We brought blanket and sleeper donations to the public maternity ward that the poor women went to. These wonderful ladies were so happy to see us and show off their babies even right after they had them and were sleepy and sore.

New baby girl

New baby boy

The Best Market

Ok, now that you have seen the oh so nice market... Im going to show you what it is really like :)

2 stray dogs stiffing butt right by the meet counter (right side of picture) and potatos on the floor.

 

Stray dog crawling under the meet counter.

These here are froggies that they buy and then are blended into a shake drink right before you eyes that are buldging out of your face because you can't believe someone could ever drink such a sick concoction. Im guessing this is where which brew came from....

This is the cow.....all of the cow....nose, hooves, intestines, skin
blood, tongue, liver, brain, and......

I honestly have no idea what these are....maybe testies lol
but mom is smiling by them were i might have been staring
at them and maybe have even touch them! ha SICK!

Markets

So the markets in Peru are the best. Everything is fresh and at a good price and you only buy the quantity you need for the day/week of cooking so you have no need to freeze, actually I don't think they even have freezes in most houses. So here are a few samples of the good stuff you can see in the markets.

So to the right is fresh cheese and honey that taste devine!

Next is the vegetables and spices. They are
actually quite nice too. So many different kinds I had to touch every single one, and no I didn't wash my hands before but they were still cleaner than everyone elses hands touching it.

Just under this is some herbs and some fruit. There is tons and tons of fruits and herbs being sold in this single market all from different people. The fruit is always so fresh and juicy. I love it. And then you can get fruit shakes but they are kinda not as amazing cause they are all warm. haha

Peru and Back

This all started on October 13 at 4am when we boarded the plane at the Lethbridge airport. Since we wanted to bring a wheelchair and a leg brace to Peru, I was forced to be gibbled the whole trip there and I came to realize that EVERYONE stares at you when you are in a wheelchair.

 

Lima Airport

At the Lima Airport we had a delay so we layed all our baggage out and slept on it. I came to realize that EVERYONE stares at you when your sleeping on you bags.

Sleep in Cuzco

We rented a small Hostel that mom said was good. Little did I know that there was a STUPID parrot that NEVER shut its stupid face! It started squacking at 4:30am and never stopped. Not only did the parrot wake me up, but at night the streets were so noisy because we were right next to a night club and in Peru you party until about 6am. And no the windows don't close so we hear all, including people throwing up! EWW!!