Canada - Ottawa

Ottawa is a very pretty city. The river was very fast flowing.

Nice parks and lots of trees.

This is one of the government buildings and there were lots. Nice old architecture.

I got to see this lock open to let the boats come through.

A very old church.

Yes more government buildings.

Got to see a lot and had a wonderful time here.

Canada

Guess I had to stop somewhere on the way. So why not Canada? First stop Montreal. And some great music to take in.

These guys had a great sound. Very acoustic based, good smooth sound you would like girls.

Lighting was great for this French based band.

Yep another good one.

Awadi.... Fantastic

The big city has a lot to offer including a lot of new buildings.

Yes Maria, I even found time for a good coffee. But I was amazed that I could not find

Any pancakes to go with the maple syrup.

Saw a squirrel in this park but I was to slow to take a pick.

Beach in Peru

Well it was high time to get back to the beach and some surf. And what surf, it was great! Only problem is it breaks left and not right. But that didn't stop me getting out and having some fun.

View out my hostel window.

The small town of Huanchaco by night.

Met four Ausies. And went to a place called Chicama.

Chicama, longest left hand break in the world.

Two kilometres on the right day.

Had an awesome day.

Our surfing tour guide. Carlos. Great guy.

Then he turns into the guitarist in the band.

Got the CD girls!

I even tried surfing on the local fishing boats.

Called a Totora.

Sunset over the water nice.

Fathers day came early here. 

They build these frames out of Bamboo and load them with fireworks.

Last sunset was muy bien!

Carlos took me to a family birthday party on my last night. 

Music and people were great.

Nice view to leave on.

The Amazon

I flew to a small place called Puerto Maldonado. Then took a boat to my lodge down river.... Nice! The staff were very helpful people. My small amount of Spanish came in handy here as less English was spoken once out of the big cities.

Flying in over the snow covered mountain's.

Massive river system. Starts in Peru in the west 

and ends on the east coast of Brazil.

The town. I was only here long enough to take the pick.

Tour of town on the back of his bike.

The lodge.

River was fast and furious. 

Paddled kayaks to monkey island and

 didn't need to work hard to get there.

The monkey's were fast and cheeky, climbed up on one of the girls and opened her bag and stole two packets of biscuit's, then flew back up the tree.

Spent a lot of time on one of these boats.

 But the best time was the game of volleyball each afternoon with the happy staff. Was great to be down from the altitude and be able to run non stop for an hour.

Final week of work in Cusco

It was a great week to finish on with everyone getting stuck into the work and completing a lot of the project off. It was a bit hard to get Marco started on Friday as Thursday was a celebration day in town and he parties hard! We had a new girl join us and to our surprise she was great with a hammer and a saw. Well done Simi!

A great day at lunch with Marco our foreman.

A great worker and a good friend.

This is what makes it all worth while, the beautiful ninuos!

Work is done time to head out.

A beautiful city by night.

Yes we even tried coui.....guinea pig.

The team did a good job of this wash basin.

My better side.

 It has been a great experience to just stop and do this work for someone who needs it. Very humbling. Thank you to all this I worked with, you are wonderful personas!

Tres semanas Cusco

So another week down, it really feels like my time here is speeding up and I'm on the down hill side. I have felt a bit home sick this week but I had a beer and got over that fast. Have met a few local people this week and that was great. Living in the city is a bit of a tourist spot so you don't get the level of poverty that is here. Other than people begging and trying to sell you stuff. However the project we are on now is out a bit and it is much more of the real area in Cusco.

A street in the suburbs

The orphanage we are working at. Home for girls out of the sex trade. A better life now.

A street protest for better conditions.

Was a nice full moon.

Fire works most nights in town.

The streets are always full of parade's.

The main square by day.

Fixing the roof of the cooie house.

Week two Cusco

I have had a great week just living in this environment. The town is quite peaceful and has a sense of strong history. Lots of Inka buildings.

It also has a few good coffee shops. I'm OK here Maria!

On Sundays they fill the streets and celibate anything.

This week was the Ginny pig.

Our team leader and working mentor. Marco. Who is so pace and easy going.

It is a real pleasure to be able to work with him. When we finish for the day he goes on to do work for family's. A true gem. He works for about 30Sol. A week. Not much at all.

I took this pick out of the window of the clinic we painted. It just struck me with the homes all on top of each other. People here don't have much, a lot don't even have hot water for showers.

The finished product. Looks good hey. And yes I painted the name.

Cusco at sunset over the square. Very nice place to be.