El Kiwi en Sudamérica

Well, Camaná once again treated me to a great time- the camp was all "good times"In all, about 80 turned up, I left earlier in the morning with Anthony and some others to get things ready etc (and get a another sneak preview of the beach!) before the others arrived. I guess before I talk of some of the stuff we got up to I should give you a brief idea of the schedule: If you were to give the schedule one word that summed it up I’d be this: Chilled...The day started at around 6-7 to get up (or earlier- on the first day some of the guys woke up to play football at around 5 (it's alot cooler then, but still crazy) thankfully it was only the first day that was so early)After that was the time slot for a Bible reading/study, I was in the young guys group, with Ronny leading it.Then breakfast, a morning meeting with singing and a talk- THEN TO THE BEACH (from 10.30 till 1.00) less than a five-minute walkThen lunch, a siesta/nothing time (or football), then games in 2 teams, ranging from volleyball to sack races etc. for points in the competition.Then dinner, Indoor games/competitions later (a play of a bible story, a song as a team and more crazy games)Then nothing until bedtime at 10.So, as you can see, it was a very chilled schedule and not packed out at all.The people were all really friendly, and it didn't take me too long to make friends. It was a little weird at the start though, sorting stuff out in the cabin, I could kinda feel a 'who is this guy' vibe. But that passed after the first full day. It's quite strange looking back now to think how I fit into the camp lifestyle in a different culture. Normally I get more vocal back home (depending on the crowd) and here was the same, but in a very different way. The games were alot of fun, but sometime hard to understand... but they were all patient with me. Volleyball was great fun, as, for the first time in my life, I was the tallest one at camp (weird aye) so they were always passing for spikes (funnily enough the term they use for spike "matar" is literally 'to kill'). Also the games at the beach were a highlight- as my team kicked butt, and sand is always the best for crashing in. It also amused the rest of the people close by; mostly with the Sand sculpture competition and with a classic combination race, which went like this:Firstly the competitor would jump in a sack up to a container full of water, fish out a wrapped lolly, then run to the next container with flour and take out another lolly, then run up to a stick in the sand, place their forehead on the stick and run around it 10 times, run to a line and do a 'roly poly' then run back to the next team member. Some of the players didn't seem to have a high dizziness threshold, esp. Angél how fell about three time on his way back (into the crowd on the side) while trying to run straight (I wish I had it on video, it was classic..) and of course all the competitors had flour all over their faces... good times. People were always stopping and having a look (we made a bit of a scene In some ways I guess)The camp was full of characters, like this little chubby kid (I called him 'gordito' lit, little fatty- the -ito on the end is either used to talk of something’s size or as a term of endearment--I was called 'gringito' all the time) who was always a good laugh, loved singing, full of life. Ader was another legend at the camp, all the guys really (I was really bad at learning the names, as it seemed weird and out of place to ask someone once you had done so much with them and they knew your name... it was a big group as well).The beach treated us to some wonderful surf, and, strangely enough, it was different everyday- ranging from big walls of foam, to waves with a half decent break (never lasting that long though) In general the waves were powerful and really easy to body surf (some times for a good 5 metres) Unfortunately there were sometimes holes that you could walk into and (far rarer than last time) sometimes a little bit of a rip, but I don't think I ever felt it during the week (unlike at New Years). I did well on the tan... with only my nose showing signs of redness; the rest of me is "casi Peruano"(nearly Peruvian) which was a running joke during the week.One of the days some of us went into Camaná (the town itself) for a seafood delight called cerviche (fish chopped into little bits with lemon juice and a soup with it- muy rico) and some queso helado (an ice-cream typical in Arequipa), which was another culinary experience. The food here is great: Generally full of flavour and cheap (for example our cerviche meal cost 4 soles, or $2 NZ/600 Chilean pesos for those reading this in Chile) including a coke, and the ice-cream is only 1 sol (or 50c NZ, 150 pesos) I've been fortunate not to get really sick (yet) from food here, I should be more careful with my food sources really- the main problem has been my stomach adjusting to the different microbes here. All in all I’m having a great time here, I recommence my Spanish classes tomorrow, and well be working with both the past tenses (I need to learn when to use which, and how the work abit more... I know a little now). The first week went really well, with me having to cover about 200 and something irregular verbs in the present tense (I hope there isn't as many irregulars in the other tenses) and filling in other gaps: Masculine/feminine, adjectives and more. Julio is my teacher for the grammar and Juan Carlos for the conversational class. The people at the institute are really awesome, both the teachers and the students- Anyway, I better finish off now... Look after yourselves and enjoy these photos:


Some Delicious Cuy (guniea pig)
Antonio (the cook) and Ronny
Puquina in the highlands around Arequipa (I htink it's at around 3,000 metres above sea level)
At Puqunia: If you look close you ca see the ridges that the Incas created back in the day

Me as King Darius with 'Gordito' In one of the races at the beach, with Ader holding my legs
Some of the girls racing
Some of the boys: Daniel (If I remeber correctly) Cesar, Horacio, Ivan and Ader
And osme of the others (I wont even try with the names, but its a cool pic)

I'll put up some more picks this week, including ones that I haven't put up yet from my time in Chile.

posted by Nathan Sinclair @ 5:30 PM