So it's a girl

So i don't know if you know but there were two 13 year old girls that are pregnant in the orphanage... well there were two, now there is only one cause Francesca had a little girl yesterday.. So they are both fine... I think she is going to called it Julia... So here you pronounce that Hulia.

I was meant to go visit her in the hospital today but I got lazy and didn't go... So tomorrow will have to do... I might take the camera to take some pics of it... ooooo babies... i hear you squeal! I will report back if it has an extra toe or something...

Here is a pic of my Mum.

bored, bored, bored

Hi all,

To be honest i have absolutely nothing to say and no interesting stories... life here is boring... (only boring people are bored), i know, i know. Anyway here is me waiting for this stupid fuck'n blogger site to load...

Oh yeah the runaway was back at the orphanage, now she is gone again. Left with her bag one day, so i don't know where she is... and Isabel my favorite has gone back to live with her parents or someone... i didn't even get to say goodbye, so i am sad about that...

Having been playing alot of on-line bridge... and i suck at that, have realised i am the worlds worst bridge player. Oh here is some ties that tim brought for his new job in Indonesia.

Might go out to the French restaurant here tonight. It is yummy. trout... yum! and a really flash meal of trout is only $5. HA...

For your information

So about a year ago or something I remember telling some of you (definately Dave was involved in it) that llamas were a type of alpaca. How wrong I was and therefore I want to share the truth so that you all know better.

So the Llama (Llama glama - hehe) looks like this...



It is the most common and strongest among the Andean cameloids, it is generally used as pack animal, and it can carry a weight of about 40 kg. (88 lb.) in long journeys and up to 60 kg. (133 lb.) in short ones, at a rate of 26 Km. per day over rugged mountain terrain at an elevation of 5000 meters. If the load is too heavy, llamas will simply lay down or turn around and spit on the owner. Their bodies are able to make the most of the small amount of oxygen available in the high mountains, due to the unique nature of their oxygen-carrying red blood cells which have a very long life span.

They were probably domesticated around 3000 BC from their wild relative, the guanaco (see below). It has a slender shape and elongated legs, neck and face and can reach a max. height of 1.9 m.
From my personal observations it also has upright ears and eats with its head held high.


So the alpaca....


I took this pic in Peru.. I think this alpaca was pretty grumpy.
This is the other domesticated cameloid of South America. It has a smaller (max. height of 1.5 m) and more curved (fat) silhouette than the llama. Generally it has more and better fiber than llamas so this is used to make tons of jumpers, scarves and hats. Also it is popular to eat... "really sweet sweet sweet lamb" (Tim Smith; personal communication, 2006)


OK now, so the vicuña.



The vicuña is a member of the camel family. It is the smallest (max. height of 1.3 m) of the six species of camel (4 from the Andes), and is thought to be the wild ancestor of the alpaca.
The lower teeth of the vicuña grow constantly, like a rodent's, so they can eat the tough grasses. The vicuña also walks on the soles of its feet so it can flex its toes and grab on to the rocks and gravel-covered slopes.

In modern times they were almost wiped out for their meat and wool(its fiber is the finest among all the animal fibers). By 1960 there were only 6,000 vicuñas left in the wild. Now there are about 125,000 vicuñas, but they are still listed as threatened.


And lastly the guanaco.


It has a similar silhouette to that of a llama, it has a max. height of 1.80 m. It lives in a complete wild state.


So in summary. 6 cameloids, 4 from South America, 2 domesicated (llama and alpaca) 2 wild (vicuña and guanaco). The llama was domesticated from the guanaco and the alpaca from the vicuña.
So don't say i never give you anything!

I think most of you know now but here is the haps...

So i am heading back to NZ in early Nov. This is because my godchild is going to be born later in the month of November.

We have to get it out of this first....




Now Tim on the other hand is heading to Jakarta to teach english to rich Indoneasians. He really wants to do this so i am leting him... how very nice of me. Now we are not breaking up so don't worry....

And don't worry about the cricket world cup, that is still all on.

So that is all, it is as simple as that. I will be in Dunedin until the World Cup trip then i haven't decided the rest....

So today....

i have had an interesting day today. So i went to
the orphanage and cause there are some other Gringos (1 Australian
girl and an Irish couple) helping out there this week and next, I
suggested we take the girls to the park. Which was fun. We just took
the 9 littlest ones. Anyway they did some swinging and some sliding
and some falling over as kids do. And some screaming and some crying
but all was well. Then we went and had a go on a merry-go-round.
Actually I think it was Santusa's first ever experience of a
playground as she was kinda scared and kinda excited about everything
and she was holding on for dear life on the merry-go-round when the
other kids were all "look no hands". Anyway then they had a 5 minute
bounce on a trampoline and then we had Squarepants Spongebob frozen
jelly drinks... all very fun. Some more slides then off back home
with only one major tantrum from Beatriz the fetal alcohol crazy.

So all good. I was glad i hadn't lost any of them or broken any of
them so felt quite good as I was in charge. When we got back to the
orphanage there was a little hullabaloo in the door as Beatriz refused
to go in as she was still in a snot from her last tantrum. And while
everyone was talking and pleading with Beatriz etc... one of the new
older girls (~15) ran out the door and escaped. It took a second to
realise what had happened but almost straight away the Irish lad took
off after her and managed to catch her about 2 blocks away. The police
saw the debacle and caught up with them. They hand-cuffed her and took
her away. The Irish guy was beside himself as she was pleading with
him to let her go and really we don't know her story or why she is in
the home or why she wanted to leave. Was heartbreaking for him but I
think he did the right thing with no other information. I mean at
least we know she is safe in the home, and apparently she will be back
there soon.

Will keep you posted.

Peruvian Food

So the food was interesting...

I got to have some of this... Potatoes with mud as a dressing. That is what all the people that live in the country still eat for lunch everyday. Anyway it was quite nice... Tim thought that they tasted like tates with butter... I thought that it tasted like tates with mud... But nice mud. Actually the mud is kinda special. It comes from above 5000 m and they dig down 5-10 meters to get it.... I suggest you all go out to your backyards and find some dry clay like mud, reconstitute it with some water and then boil some potatoes and go for it....



Then it began to get really interesting as for tea that night we went to a restaurant that had guinea pig on the menu.... So Tim convinced himself that he want to eat that... Now don't believe him when he says that it was my idea cause as we all know I am a strict vegetarian (well more or less), and he is just trying to get out of his own guilt...



So if you can see the head on the left of the plate, the 2 dark knobs down near the neck are of course little guinea pig ears...



And here is Tim after finishing the guinea pig (or as Richard - Tim's dad - astutely called guinea pork). Tim said it tasted like duck but was regretting it already... I think this is because he just finished reading Watership Down, and he fell in love with Hazel and Fiver and the whole gang really....

How could he do it I hear you ask....

And the tour continues

OK here is another of those funeral towers just for good measure...

Here is a women with her baby and her alpaca in the back ground



And here is a young girl just waiting to dance for some money... good pic though eh?



And of course a little girl waits (for her sister to stop dancing for tourists)

Ok so while in Peru we went on this tour to some ruins

So while we were on this tour we got to see some pretty nice arid senery...



then there were these pre-inca funeral towers... pretty cool really, built about 1200 A.D. They had mummies in them originally but the spanish desecrated them when they turned up... Bloody spanish.



Because this is Peru, you could get your photo taken with a sheep and a girl.... (sounds like porn but strangely isn't - cost 50c though)

OK first things first

So Tim got so upset from all the teasing... via this website and also personal emails sent to me that he decided to do something drastic

Peru Peru I hate you...

So we had to go to Peru to do a Border crossing to get some new visa.....




well we are home now. That is good! it was a long bus ride home (well 2
actually 6 hours then 14 hours) and there was a bit of a problem with the first one as the
bus was full of gringos and the bus driver was just trying to make a
buck and he took the whole bus to a hotel in La Paz instead of to the
bus station.

Anyway i said 'can we go to the bus station now?"

and he said "no, i am not going that way..."

anyway there was about 10 of us who wanted to go to the bus station,

so i got mad and i said... "damn you this is shit... you have to take us"

and he said "no i don't i am not going to..."

anyway then i said "ok i will get the police onto you".

And he said "ok, do it cause you will lose out cause the police don't
care about tourists..."

so i lent out of the bus and i saw a police officer and i yelled to her "Miss... can you help us there is a
problem on this bus and the driver refuses to take us to the bus station".

Anyways the police stoped the bus from driving off, and they
ended up making the bus driver take us to the station, after a bit of
yelling on his part. Anyway everyone left on the bus was very happy
with me and i was the hero, but i was a bit scared cause i thought
that he might try and punch me in the face... anyway all is well... we are back in Bolivia

Tim baby