Inca Project Supervisor Daniel O’Shea updates us on the latest news from the Inca Projects

Inca Trail - As always the volunteers on the Inca project have kept up their hard work on keeping the Inca Trail in Sicre (not far from Huyro) clear of vegetation. The volunteers have been working with machetes and pruning sheers to carry out this work. The work aims to protect artifacts which may be present on and around the Inca Trail.
 
Cochapata Mountain - Volunteers took another few day trips up the mountain and into ‘sector 3’ of our explored areas to search for more Inca ruins. Although there was not as much found as on some previous trips, any structure that was previously unknown was recorded by means of GPS. This information is then relayed to the INC (National Cultural Institute) via our resident archaeologist Jhon Valencia. The cleaning and clearing of ruins continued in Sectors 1 & 2.

Volunteers working on Cochapata Mountain

Incatambo & Amaybamba - Our close relationship with the INC had enabled us to visit and help maintain previously restored ruins in Incatambo. Volunteers also got the opportunity to visit and help clear ruins in Amaybamba. It was only after a local farmer approached the local INC watchman about ruins on his land that we were made aware of these structures. There will be more exploration and field work programmed in the future in this area.
 
Visit to Te Huyro and Huaymanmarca - Volunteers were taken for an afternoon tour of the local tea factory. Although it is not running on full capacity and hasn’t been for many years the volunteers got the chance to see how the tea manufacturing process works from picking the tea leaves to seeing the tea bag being boxed. Volunteers also got the opportunity to visit Huaymanmarca, an Inca sacrificial site not too far from Huyro.
 
Community House - The main development in the community house this month was organizing an ´Archaeology Area´. This included putting up maps and a white board where our archaeology lessons can be held. We also arranged our books into an archaeology section.

Breakfast at the Community House

Archaeology Lessons - The lessons with our resident archaeologist Jhon Valencia have included ´an introduction to archaeology´, ´ceramics´, ´Quipus´ and general ´question and answer time´ regarding Inca and pre-Inca cultures.
 
Sports - With school starting up again in March we have been able to arrange local soccer matches between the teachers in the local schools and the volunteers on the Inca project. There is also the opportunity to play volleyball with the locals too. It really is a great way to get to know the local people and to practice Spanish. Volunteers also have access to the local outdoor swimming pool at Huyro sports center.
 
Inca Social - All the Inca volunteers were treated to a half week in Cusco where they got to visit a few Inca sites including Raqchi, Sacsayhuayman and Q´enko. Projects Abroad arranged free entry to all the sites through the INC.
 
Volunteer Social - This was held in Urubamba and all the Inca volunteers attended along with other volunteers from Teaching, Care and Sport programs. The evening included a buffet meal for everyone and afterward all enjoyed a few games of ‘sapo’, a popular Peruvian game.

Daniel with local kids

Click here for more information about the Inca Projects in Peru

By Richard Munday, Alumni and Desk Officer for the Conservation Program in Peru

For nearly three years we have been trying to get our foot in the door – so to speak – with the community of Palma Real. Palma Real is a relatively new community, only about 100 years old really, which was set up with the work of Catholic priests that came to do missionary work in Peru and the Amazon.

The Indigenous people of the lower Madre de Dios region naturally lived in small groups with a few families in one place then a few more in another and so on with the main hub in one place, far away from large rivers and lakes. But when the priests came, the first thing they did was round-up all the locals and move them into two areas. One is called Palma Real (with around 300 people living there) which is located about one and a half hours further down river from the Taricaya reserve and one called Infierno, which is located about one hour from Puerto Maldonado itself and is accessible by road.

Volunteers arrive in Palma Real

Typical house in Palma Real

Over the years many NGOs have entered the community with good intentions but little foresight. One of them actually built a cement water tower and fitted tubing to a local fresh water creek, gave them a generator and water pump but failed to provide a daily budget for them to run it all so now it stands mainly unused. The early ones insisted that the community hold on to their native activities and try not to change at all whilst they were giving them western clothes, western food and many other habits that westerners have developed. So the community has developed a mentality of reliance.

Now as you all know this is not the philosophy of the Taricaya reserve. We help those who help themselves. So our first attempt to work with them failed as we were not insistent enough with them. In 2005 we planned to build a dam for them so they could use a water wheel to pump their water. All we asked is that they cut the wood for the structure. We gave them our chainsaw, gasoline and all the measurements. The chainsaw was returned a month later with no sign or news of any wood. So about six months ago we began trying again, this time with something a lot smaller in regards to work but that should have a huge visual impact and give them more confidence in us as well us in them.

So far our plans and negotiations are going very well, we have been speaking with the teachers of the community who seem to have a lot more power in the town (The community actually has a president who rules over the town but seems to be more of a puppet of the teachers) and have decided upon an interesting new idea. Palma Real has a really bad rubbish problem, with no collection system or a place to dump it, so most it goes on to the floor and is left there which you can imagine is a horrible sight. Using one of our donkeys and a specially designed cart we are fairly certain we can help them set up a system of rubbish collection and transport to an area away from the town and we have also managed to get the community to promise to cut the posts for the donkey enclosure and plant them as well as organise a “Community Day” where with the help of Taricaya volunteers, staff and hopefully most of the community we will clean the whole town of rubbish, so in one day they can see the huge difference a clean community can make.

The future of Palma Real

In fact all Taricaya will have to do is put the wire onto the posts, bring the donkey and spend a few hours explaining and showing the community what the donkey can do, which will be done via a variety of demonstrations.

This work will be started and should be completed early next month as there isn’t a huge amount of labour. Then we hope that they will see that we can provide sensible, long term solutions that cost them next to nothing and begin to trust us a lot more and begin putting more and more cooperation into our ideas. We will also begin to slowly start suggesting bigger projects, which as you can hopefully tell means we are potentially embarking on a major new route for Taricaya and hope to bring you some great news on this project soon.

Learn more about Tariaya and our Conservation Program in Peru HERE

By Will Harper, Program Advisor

With a large number of volunteers scheduled to travel abroad this summer to the far reaches of the globe, the Consumerist blog has an important cautionary tale I would recommend to anyone who has not yet purchased their plane tickets for their summer adventures to read.

As the blog post details, several students from University of California San Diego were scheduled to go to Ghana with another volunteer organization and they bought their tickets to Ghana for a “bargain” through lastminutefares.net which turned out to be a front for a scammer.

With airfares reaching historic highs to places like Ghana, Nepal and India, everyone is in search of a bargain but the moral of the story is, like so much in life, if it seems to be to good to be true it probably is. My advice is to make sure you go through a trusted internet site/broker or travel agent, buy directly from the airline or book your flights with the Projects Abroad Travel Team (North American or UK). All of you headed to the developing world will have amazing experiences and memories from your time there but getting there and sorting out your plane tickets will be your first hurdle!

By Elisa Glangeaud, Deputy Director of Projects Abroad’s French Office

At my arrival at Phnom Penh, I was welcomed by the smile of Petro, our director for Cambodia and by the incredible heat, which I appreciated a lot after the last snow falls in Grenoble, France!!

We immediately dived in the heart of Phnom Penh on the way to my hotel, among the famous Tuk-tuk (taxi motorcycles) and a myriad of motorcycles driving in front of us and in all directions.

And the day after my arrival, I also crossed an elephant which was slowly going home among the cars…

Fortunately, the delicious Cambodian food enabled me to recover from my jet lag and culture shock! And after a few days, I could ride on a motorcycle without any problem, according to the Cambodian style. I was even able to smile at the little babies in their mother’s arms, who were quietly sharing the motorcycle together with their father, sisters and brothers.

Life is always different elsewhere and our state of mind tends to adapt quickly to local habits, which is one of the charms of travelling…

I met some very nice volunteers who were very involved with the children at their placements and were always looking for new ideas to make their life better. I had a dinner with them on the roof of their apartment in Phnom Penh. We ate with candles due to a power cut and it was a great shared moment.

Elisa with our Cambodian office

The Cambodian team is also very active. They all work hard and try to develop the placements, which is not always easy.

Cambodia is a fascinating country and it is difficult to get bored there. Everywhere you go you can admire gorgeous pagodas with impressive Buddha’s statues, decorated with orange scarves, necklaces and incense presents. You can also cross paths with many Buddhist monks who survive on the generosity of the local population.

And when you get out of Phnom Penh, you can immediately appreciate the quiet landscapes of the countryside, with nice coloured stilt houses with children playing on the stairs. I particularly like the peaceful vision of the buffaloes drinking in the river at the sunset.

And if you have the chance to go to Angkor Wat, you can then discover one of the most fabulous archaeological sites in the world. I would have loved to spend days there, to get lost in the exuberant vegetation and to change myself in a kind of Indiana Jones and find new temples or lost cities…

My only disappointment during my trip in Cambodia was not being able to eat spiders. I haven’t crossed any spider to eat on my way as I had read in my tourist guidebook.

I will certainly have to come back!!