Today Ana Silvia, our Desk Officer in Bolivia, took me on a tour around the center of Cochabamba which is typically part of the induction tour ever volunteer receives after they arrive and a quick walk from our office on Calle Sucre. The main highlight of the tour was getting to around Cochabamba’s beautiful main square, Plaza 14 de Septiembre.

Here is an aerial shot of the Plaza 14 de Septiembre

The Plaza is a hive of daytime activity. The Plaza is surrounded by some gorgeous colonial buildings and one side is bordered by Cochabamba’s cathedral which was begun in 1571 and is the valley’s oldest religious structure. Given its central location and prominence in the city, any political activity or strike starts here making the Plaza very busy given the Bolivian proclivity for political demonstrations! Consequently, it is a great place to people watch or even watch a mime in action!

A mime doing his thing on the corner of the Plaza

If you are a volunteer in Bolivia or just find your way to Cochabamba, I would recommend heading to the Plaza 14 de Septiembre to soak up some Bolivian culture as well as some of Cochabamba’s beautiful weather.

Why can’t it be this nice in New York now?

There seem to be two “convenient” ways to get to Cochabamba, Bolivia where our office and the vast majority of our volunteer placements are. One is to fly through Buenos Aires, Argentina and the other is through Sao Paolo, Brazil. On the way there I took the Brazilian route from Sao Paolo to Bolivia. Since it was my first time in South America, I asked for a window seat and watched the world below and what a sight! About an hour into the flight all I could see below me was a sea of green, more green and then some more green. It was amazing. With no clouds in sight, all I could see 30,000 feet below me was untouched jungle. There were no roads, buildings or any sort of signs of human kind. In this ever so globalized world of 6 billion souls, it is hard to imagine a place without electricity, TV, internet or roads but that was exactly what I was seeing pass below me. It really makes you think about how big this planet is and how important it is to keep this untouched land untouched.

More about Cochabamba and our projects in Bolivia will be coming soon ….

It seems like we are on a Peru binge here at the Projects Abroad blog!

Although this landmark deal happened in the middle of September, I hadn’t heard of it until recently when a friend from university pointed it out to me. For the back story, the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History (which I visited with Tim DeWinter, our Peru Country Director last year) has an amazing collection of Incan artifacts which the Peruvian government claimed as rightfully theirs and Peruvian national treasures.

The artifacts were originally excavated from Machu Picchu between 1911 and 1915 on the expedition led by Yale professor Hiram Bingham III, who rediscovered the 15th century Incan city.

“Paccha” or ritual offering vessel, courtesy of Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History

In return for the release of the artifacts, Yale will be able to hold onto several of the research materials but after a year artifacts from both Yale’s and Peru’s collection will go on an international traveling exhibition which will help raise awareness and interest in Peru’s past.

Following the exhibition’s tour, most of the museum-quality artifacts currently at Yale will be installed in a new museum and research center in Cuzco, Peru, which will be built by the Peruvian government to meet security and technical specifications provided by Yale.

As an art history buff, a graduate of Yale and a big fan of our Inca Projects program, it’s great to see my alma mater doing the right thing and returning these amazing artifacts back to Peru. But it is also notable that both Yale and Peru did so in a collaborative way that will hopefully expand research and scholarship.

If this is a topic you are interested in, take a look at our Inca program here.

Frank Seidel at the Open Day in Stuttgart

On Saturday, the 6th of October, we were happy to welcome about 100 people from Germany, Austria and Switzerland at our Open Day in the beautiful town of Stuttgart, which is also the home of Daimler Benz and Porsche. The special guests for the day were Peter Slowe from the UK, Frank Seidel from France as well as three former volunteers from Germany. We (Doris, Stephanie, Tanja and Michael) spent a very pleasant afternoon talking about different countries and cultures. Our volunteer Anna talked about her experiences in a Nepalese hospital, Sarah about her experiences at our Indian Model farm and Stefanie about her stay in Bolivia. Listening to them, one really felt the call of far-away places!

Though our projects are open to all age groups, most of the people at the Open Day were in their early twenties - no surprise - as all German pensioners seemed to be busy spending their day at German motorway restrooms, trying to run down Stefanie and Doris!

We are already looking forward to our next Open Day!

- Tanja Schädle

Burrito chowfest! Tom, Tommy and Kelsy enjoying lunch at the US office

Last Thursday, October 11th, we got a surprise visit in the New York office from our colleague Tommy Zhang, the Desk Officer in Shanghai, China. Tommy was taking a little vacation, visiting the sites in the city and staying with a friend across the Hudson River in Hoboken, New Jersey. He stopped by the office and we had an “authentic” New York lunch of burritos. Apparently the days of reubens and delicatessens are gone!

We really enjoyed his visit and loved hearing all his stories about Shanghai. Tommy, please come visit us again soon and I hope you had a great vacation!

Tom, Tommy and Kelsy

Brombus, the first place almost all of our Peru Conservation volunteers saw when they first arrive.
The friendly family atmosphere, the nice service we all got, the amazing food and of course all the help the Rosemberg family have given us over the years will be missed greatly.

Yes ladies and Gentleman, Brombus is no more. Over the years Brombus has slowly gotten smaller and smaller, firstly with the closure of the restaurant, then the closure of the actual hotel (It was only kept open for exclusive use of the volunteers). And now finally the whole place has been sold to a local business man.

Fernando had tried many things over the years to increase business, building a swimming pool, dropping prices and even trying to link the hotel with other tour operators. But unfortunately due to the night club la Chorza (which is just down the road and making a real noise as I write this!) has caused Fernando to move on. We don’t know what Brombus will now become. But we will miss the times we have all had in Brombus. We are of course now looking for a new hotel where volunteers can spend their weekends where new memories be created and fun can be had.

-Richard Munday

I visited Lord Malloch Brown in London today. He is Minister of State at the UK Ministry of Foreign Affairs with responsibility for Africa and Asia. He likes the idea of Projects Abroad internships in medicine, law and business. He is specially interested in making this work in India. UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown will be visiting India in January 2008 and Lord Malloch Brown thinks that encouraging and possibly sponsoring internships in both directions would be an interesting idea to promote on that visit. I agreed to prepare a paper on this, which can be passed on to 10 Downing Street in the next few weeks.

Lord Malloch Brown is a very interesting character. He was Number Two to Kofi Annan at the UN and has now had to make a transition from being an international civil servant to being a British politician. It has not always been easy for him and he has been trapped once or twice by our vulpine journalists – but he reckons he’s getting the hang of it.

The bulk of the visit was about the Labour Finance and Industry Group, the organisation for Labour Party members in business – I’m Vice-President. The broad aim of this Group is to contribute a practical business perspective from Party loyalists to policy development. We have recently established an India Study Group to work with Labour ministers on relations with the sub-continent. Labour Government relations with India generally are politically and economically important.

By the way, this was my first visit to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. A nice lady took me past the staircase which gets in all the press photos and showed me the room occupied by the top civil servant, the Permanent Under-Secretary. I’ve just been reading the Diaries of Sir Alexander Cadogan written by the man who held that post during the Second World War. Now I’ve been in his room. Exciting (for me anyway)!

Peter Slowe

On Friday, I was fortunate enough to visit the ancient site of Incallajta, 132 km east of Cochabamba, with Ana Silvia, the Desk Officer in our Bolivia office. It takes three hours to get there through the beautiful scenery of the highlands and it was a perfect trip for a art history buff like myself.

A view from the car ride to Incallajta

The ruins are set in a remote valley and rarely visited. On the day Ana Silvia and I visited, we were the only ones there! It was certainly a nice change of pace from the busy commotion of Cochabamba.

A set of ruins at the entrance to the site

More pictures and information about Incallajta after the jump

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More ruins

Incallajta was most likely built in the 1460s by the Inca Emperor Tupac Yupanqui and it formed the easternmost outpost of the Incan empire. Although it looks nothing like Cuzco, Peru at the moment, several researchers believe that is was also designed as a sort of ceremonial replica to Cuzco, the Inca capital.

The first thing I noticed was that the site is enormous as it covers over 12 hectares! The main building is the kallanka, which served as a meeting hall. Although all that survives today are its exterior walls, the roof was supported by immense columns.

Here I am in front of the walls of the kallanka and I am not a small person!

More views of the kallanka, isn’t it big?

Ana Silvia and I also did a little hiking and discovered a beautiful water fall on the east end of the site

The waterfall

Ana Silvia in front of the waterfall!

Stairway to heaven, haha!

Incallajta is truly an amazing site and I would recommend checking out the impressive ruins if you are ever in the Cochabamba area. The remoteness and scenery of the surrounding countryside are worth the trip and you get to see a part of Bolivia you would miss out on if you only stayed in bustling Cochabamaba.

Taking my total of overseas visits this year to a personal record of six; I have to confess that my visit to Peru has given me a new current favourite destination.

I started by flying to Puerto Maldonado on the edge of the Amazon Rainforest to visit our Conservation Project. Unfortunately the classic view of the rainforest canopy stretching as far as the eye can see, was denied to me by low cloud and rain, however, the view from our own 42m high canopy platform, later made up for it.

One of my first surprises was the cold! Although the rainforest remains tropical and humid throughout the vast majority of the year, occasionally cold winds blow north from Patagonia for a couple of days. Richard Munday, our Desk Officer met me at the airport bundled up in a large llama wool coat, hat, scarf and gloves (as seen in photo), which was quite a surprise and I promptly ended up wearing virtually all the clothes I’d taken with me.

Richard at the Model farm modelling (no pun intended!) the latest winter fashion at Taricaya

Despite the cooler weather I loved my couple of days in the jungle. I got to see many of the projects the volunteers are involved in, including the river turtle conservation work, projects at our pilot farm, observations from the canopy platform and mist netting birds. There was a great sense of volunteer camaraderie, with the volunteers and staff all living together at the lodge, and whilst it may not be the place for you if you like 5 star luxury, I was impressed with our new volunteer bungalows and work is about to start on a new dining area.

Equally impressive was my time in and around the Sacred Valley, our main base in Peru, and home to our Teaching, Care, Sports, Medical, Spanish and Inca Projects. Our Teaching and Care projects are officially supported by the Peruvian Ministry of Education and both our Teaching Supervisor, Claire and Care Supervisor, Yessika do a great job of developing the projects and looking after the volunteers on these programmes. All volunteers get comprehensive workshops when they first arrive to help prepare them for teaching, and have access to extensive resources, from arts and crafts materials to a teaching online database.

Suzi at a Care placement in the Sacred Valley

The Sacred Valley area is stunning, and the road to Huyro where our Inca Projects are based takes you zigzagging up the valley to snow and freezing temperatures as you cross the mountain pass, then down the other side back to a warm lush green landscape. Volunteers on the Inca Projects are continuing to clear and map the newly discovered Inca ruins and also clearing part of a traditional Inca Trail. The volunteers are also helping with projects around our Projects Abroad house and in the local village, from keeping chickens and ducks, to cultivating crops and developing teaching materials for the local school.

Like most of our volunteers I felt that my time in Peru wouldn’t have been complete without squeezing in a visit to Machu Picchu, and it didn’t disappoint. With several other temple complexes under my belt from Angkor Wat in Cambodia to Teotihuacan in Mexico, and the lesser known but amazing Tikal in Guatemala, I’m a hard women to impress when it comes to temples and ruins! However, Machu Picchu is well worth the hike (or in my case slow train journey!) and if I had to choose a country to volunteer and travel in tomorrow, Peru would currently be my first choice!

Entrance to the fair

While fall brings colder weather and the turning of the foliage, it also kicks off the fair season for me and my North American colleagues.

I started my fair season by making it up to Toronto, Canada for the two day Go Abroad Fair on September 15th and 16th.

Click below to read more from my first attempt at photojournalism!

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This is our beautiful, serene booth before practically the whole population of Toronto seemed to stop by.

Here you can see our alumni helper all-stars aka Team Bolivia in action! In the foreground is Nikita, who was a Medical volunteer in Bolivia and in the background is Sarah, the second member of Team Bolivia who was a Care and Community volunteer in Bolivia. Sarah and Nikita, thanks for all your help!

This is the damage done by the hordes at Toronto! So many boxes of brochures!

This is Rob, the Director of our Canadian office, and me talking shop after the fair at a local pub. Rob chose it specifically because it was quiet and didn’t have “annoying” karaoke. Guess what happened? You got it, karaoke and a MC with a loyal following.

As I waited in line to go through security at the Toronto airport, I snatched this shot. In a bit of Canadian flair, you are not allowed to take a hockey stick as a carry on. You have been warned!