Curitiba E

Curitiba

Few hours from Sao Paulo you find Curitiba, a clean and nearly european city.

The name "Curitiba" comes from the Tupi - language and referres to the trees, Araucarias, but that already is past. You can find Araucarias here and there, but it certainly would be possible to do more for those gigantic wonderful trees, especially plant them in parks and free spaces in the city.
Curitiba is well known for it's public transport, where you can reach each spot of the city by public busses. Well, you need a lot of time doing it. We have not spent so much time in another place in South America waiting for the bus connection. Many bus stops are made for handycappeds and the passengers are protected against the weather by big plastic tubes.
In the center there is a nice pedestrian zone with different shops.
We did not really enjoy the botanic garden, the famous hot house was empty and the garden looked like an ordinary park. But maybe things change.
We liked the Oscar Niemayer - Museum a lot. There you have different exhibitions.

It is said that the city does some campaigns as: gratis sterilisation of street cats and dogs and finding families for them. Also exchange about 10 kg rubbish to 5 kg fresh vegetables. We think that is really great and unique in Brazil.

Huancane E

Huancane

North of Titicacalake

Well, you can make a journey through Peru and visit all the places others do, as Lima and Machu Pichu. But this was not our aim, we wanted to see our special "Peru" and discover it, partly far away from tourist routes. WWOOF and "Workaway" helped us to realize our goal :))

We worked near the Titicaca lake for about 3 weeks and made some trips in the surroundings.


My difficulties:

*with a highland of about4000m. Just brushing the teeth and putting on the clothes was a lot of work that made me breeth hard, not even working in the fields.

* with the cold.
I  was waiting for the next snow, when it rained. Well, there was no snow, but the temperature must have been very close. During the day the sun burned hard, you had to protect against it not to be sunburned.






* no heating.
The people are used to the climate and to dress against the cold, therefore, because heating? We also did not have warm water, better to say: no water at all. The inhabitants wait, untill it is raining and gather the rain. There are wells and a project to connect every house to the public water pipe, but this still is future. And all that happens next to the big Titicaca lake!

* no trees, or nearly no trees.
We found cultures of eucalyptus what dehydrates the ground. But few of them. We saw different kinds of trees growing in a garden, they would grow.












* about rubbish:
rubbish everywhere, out of plastik, tins,... and the people there their have picknick in between.

Shocking for me was to see batteries everywhere,  in the water and gardens, and the people even burn them.

What I liked:

* We were in this region at the end of the year, there are lots of celebrations and customs ( not for tourists, because we were the only ones:)

When we arrived a sheep was born, we raised it. It´s mother did not want to accept the baby

and did not let her drink, therefore we had to "lie down" the sheep and keep it put to let the lamb drink. And this process several times a day until the lamb learned to eat grass. After the first days the lamb ran after us and cried when it was hungry. 

* 4 puppies were born and we could watch them open their eyes for the first time. When the good mother was killed ( probably contaminated), we fed them with potato soup, there were no meat or bones for them.

* life under simple circumstances and the perspective that we can go home in our countries.

*life with and within nature

* sunday as a highlight of the week, because then there is fair in Huancane, the next village.