Building Bridges between Peru and England

Check out the latest Peru's Challenge newsletter at http://www.peruschallenge.com/apr07.htm

Building bridges from Peru to England
A group of English school boys from the Exeter School Canoe Club are planning a school trip to help at Pumamarca in July/August this year while also challenging the fantastic rivers of Peru.
The boys will be spending five days at the Pumamarca School to build reservoir tanks and a water system to supply the school with safe drinking water. That is a pretty amazing school trip when you think about it, we used to go 20kms down the road to Camp Cold War and play spotlight and volleyball!
The boys had written some letters with photos for the Pumamarca students and it was my job to coordinate a response, complete with pictures.
As it turned out getting pictures of the boys was pretty quick and easy, but the girls took much longer as a major hairdressing and beauty session was required before the photo shoot. This was followed by meticulous checking of each picture and requests for re-shoots if a smile wasn't right or hair was out of place.
Everyone was happy in the end and the kids are obviously looking forward to getting to know their English counterparts. I just hope those English boys appreciate all their effort!
(Written by Miles. Volunteered for four weeks with his family)

The girls get ready for the photo!

Surf is looking good!

http://magicseaweed.com/Lima-Surf-Report/496/

Thunderboats are GO!

Yes thats right, the boats are on their way!

Fred, Pete and Paz met at the airport depot and helped load them in on Wednesday

We loaded the kit into the crate ourselves (taking special care to drag Matt's new paddles all the way across the carpark) and tied them down with a throwbag.

For you fact fans in the canoe club - The kayaks will be stacked sooo high they could be as high as 150m off the sea, the cargo ship is about three times as big as the "MSC Napoli", and may have to navigate 30ft seas on the way to Lima. ;-)

The crate had plenty of room, and smelt alot like fish. Just working in there with an open door was boiling! -I wouldn't be suprised if when we open the crate we find a heap of melted plastic!


This guy is driving the crate to Bristol. From there it is heading to Antwerp, then on to Miami before heading down the coast of South America (I presume after passing through the Panama canal).



And off they go!