The Fortaleza de Real Felipe

Last Friday, June 15, we arrived at school like usual. I taught my first class, a 5th grade class in the primary school. Students were learning about water by creating circle graphs (YES!! MATH!!), reading articles about potable water in the world, and completing listening activities about typical water usage. They thought I was pretty funny - acting out different activities such as brushing my teeth, washing my car, and taking a shower. :)

When I returned back to the teacher's workroom, another English teacher told me and the other teachers that Daniel was planning to take us on a trip for the rest of the day. We missed the remainder of our classes that day as he took us to La Punta, another district here in Callao.

The drive there was very interesting. We passed by many sections of Callao, including a very poor area where most houses were shacks made of woven straw or pieces of wood or cardboard. Carmen de la Legua, where we are currently living, looked luxurious compared to the conditions in these neighborhoods.

Our first destination was Fortaleza de Real Felipe, a large fort that was built in the 1700s by the Spaniards. The main purpose was to guard the coast against pirates. The whole fort was in the shape of a regular pentagon, with points that extended at each vertex of the pentagon. We took a tour of the structure, and some highlights are shown below!

My favorite part was the pirate who came to life after posing as a sculpture. The kiddos that were in the same tour group as us just loved it! We each received an eye patch and posed with the pirate. He was quite the ladies man. :)

Posing with the guards at the entrance to the Fortaleza.

Aimee and I watching the pirates come in...

We found the pirate!

In front of the Memorial to the Unknown Soldier. 

Another highlight of the tour was the view on top of the King's Tower. We were able to see two islands in the distance, as well as Miraflores to our south. Typically, Lima is cloud-covered and very grey. We have had very good luck with the weather since we arrived! As you can see, the weather is just about perfect. Friday was in the low 80s and blue skies everywhere!

An interesting part of the fort was inside the King's Tower. They showed us a room where the Spaniards kept 70-80 indigenous people. The room looked like a long hallway - about 3 feet wide and 20-25 feet long. Because of the dimensions of the room, the prisoners had to stand at all times. The Spaniards gave them food and water once a week, but there was not enough to go around. Most of the prisoners passed away of hunger. So sad.

Monique and Aimee on top of the King's Tower. You can see one of the islands to the left of them.

Leaving the Fortaleza. You can see the entrance in the middle of the picture, with the King's Tower
to the right of the entrance.

After we left the Fortaleza, we drove to La Punta. This area is the nicest part of the province of Callao. In fact, there is an entrance and exit to this area, and it is walled in! There are many shops and beautiful houses. We walked along the coast and stopped to listen to the waves crash along the rocky beach. I was able to skip a rock that Monique found, just like back in Minnesota! 

This area was a stark contrast to the neighborhoods that we passed by on the way there. It is incredible how differently the rich and poor live here in Lima. Like I said, this rich neighborhood was closed off with a wall! Here in Carmen de la Legua, the district is still developing. Some streets are very clean and "pretty" to our American standards, while others are full of construction equipment and have lots of stray dogs or garbage strewn through the street.

I will talk more about this in the future, but this strong contrast between the rich and poor here became very apparent to me while on this trip.

Walking in La Punta. It was so beautiful!

Aimee, Erin, Monique, and Daniel sitting on the "beach" in La Punta.

Rock skipping on the beach. :)

YOLO has made it all the way to Lima! The name of this ice cream shop translates to Where YOLO = Where You Only Live Once. My students would LOVE this!!