playa blanco

the main street in playa blanco

our first stop was to check on the old turbine

one of many games of football

camp with our new friends

the kids were amaaaaazing

After SEACORPS we headed 30 minutes further up to coast to the small seaside settlement of Playo Blanco. The settlement consisted of 50 families living along a cliff that drops into the Pacific Ocean. There are two WindAid turbines installed here, both on a voluntary basis. One powers 4 houses, whilst the second powers the school (but is currently not in operation due to a short circuit in the electronics of the school). There is no running water...which meant no toliets or showers. Whilst we were not here to do any work, we were able to pitch camp on a cliff about 100 meters from their settlement on Tuesday and Wednesday night.

The families at Playa Blanco are super friendly with everyone from WindAid. The turbines here are some of the oldest and volunteers have been coming back on a regular basis for years. Because of this, the kids that live here are super, super friendly, engaging and demanding of our time! As soon as they saw our crazy green car, tons of them started running along the sand towards our camp.

We laughed, we chatted, we played A LOT of football. What amazed me most was the strength, bravery and freedom the kids expressed. Health and safety is a complete joke in Peru, but we were staying atop a 20-30 foot cliff face into the ocean...these kids ran, tripped, play fought and generally caused mischief all within feet of the edge. My heart jumped on more than one occasion.

Also, while I´ve mentioned the fact that Peruvians, for the most part, are on the small side, I couldn´t get over how mini most of these kids were! And all were so young. We played a great game of football with about eight two - seven year olds on one side against 2 of us volunteers on the other. Unsurprisingly, the little mini team won!

While these families are poor, their kids are healthy, happy and free to run around and explore a wildly beautiful landscape day and night. It really made me stop and think.

seacorp

our ride up, nine in the car no problem

seacorp camp

windaid's first boat mounted turbine

We started our trip last Monday night, piling nine deep into our trusty/not so trusty land rover for the seven hour drive north. We were headed to the desert region of Sechuria, close to Piura, Peru.

We had two wind turbines with us, in addition to our luggage, tools, tents and sleeping bags. Unsurprisngly, the car overheated within the first two hours of our trip! The ´beast´as she is affectionately known takes a serious beating driving fully loaded through the Peruvian desert (I don´t think it helps that Nick, WindAid volunteer director and our loco driver thinks all roads in Peru should be driving like a rally), and overheating turned out to be a pretty regular occurance throughout our trip. 

We finally reached our first site, SEACORP about 4am where we slept under the stars on the front porch. SEACORP is a sustainable scallop farm, that employs 34 people on a full time basis. They were the first commerical buyers of WindAid´s large wind turbines and have two installed which fully powers their seaside camp. Additionally, they have the first boat mounted turbine which gives power to two guys who sleep 20 days on, 7 days off to patrol the waters and prevent others from stealing their scallops.

More after the jump!

our week away

Hello friends!

We are back. We successfully survived our week in rural, northern Peru and had an amazing time. I'll be posting about our trip this week...there is so much to share.

It is hard to believe, but we are going into our last week with WindAid. Tomorrow is the beginning of our fourth week here and it is amazing how quickly the time has gone.

Our plan is to spend this week back in the workshop and to try and find time to see all the sights we haven't managed to check out. It should be a busy week.

Hope you enjoy this week's posts!

x
Morgan

quirks of peru

We were sitting around our kitchen table discussing some of the odder aspects of Peruvian life. I've included a few below for your enjoyment!

• Peruvian time: runs about 30-60minutes later than normal time; for our day to day life, we are told to depart at '9am Peruvian time' or at '9am real time' - makes a difference.

• Double carbs: lunch and dinner are always served with a double dose of carbs, almost always rice and usually a fried root vegetable like yuka, plantain or fries.

• Talking in films: whilst most people accept the fact that talking in films is not OK, Peruvians seem to think talking is ace. In fact, they seem to enjoy answering their cell phones, having full on conversations and then discussing said conversation with their neighbours. Awesome.

• Housing: Oddly, none of the houses here are finished. We have been told there are two reasons for this: one, they like to add a top layer to the house when they can afford it, and two, there is a huge house tax once homes are complete. This means that Trujillo is full of houses without roofs and with concrete re-enforcement bars sticking out.

• Driving: There is way to much to say about Peruvian driving, from the constant horns, the formula one style manoeuvres through the streets, the fact that lane use is always optional and seat belts are slung over the shoulder but never clicked in are just a few of my favourites.

• Guinea pig: called 'cuy', this really is pretty ubiquitous throughout Peru, in Huaraz, we saw both live and skinned/gutted guinea pigs ready to be sold. Yum.?

It is worth mentioning that in addition to the above, you aren't allowed to put loo roll in the toilet (it goes in the waste bin) and we've already had both water failure (two days) and a power cut. All par of the course here and thus far seems to only add to our experience!

day three: huaraz

to the east

halfway up, still quite a way to go

to the west, just before the rain hit

on the way back down



For our last day in Huaraz, we decided to hike to Lake Churup, set literally up a mountain at 4,450meters. The setting was as spectacular as yesterday and we were pretty much the only ones on the mountain.

The altitude did manage to completely kick my ass. There was a lot of stopping to gather breath and a few snack stops on the way up. I completely forgot what it felt like to be at altitude, given both London and Trujillo are at sea level.

The hike up was worth it and we had a lovely picnic lunch set to a waterfall coming down the rock face. We caught the night bus back into Trujillo and arrived home this morning about 4am.

The big news is that we are now off! Headed to the northern coastal town of Piura, we are spending this week on a work trip. Nine (eek!) of us will be piling into the Land Rover to drive seven hours north to Piura. Once there, we are spending a day and night at a scallop farm on the coast to try and fix a large turbine, another day traveling through the country side to 'show our faces' and make sure existing turbines are still working and a final day installing our own small turbine. We are bringing sleeping bags and tents and have been told there will be limited electricity and water. I'm stoked about the trip, worried about the drive up (and back) and not looking forward to no showers for five days. Wish us luck and I'll update when we are back.

day two: huaraz

little village of san pedro we walked through

stunning views of the Andes

a bit higher up

lake willkacocha

Bliss. Absolute bliss. We had such a gorgeous day hiking in the mountains. We left Huarez this morning about 10am and caught a collectivo (basically a van that runs like a bus for locals) about 20min outside of town.

We were dropped off on a dirt track, crossed a river and spent the next four hours hiking up a pretty big hill to Lake Willkacocha. The hike was about 6k up but as we are now at 3.500 m was a bit harder than I had anticipated...there was a lot of huffing and puffing going on. The views however, were totally worth it.

Along the way we picked up three dogs, who stayed by our side both up and down the mountain. And the locals we ran into were so lovely, always happy to have a chat, shout hello or point us in the right direction.

Our plan tomorrow is to do a longer, higher trek, up to 4,300m before catching the night bus back to Trujillo. I am happily exhausted and can not wait.

day one: huaraz

selling fruit on the street

grains and a glimpse of the traditional dress

delicious street food

chicken shop

at the meat market

We made it to Huaraz! And of my goodness, it is amazing. This little mountain town has somewhere between 30,000 and 50,000 people and is nesteled in a small valley within the Peruvian Andes. After an uneventful bus ride, we rocked up about 5am and grabbed a few hours kip before spending our fist day exploring the city.

The first thing I noticed was all the colour. Loads of women still wear the traditional Peruvian dress, which here consists of a dark skirt with a peak of lace showing beneath the hem, a brightly colored cardigan sweater and a large top hat!

Our hostel is literally across the street from the market and right outside our window are chicken and meat shops as well as little old ladies holding bags of live chicken and guinea pig ready to sell.

We decided to brave a bit of street food for lunch and as expected, it was delicious. We ditched the bravery for dinner and headed to an English owned mountain style lodge for our first non Peruvian food since our arrival. Some might consider it a copout, but after two weeks, it was worth it.

Our plan is to spend the next two days treking in the mountains, can´t wait. The air here is crisp and clear. Whoop!

end of week two

closing the mold

testing the pipes before pouring the foam into the mold

mixing the chemicals that make the foam, the reaction happens in seconds

finished blade

We have had a rough week in the workshop. We were supposed to finish at least one complete turbine, ready for our trip next week. Due to a number of issues, it just didn´t happen.

We did manage however to successfully make a turbine blade(!) as well as complete the two plates that generate the electricity; a metal plate topped with eight magnents set in resin and a resin mold filled with six hand turned copper coils.

To make the most of our unsuccessful week and celebrate what we did manage to complete, we decided to take the weekend off and head south into the mountain town of Huaraz. It´s a seven hour night bus and we are leaving tonight! We will have a long weekend in Huaraz, before taking a night bus back to Trujillo on Monday.

I am super excited for this trip. It will be nice to get away from Trujillo and finally see a little bit more of Peru. Updates to follow!

building a turbine

resin poured and setting

danger! laying the exceptionally strong magnents. there was blood.

gas masks necessary

hand turned copper coils

testing a blade

We have had a slight change of plan. Instead of building and installing one turbine, our group gets to go on a week long tour of northern Peru, performing maintenance on three turbines (in addition to installing our own). Yay!

Whilst it is super exciting to know that we see so many turbines in action, this means we have to bust our butts  in the workshop this week, finishing our turbine before we head off.

There are a number of different parts needed to make the turbine and today we focused on the core. There are two plates that make up the center core of the blade, a metal plate filled with resin and set with eight super strong magnents, and a second plate, filled with six copper coils, the ends of which are soldered together and then the entire plate is also set in resin.

It took us about a day to complete these two simple pieces, most of the work done by hand. The two pieces are arguably the most important part of the turbine, as it is the copper coils passing over the magnets (when the blade spins) that create the electric current. Who discovered that passing a copper coil over a magnet creates an electric charge is beyond me. But it is amazing to see how much science is involved in making this work. Working here has really made me realise how little I know about pretty much anything that has to do with electronics, but it is awesome to learn!

maintenance in chuquitoy

putting up the scaffolding

getting higher

almost at the top

a well deserved lunch break

done! the windaid crew

We spent Friday at Chuquitoy, fixing the second turbine that had fallen askew due to wind. Today, we came on site much better prepared! We brought our own scaffloding, back up power for our tools and had prepped a steel pole with holes drilled into it already (massive time saver).

Thanks to our preperation, we were able to get the scaffolding up, get the turbine down, swap the steel poles, drill into the wooden post and put the whole thing back together again in just about four hours. Massive improvement on yesterday!

It is hard to believe it has only been a week since I landed in Peru. We have already fixed two turbines, vistited a third and spent three days in the workshop building pieces for the turbine we will install in a few weeks time. Looking forward to the weekend and exploring a bit more of Peru!

maintenance in cantera

taking down the blade

thinking if a ladder inside a dump truck is really the best way up

yup, it is the best way up

project complete

The wind turbines we build for WindAid are super simple is structure and as durable as we can make them. The turbines are installed in pretty inhosptable places, battered by wind, dust and goodness knows what else.

Luckily for us, the later half of this week, we got to head out to two sites and perform maintenance on two turbines installed a few years ago. Whilst both were still working, it seemed the wind has pushed them off center, decreasing the amount of energy they are producing.

On Thursday, we drove an hour outside of Trujillo to the desert town of Cantera to try and fix the first turbine. We hit our first challenge almost immediately - to access the turbine, we were supposed to have access to a large CAT tractor that would lift us into the air - as the tractor was not working, we improvised, using a wooden ladder placed inside a dump truck (for height) parked next to our turbine!

Once up to the turbine, our plan was to drill two holes into the steel pole and through the wooden post, through which we could pin the turbine in place using steel screws. Unfortunately however, no one had really thought through the fact that once the turbine stopped running, we had a limited amount of power to run the power tools needed to drill the holes! Problem solving skills at the ready, we managed to high jack electricity from an old truck battery.

I suppose it should have been expected, but due to our own lack of planning, a few surprise challenges and the general pace of work in Peru, what should have taken a morning to fix ended up taking close to seven hours. But at the end of the day, this little house on the outskirts of town had their power back thanks to us and thanks to the wind.

workshop

Back row: Lucas, James, Pit
Front row: Tina, Geancarlo, Isoline, me, Hardy

 

 

 

We spend our days in the WindAid workshop, building the numerous components needed to create a wind turbine. Our group of volunteers are a motley crew, seven random strangers thrown together for this crazy experience.

 

Pit is an electrical engineer by trade and has just completed his PhD at Imperial College. He is an Iron man triathlete who decided to cycle to Trujillo from Huaraz. In what can only be described as an insane adventure, he covered 650km in a week, cycling by himself over the Cordillera. Nuts! James is our ginger Scotsman, who has also just finished his PhD in nuclear engineering. Isoline is a chemical engineer and like me, has also just completed an MSc at UCL. At only 22(!) is the baby of the group. Lucas is our internally conflicted friend; half German and half Greek, he has an undergrad in economics a first MA in Environmental Management and is now working on completing his second MSc which focuses on wind energy. We have Tina, a Canadian flight attendant with an interest in renewable energy. And finally, Hardy who is on a delayed gap year having just completed two years of service in Singapore's army, before studing aeronautics in the Netherlands.

 

The work is super varied, as almost all parts of the wind turbine are made by hand. We mix monomers and polymers together to create a foam core blades, which we sand by hand before coating in carbon fibre and finishing in resin. We weld pieces of metal together to create steel hoops that are used to anchor the turbines. We create copper coils, set them in a resin wheel, which when passed over strong magnets, generate the electrical current needed to create electricity. And that's just in our first few days!

 

Whilst it is all a bit overwhelming (especially given the fact that I am surrounded by chemical, mechanical and electrical engineers), I am learning a lot every day and hope that by the end of my month will be able to accurately describe the process that allows wind to make energy. Wish me luck!

i have arrived

 

 

After traveling for 17 hours, I finally made it to Peru! Landing at Jorge Chavez airport about 11pm, I was struck by the utter chaos around me. Hundreds of people were queuing for immigration, after which there were swarms of people picking through luggage in baggage claim. It took more than two hours, but I evenutally made out of the airport, into a taxi and arrived at my hostel.

 

My arrival all seemed far too easy, so I was not wholey unsurprised when the next morning, I turned up at the airport to find my flight to Trujillo had been cancelled. Unfortunately, the next available flight was a full 10 hours later...leaving me with an quite a bit of time to kill!

 

Not knowing what to expect, you can imagine my surprise when Taca Airlines offered to set up with a VIP transfer service to a lush hotel in Miraflores, an upscale neighboorhood in Lima, along with a free hotel room, lunch and shuttle service back to the airport for my new flight.

 

I ended up having a lovely day exploring Miraflores before finally making it to Trujillo. All in all, not a bad start to my Peruvian adventure.

 

Peru, so far, I am impressed.

peru

Howdy friends,

It has been such a long time since I updated my blog. Apologies for the absence, it has been quite a transformative year!

13 months ago, I decided to leave my job in telecommunications and persue a new direction in life. I spent the last year completing an MSc in Environmental Technology at Imperial College London, specialising in Environmental Analysis and Assessment. During my course, I was lucky enough to intern at two amazing organizations; CDP an independent not for profit which 'works with market forces to motivate companies to disclose their impacts on the environment and natural resources and take action to reduce them,' and SustainAbility, a strategy consultancy/think tank that 'helps companies to create value through the development of innovative solutions to environmental, social and governance challenges.'

Before going back to work in January of 2014, I decided to finish off my year doing a volunteer project in Peru. I will be heading to Trujillo, in northern Peru for four weeks to work with WindAid, an organization that provides wind turbines to communities in need of electricity.

I will be keeping a journal of my travels here...subtle delights has gone traveling to Peru!

Hope you enjoy.

x
Morgan