#19 - Waterfall

21/02/2011

Today was a rest day after an absolutely shattering week of training and before we start our actual outreach in Volcan tomorrow.

Got up slightly later than usual which was nice.
Jarett had perhaps the oddest breakfast I´ve ever encountered, kicking off with leftover Spaghetti Bolognaise from a couple of days ago followed by cornflakes, chocolate spread on toast and rounded off with a slice of birthday cake.
I´m ashamed to say I joined him in having the birthday cake.
We also had Fleetwood Mac on the stereo in the background which made it a truly brilliant breakfast.

In a fit of North-American logic, we decided to use our rest day for a hike.
We got a bus to Serra Punta which featured ´Don´t Stop Believin´, ´Total Eclipse Of The Heart´and most awesomely, the Ghostbusters theme tune - what a great radio station! Their bus system is refreshingly casual - if you see a bus coming you flag it down wherever you are and it will generally take you wherever you want to go if it´s heading in that rough direction.
A taxi then took us to a local national park which I can´t for the life of me remember the name of.
The taxi ride was certainly interesting - there were 6 of us (Jonny went to the doctors as he has a bad wrist) and yet the taxi had just 4 available seats. However as luck would have it, it was a pickup so Christina and I sat in the back with the wind rushing through our faces as we clung on for dear life in a decision I´d describe as certainly reckless and probably illegal.
But it was a great experience, especially with the winding mountain roads.

So we got to the entrance, paid our $5 and made our way up the mountain path.
The route we chose took 2 and a half hours including stops, the centrepiece of which was a beautiful waterfall where we had a little paddle and got some brilliant photos.
The hike itself was a fairly steep path littered with rocks and stones and slushy mud which claimed both Jarett and Christina as victims on separate occasions.

When we finished, we went to a little cafe in a hut which could only offer us soup and coffee which we gratefully accepted as we had taken no food on the hike and it was now 2:15pm.
The soup tasted quite nice and had a load of random things in it such as yam, beef and various other colourful things.
The coffee wasn´t anything to shout about.

We then got a taxi and bus back to Volcan, stopped at the Panaderia for a beef pasty and biscuit and then returned home.
I took the rare opportunity to go on Facebook Chat and actually talk to people rather than leaving messages for people to pick up the following day - we´re 5 hours behind you in the UK so usually by the time our daily activities are finished it´s too late to talk to folks back home.

Us lads then had a superb evening - Albin recommended a restaurant we could go to where there aren´t any Christians and which we could therefore order alcoholic beverages without bringing shame upon OM (the company I´m here with) or the local church. Despite the numerous references to wine being enjoyed in the Bible, the Christians take a puritan attitude towards alcohol and cigarettes over here.
So off we went, and we found the place. We had two small bottles of beer which were pretty good, but it was just great to be out as lads and properly talk with no inhibitions or fear of offending people (not that it usually stops us). But in all serious, it was great for us to all talk about the roles we´ll need to take within the team and how we´ll help support each other and the girls.
We asked to see a food menu but the look of surprise on the face of the ´waiter´ when we did so was enough of a giveaway that good food would be found elsewhere, so we moved on.
We found a great little pizzeria where we ordered two 12´´ pizzas, 1 pepperoni and 1 which was a combination of chicken and various other things. It was more than enough, and we left fully satisfied.

When we got back, Albin announced that the two leading the team this week are Jarett and Christina - PHEW it isn´t me! I´m looking forward to my turn as leader but I´m more than happy to support others in the first week while we find our collective feet and make the basic mistakes that will be ironed out throughout the remaining weeks.

Andy just walked over to me wearing just pants and said ´Hellooo´.
As the ´joven´ (young boy) of the group, a nickname which has well and truly stuck and I don´t mind to be honest, I feel this was an inappropriate thing to do.

Must get to sleep - Jarett and Christina will need all hands on deck so I´ll need a good 8 hours minimum.

Until tomorrow, farewell.

JG