#86 - Isla del Sol

28/04/2011 (posted 29/04/2011)

Decided to go for a nice excursion to the local attraction, Isla del Sol.
It was a place of great importance for the Incas, who believed it was where the sun god created the world or something like that.

The only way to get there is by motorboat, and the one I went on was possibly the simulataneously loudest and slowest one in existence. I could have swam there quicker.

But eventually I got there and it was absolutely idyllic - the views out onto the Lake really shows it for how massive and incredible it is. The standard thing to do is walk from the north to the south and in doing so, see the whole of the island's beauty.
So that's what I did.

The route took me firstly to some small Inca ruins with a sacrifice table and stuff, but compared to Machu Picchu it wasn't quite up there. The path was along the highest point of the island and consequently gave beautiful panoramas and views in every direction - don't worry, an abundance of photos were taken.

I got chatting to an English guy called John and a fiery Irish woman (do you get Irish women anything but fiery?) called Alli who I had  some interesting discussions with and eventually just let her have her say as she clearly wasn't taking in any of the points I was making.
One interesting thing she did say was that there are some great places kind of near here that I should visit so that's useful to know.

It was the perfect way to spend my time on the island as I saw all of it and as I mentioned, saw some truly stunning views. The walk was 9.5km and took about 3 hours at a leisurely pace - it was also very high (around 3900m) which made it difficult to make much of a pace.

The boat ride back was similarly slow and loud but I managed to sleep a little bit to pass the time.
When I got back, I met John and his friend Simon for a few drinks and a surprisingly delicious meal - a lot of the food here is fairly bog-standard but my chicken was very good.

We then went on to the strangest place I have ever been. I can only describe the parafanalia everywhere as a cross between Poison Ivy's lair and Spiderman's ultimate fantasy with fake bunches of grapes. There were some Essex girls who had apparently been waiting over an hour for food and when we saw that the owner looked off his face on goodness knows what, we promptly left.

One annoying thing about this hostel is that the TV has CNN but in Spanish  - the others I've been to have had either BBC World or American CNN but the lack of either of these means I'll miss the Royal Wedding tomorrow which is frustrating.
I hope the whole of Britain can relax and celebrate all that is good about being British - they'll be celebrating long.

JG

#85 - Her name was Lola, she was a showgirl

27/04/2011 (posted 29/04/2011)

Got up quite early to get a bus to Copacabana, Bolivia (the beach in Brazil stole the name).

The journey was ok until we got to the border of Peru and Bolivia - I had to queue up twice just to formally leave Peru and THEN go through Bolivian customs. So I queued up for about fifteen minutes, got to the single person stamping people through and was told I needed the tiny piece of paper I had received upon entry to Peru.
I didn't have it on me and all my documents were in my bigger bag in the luggage hold of the bus - rookie error, note to self to always carry major documents with me from now on. So I had to go to a separate place, fill out a form, pay to get it stamped and then queue up again. By this time, three more buses had arrived so I was queued behind all the people from those buses.
I was frustrated.

I eventually got to the front, got it stamped, queued up in the next queue for maybe twenty minutes, paid more money and was then finally officially out of Peru. By this time, all of the rest of the people from my bus were long gone through the process.

I then quickly went through Bolivian customs, by this time very very annoyed.
By the time I got to the bus, everyone had been waiting about half an hour for me.
But I didn't care about that, I was angry at the inefficient and unclear system I had battled through against the odds. Nowhere on the little piece of white paper does it stress how important it is to keep for leaving the country.

I eventually got to Copacabana and found a hostel for about 3pounds a night and upon an immediate inspection, it has a decent shower with very hot water.
Score.

I found a bar to watch Real Madrid V Barcelona and Messi was insane. I had a Heineken which I must say is better than the beers over here.
In the bar I met an Australian couple and was talking about the missionary work I was doing in Panama and it transpires they are also Christians. I had a great chat with them.

I then went to find an internet cafe to use Skype - firstly, Skype was out of the question as none of them even                      had headphones let alone webcam. I then used what can only be described as the slowest computer ever.

Dinner was a bacon salad in a very cheap place and the bacon wasn't cooked sufficiently for me but I ate it anyway. It was alright but had way too many olives.

I then went back to my hostel and booked a trip to Isla del Sol tomorrow for 2pounds. I love the prices here.

I then watched a bit of TV and Two and a Half Men was on -  it is fast becoming one of my favourite shows. Charlie Sheen is genius in it - it's a shame what's happening to him now.

JG

#84 - Soup and salad

26/04/2011

Woke up feeling a little better which isn't saying much.
I walked around the thoroughly uninspiring Puno for a bit before finding a cafe for some soup. I felt like such a tool ordering soup and a cappuccino but there we have it. I felt a little full afterwards but better.  The cafe itself was also nice and had a random playlist of mainly British bands such as Robbie Williams, Keane and U2.

While I was there I also planned the rest of my trip`.
Tomorrow I am heading to Bolivia, where I will spend some time by Lake Titicaca , some time in La Paz (administrative capital city including a mountain bike down the former world's most dangerous road)  and I will also visit the amazing Salar de Uyuni salt flats - to get the reason why, look them up on Google.
I will then head down to Chile and spend some time in Valparaiso, Santiago and also cross into Argentina to see some pretty lakes.

After this 'lunch', I spent half an hour trying to find an internet cafe with webcam for a Skype with Amy. I went into around ten in total of which four advertised themselves as having webcams but didn't in fact have any - this got me annoyed and I angrily said 'Por que dice Webcam?´ a few times which made me feel like I had the moral upperhand.
I eventually found one and talked to Amy and by chance, the foreigner herself, Marieke. Had a nice catch up with both.
While I was there I bumped into some guys I'd previously met in Cusco - coincidence or what!  They are quite rah and  wannabe lads-on-tour but they were nice enough to chat to.

I then booked my ticket to my next destination, Copacabana in Bolivia (the famous beach in Brazil takes its name from this place).

I then went for dinner at the standard time of 4:45pm , and got a Caesar Salad which I wasn't so ashamed of as there's a medium-to-high chance I'd order this at home anyway.
It was without doubt the best I have ever had - soft croutons, creamy sauce, crispy bacon. Mmm. It felt really good to get some solid food down me as well.

I then went to settle up at my hostel and the bill came to 112.50soles. I had 113 which I assumed would be fine but she had literally no change at all which was utterly ridiculous.
She then took the 113 and made me come back later to collect the .50soles (equivalent to 11p).
How unbelievably petty.

JG

#83 - Nausea and vomit

25/04/2011

In the middle of the night, I woke up with my stomach feeling queasy so I went to the toilet and then retreated back to bed thinking no more of it.
However the following few hours were some of the most horrific I've ever experienced.

At regular intervals I woke up and vomited then went back to bed. When I say regular intervals, I can't remember how many times I went so that should put in perspective how ill I was.
This happened for several hours and by the end, there was nothing in my stomach to vomit up.

I had obviously lost a lot of water so finally found the strength to go downstairs and buy a 2.5l bottle.
I then started drinking to replace the fluids I'd lost but after a few minutes, went back to the toilet and was sick again, this time it was very watery.
I tried some more water but the same thing happened - it made a quick reappearance.

At one stage something red was in my sick which I truly hope wasn't blood.
I evcentually got through the whole 2.5l but had retained none of it.

I tried sleeping it off but as soon as I woke up, was just sick again. By this stage I had told the company I was meant to be touring with that I was too ill, so there is a waste of 9pounds.

The nice woman on the reception then made me some tea using the local Coca leaves (same stuff I had in the mornings during Machu Picchu) which contain loads of vitamins and minerals that I'd probably thrown up and after that, I felt a lot better and went back to sleep.

When I got up and out of bed, it was about 2:30pm and I felt awful - drained, dehydrated etc. but I didn't want to drink too quickly otherwise I'd just sick it back up. I then had a lukewarm shower (didn't have the energy to complain and she had brought me Coca tea so I didn't want to cause a fuss).

I staggered out of the hostel to an internet cafe 10m away where I uploaded some blogs and saw how dire the state of the world is on the BBC website.

I then returned to my room, watched an episode of Bones and drifted off to sleep.
First day for many years in which I haven't eaten anything at all - hopefully I'll feel better tomorrow.

JG

#82 - Arrival in Puno

24/04/2011 (posted 25/04/2011)

The bus arrived in Puno at 5am.
I didn't realise how high the altitude is here - I thought Cusco was high at 3500m but Puno is around 3800m above sea level. Luckily I've pretty much adjusted to the altitude so I shouldn't have too many problems.

I had breakfast at 5:15am which somehow went down and was then spotted by a woman advertising hostels. In truth I needed one so was happy for her to talk to me, and I ended up getting one for 7pounds per night including 24hr hot water and a TV in my room.
Apparently anyway.

So there I went, unpacked and went for the hot shower as promised. For five minutes only cold came out so I put on my clothes and was about to complain when it finally came up with some hot which, though the amount coming out at one time isn't massive and it very slow, was nice to soothe my body.

I then went for a walk around Puno which in of itself is pretty unspectacular. Most of the buildings are old and ugly and from what my guidebook says, there aren't too many highlights.
One cool thing I did though was climb up a little rocky area to get a full view of Lake Titicaca. It is both massive and beautiful, and I took a few panoramic shots.

I picked up a smoothie for 42p and also went to a travel company and bought a ticket for a trip to the Uros Floating Islands and some Inca ruins on a nearby island for 9pounds altogether. Looking forward to that tomorrow. I then found a place where I got a Pizza and a Pisco Sour for 6pounds. One thing I didn't realise at the time which may come back to haunt me was that there was ice in the drink made from local water which us gringos really aren't meant to drink.

There was a band at the restaurant who were ridiculously stereotypically South American, all in sombreros playing folky stuff. They were too loud for me though so I didn't give them any money.

After the meal, the lost sleep from last night caught up with me and I went back to my hostel to sleep, even though it was about 1:30pm. I accidentally slept until 5pm which will have screwed up my sleeping pattern but ah well.
I then stayed in bed watching Tropic Thunder before going to sleep again.

JG

#81 - Guinea Pig and goodbyes

23/04/2011 (posted 25/04/2011)

Final day here in Cusco, so Steph and I finally went to the San Pedro market that I've heard a lot about.
Upon arrival was harrassed by people selling juices, all thrusting their menus at us even though they all sell exactly the same drinks for exactly the same price. I had a Mango and Orange one and it was lush as well as a nice rarity to find fruit. Maybe I´m not looking hard enough but I've hardly seen it anywhere.

We then wandered around Cusco for a little bit before finding somewhere to have Cuy (Guinea Pig). There's no way I'm going to miss out on this speciality.
We were accosted by someone trying to get us to go to his restaurant and when we secured the deal of Guinea Pig with two free Pisco Sours that was it.
It came sizzling but still with its head and claws on which wasn't the most appetising thing ever. The pitiful amount of meat you get is hard to get off the bone and smells almost like fish. It was hardly a taste sensation either so it goes down as one of those foods you have to try but I won't be rushing to have it again.

To subsidise the pitiful amount we had eaten, I sold my principles and went to McDonalds for a McFlurry. I have to say it tasted delicious.

I then went to pick up my bus ticket to take me to Puno on Lake Titicaca. It costs the equivalent of 9pounds for a six-hour bus ride with a leather chair that apparently reclines to flat.
Not bad.

We then went for a pizza and then on to a pub where we played Darts - I started strongly but she came back to win.
I then picked up my stuff, said bye to Steph and got a taxi down to the bus station. Although we´ve known each other for less than two days, it's been nice to spend time with someone else rather than being on my own and the beauty of travelling is that you can make friends easily.

So I got on the bus and found that the seats in fact did not fully recline as the woman said but were still comfortable enough and I managed to get a little sleep.

JG

#80 - Inca ruins, massages, pedicures and almost Guinea Pig

22/04/2011 (posted 23/04/2011)

Somehow got up for breakfast at 10am despite the exhausting previous four days.
At breakfast, I met an English girl called Steph who is 23 and very easy to get along with.

I felt somewhat of a failure at having not seen any of the Ince sites in and around Cusco so we decided to do a city tour.
I firstly dropped off my 4kg bag of laundry, the smell of which I wouldn´t wish any mammal with cognitive thought to smell. We then went to the street with all the tour salespeople and were surrounded by people advertising their various offers.
Eventually we offered for one that cost 12soles (2.50pounds) which is insane.

We had lunch at a nice place with a free salad bar and most importantly, delicious pepperoni pizza. She´s from Manchester and has been travelling for a few months and will continue to until October, which makes her pretty interesting to talk to and get travelling tips from.

We then got on our bus for the city tour and waited for half an hour which made us think we had perhaps been conned. Yesterday she went on a ´city tour´ for 25soles but, having already paid, was originally not picked up from the meeting place and after forcing them to take her, was left at one of the sites and had to walk back.
However this tour was great - the guide spoke English and Spanish and frequently flitted between the two mid-sentence without pausing, but he was a funny guy and gave us some good information at each site.
There were four sites: Sachsaywuman (sounds like ´sexy woman´ the way they pronounce it) and three others with Inca names that I can´t remember.
A Brazilian guy on the tour who spoke English and I also quickly walked across to a massive statue of Jesus on top of the hill next to Sachsaywuman. The view is breathtaking and it was a brilliant spiritual moment to be up there next to JC.

All in all it was very interesting and well worth the money - still can´t get over how cheap it was.

When we got back to Cusco, I was aching all over from the Inca Trail and some of the walking today and decided to have a massage. When walking around Cusco, all tourists are constantly hassled by people advertising massages so it wasn´t tough to find a place.
I had a full body massage (not as bad as it sounds if you interpret that the wrong way, this was a proper massage parlour and not a ´massage parlour´), some hot stones on my back and she tempted me into having a pedicure which I have to admit was nice. It all cost the equivalent of 10pounds which was an absolute steal - she really dug in to my back and legs and it felt sooooo gooood afterwards.

After an hour and a half of being pampered, I went with Steph to a place for dinner. We were going to have Guinea Pig but a local warned us that it´s too heavy to have as an evening meal so we´re going to try it tomorrow lunch.
It´s the local delicacy so has to be done.

Got back to the hostel and there were two English guys who had joined me in my dorm room, Julian and Oscar, who seem cool.
At this stage I just crashed, the previous four days having finally caught up with me.

Massages are great.

JG

#79 - Inca Trail Part 4: Machu Picchu

21/04/2011 (posted 23/04/2011)

We were up at 3:30am and I was knackered. By the time I had packed and was out of my tent, everyone else´s tent had been packed away and they were eating breakfast.

We got up so early because the gate letting us through to the final stage of the trail opens at 5:30am and we wanted to be early in the queue as not to be delayed. We arrived at 4:40 so then sat and waited.

I caned the first part of the hike in 45 minutes. It took us to the Sun Gate, our first view of Machu Picchu in the distance set against the beautiful Andes. The slight problem was that there was dense mist all around us and when I say I couldn´t see anything, I mean it.

That was slightly disappointing but we decided to press on and get down to Machu Picchu itself.
We arrived at 8am and it was still very misty - we feared the worst at this stage. We entered the site and dropped our bags off which felt incredible, and I was absolutely starving so I bought three pastries.

The mist then cleared and it is truly a sight to behold.
Having seen other Inca ruins along the way, the sheer size of Machu Picchu is even more emphasised. It is also set against the most incredible backdrop of the Andes, now my favourite mountain range.
Edwin taught us some of the history of the place. It was finished in 1430 by Pachacutec, the Ninth Inca (´Inca´ means King). He showed us around the King´s Palace and the various temples devoted to different gods such as the Earth, the Sun etc.

I then walked up a hill to get the famous postcard view, which was what I´d waited five years to see - I had to pinch myself that I was actually there. I can´t describe it as anything other than beautiful, spectacular and those adjectives don´t do it justice.
The Andes are beautiful enough in of themselves but Machu Picchu set against them is something I will never forget. It was a wrench to leave but I felt a massive sense of accomplishment, and I can´t wait to show my photos.

After we´d visited, we went down to Aguas Calientes for a celebratory lunch as a team where I had pizza and a couple of beers. We then went to the famous hot springs (´Aguas Calientes´ translates to Hot Springs) and relaxed in them for about an hour which felt AMAZING. Blake and I also had a couple more beers in the springs which meant that I have now drunk more beer than water today - around 1.9l.

We then got a train ride back on which everyone slept, and were then taken home to Cusco by a comfy coach on which everyone also slept.

I still have to pinch myself that I visited Machu Picchu today. It´s something I can cross of my list of things to do in my lifetime on this Earth but was so much more than a box to tick.
It was a truly brilliant experience doing the trail and after three full days, to get to Machu Picchu was an amazingly emotional time. I can´t really describe how it felt but the entire trip was something I will never, never forget.

JG

#78 - Inca Trail Part 3: Hot shower, cold beers

20/04/2011 (posted 23/04/2011)

Standard 5am start.
Once again we were brought tea in bed which I really could get used to. Breakfast was similar to yesterday so I once again packed in the porridge and off we went.

The first couple of hours were mostly uphill but it was fine in the cool morning. We also broke up the walking with visits to some Inca ruins which were beautiful against the mountain backdrop.

We climbed all the way up to 3950m which was a doddle compared to yesterday. That high, the mountains are covered in a dense mist whih is both beautiful and eerie. My calves are pretty sore from yesterday and my shoulders are feeling the 14kg but I´m over it.

Edwin told us a bit about the Inca religion. They worshipped things like the rivers and mountains, and the main god was the sun. He then showed us a ritual they used to do:
They would pick three Coca leaves, one to represent each world (Upper world, this world, underworld) and make a wish. They would then blow the coca leaves to send the wish to the Apu (god living inside the mountain) and then roll up the leaves and leave them at the top of the mountain with a stone.
Standard.

We had lunch halfway through the day´s route and once again, it was mind-boggling. Nothing these cooks do surprised me anymore as the bar has been set so ridiculously high, and I´m not running out of superlatives to describe how amazing it is. It included pork in cranberry sauce - this is what I mean when I say nothing surprised me. I can´t imagine what this guy would come up with if you let him loose in a proper kitchen.
We then had an essential 30-minute siesta to let the food go down and it was off again.

It was all downhill for the two-and-a-half hours afternoon hike, which was really tough on my knee, calves, thighs, back...
We visited some more Inca ruins which were very impressive - I just can´t comprehend how they build them this high up. It was nice to go a little slower and have more of a sociable time as a team as well.
We then came to a fork where we had the option of a short or long route, the long route taking us through more ruins. I´m glad I ignored my body and went the long route because we got a truly breathtaking view of the Sacred Valley, and I don´t use the word breathtaking lightly.

We arrived to camp in the dark but very excited, as this camp has a restaurant selling cold beer and a hot shower! In England I would have sued them under the Trades Descriptions law as the shower was warm at best but after three days, I didn´t care at all. I then went for a beer and it felt unbelievably good.
Somehow I didn´t have much of an appetite but the beer went down fine and that was all that mattered.

The porters leave us tomorrow morning so we said bye to them and tipped them.
I then went for another beer with Blake which felt better than the first. I considered testing whether the third and fourth would feel exponentially better but it was 9:30pm and we are up at 3:30am tomorrow so sleep is needed.

To put in perspective how excited for tomorrow I am, I first saw a picture of Machu Picchu around five years ago and have been waiting to go ever since.
I can´t believe I´m actually going.

JG

#77 - Inca Trail Part 2: Uphill struggles

19/04/2011 (posted 23/04/2011)

Had a truly stunning start to the day. I was woken up (albeit at 5am) with a cup of tea brought to my tent. It was made with Coca leaves, magical leaves with loads of vitamins that the porters swear by for energy and the Incas used in rituals and stuff.

We were then served an outrageously good breakfast. There was fresh fruit salad, yoghurt, bread, jam, porridge and for Coleen´s birthday, pancakes. They really do spoil us.
I absolutely packed it in because, as alluded to on previous days, Day Two is the hardest of the four.
Edwin said we´d split the hike into four sections, so we set off at 7:15am.

The first section wasn´t too hard - Edwin estimated 80 or 90 minutes but I polished it off in 45, no problem.

The second was really tough. It was maybe 75% uphill and included some steps up which are tougher than you may think, especially with 14kg on your back at around 3700m above sea level.
But I made it ahead of schedule and thankfully there was a tap at the checkpoint so I washed my face.

We then had second breakfast which was bread and cheese, popcorn?! and biscuits. I couldn´t stop myself and probably ate too much.

The third section was perhaps 95% uphill and included many more steps. What made it even more daunting was that from the very beginning, you could see the finish point and it seemed so high up and far away, probably because it was high up and far away. I had to stop a couple of times to catch my breath - we were getting seriously high at this stage.

It´s hard to describe how tough it was but take it from me, it was very tough. By the time I got to the top I was exhausted and didn´t even have the energy to take my bag off which makes no sense.
It´s 4215m high and trust me, you feel it. The air is thin, there´s a biting cold wind and this is added to fatigue and dehydration from walking and sweating profusely.
We were told to wait for everyone so I waited an hour in total, in which time my headache went but I got progressively colder. Hardly surprising.

We then began section four - downhill. This may sound easy and a nice rest but it was not nice at all. It was all down stairs and with each step, my bad lifted and then fell again on my shoulders. After two hours, this really hurt.

But finally we arrived at the campsite. I never thought this time was going to come.
My legs were shaking like jelly and my shoulders were extremely sore, but I got here in one piece.
We had lunch a little while later which again blew my mind. Mini pizza, soup, beef in a delicious sauce, rice, fried yuca and beans. Sooo much and all delicious. I then topped it off with a camomile tea. Lush.

We then had three and a half hours free time, in which I just slept.
The campsite´s not awful in itself bu unfortunately, our pitch is right near the toilets and occasionally the smell drifts over.
However the layers of dried sweat all over my body probably also contributed to the cheesy smell in my room.

We had some tea and then a massive dinner which I just about fitted in. As it is Coleen´s birthday, we also had an amazing elaborately decorated cake which I have no idea how they made up here, and some wine. It tasted really really good at the end of a long day but I´m kinda worried I´ll be hanging tomorrow - alcohol at 3600m maybe isn´t a great idea.

After dinner, I jumped into bed and somehow managed to ignore the cold and my reeking body and got to sleep.

JG

#76 - Inca Trail Part 1: Food for thought

18/04/2011 (posted 23/04/2011)

The company I´m doing the Inca Trail with (Peru Treks) said they´d pick me up between 5:20am and 6am. Unfortunately, I don´t have an alarm clock with me and wasn´t willing to risk sleeping in and missing my dream trip.
So what I did was drink loads of water, leave the light on and then went to sleep. This worked because the light ensured I couldn´t get to sleep for more than about half an hour at a time so I checked my watch each time I woke up and when it was 4:30am, got up. (Drinking water was an insurance policy as I thought it would hopefully wake me up in the middle of the night to go to the toilet in case the light didn´t stop me from sleeping).

So I got up, couldn´t shower as the water wasn´t turned on and went downstairs. They picked me up at 6:15am and took all of our group to a town called Ollantaytambo to buy last minute supplies. I needed a poncho and assumed I´d have to go to a supermarket or something but as soon as I got off the bus, floods of local women were hounding me selling everything I needed.
It was bloody annoying being hassled but I got the poncho as well as a walking stick and broad-brimmed hat.

We then all had a nice breakfast together and got to know each other.
There´s Edwin and Manuel, our guide and assistant guide respectively.
In our group is:
Blake, an Australian
Katherine, his girlfriend and a quadlingual German
Jon and his girlfriend Coleen from Washington, DC
Jenny, an Australian with her daughters Eve, 10 and Megan, 19
Roland, a 62-year old American who has retired comfortably in Costa Rica and is doing the Inca Trail for the second time
Jenny, his Costa Rican girlfriend
Joanna and her mum (don´t know her name) from America
Elena, born in Bulgaria and lives in NYC.

We were then driven further along a windy, tough path that you wouldn´t believe was the most direct route to one of the seven wonders of the world. We checked in with our passports and then we were away.

Today, Day 1, was described as an easy day and fairly flat. That said, there were some steepish uphills that slowed some people down.
I´m doing the trail with my 14kg backpack as my smaller backpack wasn´t big enough to fit everything in and there´s nowhere else to leave all my stuff. Most people have personal porters to take some of their stuff but I´m manning it.

The scenery is absolutely beautiful. We´re obviously in the Andes and there are snow-capped peaks, Inca ruins and huge mountains as far as the eye can see in all directions. This makes it pretty difficult to take bad photos and the ones I have so far are certainly beautiful.

When we stopped for lunch, we were applauded by the porters upon arrival which made me feel slightly bad as they´d walked the same distance with 26kg on their backs way quicker than us and had set up a food tent and cooked lunch before we got there.
We were served a magnificent three-course meal. First was avocado with tomato salsa, then asparagus soup and then trout in an amazing sauce with potatoes, rice and a platter of vegetables.
Not only was it all delicious but also presented spectacularly. I have literally no idea how the cook did it, he is a genius.

The afternoon´s hike was only a couple of house and was fine, especially with all that lunch inside me.
We then had some time to rest and then dinner, which was once again incredible and ended with a banana in some alcoholic sauce. Suffice to say there was enough alcohol to make me enjoy it - I´m not one for bananas and haven´t had one for about sixteen years.

After dinner I just crashed.
Tough day ahead.

JG

#75 - 100 soles note odyssey

17/04/2011

I´d love to say today was an action packed, risk-taking day.
But it wasn´t.
It was still more eventful than yesterday, though that´s not saying much.

I planned to have breakfast at 10am and go to church at 11am.
I woke up at 10:55am.
I was a bit annoyed but instead, had my own service where I sang some worship songs to myself and read some of the Bible. Probably sounds really sad but it was cool.

I then watched Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix on tv, and then went out for some Skyping.
I first talked to Amy and then to Luke. Both were very good convos and it was the first time I´d spoken to him since I left 10 weeks ago so it was cool.

I then went to pick up some washing from the Lavanderia (Launderette) and tried to pay with a 100soles note as it was all I had on me. This is worth 22pounds and yet the woman didn´t have enough change in her shop so I had to go away to break it into smaller notes.
This has happened on many occasions now, even in restaurants which is even more ridiculous. I wish I knew enough Spanish to explain the concept that at some stage in the life of a 100soles note, it has to be spent but unfortunately I can´t communicate that.
I did my best by highly raising my eyebrows.

So off I went for some dinner, and I found a Pizzeria where I got a substantially sized pizza and drink for the equivalent of 3.50. I then obviously paid with the 100soles note and again got a reaction - I wanted to tell them to keep more change on the premises, particularly in a restaurant!
She went off and about ten minutes later, returned with my change.
About damn time!

I then went back to the Lavanderia and finally picked up my clothes.
Unbelievable.

I then went to get some last-minute things for Machu Picchu, batteries and such like, and then went back to the Hostel.
Can´t believe I´m starting the Inca Trail tomorrow.
It´s an awesome thought.

JG

#74 - Zero

16/04/2011

Woke up pretty late and didn´t feel too great.
Though I admit I had one too many beers, it has to be said that since I´ve got here I haven´t taken any time to rest or adjust to the climate and also haven´t drunk much water.

By happy coincidence, the Man U-Man City derby was on which I watched and then Murray vs Nadal was on straight after! I ended up not leaving the hostel until 5pm but felt so much better. I´ve finally recovered the whole night´s sleep I lost whilst travelling here.

I went for a little walk and found a nice pizza joint so ordered a pizza and chips.
I ate it unbelievably quickly (first bit of food in the whole day) and it was beautiful.

After that, I walked around a bit more and then went back to the hostel where I watched Marley and Me.
It is a great film and I can see why people cry at the end - I just about held back the tears.

And then I went to bed. What an action packed day. But at least I´m ready for Machu Picchu now.

JG

#73 - Paddy´s

15/04/2011

Woke up and had a nice breakfast - coffee, bread, jam and juice. All included in the $9 per night fee.
Score.

I then went to pay the rest of the fee for Machu Picchu - $290 in cash. What annoyed me was that the ATM machines only distributed a maximum of $200 at a time so I had to withdraw it in two separate transactions, each costing $3!
The company then briefed me on what the trip will entail and I am now more excited that I already was. Apparently the second day is all uphill and pretty horrific.

Lunch was a burger, a pitcher of lemonade and three scoops of ice cream in a waffle cone. For the equivalent of 3 quid.
Not bad.

I decided to go to the main square so walked up and wow, it is beautiful.
There´s a cathedral and lots more archaic church-like buildings, and the square has a fountain in the middle. It is truly lovely.
The down side was that, being white, I was hounded by street vendors selling art, crafts, knitted hats and gloves, food and more. It was pretty annoying but I ended up buying two paintings for 110soles (about 22 pounds) when the guy orginally quoted 90soles for one. I also bought some Ray Ban sunglasses for 60soles, reduced from 100 thanks to my new haggling skills.
I was pretty pleased with myself.

I then saw a pub that I had read about in the guidebook - Paddy´s Irish Pub. I just had to go in.
It´s decorated similarly to a trad English pub and sells pints of Abbot Ale and Old Speckles Hen - I think they have run out of Guinness. I tried both and they really haven´t travelled well unfortunately - they weren´t too great. Also, the woman pulling the pints clearly had no idea how to and was removing some of the head with a spoon.
Oh dear oh dear.

The pub was full of gringos which was nice - I got talking to some women from England, Ireland and Canada who are on a package holiday. They were nice and it was nice to talk English for once.

I spent the afternoon there and then went to get some food - a smoothie and a burger for a ridiculously cheap price. I need to cut down on the burgers but I´m not eating between meals (got to watch what I spend) so I´m relaxed.

I went back to Paddy´s in the evening and met a French-Canadian guy from Montreal. He was a nice guy and introduced me to some Peruvians that he had met. He also, having done the Inca trail a few days ago, reiterated that the second day is very tough.
I stayed with him and his friends and we had some drinks before going to a discoteque. I probably had a couple more than I should have and really didn´t feel great afterwards, perhaps partly due to the two pints resting in my stomach from the afternoon.

I got back to the hostel later than the curfew but the guy still let me in which was a big relief.
My first night out as a backpacker was eventful and given the chance again, I´d have certainly drunk less but these are the experiences you go through.

JG

#72 - Journey to Cusco Part 2: Alpaca and Pisco Sours

14/04/2011

When my flight arrived in Lima, I went though the dreaded wait for my luggage. I saw the same bags coming round again and was convinced mine had been left in Bogotá but then it miraculously appeared.
Phew.

I was walking through to departures when, like an oasis in the desert, I saw a Starbucks! I almost cried with happiness.
I went in and got chatting to the barista (Felix) and explained how I work in Starbucks in England. He gave me some syrup to try which is exclusive to Peru called Al-something.
He then insisted on giving me my drink for free! It was such a nice gesture and at 3am, really was apreciated.

I then had a short flight to Cusco and finally arrived at 6:30am. It´s worth saying at this point that during my flights and waits at airports, I probably had a combined hour and a half of sleep.
A taxi took me to my hostel and though it was 7:30am and the room was booked for the evening, they let me in. I unpacked my stuff and crashed for a little bit.
The room is decent - it has a TV with cable and four beds (it´s a dorm) which are all free so I have plenty of space. All for $9 per night. Not bad.

Cusco is a lovely city, described as ´tranquil´ by my taxi driver.
It is set against an amazing backdrop of the Andes - can´t wait to take some photos. It´s also, at 350m above sea level, 1000m higher than Machu Picchu and apparently it takes people a little time to adjust to the altitude.

Around lunchtime I went for a walk to find an internet cafe to Skype Amy, and found one after about fifteen minutes. We talked for over an hour which was awesome, and I was even able to use a webcam and microphone from the cafe. It also only cost 2.50soles which is around $0.80 for two hours!

I then took a little walk around Cusco and immediately found the indoor market. It´s essentially dozens of the same stall selling knitted hats, socks, bags, gloves, jumpers and some nice jewellery as well.
As a white person, I got hassled by almost every vendor which was sweet but a little annoying.
One particularly nice lady had some awesome stuff and I very nearly bought a knitted Alpaca jumper, hat, gloves and bag for 80soles, reduced from 120 thanks to my indecision, but I bottled it.
I can always go back.

I then went for lunch or rather was pulled in by a lady. I had an Alpaca steak which was absolutely delicious though I do like Alpacas so I felt a bit bad.
I looked round a few more stalls in the afternoon and then went back to the Hostel for a lie down.

Woke up at 7pm and decided I needed some food so found a cheap little burger joint where I got a chicken sandwich and lemonade for peanuts.
I then walked around a bit, half hoping to bump into some gringos and go for a drink with them, and saw a place advertising discounted Pisco Sours.
These are drinks with a legendary status - they´re a fruity liquor called Pisco mixed with lemon, egg white and some more stuff. It was absolutely delicious and I can tell I´d like the Pisco neat, it has a lovely taste to it.

I walked and got an ice cream and then retired back to my hostel, where I am now sitting at the computer.
It may have taken a while but I´m now in Cusco, and the second half of my trip has now truly begun.

JG

#71 - Journey to Cusco Part 1: A series of long waits

13/04/2011

Woke up early to say bye to Andrew, Jess and Emily. They have to get the car back to Volcan by the afternon so decided to leave early to fit in some sightseeing.
All familiar faces are now officially gone. It feels strange.

For the first time since I´ve been here, I managed to talk to Hattie (my sister) and it was really nice to catch up.
I spent the rest of the morning lounging around listening to John Mayer.

I then packed up my things and Ann gave me a lift to a place where Joy (guy from OM) picked me up and gave me a lift to the airport. I got there fine and everything but ended up being there three and a half hours early.
At least I didn´t miss the flight.
I used the time by buying some lunch, getting a Caramel coffee from Dunkin´ Donuts and sitting about reading. I was queued for ages as well so they time went fairly quickly.
A woman security called me ´Joven´ to catch my attention - that name is going to follow me wherever I go. It´s affectionate (or at least I like to think so) when my team call me it but what do I have to do to stop members of the public referring to me as ´young boy´? I´ve grown facial hair but it hasn´t made any difference.

The first of my three flights was pretty luxurious - had a tv screen in the back of the seat in front of me so started watching the most recent Harry Potter film but unfortunately, the flight was too short for me to finish it.

When I got to Bogotá, I had a bit of time to kill so treated myself to a Corona.
I then boarded the flight but it was delayed by one hour! What´s worse is that the power cut out twice which not only meant the air conditioning wasn´t on but it didn´t fill me with confidence for the rest of the flight.
Luckily, I was sitting to a nice woman called Racquel from Brasil so had a good convo with her and she was telling me about her husband and kids and job and Brasil. She spoke pretty good English which was lucky.

There was once again a screen on the back of the seat in front of me but to my dismay, the headphone adapter for my seat wasn`t working so I couldn´t watch or listen to anything. I fancied watching Black Swan but couldn´t.

End of Part 1.

JG

#70 - Sleeepy

12/04/2011

Slept in til midday. Standard.
It was beautiful, the bed here is very similar to mine at home.

When I look back at what I did today, there really isn't that much. After I got up, I had breakfast and then very quickly lunch. Andrew and Emily went to the canal and brought back bread and cheese so I made a melted cheese baguette again. Mmm.

We sat about reading and chatting for ages, and then it was time for a special treat.
At Andrew's strict request, Emily had brought some scones and jam from England that their mum has made and then frozen. We also bought some cream from the local supermarket and whisked it to make clotted cream.
We then had the fantastic situation of Andrew, Emily and I enjoying Twinings English Breakfast Tea (Andrew was specific in his request once again) with Jess and Ann, two Americans. They seemed to like this small insight into middle class English life.
The scones were nice and light and fluffy, just right.

We finally decided to do something and went to Casco Viejo, the old city. There are a few restaurants and some nice European architecture to look at as well as some nice views of the ocean.
We walked round for a bit and then found a restaurant for dinner. I had Pepperoni pizza - what else?

It was a nice way to spend my final night here in Panama. Well, my final night until the end of my trip when I have a couple of days here before I fly home.

I thought it would be difficult spending two months with new people, but all of our team were English speakers and we were so closely united by our mission that it was just a great trip.
Now, however, I am completely on my own.

It's going to be a great experience and hopefully my Spanish speaking will increase quickly as I will literally have to speak it the whole time. No translators any more.

Very exciting and daunting at the same time, but at least I have a few days in Cusco to get settled in before I climb Machu Picchu.
To an extent, it doesn't matter if things go wrong after that as I haven't booked anything (except my flight back up to Panama City) so if I turn up late for stuff or anything like that, I'll just roll with it and be flexible and adaptable.

It sure is going to be exciting.

JG

#69 - Hooters

11/04/2011

Fancied a lie-in this morning but that wasn't possible.
We went to a local forest to see some monkeys and had to leave early to catch them so we left at around 8:30am. At least I had time for something to eat and, most importantly, to shower.

I drove us down whilst listening to Continuum by John Mayer (epic driving music) and we eventually got there after driving for a while down a bumpy track that we perhaps shouldn't have driven down in a rental car but there we go.
We walked around half an hour down the track and then heard some monkeys - after a while of standing and staring around, we managed to see a few just hanging about and chilling. Got a couple of photos and then all our necks started hurting from looking up so much so we walked back.  It was unbelievably humid.

We bought some french bread and Monterey Jack cheese on the way back and made it into a melty panini when we got back to Ann's house. It was lush.

I took some time to nap in the afternoon - I originally planned to read for a bit but the chair was so comfy that I just drifted off. I guess I missed out on sleep last night so I was fairly tired, and I like having a nap after lunch anyway.
So that was the afternoon.

Andrew's sister Emily arrived from England today (she's doing the short mission in Nicaragua with Andrew and Jess in a week's time) so we went out to get her from the airport in our hire car. On the way we stopped at a Subway where the employees remarked upon my baby face.
It's funny in one way and I do like the nickname Joven which EVERYBODY calls me, but when random members of the public talk about my face the joke can occasionally wear thin.
I thought that growing facial hair would perhaps put an end to it but no.

I should also point out that we went to pick her up from the airport wearing tie-dye tshirts and ridiculous very short coloured shorts. Unfortunately only a photo will do the outfit justice but suffice to say we looked absolutely ridiculous, especially with flip flops as well.
We cruised down to the airport listening to Cat Empire, a cd Ann lent us which was suitably ridiculous to accompany our outfits.

Emily arrived a little late and was happy to see Andrew obviously but slightly shocked at our clothes.
She was a little hungry (as was I to be honest) and we all decided the time was ripe to go to Hooters.

If you don't know about Hooters, its selling point is essentially that the waitresses have larger-than-everage breasts. The decor and quality of food is what I would describe as tacky, and the whole premise of girls in hot pants and tight tshirts is also not exactly high class - we saw an advert for a Bikini Car Wash in three days time. Seeing the seedy men in there that were obviously there to spend the night gawping was a little depressing, but at least it was an experience.

We then cruised back - Andrew almost hit a bollard at high speed but swerved at the last minute - and Emily got settled in and we just sat around chatting for a bit. Ann is so interesting and cool to talk to so we spend a lot of time just hanging out at her house.
It's now time for bed, and I can sleep in tomorrow so I don't want to waste this opportunity.

Goodnight.

JG

#68 - Hosanna

10/07/2011

I slept SO well last night. The bed I'm in is so damn comfy and all external light is well and truly blocked by the blinds so it was a sanctuary.
I was awoken at 10am by Andrew checking that I was up and ready to leave. I wasn't, I had just been woken up from a dream.

I hurriedly got ready and obviously didn't have time for a shower - this means that yesterday's sweat was still well and truly on my body which isn't the nicest of thoughts. All I had time for was a cup of coffee.

As it is a Sunday, we chose to go to a church in the city. It's called Hosanna church and is absolutely massive - maximum capacity is around 5,000. We arrived for the 11am service but for an hour there was nothing except people talking and sharing mini Bible-studies which we obviously couldn't butt in on, and we couldn't understand them anyway.
After about an hour, a woman came to us and introduced herself as Siobhan. She was young and Panamanian and spoke brilliant English, and started talking to us. She then beckoned us down to the lower level (this is a massive venue, there are several levels) to be closer to the main stage/altar.

The service was very Pentcostal - the Indian preacher used dynamics to a ridiculous effect, the down side being that at times his English was difficult even for us to understand. It was nice to have a sermon in English though, very unexpected. We were there for three hours in total.

After the service, Siobhan and her husband talked to us and offered to show us somewhere to eat which was lovely of them. By coincidence, they ended up showing us where Albin and I had gone for food when I first arrived in the city. They had the amazing fruit salad that I had that time, and I still haven't and probably never will experienced a better one.

After lunch, the five of us went for a bit of shopping in the large mall. Jonny and Jarett went to get some souvenirs and I went to find the cheapest pair of shorts I could - one pair has lost a button and has paint on so I am looking to replace them with a very cheap pair that will be light to pack also.
After walking quickly past the Hilfiger store, I eventually found a Primark-ish place and located some $2.99 shorts - score! I think they're pretty cool though none of the rest of the guys agree.
Never mind, they're cheap and light.

We then said farewell to Jonny and Jarett. Five became three.
Jonny's off to meet the parents of his Chilean girlfriend, Rita, for the first time and Jarett is off to the Philippines to get married. As I said yesterday, we'll all move on from this experience so quickly and it's kind of a sad thought yet an exciting one.
Even if I'm not with my team anymore, what I have learned on this trip and experienced with them will stay with me for the rest of my life so in that way the future is very positive.
However, it's never nice to break up a group.

When they were safely on the way to the airport, the three of us (Me, Jess and Andrew if you've been paying attention) went back to Ann's house. We spent the afternoon and evening just talking to and hanging out with her - she's really cool and interesting to talk to.
We also watched the end of the Masters Golf - shame McLlroy bottled it.

We had Enchiladas and salad for dinner which was delicious. This house is just so lovely and cool - outside is humid but here is so comfortable.

Tomorrow we don't have much planned so hopefully I can sleep deeply without interruption this time.

JG

#67 - Police don't tow our car away!

09/04/2011 (posted 10/04/2011)

Today was our final morning in Volcan.
We have been here for just under a week (since we finished our outreach) and in that time have done very little indeed. All I've really done is go on Facebook and eat cereal and cakes. Nice as that has been, I am kind of ready to actually do something.

Jess, Andrew and I are spending a few days together in Panama City. I'm going because my flight to Cusco, Peru is on the 13th from Panama City Airport and we are only allowed to stay in Volcan until the 10th so I have no choice. Andrew and Jess are doing another outreach in Nicaragua that starts in around a week so they're going there to see some sights, plus Andrew's sister Emily is flying in to do the outreach and arrives on the 11th so it means we can all pick her up from the airport.

The standard plan is to take a bus to David and then a bus to Panama City, but we're sick of buses and plus they are ages in a tight, stuffy bus.
We therefore decided to rent a car. Albin's cousin owns a rental place so we got a discount and the idea of a roadtrip was a fun one. We made a CD of Hillsong Worship Music to rock out to on the way and off we went.

We also had Jonny and Jarett in the car as they fly out of Panama City tomorrow afternoon so we gave them a lift.
Andrew and myself were named as drivers so he did a two hour stint and then I took over. It's my first experience of driving abroad and obviously it's on the right hand side of the road and the drivers cockpit is on the left hand side of the car. It took me a little while to get used to this but eventually I was driving fairly comfortably.
Until a policeman flagged me down and told me to pull in.

I was a bit taken aback so pulled in maybe 100 yards away from where he flagged me. He got on his little motorbike and came along to talk to us. Although Jonny speaks good Spanish, we decided as a group to pretend we spoke very little as we figured this may play to our advantage.
He seemed to suggest that I was speeding - I was cruising at 120kph and have since found that the limit is 100, so I guess he had a point. He then asked to see my license which was tricky as it is in the UK - all I had was a photocopy. This was enough for the car rental place to allow me to drive the car but the policeman said that it wasn't sufficient.

He then motioned a truck towing the car away, and this made me kind of worried. He asked us what we were doing in the country and we mentioned that we were missionaries. After a few minutes of deliberation, he told us in broken English (we felt bad for not speaking the Spanish we had but it was a good tactic to play the baffled tourist card) that he would let us off simply because we were missionaries.
This was an awesome demonstration of God giving us a bit of help - purely because we share knowledge of God with the policeman, we were spared being towed away in a rental car. Thank God we weren't, literally.

One of the conditions for him letting us go was that I wasn't allowed to drive, so poor Andrew had to drive the rest of it. At least he had about 45 minutes of rest before he was back, and after around three more hours we finally arrived in Panama City. We firstly dropped Jonny and Jarett at a hostel in which they are staying tonight and then getting picked up from tomorrow.
We then tried to find the house of a friend of a friend of Jess, Ann, who we are staying with for the next four days. It's so lovely of her to put us all up. We knew that her house was near the Miraflores Locks so we tried to find them - the trouble was that it was getting darker and darker, and the only map we had was from a Hertz car rental place and wasn't the most detailed.

After around one hour of driving round in circles, we phoned Ann but couldn't quite communicate where we were as we had no idea. We then pulled into a petrol station and asked a policeman how to get to the locks - he told us that he'd show us the way! It took around 15 minutes but he drove there and we followed behind not quite believing our luck. We have had good experiences with Panamanian police today.

We finally arrived at Ann's house at 7:30pm, sweaty and exhausted. It's a lovely house and very well air-conditioned.
The trouble was that we had a table booked for 8pm at the Hard Rock Cafe with all of our team (except Lissette who left earlier in the week) for one final meal, so we forfeited the prospect of a shower to freshen up. We decided to get a taxi as we'd driven enough for one day and so we managed to get there on time, no matter how smelly we were or sticky we felt.

We had a lovely meal at the HRC - I had the Red, White and Blue burger which was ridiculously tasty and it was accompanied with a couple of very welcome beers. We then finished the evening off with some ice cream from Dunkin' Donuts and a walk across the seafront before we said bye to Christina and Bonnie, who are flying early tomorrow morning.
The first of the original seven are now gone, and two more are going tomorrow afternoon. It feels strange that after experiencing so much and having so many memories together, our team is now quickly breaking up.

I don't like goodbyes because although we'll probably all see each other at some point in the future, these goodbyes mark the end of this experience. We'll never have this time back again and the prospect of the end of everything we've done together, no matter how relatively short our time has been, is a sad one as we have enjoyed so many great times together and now won't for quite some time. We'll all go back to our normal lives and move on.

As I say, I don't like goodbyes.

JG

#66 - Chunder

08/04/2011

Didn´t do much this morning except go to the Panaderia and drop some washing off at the launderette.
Standard.

We went to Amanda and Tony´s for lunch. It was one of the best I´ve ever had.
Tony barbecued some chicken to perfection and there was an unreal amount of meat on each piece. After the scrawny rubbish that I killed in the tribes, this was just so succulent and amazing. I´m running out of superlatives.
Accompanying it was a fresh green salad with vinaigrette and a delicious potato salad and some soft brown rolls. And some Fresca to drink. Followed by brownies and ice cream for dessert.
Like I say, it was a great meal.

Afterwards we stayed and watched a film called God´s Finger about healing which I would recommend to all of you - it´s on YouTube in several parts I believe.
While watching the film, Andy and Jonny annoyed Christina by trying to get the dog to lick her face. It was pretty funny but not for her, bless her.

When we got home, we felt we couldn´t eat anything for several hours but within an hour were eating Mexican food for dinner.

Ryan and Albin took Christina and Bonnie to David so they could get a bus which left me, Jonny, Jarett, Jess and Andrew.
We decided to mark the final night in Volcan with a drinking game.
But, remembering we are on Christian mission, we decided to do it sans alcohol so went to the supermarket and bought a 4l bottle of milk.

We started by using the unbelievably strong fruit punch as the staple and after we got through around six or seven litres between the five of us, we moved on to using milk as the staple.
By the end of the game, the four litres of milk was all gone.

If you´re unfamiliar with the game, you put a deck of cards in a ring around an empty pitcher in the middle of the table and draw cards in turn. Each number has a different task to do and by the end of it you end up having drank a lot.
Every time a king comes up, the person who drew it has to add stuff to the pitcher in the middle and the person who draws the fourth king has to drink the pitcher in the middle. So if you draw a king, you can add some truly horrendous stuff but in doing so are taking the risk that it may be you drinking it at the end.

We progressed through and all felt very ill indeed - if anything alcohol would be easier to drink in such quantities compared to the punch which was horrifically sweet or pure milk.
And guess who drew the fourth king.

The pitcher contained tomato salsa, soy sauce, milk, enough of the juice powder to dilute 3l of water, apple fanta, coke, tomato ketchup and more. It was truly horrific.
I managed to get most of it down me but by the end, I felt so ill that I made myself sick just to get it all out of my system. I dread to think how long it would have taken to digest all of that.


It wasn´t the best end but the game was absolutely hilarious to play and a funny way to end our time here in Volcan. It´s off to Panama City now and from there, Machu Picchu.

Don´t feel too great.


JG

#65 - Spoons

07/04/2011

Started the day with a nice big bowl of Nesquik cereal. It´s the one influx of calcium I have as I don´t take milk in coffee, tea or with other cereal but in Nesquik cereal, the milk goes all chocolatey and you can drink it afterwards without being repulsed.

We decided to actually do something today as we´ve been lounging around the house for a few days now and the novelty has somewhat worn off.
So we got a taxi to a lodge in Cerro Punta where there´s an awesome upstairs area - table tennis, random books, table football and they also bring you drinks. I had the nicest hot chocolate - well perhaps second nicest to a Starbucks Signature Hot Chocolate.

We chilled out there for a bit but then I left early as I had a Skype appointment with my parents. I´ve only been able to talk to them once (apart from emails) since I´ve been here so it was nice to catch up and to see a bit of the house through the webcam. It just seems like a past life, I have no idea how I´m going to fit back in once I get home.
All my family are well, pretty much, and things in the village are the same as they always are.

I spent most of the afternoon melting my eyes by catching up with some people on Facebook - I feel so out of the loop which is obviously what happens when you leave an area for eight weeks but already a lot of things have changed. I´m so encouraged to hear how awesome First Sunday has been and how it´s going from strength to strength.

The evening was spent playing Phase 10, an awesome card game, and spoons in which I came third of four. Need to work on my reaction times a bit.

For the first time since I´ve been back, I´m going to bed by 10pm. I´ve stayed up later than 3am on three occasions this week either chatting to people or uploading pictures. Can´t be good for me but I can handle it.

JG

#64 - Mmm brownies

05/04/2011

Feels nice to be actually writing about what happened today, not just typing up what happened two weeks ago.

I was once again up until about 3:30am uploading pictures to Facebook and such, and I also had a quick Skype with Chris Leadbetter before his lectures. He did the same mission as I did but last February, so it was great comparing notes. Unfortunately he couldn´t see my facial hair in the half-light but ah well.

Again today was fairly uneventful.
However we said farewell to a member of our team - Lissette. She lives in David which is close and seeing as our schedule is complete, there´s no reason for her not to be at home. It was sad to say bye as it has been the eight of us together for so long and that´s now broken. She has been such an amazing asset and help to our team, and has never stopped working hard. If you think about it, I as an individual may have to prepare something for each service but Lissette has to translate EVERYTHING that any member of our team says so it´s a tiring job. But she has never once complained.
The one tragedy is that despite all our hard work, we never found her an indigenous husband (that was a running joke for the final two weeks).

We then watched the Man U V Chelsea Champions League quarter final match in a local restaurant. The first half was pretty exciting but it kind of died down later on. It was nice to be able to watch some live football though, and I´m looking forward to catching the second leg.

The afternoon was spent going to the Panaderia and not doing much else.

In the evening we went to Ryan and Kelly´s house. They cooked us up a stir-fry and rice and noodles which was delicious, and pudding was freshly made warm brownies with ice cream. It was just unreal.
We all took turns holding Jacob (one month old already!). He´s so cute and tiny - both of my little cousins are now way past the stage he´s at where you have to support the head etc.

We then watched Oceans 11 which I´ve never seen before, and it was much better than Repo Men which we saw at Roger´s. I can´t stress enough how important it is that you never see that film.

I am currently in the process of uploading all my photos to Facebook so perhaps in a few hours time there will be several albums stuffed with memories of all our times so far. There may be a few duplicates but I´ve tried to get rid of most of those, and later on there are some beautiful panoramic shots which I really recommend you to look at.

JG

#63 - Brief debrief

05/04/2011 (posted 06/04/2011)

After I finish posting this, I´ll finally be up to date with my blog and I can start to look to the future. It´s taken about three days to upload from the 17th March onwards.

Today was our last day with anything scheduled.
We spent the morning having a debrief discussion in which we went over all of the positives, negatives and gave some suggestions for improvement for OM. It was a really valuable time and was great to relive some of the memories of the past few weeks. I´ll give a little summary of the trip at the end of this week so stay tuned for that.

After that, I again did very little. I helped Andrew and Jess cook lunch which was beef and sauteed potatoes in an improvised random sauce that turned out delicious, even if it did take two hours.

After that, I took a well-deserved (cough) trip to the Panaderia with Jonny to get a cinnamon doughnut.

In the evening we went to Clint and Becky´s house for dinner. They are a couple who moved to Volcan a few days before we left for the outreach - they´re full-time missionaries and are here to help set up a training school for OM. The food was delicious - a range of pastas and sauces with ice cream and coffee for pudding. Listening to them talk about their experiences of missions and stuff was really interesting - I´m still fairly sure I´m not called to do long term mission work but it´s fascinating hearing all their stories and how they balance family and work. He said the key is to put family first always.
They´re a very nice couple and their kids all have a great sense of humour even though they´re fairly young.

I showed a few of my photos after the meal and we then said our goodbyes and came home.
I then posted eight blogs, of which this is the eighth.
FINALLY I´m caught up!

JG

#62 - BBQ

04/04/2011 (posted 06/04/2011)

I was up until 4am last night/this morning uploading blogs. Thirteen down, seven to go.
I thought I´d be able to sleep until about midday but Ryan and Kelly came round for group devotions at 9am so I was up bright and early.

I really didn´t do too much today.
After group devos a few of us watched Toy Story 3 with Nora, Ryan and Kelly´s middle child. It´s such an awesome film, even for the second time.

I can´t remember what I did for most of the afternoon but at 4pm, I Skyped Amy.
It´s been six weeks since we´ve spoken in person, since when it´s been the occasional Facebook message here or there when I can get to an internet cafe so it was very nice to see her again. It´s also nice to hear about stuff from home - it seems a whole life away now.
But it was very nice indeed.

In the evening we went to Roger and Elisabetta´s for a barbecue. Elisabetta cooked some outrageously good food including a red cabbage salad and pasta in some unbelievable sauce.
I also had a chance to hold Jacob, Ryan and Kelly´s newborn son. He´s so cute and I love babies - can´t wait to have kids of my own. I will wait though.

We were then swarmed by massive flying bugs. I swatted one on my head and when I looked at my hand, it was covered in bug juice - it looked like a big splodge of barbecue sauce. It was horrific.

After dinner we watched Repo Men, one of the worst films I have seen. Don´t ever bother watching it.

JG

#61 - Fruity

03/04/2011 (posted 06/04/2011)

Got up a little later than usual and has loads of cereal, fruit salad, coffee and bread simply because it was there. It´s just such a novelty having all this delicious processed food.

We went to Casa de Luz for one final Sunday service.
It started off with a great block of worship - excellently chosen and performed songs.
We then did our Jailhouse drama and when Jarett came in as Jesus, the audience were cheering and clapping. As a performer, it gave me so much adrenaline and for about twenty minutes after my heart was still thudding from it. I gave my testimony which I really love doing as it´s a chance to be totally honest about where I´ve come from and where I want to go towards. The nature of my journey towards God means that it works well as an encouraging story for both youth and adults so after the service, people came up to me and hugged me and said hearing my testimony was such an encouragement.
Roger then gave a completely improvised sermon which was just straight from the heart. One thing I really respect in him as a Pastor is that each week, He challenges his congregation to be more proactive in their faith and not just save their emotion and excitement up for Sundays. He truly is a blessing to the church.

I spent the afternoon chilling and posting a few blogs and doing almost nothing else. Just having the time to completely veg out and do nothing except eat gross amounts of delicious fruit is so fun.

Throughout the day I consumed four cups of coffee and maybe four heaped bowls of fruit salad as snacks. It´s just impossible to resist a massive bowl full of pineapple, mango, melon and more delicious fresh fruit.
Mmm.

Pretty much nothing else to report - my day wasn´t exactly packed.

JG

#60 - Return to Volcan!

02/04/2011 (posted 05/04/2011)

Woke up after three and a half hours sleep not feeling too tired but just sick from the horrendous amounts of coffee and biscuits I consumed to keep me awake last night.

We rose at 6:30am for some final Hojaldras and mint tea. My sleeping and eating schedule are now well and truly screwed up so methinks the next couple of days will be mainly spent resting and recovering.

Before that, however, we had to actually get back to Volcan.
We hiked to where a guy said he´d pick us up from but got there an hour and a half early. This meant it was time to play Mafia (if you don´t know what that is, it´s essentially a game to waste time but is awesome). I was narrator and under my stewardship poor Christina was killed by being tied with her lips over a car exhaust while Bonnie, the Mafia person, revved the engine. Unfortunately, Jess was killed when Bonnie ate thirteen hot dogs and vomited them over her until she choked.
It´s a brutal game but really passes the time.

We had an hour´s journey in a trailer through the crazily up and down mountain track which was a test of strength for my fragile stomach.
We then got a bus to David which took a couple of hours. I started with the seat next to me free but for the third time during this outreach, an immensely fat person sat next to me. Her thighs were tightly pressed against mine and I literally couldn´t move, not even to get something out of my bag.
Another thing I didn´t appreciate was that when we stopped and an ice-cream seller boarded to sell some, I tried to get one but I was too late - the woman next to me laughed at this. She was in no position to make jokes about food and given that I was low on sleep, I didn´t appreciate her.

We arrived in David and went for lunch. I had rice and a beautiful schnitzel-esque bit of chicken. It was absolutely divine.
We then boarded one final bus and after an hour and a half, we were back in Volcan.

We were greeted with a massive fruit salad and massive potato and chicken salad. I spent the rest of the afternoon eating all these foods that we hadn´t had for so long - fruit obviously, cereal, fruit bread, PROPER coffee, potatoes...
It was bliss.

Due to me having had no internet connection for almost three weeks, I have nineteen blog posts to retrospectively upload so I began doing that. I finally went to bed at 11pm.
It´s so, so good to be back.

JG

#59 - Going out on a high

01/04/2011 (posted 05/04/2011)

Had such a great sleep. I had loads of dreams which always means that I slept deeply, and I woke up feeling lovely and refreshed.
It´s our last day of outreach - tomorrow at 7am we walk back to the place where we got dropped off and are taken back to Volcan.

Breakfast was fried vegetables which were nice as, true to Panamanian style, loads of salt had been added and they were fried in a bucket of oil.

We were told to prepare a kids programme for 8am but no-one turned up in the end - the Pastor didn´t seem too surprised. It was a shame but we did door-to-door evangelism instead.
Apparently a lot of the local families attend a different church called La Paz (The Peace) which disagree with the church we´re based at on the issue of speaking in tongues. We met a few of their congregation and had some good chats so hopefully one day both churches will put this petty dispute aside.

We walked door-to-door for a couple of hours and I felt tired and weak the whole time. I don´t think I drank enough water.
I also felt quite uneasy that at times, people seem to accept Christ so quickly and it´s almost too good to be true. I feel that at times, people in our team have been putting words in their mouths and I´m not comfortable with that.
At the end of the day, God knows these peoples hearts and He´s in control so I´ll leave it there.

Lunch was spaghetti and spam which was very welcome by the time it arrived.
We then went to the river in the middle of the afternoon and swam a bit and sunbathed a bit. I´m trying to get a tan on my stomach and upper arms because only my lower arms are tanned at the moment and it looks stupid.

The afternoon was free so we lolled about in the heat, napping and wasting time.

The evening was very busy and very enjoyable. We did our usual service in which I played Jesus in the Jailhouse drama. I enjoyed it and loved the idea of Jesus wearing my black slimfit chinos.

We then finished our five and a half weeks of outreach with an all-night prayer event. By all night, we mean 10pm-2am.
We led the first two hours and had four stations with different topics to pray for - spiritual growth, persecuted Christians around the world, thanks giving and the community of Maj Agua (where we are). Everyone drifted between each station as they pleased and it was a great, chilled atmosphere. I also had a lengthy twiddle on someone´s guitar.

When our hour finished, we had loads of sugary coffee to keep us going. I drank so much I felt sick but was absoultely buzzing.
The Pastor the led two straight hours of singing worship which was really vibrant and just totally focussed on God.

By the time it finished we were all tired but devoting such a long period of prayer and worship was really awesome, especially under the twinkling starry night. We said our farewells to the people and I gave a shirt and pair of 3/4 length shorts to Adriano, the guy who gave me his bag earlier in the week. Both are particularly unflattering to my figure and the thought of him wearing them around the Panamanian mounatins is just so cool.

This has been a short week and quite uneventful. Our night services have been nice and short, just 45 minutes, and we´ve had plenty of free time. Unfortunately we couldn´t finish the benches as they couldn´t get hold of any nails that were long enough. It´s a shame to leave on such an uneventful week as in previous weeks, the Pastors have really utilised having eight missionaries and seemed so excited to have us whereas this week they´ve seemed short of ideas of things for us to do.
However it´s arguable that we´re all so tired and ready to finish that we couldn´t have managed much more.

We´re leaving at 7am tomorrow and it´s now 2:30am so I´m going to get some sleep.

JG

#58 - Stud muffin

31/03/2011 (posted 05/04/2011)

Nice early 5am wake up as we had to arrive at a school by 7:30 and they told us it would take us an hour and a half.
We had Hojaldras and omelettes for breakfast which were delicious and gave us plenty of energy for a walk.

We left at 6:20 and walked past some amazing landscapes. I took some panoramic photos which, with the early morning light, look great. It was only a 45 minute walk in the end which was a pleasant surprise.

The kids arrived so we gave our programme. We truly went from the sublime to the ridiculous - gospel messages to the Grecian Fountains and the Cool ´n´ Creamy Brothers. I don´t think the teachers knew what hit them when we pulled them out of the bag but the kids found it funny which is what matters.

Afterwards the school served us rice and chicken - it was 9am. It was the first time for several weeks that we had any type of spice or seasoning and it was so nice! Plain rice is filling but unbelievably bland and we´ve been having it daily for ages now.
We then stayed for around an hour as they wanted to show us their mock election. In order to teach the kids how it works, they had made video cameras out of card, ballot boxes, IDs etc. so we watched the kids walk into a room, cast their vote, sign their name and walk out again for about an hour. The teachers then let us go as this was clearly going to continue for several hours.

As we left, the teachers wanted some photos with our whole group. What was funny was that all the female teachers then also asked for individual photos with me, just me. It was very flattering and more funny than anything else and much as the guys jokes about it, I could tell they were jealous.

We walked straight home and en route, tried to get our guide to take a group picture of us with an amazing landscape behind us. Unfortunately, he had clearly never seen a camera before so he didn´t take any that did justice to the truly stunning background. It was a shame but after asking him to take five photos and all of them being equally awful, we didn´t have the heart to ask him to do any more.

We got back pretty early so had some lunch and then everyone crashed out. I couldn´t really get to sleep so I was just sitting around bored for ages. I love a nice nap after lunch but it was just too hot for me to get settled.

Us lads went to the river again and just swam a bit and took some time to relax. There´s loads of shade by the river so it´s an awful lot cooler than the church where we hang out and sleep.
We spent most of the rest of the afternoon getting bitten - the local insects obviously know that tomorrow is our last day so are really stepping up their efforts.

I can´t believe our mission is almost at an end. We´ve now had five and a half weeks and just have tomorrow left. The amount I´ve grown personally during this time is crazy and I´ve learned so much about myself and my relationship with God. I´ve been so blessed to be surrounded by a team of great peers who I have also learned a lot from.

We led an evening service throughout which I was knackered. Luckily I didn´t have much to do.
We sang How Great Thou Art which always puts a chill down my spine, it´s such a powerful song.

I decided to abandon my challenge of sleeping in a different place each night and got my Thermarest our again. It´s just so comfortable.
Two more nights.

JG

#57 - If you go down to the river with us, you´re in for a big surprise

30/03/2011 (posted 05/04/2011)

My night was pretty comfortable in the hammock. I managed to slide into a good position and put my travel pillow under the arch of my back to support it.

We had Hojaldra for breakfast. I really have to write the recipe down, they´re so doughy and sweet.

At 8am we left for a nearby community. It was about an hour´s walk and on the way, we passed a shop which had a mini-fridge and bought some ice-cold Kist drinks (Fanta). Having a cold drink from a glass bottle was so, so good. I am now very much looking forward to being back in Volcan and heading to the Panaderia for a pastry and lemonade.

We arrived at our destination and waited for an hour for people to get there. The congregation here is apparently struggling for motivation so we gave an hour-long programme to encourage them and we were well-received. The weather was so hot and we were all exhausted by the time it finished so when they served us rice, it was extremely welcome. The addition of tuna was unnecessary but I just wolfed it down first to get it out of the way.
In the past weeks I have eaten gross portions of rice but, this week particularly, my appetite has shrunk a fair amount. Jonny asked me to help him out with his portion which I would usually have jumped at but I felt really achey afterwards.

We waited for couple of hours and then some kids came. We did a short programme for them and then played some games to tire them out. After Sardines (the game, not the food) Andrew had the excellent idea of teaching them ´Bogies´. They loved it but it annoyed the rest of us.
I´m slightly worried for when the next group of missionaries come and see kids playing ´Bogies´ and talking of Willy the clown.

We came bacm and us lads went down to the river. We did more laddish things we can´t get away with around the females such as duck-diving (either you know what that is or you don´t - if you don´t, you don´t want to). A few of us found little biting insects in strange places which I won´t detail.

When we returned a dinner of spam and rice was ready - never grow tired of that combo. In all seriousness, fried spam isn´t too bad at all and out here in the middle of nowhere it´s a luxury for them.

There was no evening service so we had some time to ourselves and to relax which is rare and amazing when we get it. Andrew tried to teach the locals to play Uno, Jonny and Jarett chilled in hammocks, I´m sitting writing this and the girls went to the river. Each sex now goes to the river separately - we do silly things and I wonder what they do. Probably complain about us.

I chose to sleep on my Thermarest tonight so I need to think of a creative way of sleeping tomorrow to keep up my challenge of a different way each night. Or I  might just abandon the challenge and sleep comfortably.

JG

#56 - Chasing after Willy

29/03/2011 (posted 05/04/2011)

Woke up with no bites but a very sore back after sleeping on solid wood. I somehow managed not to fall off which, when you see the photos, was impressive.

They made us mint tea for breakfast, but didn´t know how to use tea bags so cut one open before Lissette showed them how. Foodwise we just had some bread rolls which were filling but very bland.

The morning was given for us to build benches for the church. They have just four and wanted us to build another three so we got to work.
After a fair bit of sawing and hacking we had everything ready - all that was needed was nails. And there was the proble. They had none.
It´s a shame to leave a job half-finished but hopefully they´ll be able to acquire some before we leave so that we can finish off the job.

We went to the river in the afternoon and found another rock to climb and jump off. A few of us were feeling silly and jumped off while mooning but there were only us men there so it was justified. Sort of.

We had a kids programme in the afternoon for about ten kids who are mainly sons and daughters of the congregation. We played some games and told them some stories and then Andrew taught them how to play ´Bogies´ which was funny.
Jonny became Willy the clown which was a bit of an in-joke amongst us English-speakers but he was absolutely brilliant, so energetic.
At the end we made the kids follow Willy whilst dancing. Andrew DJ´d and the first song he picked was the theme from Baywatch. The locals obviously won´t understand the reference - I doubt they´ve seen a tv - but seeing kids run after a clown with the Baywatch music was simply hilarious. We also treated them to some Basshunter from Jonny´s ´pumpìn´ playlist on his iPod.

After the programme we were all tired so I collapsed in one of the hammocks. Jess then rocked me and sand ´Rock a by Joven´ (my nickname due to my baby face) which was actually really nice. I want people to do this for me when I get home.

We bought a chicken to eat for dinner. Trouble was it was still alive.
In stepped Christina, against her will, who did a pretty good job of killing it. To be fair to me (my attempts made me a laughing stock last week) she had a machete and I had a blunt penknife pretty much. She didn´t cut its head clean off like I did so it flapped and screeched around for about half a minute before giving up on life.

Much as I loved my improvised sleeping device I created last night, I was offered the chance to sleep in a hammock tonight and couldn´t turn it down. I´m going to attempt to sleep in a different way each night.
Should be a fun challenge.

JG

#55 - Sweat and scorpions

28/03/2011 (posted 05/04/2011)

Got up at 5:15am for a morning hike to our final destination. Breakfast was Hojaldras which was a lovely send-off. The Pastor woke all his family up to pray with us before we left and then we were off.

In total the hike was around five hours but this included a break at someone´s house who gave us fried vegetables, spam and coffee. It was delicious.
The sun wasn´t out too much as it was so early but it was so unbelievably humid that we were all dripping sweat from our faces and all over our bodies. It was horrific but felt strangely good to be hiking with all my stuff. It was a proper backpacking experience which I will need to get used to for my travelling.

The journey took us up and down lots of hills, so it was quite a toughie but we had plenty of short breaks and eventually made it. We are probably the smelliest and whitest visitors they´ve ever had but still, we are here.

From what we could fine out from the locals (the Pastor arrived late in the evening) the congregation is very small so we´re guessing it will be a lot of door-to-door stuff.
We don´t have a full week here - we leave on Saturday morning so we can be back in Volcan for one last Sunday service so we just have Tuesday-Friday to do actual work.

We went to the river to wash as soon as we could find someone to take us. It´s a short walk but there is a very precarious drop alongside most of the route which, when combined with the fact that the route is also steeply downhill, means you have to take care. The river itself is fairly decent and calm enough to comfortably swim in.
Most importantly, I could wash the sweat off my body.

The afternoon was free so Jarett, Christina, Jonny and I played Happy Families. I´d forgotten that I had it with me until I found it when I was packing yesterday. It´s better with a large number of people but it killed some time.

Our dinner was rice, beans and spam which I´m getting very used to.

We were then asked to give a forty-five minute service which was a doddle to organise compared to the two hour ones we did last week. Each of us introduced ourselves and shared our testimony or an encouraging thing we´ve seen here in Panama. We also sang some songs and I was able to borrow someone´s guitar.

After the service, a guy asked if I had one of the local hand-knitted bags and I said no. He then took his possessions out of his and gave me his own bag to keep. It was so nice of him and just shows how hospitable these guys are despite them having so little compared to us. It was a very humbling experience.

There is an insane amount of bugs here which are of the biting variety. As I was sitting or standing, my legs and face were being swarmed constantly which was bloody annoying. That´s one thing I won´t miss when I´m back in England.

We are sleeping in their church (no walls just to clarify) so we all set about setting up our beds. Christina has a tent, Jarett has a travel hammock, Andrew and Lissette borrowed hammocks from locals, Bonnie has a massive blowup mattress as does Jess and Jonny has a roll mat.
I have a Thermarest but I just can´t be bothered to have to pack it away each morning plus I don´t want to get it dirty (the floor is just the ground) so I improvised. I lay on one of the wooden benches and put a chair in place on the end where my head will be. I then stretched my mosquito net over the top so the chair raised it above my head to avoid it rubbing my face.

I can only describe it to a certain extent through words - you really have to see the photos to see how awesome a creation it was, not that I´m one to blow my own trumpet. All the locals were watching and laughing but I don´t care.

As we were getting into bed someone found a scorpion walking around. Jonny killed it but it unnerved us all somewhat.
At least I´m sleeping above ground level.

JG

#53 - The last straw (hat)

27/03/2011 (posted 04/04/2011)

I somehow managed to roll off my Thermarest and spend almost all of last night on the hard floor. Oh well.

We had Hojaldras for breakfast which were very welcome indeed. All the flour and sugar and salt and oil is simply delicious.

We had to provide three simultaneous two-hour services this morning - one for children, one for youth, one for adults. We have one translator.
You do the math.

The children's group managed to work with Jonny's pretty good level of Spanish and they made bracelets and drew pictures. I helped organise the adult group and we tried to lead a Bible study and get the audience interacting. This didn't work.
We couldn't tell if they were just shy or had absolutely no idea what we were talking about (some of the locals don't speak Spanish, only the native Bugle language) but they gave no answer to any questions. In the end we simply answered the questions for them and then went round praying for each of them individually.

For lunch we had the chicken I slayed last night.
There wasn't an extortionate amount of meat on the poor thing and it just felt weird eating something I had killed. At least it was tasty.

The afternoon was free so we all just crashed out, exhausted after another stressful morning. I just felt for Lissette - she already works damn hard translating constantly and she had to keep running between groups all morning.
We then went down to the river one last time and found a new, higher rock to jump off which was scary but exhiliarating.

I preached in our final service of the week and it went ok. The crowd were unresponsive as ever but I tried to keep their attention with rhetorical questions etc.
After the service, we said our farewells. They're such nice and welcoming people so it's a wrench to leave but I leave with many happy memories.

Killing the chicken was a great experience, though perhaps not at the time. I will certainly never forget it and apparently I'm already famous in the village for the way I killed it.

Another great thing has been the scenery. Being constantly around such beautiful landscapes and hills has been a real treat and makes the Lake District pale in comparison.

But once again, the hospitality of the village has really been so amazing. They are so humble and servant-hearted and despite the fact they have so little, they have gone out of their way to make us as comfortable as possible.
Despite them having next to nothing, after the service they gave our team bags and hats and dresses for the girls that take a couple of weeks each to make. I got a cool straw hat though it's absolutely tiny. I still like it though.

I took one last walk under the stars and then collapsed to sleep.

JG

#52 - Murder

26/03/2011 (posted 04/04/2011)

Started the morning with some more fried banana. The great thing is that they taste just like potato wedges and nothing like horrible icky banana. I haven't had a banana for about sixteen years and I have managed to keep that up so far on this journey.

We did a kids programme in the morning. We were due to start at 8:30am but by 9am, no-one had turned up due to the quirky Panamanian timing. We eventually had about fifteen which was a decent enough amount for a Saturday morning.

We started with some of the silly sketches we have done in the past.
Jarett and Jonny were the cool 'n' creamy brothers and covered each other in shaving foam. Jess and I were Grecian Fountains and spat 3l of water all over each other. Luckily she could only reach my shoulder but I could bend down and spit right in her face each time. It was hilarious.
Bonnie and Christina did a new sketch, The Gross Twins, in which they did several disgusting things.
Firstly, Christina chewed some gum and then spat it into Bonnie's mouth for her to chew, and that was just for starters. The poor Welsh lass then sucked lemonade with a straw from Christina's mouth. For the next part, Christina brushed her teeth and spat it into a cup, Bonnie then brushed her teeth with this used water and spat it back out and Christina then necked the resulting water. It was horrible to watch but the audience were cracking up. Christina then chewed some banana which Bonnie extracted from her mouth with a spoon and ate. They finished with the traditional custard pie in each other's faces.

It was absolutely hilarious to watch as a spectator but really quite disgusting if you think about it. Fair play to them for doing it, I'm not sure I'd have been able to hack it.

After a lunch of rice and beans - never tire of it - we visited some houses around the village. In each one we shared the Evangecube and some people seemed really interested. One guy said his daughter is a Christian and he would like Jesus in his life so to witness that was truly great.
Dinner was spaghetti and fried spam which was actually delicious and most importantly, filling - each meal is pretty much a carb overload.

After dinner, I murdered a chicken.

They want to send us off tomorrow with a really good meal of chicken and there's no Sainsbury here so they chose the best chicken they had and asked which of us wanted to kill it.
All the other guys had killed one before so I volunteered. I knew I'd hate it but I feel it's an important experience for everyone to go through.

They tied its legs up and placed it on the floor in front of me. It took me ages to bring myself to roll it over as, being left handed, I needed its feet on the left so I could hold it in place with my left foot.
I then had to put my right hand over its eyes but it kept moving and it took me ages to finally get it in position. I started cutting but they hadn't removed any feathers and the knife was awfully blunt so after a fair bit of hacking through feathers, I had made very little progress.

It kept writhing around and it became agitated which made it even harder to get in position. But eventually I had it and after slicing and slicing, I finally cut its head clean off.

The locals were in stitches at my awful attempts and apparently it isn't the custom here to cut the head clean off so they loved it - they should have told me that before I administered the fatal cut but that's by the by.

I was ever so slightly emotionally scarred but I feel it's one more experience I can say I've done and who knows when I'll have to kill one again.
When I got back from murdering an animal, I went for a nighttime shower. The stars were glittering in the sky and the shower is outside so it was just a magical experience.

This was an absolutely crazy day in one way or another but it ended on such a massive high.
I will never forget how beautiful the sky is here.

JG

#51 - Beneath the starry skies

25/03/2011 (posted 04/04/2011)

We were up nice and early again for breakfast. At first glance it looked like fried banana so I got myself prepared to skip the whole meal. It turned out to in fact be banana but they had mashed it and added buckets of salt and oil and it tasted just like a potato wedge.
Phew.

We once again hiked off into the mountains to another local community. On the way we visited a family who the Pastor said weren't Christians so I presented the Evangecube.
While telling the story I discovered that a) some of them only spoke the native Bugle language, not Spanish and b) none of them had seen an image of Jesus on the cross before or had any idea about Him.
This somewhat added some new dimensions so, completely off the cuff, I told them about who Jesus is and the things He did in His life. This was extremely difficult, especially with a three-way translation, but I did my best and I'll let God do the rest.

We arrived at our destination for the day and, after waiting for around an hour, we had a pretty good crowd in the church so we presented a short programme. The people I shared the Evangecube with in the above paragraph turned up as well, and this was a big encouragement.

After the service, we were served rice and sardines. I once again took a small portion of sardines but really packed in the rice as it was only 11:30am and dinner is at 6pm every night.

On the way back, the mountains looked just incredible in the midday sun. It's become easy to take this amazing mountain scenery we are in the heart of for granted, but times like this remind me just how stunning it is. I'm looking very much forward to sharing some photos of it.

On the way back I had a nice chat with Christina about the differences between America and England and Europe. Despite the constant anti-American abuse including references to their gross eating culture, references to Iraq, references to the Tea Party etc. I explained how much I really love America and how its people are among the friendliest I've met. For instance, when I was in the US back in 2003 a motorcyclist stopped to let me and my family cross the road.
She's been to a few places in Europe that I also have so we compared notes - she even lived in Germany for four years, poor girl.
It was a great chance to ask some burning questions I have about America such as what is homecoming, how the NFL works, how on earth they voted in a black president, why they desecrate the beautiful English language etc.

Dinner was rice and a beef sauce. I'm really getting into the rice here and am eating what can only be described as elephantine portions each day. It's the Panamanian staple food as it's so cheap and filling.
The rest of the team, Jess in particular, aren't as partial but whether it's morning, lunch or dinner I will pack it away.

We did an evening service in which my only role was a supplementary part in a drama. It was nice to be able to sit down for a little bit and actually receive from a service because the irony of going on mission is that the services we prepare for others are difficult for us to fully focus on as we are always preparing the next part. That's one thing I'm looking forward to when we finish.

Tonight the service was outside in the pitch darkness and out here, the sky is absolutely filled with stars. I think that stars are the most beautiful of God's creations and looking up at a blanket of shining stars is one thing I will miss.

After the service, I once again retired straight to bed. The day was very challenging and also very rewarding but a byproduct of this is exhaustion.

JG