Live News Update 2007 - Inca and Amazon 48

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Inca and Amazon 48 - Puerto Lopez Projects

The Team:

Extract from our diaries:

From: Inca and Amazon 48
Date: 10-04-07
To: VentureCo HQ

The Venture Begins

As we began the four month Inca Amazon trip we were unprepared for the adventure to begin a little earlier than expected when our flight to Amsterdam was delayed! Our transfer time was cut down to twenty five minutes when a man managed to get onto our flight without a ticket.....what followed was an adrenaline filled dash across Amsterdam airport (giving us an insight to our fitness levels). Luckily our flight had been held for us and we got onto the 16 hour flight unscathed! No time for relaxing though when this was
extended to 18 hours because we were diverted around the erupting volcano. After the drama of our journey everyone was ready to drop, this however, was not to be, arriving in Quito we met Kat our leader with amazing control over her facial muscles, she had organised a trip to the market town Otovalo where everyone invested in some stripy pyjama pants. These are the travellers uniform and between us we have a pair in nearly every colour (at 3 dollars a pair who can blame us).

Having had a taste of the local culture we were ready to begin our Spanish lessons at our hostel Selva Alegra in Quito. This meant one to one tutelage with a non English speaking teacher. During the afternoons we explored Quito, which we discovered to be noisy and very polluted, but with a lovely bit in the centre which was popular with the girls because of the abundance of chocolate milkshakes! In the evenings we managed a few nights out as a group during which of course, a few people got a bit too overexcited about the 2 for 1 offer on cocktails in club Patatous! The next day with lessons continuing, the rest of us were disappointed when we couldn't watch the results of their overindulgence when one individual had her lesson in bed.......special treatment or what! 

From: Inca and Amazon 48
Date: 14-04-07
To: VentureCo HQ

The Puerto Lopez Project Work Section

We arrived in steamy Puerto Lopez late at night on Saturday the 10th of March. The bus journey was long but beautiful, as much of it was spent climbing through mountainous jungle terrain. Our accomodation was in Super-Ped´s Venture house, where we all slept on our thermorests and although some had a few expreiences with cockroaches and scorpions, it exceeded everybodies expectations. The mini ´Cotopaxi´ trek to the compost toilet was an experience in itself but served up with the open-air showers, from which one could stargaze and sing to the camp, it could be handled with ease.

The next day, the ´blue arsed fly day´ according to Kat, meant a chilled meeting or two to sort out cooking and project groups. We all headed on down to the beach, played ´nerf-ball´, got burnt, swam, drank fruit juices and ate magnums... setting the tone for the next couple of weeks. At night some of us discovered the local market where they did an amazing barbequed chicken with beans and rice, and the infamous juice bar, were many a night was spent.

The idea for the working days was that two people are housewives/husbands for the day - cooking, shopping and cleaning for the others who are at work. With the quality of food being produced each day, it soon became a mass competition, each trying to better the last. There were some very memorable moments, including certain girls and a chocolate fondue, amazing fajitas, barbeques and fry-ups. There was a cold-turkey bet, between Ava and Nick, to quell their respective addictions to chocolate and cigarettes, fuelled by the above fondue experience, an anti-smoking campaign and Nicks kidney infection. (They are both still going relatively strong).

There were three projects, all in little ´guarderia´s´ - day-care centres for kids in the Machalilla park, with ages ranging from a couple of months to 8 years. One required two girls to help out (in a mosquito-ridden school with a teacher whose ´dream is to speak English. Write me Titanic lyrics. I stay with you, 5 years, in Enlgland... ´ {aghhhhhhhhh}). But Floss, Dot, Rach and Ava managed to stay sane and contribute a bit of love to the cutest kids ever; all coming out with certificates at the party they threw for us! And one for Manuel (they liked his chest...)

The second project was a week long painting epic, which resulted in some immense drawings - Nick´s Winnie the Pooh made you want to hug the wall, Samara and Harriet combined their talents with Mark´s to make a Mickey Mouse mural. Rachel did some sweet colouring in and Kat quietly painted an awe-inspiring goofy, without telling any of us beforehand that yes she is a secret artist. They then all joined the construction group in the final week.

The construction group transformed their guarderia, giving it level floors - pounding in the earth and mixing their own concrete, a new toilet, step and even, working through the layers of sweat, managed to do a quick repaint at the end of the final week. Libby was a machine, almost rivalling super-Ped, the boys worked on their guns, and everyone came out satisfied.

However, these two weeks were not solely about the project. The girls all intermingled with the locals, Manuel attempted to ´network´, and some just got tipsy and star-gazed. The weekends saw some more burning, a few dreads for Harriet, and a boat-trip to Salango island with snorkelling, kayaking and a little climb for Nick (liability number one). An invite to a full moon party in Puerto Cayo was procured, a night in which some fared better than others - no names - Dot, Harriet...

Overall, the Puerto Lopez stay has to be seen a success, with everybody involved feeling thouroughly satisfied by the end.