One of the great things about this trip was the price, 10 soles bus ride there (2 quid) bus ride back 8 soles, 3 course meal 8 soles a nights accommodation 10 soles. Was a pretty good deal for a weekend at the beach. One downside if there was one at the beach was how cold the water was, were talking colder than English beaches, but then again it is winter here, but that never stopped me Luke and Sam from going in.
so we went out in the evening in our large group only to find the bars were empty. we endeavoured to have a good night though and so quickly filled up a local karaoke bar, it was interesting to say the least, I personally sung a bit of Tinie Tempah then came the limbo, great fun. Later into the evening we found out where all the locals were, there was a band playing in one of the big halls so we all went there and got covered in beer and had a good old dance up! Now being as we were at the seaside it was a given that the ones left by the end of the night go onto the beach to relax, however the idea of a refreshing swim was to tempting and i soon found myself swimming in freezing water at 3 in the morning! Awesome night.
So the second week of tanking began on the Monday and to say there was problems with the progress would be an understatement, a combination of materials not being delivered, masons not arriving, water cuts and the changing of the site. But never the less me and john put into the work and we got some decent progress on the site, it was sad that we didn’t get a chance to fully complete a water tank but we have made enough progress for our fellow volunteers to complete it.
I was able to see some of the completed tanks as this is not the 1st tank in this area, it was fun getting the chance to paint it bright gvi blue with a large phoenix on one side, complements of Joanne, our artyist member. 2 of the most notable members over the past 2 weeks of construction have to be Jesus and Leonidus (like the guy from 300) these 2 were truly an epic team up. leonidus being the leader of the district we were building the tanks in helped us continually throughout the 2 weeks and for a small guy he was very strong, carrying sand bags up massive hills. Jesus or Heysus as its pronounced here despite having one hand put us all to shame when it came to shoveling and moving boulders. A lot of respect for him, having lost a hand deactivating mines in the jungle after a war between 2 South American countries (cant remember the specifics) and yet still able to put in a 6 hour construction day and then work night watch duty in the community. These 2 will be sadly missed, as a treat and because this group of "tankers" must have made a lasting impression on the Friday of me and johns departure from the community a meal was prepared for us all by leonidus, some fried pork with crackling potatoes and a local sweet potato cut into slices (As well as onions, but we will not speak of them). The meal was delicious and was defiantly well received by all the tankers after a long day working in the desert.
By this time it was a Friday and as normal with gvi the weekly BBQ was organized, all the volunteers provided something that could feed everyone so all in all it was a very good spread, wachamoley (some avocado thing) crisps, burgers, chicken, tuna pasta (complements of me), a large chocolate cake as well as drinks and nibbles. It was a great BBQ however sad being that it was mine and johns leaving meal, the night ended with a speech from Patrick (our project manager) about how much he appreciated the work me and john put in over the past 2 weeks. there had been some deliberation over what he was going to say at this speech as apparently me and john gave him so much material, most notably our title as the biggest tools on the site due to our testosterone fueled manly jokes up on sight with Pat. We both received cards signed bye everyone and a mini alpaca toy (mini fluffy lama), very sad to have left the group now. On a better note myself and john are staying in Arequipa for a extra week until our friends finish there volunteering this was we can all celebrate the groups departure, weather it is on to other south American countries of back home. So the plan for this week is to trek into the world’s deepest canyon for 3 days to visit an oasis and hopefully see the elusive condor.
Sunday night was a very interesting one, the group decided to have abit of a splurge so we all dressed up and went to an “expensive” local restaurant (around 10 quid for the whole meal). Here we all indulged, the triple of meat was quite popular, consisting of 3 steaks: lama, pork and beef. The lama was incredibly nice, similar to a well cooked beef steak.
Another popular dish was the triple of fish: sword fish, salmon and tuna. The night ended with some of us going on to a pub locally and playing drinking twister, needles to say 3 of the tankers jointly won as they just couldn’t make us fall, its all this construction work getting us toned and muscular.
Saturday was an arranged bike trip included in the gvi tanking project; this consisted of a 45KM bike trip down the side of a volcano surrounded by another 2 volcanoes. A perfect setting for the supposedly end of days, we jested that it would be an awesome way to go it the world did end on that day, cycling away from lava. So this was a pretty bumpy dirt road on not the best of bikes, but never the less very enjoyable, I particularly like the "short cuts" that we took at our own peril as they were more dangerous. So needles to say me and john took most of them swiftly leading to john face planting 8 times, extremely comical to look back and see him sprawled out on the floor. One achievement of this biking trip was the fact I managed to break one of the bikes due to my sheer awesomeness, I have no idea how it happened but I remember feeling a sense of achievement riding this bike to the death!
Got a short week ahead but I can tell its going to be a great one, ile blog when I have returned from the colca canyons.
Laters =)
