A long old Day

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I'm writing this a few days after it's happened but I still think it needs to be brought to attention: Basically this day (I've already forgotten which one, possibly Wed or Thu) was the hardest work that we've ever encountered here. Our task was to dig foundations for a new site, but the ground was almost entirely rock. Add to that a hell of a lot of tree roots, 30 degree heat, coupled with sudden downpours and just a tad of no space to move in, you may have an idea how difficult this really was. The only plus side was getting a really good shot of Fuego erupting.
Trying to dig through the ground for the trenches that form the foundations was ridiculously tough. We even managed to break a pick axe on one of the rocks underground. The whole task was a constant battle against whatever we came across in the ground coupled with the heat. It's so intense, especially with the sun baking down on you and, because we're so close to the equator, there is no shade at midday because your shadow is directly beneath you. Our aim for depth with the foundations is 45" and thanks to an enormous boulder, we were in danger of missing it. Even Chiki, one of the builders, said that this was tough work. Eventually, we had to smash the boulder with a sledge hammer, but then had to collapse a corner in order to remove it - something that we really didn't want to do.
By the time this was done, it had gone 1pm, so we stopped for lunch. As we did so, the heavens opened and we were forced to shelter inside. After lunch, it continued raining for another hour or so, but slowed just enough for us to finish digging the trenches and lay strips of iron mesh to strengthen to structure. We managed to mix enough concrete to provide a decent covering of the the trenches before the rain started again and we were forced to quite. Still on the ride back, we had a nice bit of plastic sheet to cover ourselves against the elemants, so all's well in the end!

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Photos

Fuego erupting
The only perk of the day - apart from lunch maybe!

Rocks from the trench
Insanely huge and heavy things - we managed to break a pick axe getting this one out

Chiki at work
trying to dig around yet more rocks that we came across.

Tree root
This pesky begger took almost half an hour to get out using the machete pictured

Ernie at work
Wearing his much loved "Mr Lazy" shirt

When it rains, it pours
luckily, we were given a plastic sheet which covered all of us - first time that's happened though!