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This update has been long overdue!But we have been very busy. So, I picked up Max end of March. We went to travel to Banos, a beautiful little village in the mountains of Ecuador. Since they are close to volcanoes (which erupted 2 weeks ago!!!), they have lots of thermal spas and we spent a good few hours lazing around in its hot waters. Jana and juan came to meet us there too and we went Canyoning, which was really good fun. Basically u abseil a canyon starting off with a small one, and then increasing up to a height of 45 metres. we Loved it! We also did Ziplinign, where u get strapped to a metal rope and 'fly' 50 metres high over the jungle. We also rented some buggies and drove around Banos and its beautiful surroundings. Happy days indeed.
When we came back to the jungle we had a good few days of hard work in front of us. We were logging trees one day all day in the boiling sun, which to be honest nearly killed us..well us girls anyway. All the women of the community, the kids carry at least 1 whole tree themselves. Jana
and myself tried, but carried one by one together..that wa shard enough! but it is kind of embarassing to see these 8 year old overtaking you with another tree on their shoulder. This work is always accompanied by the 50% strong Agua Diente - Fire Water, and once that alcohol burns in your chest you know why its called that! ;-)
We were teaching a little bit more too, although, due to very heavy rains and floods in neighbouring villages the community..including the kids..had to help out a lot to fix things up. Anyway, when we announced our date of departure Ricardo and Vincente, the teacher and the founder of the viollage, decided to throw us a leaving party. We arrived in the afternoon and..despite barely having clean clothes or food, they had a laptop, microphone and a massive speaker system set up and the music was pumping when we walked in. The whole community was there! They gave speaches thanking us for our cooperation, friendship and commitment and also our families and friends back home. It was a bit like lost in translation to be honest, cause they were talking away for /ages and then Juan translated 'they
thank you and you families' and we just thoguht 'thats ALL he said, really?'. We prepared some local dishes and drinks together, everyone was drinking and eating away. Afterwards we danced a lot with everyone, especially the kids. We were quite upset to be leaving them behin..well this is what it felt like, especially little Kevin.
The next morning I said goodbye to everyone at the lodge and my beloved Pedro ;-( and after that we drove off towards the Quiloa Loop in the center of Ecuador. We were hiking there for a few days high up in the mountains and also went to visit a few local, non touristy markets, which was very fascinating. You will see what I eman when u look at the pictures.
We spent the last couple of days in Quito going out, relaxing etc and on the 19th of April jumped on a plane to Cali, Colombia.
On the airport G and his uncle picked us up and we returned to Popayan, where we spent the Easter week with his family. Everyone was superlovely and made us feel at home. G is by far the bestest person to travel thru Colombia
with. Just really fun, organised, always arranging local prises for us and so on.
I'm not sure why, but I instantly loved Colombia. Its good such a cool vibe about it, i mean people, countryside, attitude, culture..everything. I really cannot say that I think it is dangerous or dodgy in any way. The contrary seems to be true!
Take a look at the pictures. I will update more about Colombia soon. Right now we are in Santa Marta. Max has found a position in our hostel and the mexican restaurant next door and I have a placement with a charity called Mariposas Amarillos. So, all is good.
Claudi
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anonymous
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Hi claudi Hi Max, Nice to hear you both are enjoying it and have settled in Colombia. I was looking for pictures... Are they on Facebook or where can I find them on your Blog? We miss you here. There will be Oda's birthday on Saturday. drinks on you two too!!! xxx the.brightonstudent.blogspot.com