ideas for cheap stuff

Wow, is it really that long since I´ve written! Entirely disappointed in myself. Especially since there´s a ridiculous amount to update now. 2 months worth, but since Jonathan has just left, and I´ve got time I suppose I can motivate myself. I will have to cheat though and write up highlights cos its all just too much for me. Laura, this may turn into a long one though, you know how I meander, so prepare yourself!
Right so, last update ended with Tonge having left, and me deciding what to do next. The next thing I did was hang out with CouchSurfers and Lorena, attend QuitoFest, which was metal music the day I attended, and completely blew me away as I wasn´t prepared for it in the slightest. There was also a nice swing band playing in Plaza de Teatro one of the evenings, and a few of us were attempting couples dances, which was great craic. Then on Saturday 20th I headed to Magic Roundabout with loads of heads from the hostel I was staying at. One of the crew, Roisin, I happened to have met last Christmas at the house party of my friend Keith, its a seriously small world! There were 17 of us in total at the party in the Magic Roundabout, this beautiful, secluded organic farm and lodging. We had dinner, a few drinks, set fire to a man fashioned wood piece, danced and then painted the wall. Fantastic night, and a great crew to spend time with. We all enjoyed it so much, that a few of us stayed on the next night after a brilliant Treasure Hunt to soak up the atmosphere and I headed back on the Monday to Quito with a few fantastic memories and the promise of meeting some new friends when I made it to Baños. In Quito I stayed and hung out with a CouchSurfer Bolivar, his room-mates and meeting up with Lorena before heading south to Baños where I spent 6 days in total.
The first night I reached Baños I had dinner with Ana and Geoff, whom I´d met at the Magic Roundabout, and arranged to go rafting the next day on a grade IV and V river. That was the most thrilling rafting trip I´ve ever been on. Fantastic rapids and a really great group of people. Ana and Geoff work on luxury boats in the Carribbean, and had some wild and wonderful stories to tell me. That night, after a rest, I headed out on a tour with the locals to a supposed volcano viewing point, but it was useless, so I simply enjoyed hanging out and partying with the locals around the bonfire. I was staying in the beautiful Hostal Chimenea in Baños, which will have an operational pool in the back soon enough. Here I purchased a special offer of 3 steam baths, one of which I had each morning I stayed there, and can´t recommend them highly enough. You feel really hydrated and wonderful after them, and they´re really good for your skin. If you go, then purchase them. I had my second one this morning, then headed for the thermal baths, afterwards meeting Ana and Geoff. I then headed for the town of Luna Runtún, which is up the volcano above Baños. My friend Dan Song had stayed up there in a small cabin in 2006, teaching English for 2 weeks, and recommended I head up to see if I could stay or volunteer. I´d already set my mind to heading down to Pisco Sin Fronteras, and I didn´t want to volunteer teaching English for such a short time, though it turned out it wasn´t a possibility in the end, as there´s no English being taught in the local school. Anyway, I was lost completely for about 45 minutest trying to find the cabin of Herminia Guevara, on the way to the Volcano observatory. Now when Dan told me to go, he unfortunately didn´t have Herminia´s address or phone number, so I ended up walking up here with only the possibility of a place to stay. It took longer to find her because there was no one in any of the houses I stopped at to ask directions of as it was a Saturday afternoon by the time I made it there. They were surprised when I rocked up, but Herminia remembered Daniel, so it was all good. No one had stayed in the cabin for a few months, so Herminia cleaned it out for me, and I set myself up for the night. I had originally planned to go back down to see the sunset from a beautiful hotel thermal pool with Ana and Geoff, but by the time I was set up and fed myself, it was too late, so I spent dusk and the rest of the evening watching the volcano loom overhead and enjoying the fire in the other cabin the Guevaras´ are building with 5 rooms. The volcano had erupted in 2006, but all the damage happened on the opposite side from Luna Runtún. It was such a peaceful and secluded spot. Just me with time to contemplate and write, and I absolutely loved it. I hoped to get down to say goodbye to my friends the next morning, but the Guevaras turned up and after a chat they directed that they would drive me down, however, by the time I got to their hotel my friends were gone. On my way back up to the cabin I met a little girl and her mother. They were asking if I was the new English teacher, because none had been organised for the year. Later that day the little girl, Maritza, turned up at the cabin and asked me to teach her some English, then later that day she came back with 2 other kids for another lesson. It was fun to teach them some little things, and it was just a shame I couldn´t do so much more. If you go to Baños, then I seriously recommend a visit to this secluded spot, and with the new house opening up, big groups will be able to stay there soon. You can contact Herminia Guevara on her mobile 091040056 and she would probably arrange to collect you either in town to bring you up, or in Baños, but the address is Tunguarhua, Baños, Runtún, Ponticucho.
Monday morning I hiked back down to Baños and went biking to the 8 waterfalls nearby, then had a hot-stone massage, which I wish I´d had another of, it was so wonderful. Tuesday morning I had my final steam bath before going canyoning, which involved abseiling down waterfalls. Totally wet, crazy, sore from banging myself, and fun! Afterwards I went to the thermal springs before getting connecting buses to Riobamba, then Cuenca and finally to Loja, where I arrived at 06:30 on Wednesday. Got the 07:00 bus to Piura, where I had to hang around till 23:30 for a bus to Trujillo, so watched a parade, had a nice meal, hung about in the square, visited the cinema, and then got on the bus. Arrived in Trujillo at 05:30, so hung about for an hour or two before heading to hotel. Visited the ruins of Chan Chan, before an early night´s sleep. There was a festival on the Friday, which I watched before getting night bus to Lima, which I reached on Saturday 4th October. Totally vegged about, then on Sunday met a CouchSurfer Randy, and wnet to a festival with him and his friends where I was the only gringa around. It took place in a really poor area, where many people live in shanty like houses, but they sure know how to party! Fantastic dancing, then there were bull-fights, where no bulls were harmed, but two bulls jumped out of the ring and gorged some people. The first bull that jumped out ripped some guys trousers with his horns! There were cockfights too, but I stayed away from them. We were drinking beer all day, which the Peruvian men insisted on pouring for the girls in the traditional manner, one beer and cup would be passed around us all, but only poured by the guys. Around 22:00 we watched one of the most amazing fireworks displays I´ve ever seen! There were all these elaborate bamboo creations, with fireworks stuck to them that were spinning, swinging and rocketing into the air. It was simply brilliant. Went back to one of the houses, and made it back to my hostel around 05:30, where I conked out.
On Monday 6th I made my way to Pisco, 4.5 hours south of Lima, to join Pisco Sin Fronteras to volunteer for a few weeks. The volunteer organisation is only newly operational in its current guise, as the first organisation on the scene after the earthquake on 15th August 2007. Straight after the disaster the first organisation on the scene were volunteers of Hands On who dealt with the immediate work of moving rubble, and helping uncover bodies. Following this the organisation Burners Without Boarders stepped in that October and continued there for months. The goal of Burners is to involve the local community, and in turn co-operate with them enabling some locals to keep volunteering going as an option in the area. Pisco Sin Fronteras is the first of these attempts at new local organisations run in direct co-operation with the locals, and its a good attempt. The first week there were about 14 volunteers, with some people who would only turn up for a day to help out, which has benefits. The first week of my stay I paid 20 Soles a day for bed, breakfast and dinner, every week thereafter was 15 Soles a day. Definitely the cheapest volunteer option I found, as others were asking for hundreds of dollars for 2 or 3 weeks. I did various labour intensive tasks every day ranging from painting, digging trenches, breaking concrete, moving concrete, shoveling to cement mixers, pushing wheel-barrows on cement pours. While there I met some great gringos and locals, ate really well, even on jobs whoever you were volunteering for would usually stuff you solid, and got a place to stay and connect with a bit better, which is really what I needed. As the organisation is only newly set-up some things go off well planned, others had to change very quickly. The people of Pisco that we volunteered with ranged from locals working on their houses, to building schools. Materials in the area seem to be double or triple the price elsewhere in Peru. Long-term volunteers explained to me how one ¨shitter¨ (aka. toilet) that they had built and returned to check out had been destroyed, with people stealing bricks, foundation, steel girders, sinks, toilets, etc. to sell on so the work could be very hard somedays. There´s no building planning as you have in Ireland. One guy I was helping to dig a trench for one day ended up re-drawing the foundations and where we were to dig 3 times, after we´d started, first due to concrete laid already, then due to the fact that he realised his wife wanted another room! I was asked to blog for a week on volunteering every day, which ya can read here. Obviously it dwells on the positive to encourage volunteers and is therefore not as objective as I could be here, but finally I´ve been ¨published¨ somewhere other than here, there ya go Lids and Dee, finally managed it! Granted though, absolutely no one else was interested in the extra work.
I left Pisco on 23rd October, with new experiences, both positive and negative to draw on, new friends, memories and recipes and spent my time in Lima going to cinema, looking for a camera, and vegging before my flight on Friday night to Uruguay. Today I´m in my friend Lucia´s family home in Montevideo and I´m feeling a lot better than yesterday, but still have a bit of a cold. I was going to go out and buy some stuff at the flea market, but instead I´ve chatted to family and friends and updated the site a bit. As I said to my sister, possessions end up owning you, but that´s really an excuse as I don´t want to have to carry more around with me for another month.
I just read the following on Entertainment.ie and have to say that I always knew there was something dodgy about the Power Rangers…”That former Mighty Morphin Power Ranger, 29-year-old Skylar Deleon, has been convicted of a triple murder and faces the death sentence… Among his victims were a “couple who were tied to an anchor and thrown from their yacht”"… Though you know, not guilty until proven so…