Quest Expedition

As I write this I have five long, empty days stretching out ahead of me as Matt has gone with the group to treck in the Huayhuash mountain range, south of Huaraz. Unfortunately one of the students has come down with some Peruvian lurgy and so it is that I finally have time to catch up with the blog.

Where were we? Just finishing off four weeks of tough, dirty, sweaty volunteer work in the Bolivian jungle I believe? So, the first stop after the park was in La Paz, the third largest city in Bolivia (after El Alto, which lies above it and Santa Cruz), lying at some 3500m above sea level. Needless to say, the change in altitude and climate was enough for the first students to drop like flies and so it was that yours truly started the fun 'hanging-around-while-Matt-and-students-go-off-and-do-fun-things' game, as they went iceclimbing. PHOTO: Looks too cold. wouldn't have wanted to go anyway.

As if La Paz weren't cold enough, we headed over towards Lake Titicaca (3812m altitude). As I am not sure my own words can do it enough justice, I thought I would treat you to an extract from the student's group update:

'the following day we went to copacabana in a bus. then we went to isla del sol in a boat, then we went to bed in a bed. sunsets are awesome, so are sunrises. lake titicaca is big, swimming in it is cold. sally looked awful on the boat ride back. i think she felt sick. but you can never tell with that one. when we got back to copacabana we snacked and then bussed it to Puno, via a sweet border crossing. got to Puno and had supper in an italian restaurant. post supper a few sprightly characters headed to the cake shop and unfortunately paid the price the following day, vomit-wise, making the reed islands less than jokes'

This demonstrates two things: 18 year olds can no longer write English (where are the capital letters at the beginning of sentences? Since when are full stops and commas interchangeable? And Mr Sealey definitely told me there has to be a verb in every sentence...). I have just realised how much that makes me sound like my mother... moving on: Secondly, this signals another sitting around in a slightly odd smelling hotel room for me - waiting for students to stop chucking. I have to admitt it is a strange job, this being an assistant leader thingy. Basically it consists in both waiting around while other people do fun things, and then hearing all about the really fun things that people have been doing. It seems like an odd way to make money, but I have to admitt that there are definitely worse ways of making money. PHOTO: Uros Islands - looks too silly. Wouldn't have wanted to go anyway.

From Puno we headed over to Arequipa to prepare for our first treck, which, would you believe it? EVERBODY managed to go on - even me!!!! We spent three days descending, traversing and climbing out of the Colca Canyon, which is twice as deep as the Grand Canyon. Due to the demands of the 1100m climb out of the canyon, we got up at 3:00am on the last day to get out in time for banana pancakes in the nearby village (and to avoid the sun). We managed the climb in less than three and a half hours with only one girl passing out, which we though was a pretty decent result.

After a couple of days in chilling in Arequipa and some good nights out, we headed down to the pacific coast. Our first stop was a small, isolated beach called 'Puerto Ica', where we camped on the sand and grilled fresh fish on a barbecue. Idyllic. Unfortunately this somewhat tranquil scene was interrupted by having to sleep an entire night with an Epi pen in my hand as Matt's airways nearly closed up after his second allergic attack to seafood (the first being after eating exactly the same dish at exactly the same restaurant 3 years previously - you'd think he may have learned his lesson the first time...). Anyway, apart from Matt everyone enjoyed the ability to run around without a headache, nausea or shortness of breath after spending so much time at altitude, and so the students decided to punish their bodies instead with sunburn and sunstroke.

Despite some students being unable to don their shoes or bras as their sunburn was so severe, we continued up the coast to Nazca where the students flew in five-seater planes over the famous Nazca Lines. Vast quantities of overpriced tourist tack later, we headed upto Huacachina, a small Oasis town near Ica for an afternoon of spinning around the sand dunes in sandbuggys, and racing down the slopes on sandboards. Having scared the daylights out of all the students prior to this somewhat dangerous activity, the students all behaved themselves and it was a great afternoon.

The following day we wizzed up past Lima, leaving just enough time for Matt to nearly get the entire Quest budget mugged from him, and get in a heated argument with a waiter over a jug of beer which cost 60 pence more than Matt thought it was worth (!). We have now arrived in sunny Huaraz, which is where the very first Brimbles Bolivian Blog update was written, nearly six months ago. Can you believe it? The trek that the group is are now undertaking is the same one that we did when we came in November, so its nice to be able to imagine JUST how beautiful it is and JUST what an amazing time they will be having without me. Sob. ;o)

Less than 3 weeks to go of Quest Exped and then... mum and dad Clelland and papa Brimble will be out here. Should be some entertaining blog entries to come then! Lots and lots and lots of love to all. Hope all are well. PLEASE keep in touch. Even if we don't reply we hugely appreciate every mail you send, sxx

Quest Project

Sorry for the lengthy delay in blogging - since the last entry the Quest group have completed their project work and we are now over half way through the expedition, so lets start with the project phase:

The team of 13 students plus Matt and a handful of both local and international volunteers worked extremely hard for their 10 days in Jacq Cuisi and after blood, sweat and tears managed to complete two puma enclosures, with only minor incidences (the wrong cage diametres being given so 60cm deep trenches had to be redug and softy students passing out on various occasions due to the humidity.)

After the hard toil of Jacq Cuisi the team headed over to Park Machia to spend two rewarding weeks working with animals. Although usually animals such as pumas require volunteers to commit to a minimum of one month of work (due to the lengthy procedure of building up trust with such animals), the park makes an exception for Quest students, and so Matt was held responsible for 13 hyperactive 18 year olds running around the jungle with pumas, ocelots, a variety of monkeys and even a speckled mountain bear.

The students worked well and appeared to have a great time, despite various monkey bites, twisted ankles and even the odd case of trench foot. Although Matt was apprehensive at first about what he would be doing in the park having been away for while and officially not being involved with the accounts, he was quickly sucked straight back infront of the computer, but also managed to fit in a few days of treking through the jungle with his boy, Roy. As for me, I continued cleaning up shit, getting weed on and being bitten by my babies in the Spider Monkey park. Sadly Cussi, Quillas baby who I previously wrote about, went missing on our last day of work. At only 5 weeks there was litle hope of finding her alive and she is now officially presumed dead . However, for every sad event that occurs in the park there generally appears to also be a positive, and so it was that we found out that one of my girls, Negra, is pregnant!

Hanging out with Negra