Day 12: Coffee berries and pole dancing

After breakfast at the meeting there is a big debate about tomorrow´s hike. Which of us want to hike for 4 hours in the rain or mud or both to the Galapaguera de Cerro - the tortoise sanctuary, which of us want to go by taxi (yes, I do) and which of us want to go into town to spend the morning at the Interpretaçion Center?

I am on coffee picking duty which I am very pleased about. Now I will have done the whole process. We go out with Miguel, who is very laid back as usual about us working. We have buckets to fill but it is obvious that this isn´t going to happen as the coffee beans are up very high and are very difficult to get down.

The trail is very muddy and I am amazed to discover that the coffee trees are the very same trees we have been cutting down in the reforestation project. The ones we had to cut down had been untended and left to grow too tall and are no longer viable for picking coffee (unless you happen to over 20 feet tall)! If I had known, I would have picked all those berries from the trees I had kept cutting and bringing down to earth!

Just because we're not chopping down these trees and are pulling the branches to head height with a very long, forked stick to bring the berries into picking range doesn't mean we escape the nasties in the canopy. Some of the group still haven't learned not to look up and therfore experience fire/lion ants going up the nose or into their eyes.

Picking berries also brings out the native in us and when Miguel shows us how to paint our faces with the juices of another red berry, we all have a go. I just hope the dye isn't too permanent!

After about an hour we realise there are not too many ripe berries to pick and head back to the station. It starts to rain and it is a long trudge uphill in the heat of the day. But I'm so used to it now I don´t care about getting wet. I´m feeling so damp these days I´m sure I´m going to start growing mould.

I´m really grateful I had the foresight to bring my stay-dri bags, though I left one at home thinking I´d done overkill. I wish I´d brought that too. They keep my clothes dry because if left out overnight they are very damp in the morning - not nice to get dressed in them.

I am also glad I packed my books in proper zip lock bags. Paper, including money, feels horrible when damp and books lose their shape and go curly.

Marten has his eye on my hooked zip lock bags which originally contained my Paramo underwear. He´s hoping I may leave him a couple when I leave. He describes them as "gold dust"! Okaaaay! Though sadly I know what he means!

Being here means the things we take for granted back home like an electric light in your room, dry matches, candles, a mirror, dry bedclothes, a plug in a sink, hot showers, drinking water from a tap, not having to wear insect repellant 24/7, internet access, mobile phone signal are mod cons we can only dream of. Amazingly, the only thing I´m missing the most is dry bedclothes although I´ll be really glad when insects don´t want to bleed me dry.

Apart from these two things I´m doing just fine. The above list may sound like a giant whinge and don´t get me wrong I´ll be happy when I´m not permanently hot and sweaty but I could definately survive a bit longer under these conditions.

But back to today...

When we get back to the station , Irina and I ask for more work as we still have an hour before lunch. We are each given a broom and a jug of water and have to sweep out the "classroom" in the Casa Neuva or the "empty room", empty because nobody ever goes in there. In case you are wondering the water is to sprinkle on the concrete floor to damp down the dust so it doesn´t choke us as we sweep.

We have to do this because all the Herberts (the teachers) have been traipsing in there in their muddy boots - because of the conditions i.e. so much rain, the mud is a problem so we are supposed to remove our boots before going inside. I can't believe how much mud we clean out!

After lunch, we have an emergency job to do if we want. The Canadians are up for it as they like a bit of manual labour. In the end we all volunteer...a truck load of rock has been dumped in the road just after where the bar is to help with drainage on the road, but the workers have knocked off the day and now no taxis can get through to the station. Our job, should we choose to undertake it, is to remove the big rocks and rake the small ones into a more or less flat surface.

It´s absolutely tipping it down so we get very wet and muddy and armed with only a few shovels and bare hands it feels like we´re working on the chain gang. Nevertheless, great fun. We take an hour from start to finish to complete the task then we get the rest of the day off. Now that's what I call teamwork!

Supper is chicken, veg and coriander soup. I still can´t get used to coriander so go more or less hungry.

As tomorrow is the last day for two of the English girls, we go to the bar for farewell drinks and I teach Cesare and Belinda how to play Chinese snap. There is a forfeit for the loser - to do a pole dance...you were wondering about when that came in weren´t you? And yes, you guessed it, I lose and have to do the dance. The barman puts the lights down and shines a red one directly on me while I dance. The young Americans and Canadians are embarrassed. THEY are embarrassed?! But it seems like as a result of this, I gain the respect of at least one of the Canadians. Cesare loses the second game and I think he´s done a pole dance before!

pic: My "pole" at the farm bar - looks so harmless in daylight!