So, just spent 2 weeks in Puerto Lopez where we were doing our project work. We got a private bus there which was nice, apart from the fact that there was a landslide along the way so it took 16 1/2 hours instead of 7. This meant that we had to go along a mud road where we got stuck going up the hill and had to get out and push. Oh well. Finally got there and got to our volunteer house - very basic, with concrete floors to sleep on and no hot water.
The actual work we were doing was fun but hard. We were building a kitchen for a local school, which involved a lot of digging foundations and even more mixing cement - we didnt seem to do anything else, which was difficult on the beach.
Spent most of our afternoons on the beach drinking smoothies and relaxing. The first weekend we were there was Carnival. We went out on Saturday night and everybody ended up with egg smashed all over their heads, which would have been fine if it wasnt for the fact that we got back to the house and the water had been switched off - the joys of traveling in a third world country! everyone had to strip down to their underwear and wash in the rainwater barrel.
We also went to the Agua Blanca, part of the national park where there were sulphur springs. These look in the photos a lot nicer than they actually were - they were really smellly, and quite cold. One day off we went on a snorkelling boat trip. It was fun, although there werent very many fish, and I got hideously sunburnt, somehow ending up with 2nd degree burns on my back. Also on the second last night everyone decided it would be an amazing idea to go on the ferris wheel. It was amazing - it looked like it was running off an old lawnmower engine, and it was held together with string. Health and Safety wouldnt have got away with that in England!