Why we came to Iracambi? Errrm... good question! Back in December LAST YEAR we found out about Iracambi a Volunteer reforestation program. An NGO aiming to help make the conservation of the rainforest more attractive than its destruction. IN our ENGLISH: Relax, reminisce, and a great chance to make our last few pennies stretch that little bit further and in the process get fit and work on the much needed 'Returning home tan'. Did we get it right? ... Well does Maggie Thatcher look good in lycra? (and for anyone who answered yes to that question - your a sick puppy) NO! With a week left to go before thongs/dental floss on the beaches of Rio, we have lists as long as our arms of work we NEED to finish. Fit? More fat, and with our staple diet of rice, beans and beer, with the occasional dead animal (died of natural causes) the wobble's not going to firm up yet! Reminisce when? And I'm not even going to get into the whole 'There's rain in the Rainforest debate?!' So we got it wrong! I'm not for a moment saying this place is dull, in-fact far from it. We've got it all here - to the extremes: Burning sun followed by lighting storms and teaming rain. Meat, Beer and Bar-B-Q's at the start of the week then its recycled kidney beans by the end. Great friends and a couple of acquaintances we wouldn't mind being involved in a minor accident. We've romance, broken hearts and highly suspected homosexuality all fueled by the nightly consumption of Cashasa, a drink reminisent of burning alcohol in smell, taste and most probably percentage. Are we having fun? ...Daily we wake covered in termite droppings in beds we have to put out into the sunshine just to kill the bed bugs. Breakfast is scavenged from what ever the mice haven't eaten in the night. All showers are shared with some almighty spiders, that's if the water hasn't run out, which usually happens after heavy rainfall. Obviously! The walk to work is either a 45 minute hike up and down hills with an occasional Bull stampede or a quick scamper through a few trenches avoiding the snakes. Lunch is rice and beans and supper is jazzed up leftovers from lunches' rice and beans! Our only relief is the bar! Yes you heard me correct the bar in the middle of the rainforest. A mere hour walk sober in light there is more like a 3 hours wobbly in pitch black walk back. ...No wonder we all turn to the almighty 95% Cashasha! At the end of the day, and just after the search and removal of ticks (record of 30 held by Victoria) we need at least a hour or two just to catch up on the gossip of the day. So are we having fun? ...we're having an experience, an adventure, a blast! This place is unique! Its possibly, and arguably, better to be a fly on the wall than hold a staring role. Its not quite paradise gone wrong but more Indiana Jones meets only fools and horses, but with copious amounts of beans instead of popcorn! Sure to be a highlight when we escape. ...That's if we do escape ;) LOVE TO ALL AND BRING ON RIO xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx