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Imagine a bugle player at this point.

Roxana flew back to Vegas on Saturday very early and I flew to Zurich on Sunday, seeing my first snow of the winter as we approached. Since then I’ve been catching up with people, moving back into my apartment and learning to throw toilet paper down the toilet instead of into the waste bin.

I unpacked as far as my scales and I’m 7.5kg down from what I consider my ideal weight, thats a combination of not doing any proper exercise and eating fresh food not laden with sugar and fat. I wonder how long I can keep it down, triathlon training will add a lot but that’s going to feel good putting on some muscle (note to self: buy a traithlon bike to replace the one the bastard stole before you left). I’m going to squeeze in a bit of skiing but that’s going to kill my legs, normally at this stage in the season I’ve got buns of steel, this is going to be fun to see how far I am from ski fit.

Anyway thanks for reading along, who knows, maybe we end up back there one day and I’l pick this up, for now I need a job, if anyone knows anything interesting (for interesting read extremely well paid with very little actual work) then Let me know.

Hasta Luego.
Reid and Roxana.

Look what I found, look what I found

Title to be said in a singsong voice

I found an Indian restaurant and they do Phall! So, a transatlantic flight tomorrow and a dangerously hot curry, honestly what could possibly go wrong?!?

<Time passes>

Jesus that was a bit ‘picante’ I’ve got the toilet roll in the fridge and the windows open, I imagine the last words on the black box being the pilot saying ‘whats that smell?’ I think I’m breathing a bit funny too, might have to lie down.

Roxana left this morning, right now she is in the air heading for Las Vegas, with a plane around her I should add. I spent the day walking miles and miles round Quito. I’m not the biggest fan of the city tbh, I opened the day picking my way through the blood stains on the pavement heading for the tourist area for what turned out to be a very average breakfast at a restaurant I enjoyed a couple of years ago. Then headed to the new section of town by way of the Huge La Carolina park where a decent sized sports event was happening along with many outdoor exercise classes, I regretted not taking my sports kit. Then I spent a goodly amount of time in a mall trying to find a toilet while listening to rubbish covers of U2 on the PA system, after 20 minutes I was getting desperate and the PA was playing ‘I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For’ if there is a god he has a sick sense of humour.

Then back to the apartment in a big loop taking in the park again for an hours kip on the grass, a coffee then out to collect the afore-mentioned curry and now I am home enjoying the sounds of the downstairs neighbours practising both bongo and accordion, its like heaven, with a queasy tummy and a burny botty.

Gosh what adventures will tomorrow bring??

Oh btw, check out my apartment, it’s bloody gorgeous, would be superb for a party, maybe the neighbours want to bring their bongo and accordion.

In the big city

We invented the Chess Burger, now it’s your move!

or maybe they just couldn’t spell ‘cheese’

We left Vilcabamba for the big city, Quito to be exact, what a contrast to Vilcabamba, less violence for a start! Its strange to be back in a city, it doesn’t bode well for the return to Zurich. Roxana had meetings today about establishing her human rights legal clinic, that seemed to go very well, so we’re excited about that. I could probably scupper it by telling them about Roxana at the airport yesterday, ‘Do you think our plane is here yet?’ she asked as we looked out onto this view

No Roxana, no I don’t think the plane is here yet, honestly I don’t.

Almost over

So the adventure enters its last week, it’s been quite a ride, births, deaths, emergency operations, robberies, barfights, restraining orders, native hallicinogens a load of really really good people and a couple of really bad ones.

We had another dance with Mr Huachuma the other night, the san pedro cactus, it was scary powerful. The local shamans will talk of it as being a male spirit and thats certainly the impression I got. During the ceremony there was the undeniable impression of a massively powerful male presence, a total contrast to the softer female ayahuasca. I felt I got a lot out of it but I’m so glad thats over, I think it will be a long time before I drink that again. Booze aside, I’ve got no history of recreational drug use, which in Zurich (third highest levels of cocaine in waste water in Europe) makes me unusual, but I can’t imagine anyone would drink Huachuma or Ayahuasca for fun, it’s horrific at times, lost in a Lovecraftian nightmare for most of the night was not a lot of giggles.

We headed into town to make our farewells before leaving for the big city. Such great people here, so many people were sad (or at least were nice enough to say they were sad) about seeing us leave, we made some really good friends in a very short time here. A new friend of Roxana’s drove 5 hours each way to make sure she got to say cheerio

One of the cheerios was to Atilla, the house kitten at our favourite hangout.

For Donkey fans, the donkey made an appearance before we left, he looks in much better condition, we’ve been feeding him sugar cane which he seems to love and just petting him and giving him some affection.

We had a last dinner with Nick and a few beers then off to bed before the taxi picked us up to go to the airport. I have no idea where 4 months has gone, and I don’t even think I covered a third of the things I wanted to achieve here, oh well, maybe next time.

 

 

It’s just a little….

….Ayahuasca, thank god it’s not a lot. We had a local shaman come over to the house the other night to give us an evening with lady Ayahusaca, a drink sacred to many south American tribes for thousands of years. It was a lovely evening, sitting outside around a fire hearing the animals and wondering where the ayahuasca was going to take us.  Some rain about 4am chased us inside but we were about done by then. The drink is legal here but banned in most of Europe. A trip to town turned into a covering in foam and pounding from carnival inspired water balloons, I was wandering around being all action man eagle-eyes to avoid a soaking but never thought to look up, a group of kids had found an exceptional vantage point covering a busy intersection with no end of victims passing underneath. Passing by a shop two tiny assassins leapt out and foamed us. The number of adults going about their business covered in foam is hilarious.

We had a little visitor, this bugger decided to cling onto my socks and I couldn’t get him off them

and the cat decided to get posing

Back to normal

It was thought the aftermath of the altercation had died down, people were spoken too, intermediaries appointed themselves and advice was taken. I’d rather not get involved in a foreign judicial system for something as trivial as a barfight so we made a police report but did not press charges and it was thought that was that. However we arrived in town today and a letter had been left for us at a cafe, it was the equivalent of a restraining order, so that was nice. I’m not overly worried but I’ll have to cover my back, I don’t think his version of events is gaining much traction. Several people have came up to Roxana in town to hug her and express their pleasure at someone taking him down. Seems that the guy is pretty unpopular, funny that the hippies are all full of love but not above a bit of schadenfreude. However I’ll not be mentioning it again, I’ve got better things to talk about.

In other news we have had more visitors, David and Sharon from Yorkshire dropped in for a couple of days, we went to visit them in Loja and spent an interesting night there with their shaman, an evening in a nice house on the outskirts of town drinking san pedro again and it all being a legitimate activity that people across the country would get up to on a Saturday night.

Currently we have a fellow Scot with us for a few days and Nick is in the Galapagos islands meaning we help ourselves to his balcony on a regular basis to watch the sunsets.

In town it is carnival time here, which means every kid in the surrounding area has carte blanche to throw water balloons and eggs at any adult, we have to go in today, expect photos of an egging soon. We were advised to keep electronics in plastic bags and be prepared to get wet.

More Firsts

Great excitement here, a moderately well known London website posted  an article by Roxana. Very proud of her and she’s had some great feedback on it.

Indirectly that lead to the other first; the article, for reasons unknown drew the ire of one of the town jerks, who decided to bad mouth it on a local forum, pretty much everyone supported Roxana and congratulated her on it, he had one supporter during his foul mouthed tirade. So, today Roxana was in town on her own and saw said jerk, being of good nature she tried to smooth it over, he got aggressive and started shouting expletives at her screaming at her to ‘fuck off’ and leaving her shaken.

So I went into town to remonstrate.

I found the bar he was in and asked him what he meant by shouting at her and would he like to shout at me, then he drew pepper spray and sprayed me. He jumped to his feet and went for me and a barfight ensued, my first one, 3 of his friends jumped in and I like to think I gave a decent account of myself against 4 while pepper sprayed, no blows landed on me beyond the initial spraying but I know a few of mine did and a few of Roxanas on the periphery, beware enraged Iranian girls. The barman intervened and waring parties were separated, we left the scene. However. the cops had been called and we had to return to the bar, amazingly the instigator (a drunk English guy) was now claiming I had sprayed him, and attacked him. Hmmm not good, though I have to offer points for weasel-like cleverness. I don’t *think* the cops believed him given he had slightly red eyes and I had swollen eyes and a visible pepper spray on my face, but you never know. Further to my defence my glasses were located in the bar covered in pepper spray clearly indicating i had not left and sprayed myself as an alibi. Anyway things were written down, he and his friends told their lies and medical aid was sought on police advice to get a certificate indicating the extent of treatment required. Right now I’m sitting back at home enjoying my first beer of the day with a slightly burny face and an eye bandage, seems slightly excessive as I thought a rinse under the tap would suffice. We have to visit the cop shop tomorrow and guess we’d better lawyer up. An interesting day really.

Now in a retrospective mood and ready to reflect on the day, I don’t regret going there, that behaviour cannot be allowed to stand, I  regret it escalated but that was beyond my control, I expected a shouty match and giving him a piece of my mind. I certainly don’t regret the account I gave of myself and I’m going to allow myself a brief pat on the back for dealing with the escalating situation. Another lesson learned, and one for the ladies, don’t rely on pepper spray, it’s not going to protect you.

Now we are going to have to deal with the fallout, I’ll press charges, Roxana is pressing charges for catching some of the pepper spray and being shoved, anda  chair thrown at her while I was otherwise occupied. Hopefully I just throw some money at a lawyer and it is dealt with but nothing is certain. Still, it’s never dull in Vilcabamba.

Firsts: Article, Pepper sprayed (been tear gassed before), Barfight.

Not to be

Leela didn’t make it, she died this morning, I don’t know if she made it as far as the operation. The level of concern this wee girl generated in town was incredible, everyone knew about her, very sad, R.I.P Leela, we’re glad we met you and we’ll miss you dreadfully.

It’s strict here in Vilcabamba

House rules at the local hostelry, rigidly enforced

poor Bongo Will, we passed him in town the other day, but as he didn’t have his bongo with him we didn’t recognise him. The other day we were off to someones house and the directions we were given to tell the taxi driver were ‘the guy with a motorcycle, who plays harmonica and drums’.

It’s strange when the coolest cat in town is a dog, this is shaggy dog, or to call him by his official name ‘Spatula’

he is far and away the coolest guy here, rocks up where he likes doesn’t give a damn when he gets kicked out of bars, just shrugs and comes in the back entrance. We were in town last week for a beer and Shaggy was in the bar, then we got a lift to another bar a 5 minute drive away, Shaggy got there before us, I reckon he hotwired a car. He was standing in the middle of the dancefloor surrounded by people completely unfazed. Later Roxana came across him drinking from the toilet, she said the look he gave her was as if to say ‘duh, occupied’. Everyone wants to be in Shaggys gang.

It’s not Parvovirus!

Leela was awful in the night, Nick woke us at 2.30 this morning to get some more chicken soup Roxana had prepared for Leela as she wouldn’t take on liquids, we fed her but she couldn’t stand though she did lap up a small bowl. First thing this morning he took her to Loja to a vet Roxana had sought out a recommendation for. The diagnosis was a massive parasite infection and a suspected gutfull of rocks that she had been eating. I stopped her doing that two night ago, I didn’t think anything of it at the time. This is the third vet she’s seen and two said Parvovirus.

So she was taken for an X-ray and diagnosis was confirmed, intestines full of rocks. She’s now having a blood transfusion to get up her strength for the next stage of removing the rocks, I don’t know what form that takes but we’ll know soon. Lets have a photo of her at full strength.

like butter wouldn’t melt, rocks sure as hell don’t.

In other news, Luna, suspected perp from ‘Nightime Drama’ was bitten by a snake, you can see the fang marks, fortunately not poisonous, jees it’s all go in Vilcabamba.