Pulseras

Above: Residential Patty, our hotel in Baños, Ecuador.

Sunday 6th March 1988

I went out shopping when I got up at 09:00 hrs., buying eggs, bread, yoghurt and cheese for breakfast. It was good and wholesome and so filling that I could only manage to eat one of the three hard boiled eggs. There was a big queue for the stone washing place (laundry) so I sat down to the mammoth task of writing up my diary for the last two days, with a litre of Coca Cola for lubrication.

I broke off halfway through to do my clothes washing. The Swedes sat on the roof playing cards again! The hotel parrot continued to fiercely resist attempts to teach it to talk. Manuel and Ben poured over their guidebooks while Peter-Paul sharpened his Rambo survival knife.

It was good to relax and let our stiff aching legs recover from the last few days. For most of the day we sat around reading the South American Handbook 1988 and the Lonely Planet Shoestring Guide, supplemented by Manuel (“I was on automatic for a while”!) who had been to most places on our planned route.

We had a communal supper prepared by Manuel, a huge mass of vegetable matter, mashed potatoes, salad, and fruit salad, which was consumed enthusiastically. After this Anja and Aneka did a tutorial teach-in on how to make pulseras.

I joined the workshop, weaving a bracelet with pink, light blue and black thread. Aneka was amazed at how quickly I picked it up as my first effort was quite good despite a change in pattern halfway through due to tiredness leading to a lapse in concentration.

The Swedish contingent played cards yet again as I continued knotting. Ola showed me how to finish it off just after 23:00 hrs. when the landlady suggested that we ought to be getting to bed. The vegetation that I had eaten over the last few days must have been stewing up inside me. I had to rush to the bog (toilet) before I went to bed and sat there farting explosively and drizzling diarrhoea for about fifteen minutes. I then slept like a log.