Holy Crap a new post!!!!!

Yep, apologies, right from the get-go (or gecko if Kosta was reading this).

So... it´s been forever but I guess there´s probably quite a bit that I can breeze through so here´s a little overview and perhaps I´ll even be nice enough to break things into smaller pieces and add some photos, but that´ll have to be later since I am on the reserve computer which is a small step above dial-up.

Here GOES!!!...

So let´s go back a few weeks to Shane and I´s stay in the Galapagos. Lots of bugs, heat, humidity, and 18-20yr old volunteers and their ensuing drama which was more for entertainment I think than anything else. Now cut to the Monday before we were set to leave, we did our thing, worked, played/spectated music, hung out with our dear friends that we encountered at the reserve, and then decided that for our last night we were going to head to the ¨bar¨ which is in the middle of nowhere, frequented only by volunteers mainly, and completely open air... and a 10 minute walk from the reserve. Basically the bar sells Pilsener (the bigguns) for $2.50 (mainland is $1) and Rum only by the bottle for $14 including a 3L bottle of Coke or Sprite to mix. We started with the usual- beer- but were quickly convinced that the rum was a better deal by our friend Owen. This lead to the relatively small group of us (half dozen or so?) drinking 5 bottles of rum while chilling, dancing, chatting, and playing pool to the sound of someone´s iPod and hammering rain until the wee hours of the morning.
For me, the wee hours meant 4am ish at which point, despite Owen´s insistence that I´d get sick from the rain (um, helloooo, it´s HOT OUT) I trudged back on my own in a torrential downpour, later to be accepted as a monsoon. The trip back was quite exciting as my flashlight is terrible and I was drunk enough that my drunkenness lasted until dinner the following day... hence why I tend to stay away from RUM! Not only was the road super muddy but the two rivers that usually run under it by about 2m happened to be running OVER it by 2 feet... the second was a little nerve racking as I had to hold onto the bridge railing so as not to be swept away! (Yep, walking home alone was a GREAT idea) To keep things interesting there were also a few trees down across the road that I made note of as we were going to be needing to use that road to leave essentially later that same day. So I got back safe and sound... and very very wet... and waited for the guys in the kitchen for a bit. Coming to the conclusion that bed was a much better idea and the guys were not reliable in their departure time I ditched and had a little sleep.
7am came quite quickly and I woke up, as previously mentioned, still quite drunk. This was actually a blessing in disguise since it just so happens that between when I headed back from the bar at 4am and when the guys came back at 530am, there was a landslide that took down more trees and blocked the road. Why the heck would this be a blessing in disguise, you must be wondering... well, I had super (drunk) energy, patience, and optimism which was really useful when digging through literally TONNES of wet, heavy mud that we needed to move in order for the taxi to get through so we could get to Port.
With the help of pretty much everyone else, we managed to get enough of the road cleared only to find out that further down a large tree had fallen across it and the chainsaw needed to be employed to clear a path... THEN (yep, THEN!) when the guys went at lunch to cut the tree out of the way they realized that further down the road (duh duh duuuuhhhhhh... it´s a long road) THERE WAS NO ROAD! A sinkhole had developed and a rather sizeable portion of the road had disappeared... so what did we do? Well, we packed up our (super heavy) crap and prepared ourselves for the fact that we were going to have to carry it for about an hour´s hike to get to where the taxi could get to, HOWEVER, Erly... bestest taxi driver EVER... rebuilt the road on his way in and picked us up at the station! We quickly loaded the other departing volunteers, ourselves, and our crap, into the taxi (truck) and headed off before darkness fell with a couple of rough spots (such as having to get out of the taxi for the rebuilt sinkhole part and another fallen tree). Erly, being awesome, stopped the taxi when a new tree had fallen, hopped out, grabbed his machete, and cut the giant out of the way before getting us all safely to town.
Later we found out that the beach we were at a few days prior (nicest one on the island) was literally washed away, and landslides blocked the roads to other major beaches and surfing hangouts. Everyone seemed to be pretty good though and Shane and I were pretty happy to have a nice dinner and breakfast before heading back to the mainland.

We settled ourselves in our hostel and got some different things done Wednesday afternoon and had sushi dinner with Shane´s woman that night. Thursday was another errand day which included my getting my hair cut and coloured. The initial intention was a little trim and back to my regular dark brown but it seems that picking colours in a different language under red lights is not the best way of doing it so Í now blend a little better with the locals, sporting a nice raven black, rather than chocolate brown... ah well.. I can kinda pull it off I think! Friday we met Scott in the morning and grabbed breakfast before catching the bus to Baños which I think I´ll leave for another post that will come VERY soon... promise!

Hope life is good.. I´ll be back in the North soon and look forward to catching up oxoxx