Leah and Mike are amazingly 3 weeks into their Venezuelan adventure with The Leap….

Hola- Leah here! Hey sorry its been a while since we last wrote! We have been a bit busy! Firstly we finished off clearing the beach and built a bin. We decided to go for bright colours and covered it in handprints of the team as well as writing our  team name ¨la Equipo¨ (our project leader Govinda called it us the first week and it has stuck) and Leap July 2010. We are all really happy with how it has turned out. So that finished up the week! Spanish is getting better and I feel I’m finally starting to get somewhere!

Ready to hit the Orinoco Delta!

So this weekend i went to the Orinoco Delta for 3 days, we left early Saturday and traveled for 5 hours in the jeep, it was a  long trip but well worth it when we saw the delta. It was so amazing and the pictures cannot do it justice.  The first day we went in a traditional canoe and had a bit of a tour just to show us where we would be going the following day. It was a bit daunting getting into it but once you were sat down you were fine.  We had the biggest rain storm i have seen yet while we were sitting in the lodge it was great being somewhere dry to watch it! The first night was pretty chilled out and we just got to know our surroundings. Dinner was lovley! We had beef with veg in a almost spicy sauce with rice and bread.

The Woaro Indians in the orinoco Delta, making canoeing look SO easy!

We got up early Sunday to go on a canoe ride to see the animals and flora around the lodge. We saw the howler monkeys, toucans, ibis,  turtles and loads of others i don’t know the names of! In the afternoon we visited the Warao Indians, it was a bit of a culture shock but was amazing being accepted into the houses and being able to buy authentic ítems like bracelets and carvings. We were even invited into an end of school party and asked if we wanted to drink rum with them. We all declined and stuck to juice! We visited another village for lunch and ate fish with salad and potatoes. It tasted great and we all enjoyed being out of the sun for an hour.

Tom and Ali show of their 'abode'!

Piranah anyone?

We did loads of other things that would take too long to list, but please know it is definately something worth doing as what you see will stay with you forever. It felt so amazing to have the  opportunity.  Back at Jakera now after it all, tired but so happy. Really feel at home now and looking forward to the second Project  begginning tomorrow. Viva Venezuela!!!!

Mike: ¡Epa! Everyone. Well after Reading the essay Leah just wrote there´s not alot I think I can add to make our time here sound too much more amazing! But seriously it was such a relief to get the first project done with! It just meant we are on Schedule for the BIG school project! It´s all very exciting. I won´t go on too much about the insanely awesome time we had at the Orinoco Delta (I don´t want to make anyone jelous!) but it was definately up there in the top one things I´ve ever done! Sleeping and living amongst the natives and all the wildlife was just breath-taking! Even if it was just for a weekend! I would just like to make a shout out that I actually SWAM in the Orinoco river with DOLPHINS!! I´ll be honest that afternoon wasn´t a bad one at all!! I battled the pirahnas, anacondas, and those nasty fish that like to swim in places they REALLY shouldn´t! I hope you´re all very proud.

Off exploring...

To highlight the other things we managed to cram in the weekend? we ATE termites, drank jungle immodium, fished for man-eating fish in the murky waters, met the oh so cute Berny (A brown dog we decided to name after Berny in our group (I know you´re all thinking why?!)…Hmmm what else, watched monkeys swing above our rooms and we went late night CROCODILE (well tiny Caimen) Hunting! Proper Steve Irwen style.

We all really enjoyed the weekend and would do it again in a second! Now we´re back to reality? YEAH RIGHT! Now we´re back to start the next project, working with the local Venezuelans to help renovate their sports pitch. It´s so run down at the moment it wouldn´t look out of place in Salford!! So its going to be so much fun making it usable so the kids can have fun! Keep posted for details on how we get on and wish us luck! Just two more weeks left in Playa then its on to Caripe, I can´t wait, it’s just a shame its going so quick tho!