Miercoles 11 Julio (Wednesday 11th of July)
Construction has begun! Following two days of material
gathering in the “black market”, a truck hired for 80 Soles sufficed to bring
all the materials and ourselves up through the shanty town as close as a
vehicle can possibly get to our chosen site. The journey up and through the
shanty town’s dirt roads was extremely bumpy. There was a point where the truck
was confronted by an oncoming car but the road was only the width of one and a
half lanes. The driver had to turn the truck onto the angled cliff face for the
car to barely fit through. It reminded me of the Top Gear Bolivian special (for
those who have seen it), but luckily we were on the inside “lane”.
We were to construct our systems at a location towards the
peak of the hill. This hill has since become known as the hill of pain. Just
walking up to the site without carrying anything burns and rips your quads,
hammies and calves to bits. We had to carry up several planks of wood (the
largest being 4 m x 0.1 m x 0.05 m), tools, bags of cement and aggregate,
buckets of water and 0.15 m diameter pvc pipes up some of the steepest slopes
that was very susceptible to slipping and falling over. The base of the slope
is filled with rubbish left by the locals and also toilet paper and faeces (only dogs' I hope, but then I think about lack of sewerage systems). Sharp angular rocks fill
portions of the surface. The rest is filled with dirt, dried branches from tiny
plants and specks of vegetation. Luckily the locals have been very helpful, two
of them putting their hands up to help us carry the materials and construct.
One in particular, named Freddy, carried bags of cement and aggregate on his
shoulder up the slopes as I struggled behind with a back pack, drill pack, shovel
and pick. I kept repeating to him that “Freddy es muy forte!”
As the material was slowly carried up after repeated killer
trips, we began to dig up holes 0.5 m deep for the foundation of the two main
posts for the SFC. Also, the main frame was prepared by cutting four 0.1 m
smaller timber members and attaching them to the main posts and screen vertical
members. At first, we tried to screw through the large posts into the 0.1m
cross members. However, the timber proved to be too strong so drill bits were
used together with hammer and nail. Freddy powered through and eventually
attached the four cross members to the main posts and the screen frame vertical
members.
It was late afternoon and time to erect the frame as it was
decided the mesh would be attached in the morning and it was more important to
allow the concrete to dry. The two dug up holes were set 1.5m apart and
required the use of concrete and large rock aggregates to fill up the holes as
the posts were put in place with the aid of a spirit level. This was to
conclude day 1 of construction as the sun set.
Jueves 12 Julio (Thursday 12th of July)
We were to meet the locals who volunteered to help us at 8:30. However today, we had no one to accompany us to the site and it was a new challenge to make it there without this help. Normally the trip would involve at least two bus rides and possibly a taxi (it has varied because of being brought up by different people whom work at different locations during the day). Luckily we found our way without any issue except the initial worry.
We reached the site and one of the local ladies fetched our
two handy workers, Lister and Freddy. Firstly, we needed to cut the 4 m long,
0.15m diameter PVC pipe in half longitudinally using an electric power saw.
However, we needed to find electricity. This required 4 extension cords from
one of the shack houses but eventually the job got done. Lister and I proceeded
to carry the rest of the timber posts, tools and pipe up the hill to the site
and it was one of the hardest things I’ve done physically. I thought I was
decently fit and fairly strong with my routine 3 km treadmill run and weights
session 2-3 times a week back home, but was humbled by Lister and Freddy’s
strength in bringing up more bags of cement, aggregate, buckets of water and a
huge timber ladder.
When everything was bought up, the second frame was put
together, similar to the SFC but now with a symmetric 3D design. Again holes were
dug and concrete prepared as Catherine worked diligently putting together the
mesh screens and attaching it to the SFC. This involved using mesh clips around
the screen’s perimeter and tying it to the frame using lots of rope and metal
cable ties. The decision was made to attach the 3d mesh screen to the frame on
the ground prior to erecting the posts to eliminate the need for going up with
the escalada (ladder).
However we realized that installing the troughs would
require going up anyway. The troughs were attached using more metal wire ties.
Cath has become an expert at tying from this experience. The next step was to
work on piping, connecting the trough to a thin hose. However, the sealant gun
that we had purchased quickly broke so we could not put the connections together.
We decided to use a heap of metal ties again to secure buckets right underneath
the end of the trough as shown in the photos.
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