Granola

One month ago, one of the missionaries down here introduced me to homemade granola. It was quite tasty and an instant breakfast hit. Unfortunately I ran out last week and had not where to go to get more! Then it occured to me that I could try to make more. I weighed this against all the other options that I had. 1) Could not buy granola because they don't sell it here. 2) Could not steal from the other missionary because they might kick me out of the mission. 3) Find some way to magically fabricate more granola.
Well, I decided that option 3 would be the best and so I set out to "whip up" some granola. Now anyone who tells you that cooking is easy or relaxing is either not telling to truth or has a morbid sense of humor. As I slaved away for 2 hours carefully measuring out ingredients, turning random oven knobs hoping for a fire to ignite in the proper place, burning all the good hair that I had left on my knuckles, and finally setting of 2 of the 3 smoke alarms in the house... I finally had my granola!
So rest assured that I will be just fine for the next few weeks. Breakfast will be a peacefully and filling affair, but I;m sure of one thing. Next time I'm just gona save myself all the hassle go with option #2!

Tarapoto

This past weekend, I had the opportunity to put two motorcycles and their riders into the back of our Cessna 206 and fly them off to a motorcycle race in the city of Tarapoto. The riders are both missionaries with SAM but they both enjoy motocross and use it as a tool for sharing the love of Jesus Christ with the other racers. The trip encompassed 3 days and my responsibilities included, pilot, baggage handler/loader, motorcycle mechanic, and race spotter.

It was a challenge to put the bikes in the airplane, but thanks to the large cargo doors on the 206, we were able to fit both bikes inside. It was a gross weight (3800 pounds) takeoff with a center of gravity (balance point of the airplane) right on the aft limit, but the cargo pod was a great help as all the heavy things went forward to keep the C.G. within allowable limits.

Todd took home second place in his category and Julio flew through the air landing the 1st place trophy in the 450cc class. I was just happy that nothing I fixed or worked on broke during the race...

Tarapoto is in foothills of the Andes mountains so the change in climate was a very welcome break. This was also grape country and for 3 days straight we sampled wonderful grape juice, a local specialty, with every meal.

From the Logbook

I just got back on Monday from a 4 day trip to the city of Tarapoto. I was there with two of our SAM missionaries who were racing in a motocross event. More on that along with pictures in the next post, but I did want to mention that we took both motorcycles along with the 3 of us to and from Tarapoto in our Cessna 206. It was another 3 hours of flight time for me and I thought I would give a quick update from my pilot logbook.

Total time logged flying in Peru: 82.8 hours
Total Cross country (more than 50 miles away) 45.0
Total float plane time: 65.9

For being in Pucallpa for around 5 months, I am starting to fly more and more. On a busy month, a fully checked out pilot can log up to 80 flight hours! I´m not there yet, but I am getting more and more experience.