Last Week :( ...Volcano! :)

It’s my last week in Ecuador, I left the bear project last Sunday morning, spent a night in Quito and then went on one final short trip to Baños. This little town, located in central Ecuador, is known for the hot springs that give it its name, adventure sports and nearby volcano Tungurahua. Currently Tungurahua - literally “fire-throat” in Quichua – is in the process of erupting. So I went to go see it.

In recent news, Tungurahua expelled a lot of ash and lava, covering its leeward side and forcing the evacuation of many resident campesinos and farmers on that side. As far as I know, no people were physically harmed, but unfortunately many livestock got into trouble. I don’t know what options are available to the residents of all the high-risk areas – whether they have somewhere to go to, or what they are going to do now that their land and homes have been destroyed. Seems like a pretty tough situation to be in. So far Baños has been unaffected by the recent eruptions due to it being situated on the other side of the volcano. The bus ride and generally clear skies made it easy for me to see the impressive destruction all over the mountain’s side. It was completely covered in ash, looked like a river of gray had flooded upon it. During the day clouds generally cover the summit of the volcano, but a huge gray cloud of ash billowing upwards rose out of the mist, visible from quite far away. In order to see the actual lava flow one needs to look at night, so after wandering around town, getting a room, going for a little walk up a nearby hill, and eating, I found myself on a “chiva” bus – an open truck designed for transporting tourists around the area. We rode up the opposite side of the valley and from here we could see the mountain outlined quite well. Our guides told us that we were approximately 5 km from the top. Since the crater seems to be facing away from the Baños side, we could see some flames rising up and occasionally lava rolling down on the horizon, like bright red moving sparkles. We had been watching for a little while when suddenly the volcano erupted. It’s a pretty hard phenomenon to describe. First of all it was pretty unexpected. Suddenly there was this puff of redness, and a huge bright red cloud shot upwards. Glittering pieces of lava rose with it and seemed to hang in the air for a long breathtaking moment. Then they covered the entire face of the mountain, making it glow like it was on fire. A deep rumble shook the air. It sounded a lot like thunder.

After that I don’t know if I expected the rest of the trip to compare to that moment, but white water rafting was another definite highlight. The next day I found myself soaking wet and paddling like crazy as our raft swayed from side to side on the Rio Pastaza. The trip took us East, away from Baños to the area around the town of Puyo – the beginnings of the rainforest. I ended up with a big group of tourists, split up on two rafts, each with its own guide who barked out rowing commands: ‘forward’, ‘stop’, ‘backwards’, ‘right backwards’, ‘left backwards’, and my personal favorite ‘inside’, where we all huddled towards the center so we wouldn’t fall out in situations when impact with rough waves or shallow waters was expected. We had a couple of close moments in the water when I though the raft was going to capsize, but luckily that didn’t happen and only two people fell out who were quickly recovered. The other raft wasn’t so lucky: one minute it was upright and the next it was upside down and its occupants were in the river. We had lunch in Puyo, and it was cool to see that town too. Considerably less touristy, seemed somewhat more sprawling than Baños, to me, and it felt a lot warmer too. The jungle was seeping in! The rest of my trip was spent hiking up to some nice viewpoints, walking around, eating big breakfasts and renting a quadbike for an hour, when I went to see a pretty waterfall.

I’m back in Quito now, only a couple more days to go. Just enough time to say goodbye to my homestay family, Aldemar and Xavier, as well as newfound relatives Anita Steinitz and company, who have been so kind to take me in for my last few days. It’s been great. I’m sad to leave South America but at the same time, happy that I will see my family soon. It’s too bad that I have 4 days in transit from Quito to Windhoek, but I suppose that will be another adventure.

Hardcore Beartrackers

the other day we moved a cage. I dont know if i explained this properly, but the Bear Project has several cages located in various remote corners of Intag, for the purpose of catching a bear in order to collar it. They are made of ten large steel panels screwed together into a rectangular prism with a trap door triggered when the bear pulls on the bait inside - a cow's foot. The trapdoor shutting also activates a collar to emit a signal that we can hear by radio and know that we caught something.
A few days ago, the volunteers met their biggest challenge yet: moving a cage. This particular cage was located in a maize field. The bears enjoy looting the corn, a fact that local farmers dont like very much. We were assigned the task of moving it from this field to another one - down a steep hill covered in fallen tree trunks, across a river with no bridge, through thick grass, and up half of a very steep mountain to another cornfield. We all arrive at the cage, sweaty from climbing down and then up to the field and Alberto starts taking it apart with our one and only spanner. Pretty soon Sara, Donna and Ashley start taking the panels down one by one towards the river, while Joe and I stay and help dismantle. The panels are not only large, they are awkward and heavy and I have somehow gotten it into my head that I will be able to carry two of them up the hill. The steep descent is difficult enough, I roll a panel (using its corners) downwards, while trying to balance myself by grabbing onto nearby foliage. The soil gives away under me and I'm sliding downwards between treetrunks and lianas, desperately trying not to loose control of the panel. Eventually we end up with a pile of panels next to the river. Then Ashley gets attacked by a swarm of bees and stung. Luckily the rest of us avoided them somehow. In the midst of that chaos, Joe and I manage to move all the panels across the river, both of us balancing on rocks, me passing the heavy things to Joe who tosses them onto the adjacent bank. I dont know how he managed to throw them. Alberto arrives with the last of the panels, helps Joe and I tie our panels together - the three of us take two, the others take one for the climb. With much effort I get them onto my back, they are so heavy that if I angle them too far forward I almost fall head over heels, but if they aren't mostly on my back, I dont have the arm strength to keep holding them . I know I mentioned this before but I say it again: Alberto is a machine. He carries two on his back practically running the whole way up, even when it gets extremely steep and its like trying to climb tall stairs. Joe and I follow more slowly, sinking into the high grass, breaking through spiderwebs unintentionally. My back is completely bent, the panels are so big that I cant easily straighten up. There isnt a cloud in the sky and I'm drenched in sweat. We get to the steep part and Joe starts rolling his panels upwards. I try this but I barely have the strength after a few rolls - pushing on a given side while holding panels upright, balancing them on their corners. I develop a new method: I stand in front of the panels, facing back down, taking a few steps backwards (up mountainside), pull the panels up a short distance and then do it again. Its a long process. Alberto has vanished far above us. He reappears when we still have a ways to go, to get the last panel still down by the river and carry it up. By this time, I'm totally exhausted. I have already had a near accident where I lost control of the panels and they fell about 6 feet back down the path. Luckily no one was close behind me. Finally we make it to the edge of the cornfield, which is just as steep as anywhere else on the mountain, but at least now we are rolling sideways. We arrive at the designated spot; high-fives all around, Joe and I run back down to get the backpacks and I find myself carrying the cowfoot, break for lunch, and then help set the cage up again. This part isnt easy either, because we have to keep manouvering the pieces so that we can screw them all together right. Then we grease the trapdoor so it will close more quickly and make a protective screen around it, chopping deadwood branches into smaller sticks with a machete and tieing them all together, and finally covering with leaves. Bears apparently have ripped off the trapdoors in the past by climbing on top of the cages instead of inside, so the screen stops them from doing this. By this time we are all ready to jump into a shower, I' m completely covered in sweat, blood, grease and dirt, but we still have to climb the rest of the way up the mountain and then walk 5km back to the volunteer house. Joe and I race part of the way, we're so tired we are hyper. Another day in the life of a beartracker passes, as does my tan in the shower.

Bears? Bears. Bears!

So long long ago, way before I went to Intag for the first time, long before I even arrived in Ecuador, I was doing some online background research in my dad´s office in Windhoek. And an intriguing link came up -- I found myself on a website for the Andean Bear Project ( http://www.andeanbear.org/ , check it out, it´s cool ) which was asking for volunteer bear trackers. Six months later, I am back in the cloud forests of northern Ecuador, and this time I get to play with radio equipment.
The Andean Spectacled Bear, the smallest bear in the world, is an endangered species found only in the Andes Mountains. Currently, it is badly threatened by loss of habitat due to deforestation. The project aims to save these animals from extinction through rehabilitation and release of captive bears, and by researching bear behavior using radio tracking equipment. Bears are caught using special cages designed by project director Armando, sedated and fitted with a radio collar. Volunteers spend their time hiking and using radios to listen for signals emitted by the collars. The signal allows us to determine whether the bears are active or not, and in which direction they are from set points along the hikes. By a process called triangulation, use of three of these points can then show where the bear is located. Sounds simple, not as easy in practice. Signals are easily distorted by reflection off of mountains, the equipment is old and falling apart anyway, and actually getting a triangle on the map is rare. Unfortunately the bears are threatened directly by the farmers also because they like to eat corn. A few months ago, a bear was caught in a cage, sedated, collared and released. A week later it was found dead with bullet holes in it, but the community in the area in which it was found apparently blamed the death on the Andean Bear Project, claiming that Armando had oversedated it.

I hike every day of the week, 4-8 hours a day, and have the weekends and all other time off. So far I have occupied my free time by reading a lot (yay I have time to read books that aren´t assigned by classes), baking bread and making jam, watching dvds on a friend´s laptop, talking, napping and taking care of Pig.
Pig? Who the heck is pig? Well, it all started on day 1, when my fellow rookie volunteer, Joe and I saw a very cute pig next to a schoolyard. This, combined with our friend Val´s recent purchase of a horse (cost him U$200), gave us the idea that we too, could get a cool pet. Why did we want to get a pig? I dont know. What are we going to do with it? I dont know, feed it, make sure it doesnt hurt itself.... But pigs are so much work, why didnt we get a dog? We have plenty of time to take care of one, we are two people, it´ll eat all our compost and the dog living at the volunteer house before our arrival managed to wake everbody up regularly by barking at night and it also racked up $40 in mauled-chicken costs. Plus, Armando said it was ok. So now Joe and I are in possession of our very own Saddleback Pig (they get real big but this one is small, 4 months old), it is orange and white, and in order to take it home I had to carry it across a very very rickety bridge. That was fun, I thought I would fall most of the time but luckily pig was speechless for once. Petrified I suppose. Pig generally makes a lot of noise. Grunting normally, but when Pig is annoyed, she squeals so much that ten babies together would be put to shame. I am not joking, it is so loud and high-pitched, you want to do anything to make it stop bleating like that. Pig is pretty smart too. So far she has escaped her rope-harness 3 times. Which is kind of good because at first she would wind the rope around a tree until she got stuck and at that point start squealing (this always happened at 6 in the morning.) The first time she got loose it provoked a pig-hunt through the bushes that degenerated to Joe, Kim (another volunteer) and I chasing it across a field for a while.

Other exciting things of note:
-- getting a lift uphilll to the start of a hike and getting stuck in the remaints of a mudslide. We end up with a (to give him the benefit of the doubt) confused truck driver, who kept driving the truck into parts of the road with the most mud, getting the truck more stuck, while we pushed and pulled and dug out wheels the whole time. The driver kept giving Alberto (employee of Andean Bear Project) and me the shovel instead of helping out himself, and then he still charged us for the ride.

-- 8 hour hike with Alberto to deactivate a cage. A radio collar is used on the cages which emits a signal when the door shuts (hopefully on a bear, though pumas also in the past.) Alberto not only walks extemely quickly, he doesn´t take breaks and we had to get to and then climb a very remote mountain to reach the cage. Basically, by the end of the day, I was tired from 2 steep climbs, covered in cuts from various vegetation material and running out of water forced me to drink from a mountain stream that Alberto showed me and then, after I drank, he told me it could make my stomach sick. If he hadn´t had to bushwack so much on the unkept trails, I wouldn´t have been able to keep up. But I did get a machete lesson and practice. (1. cut with sharp side and at the end of the blade; 2. cut at an angle) Good life skill.

-- Full day Minga (work with community members on given project) harvesting corn for Alberto. We spent 6 hours in a cornfield. I got lots of sun and bug bites. But it was cool to see where corn comes from.

-- Just came back from summiting the nearby mountain of Imbabura (4600m). 3 friends and I left Intag for the weekend, hiked all yesterday afternoon, camped in the paramo (grassland occuring at high altitudes) and got up very early this morning to finish the climb. It was a great view before the mist obscured it at the very top. We had some fun rock scrambles involving all 4 of our limbs and we faced cold temperatures, falling snow and strong wind at the top. Definitely worth it.

Peru, Bolivia: Machu Picchu, Lake Titikaka

During my last week of ISP, I managed to figure out that google chat works, and got in touch with my friend Matt from Swarthmore, currently studying abroad in Buenos Aires, Argentina. On impulse we agreed to buy plane tickets to Cuzco, Peru and from there, to travel to Machu Picchu and Lake Titikaka together, within the 9 days he had class vacation and before I had to head back to Ecuador, scheduled the 2nd week after my ecology program ended.
In spite of a temporary setback caused by my miscommunication with my homestay family, in which I almost missed my flight due to my inability to access my passport (locked in their house) and made it to the airport 50 minutes before departure only because of the divine intervention of my guardian angel in the form of a 6 year old girl who helped me break in, I did in fact make it to Lima, the coastal capital of Peru, in one piece. Albeit accompanied only by my small backpack full of the previous few days worth of beach clothing.
But leaving that aside, I was thrilled to see Matt when I finally caught up with him at the hostel he had chosen as our meeting/storage place. Lima is big. Very big, and really different from Quito. It´s much more polluted, with wider streets, highways to get from one part to another, many many modern buildings, and I was also more impressed with the beautiful central antiguo part of the city than with it´s Quiteñan counterpart. We seemed to have picked into the ritzy touristish part of town, and that night we soon found ourselves wandering through a maze of restaurants, bars and clubs. Luckily we were starved. The Peruvian currency, the "Sol" definitely kept us on our math feet as we kept trying to translate back into currencies with which we were familiar.
Early the next morning we flew onwards to Cuzco, the ancient capital of the Incan Empire. Before we get there however, it is of vital mention that Matt and I made friends with an american couple we met in the airport. Matt convinced Shelby (guy´s name actually) and Katlin to come with us to our hostel since they didn´t have a place to stay at that point and at least check it out with us.
So the four of us go to the hostel that Matt found online. We are met by Vicky, a Peruvian lady who offers us tea while we wait for our rooms to be ready. The hostel was big and nicely decorated, with a little open breakfast room providing a nice view of the inner courtyard. We manage to bargain down the price of our accomodations by agreeing to stay, all four of us, in a single large room, with three beds. That sorted out, we all took a nap. Bored of napping immediately, I snuck out, checked my email and met some other people at the hostel. Matt, Shelby, Katlin and I explore central Cuzco – the beautiful Plaza de Armas where we are surrounded by churches and mountains, the narrow streets where we hug the walls to avoid getting run over, and we see the remnants of beautiful Inca architecture while wandering down an alley, the classic perfectly cut bricks so as to fit together exactly (couldn’t fit a knife in the space between bricks.) This was after all, the capital of the Incan Empire. And they chose a very beautiful headquarters, we decide, as we watch the sun settle behind the hills, red and orange meeting dusty brown. That night we decide to take the cheap tour of Cuzco – agreeing on 5 soles (U$1.50), we pay a taxi driver to drive us (all 4 of us) up to the big Jesus statue at the peak of an overlooking hill and get a great view of the city – all glittering lights in the valley, spread out below us. On the drive, we ask the driver if there is a red-light district in Cuzco. A few minutes later we’re driving through a very different Cuzco, it’s dirtier, generally more run down than the touristy side, and right after the taxi driver announces that this is the dangerous area, we get a flat tire. We spend the next twenty minutes trying to change it without a jack (lots of lifting power necessary) and hailing other taxis to see if they have one.
The next day we spend at the Artesenal Market where we find all manner of products Alpaca, find a very cheap gigantic lunch at a little hole in the wall restaurant (I find myself presented with half a chicken plus rice and veggies as the second course), and check out the Inca Museum. With Vicky’s help, we organize a trip to the Macchu Picchu ruins. The next morning we take a train ride to Aguas Calientes, passing through some great Andean scenery, both pastoral and highland-stream-enclosed-within-towering-mountains, to arrive at Aguas Calientes, the town closest to the ruins (where all the tourists stay.) We drop off our bags and continue to MP where Matt and I take a tour of the ruins in Spanish. They are truly spectacular, situated in the midst of gorgeous green mountains, overlooking everything, with houses, ingenius water fountain/gutter system, temples, courtyards, arches, altars etc. We learn that this was once the seat of the Incan elite; the priests, the royalty, the wealthy, and we also find out from Shelby and Katlin that the English tour said the opposite (wrong.) Oh well. We watch the sun set and then we go back to Aguas Calientes, where, after dinner, we check out the reason behind its name – we bathe in the hot springs (which was fun, though I woudn’t call it amazing.) The next day, while Katlin does some artwork, Matt, Shelby and I hike up the Putukusi Mountain nearby (we found the path following some other tourists’ advice and the train tracks) from where we can see once again, Macchu Picchu on the next mountain over. Good view, I highly recommend the hike if you have the time. It is Wednesday already and there is still so much to see. The four of us, ever a match made in heaven, have decided to explore Lake Titikaka next (yes, that is the name of the world’s “largest highest” lake.) So to save money and time, as Shelby puts it, “we board a bus, don’t pay a hostel for the overnight and in the morning we magically arrive” at Puno, a city on the southern edge of Peru. That afternoon, we take a short trip of the bay area commissioning a (fisherman’s?) very beat-up motor boat (he let’s us try driving, which is fun.) The lake is pretty, but the algal build-up all over the waterfront is not. We are not highly impressed with Puno as a whole, but we do enjoy wandering through the main street in the evening, where many people are outside walking around, hanging out and crowding. We see shops, butcheries and little plazas, then we pick a restaurant where we get to watch live traditional music, performers employing the use of panpipe flutes, drums and chorongos (sort of like mini-guitars.)
We decide to add another stamp to our passports – crossing the border into Bolivia on another bus, we arrive at Copacabana, a small town on the lake nestled amongst the hills. We wander the streets and eat lunch, then take a boat to nearby island Isla de Sol, recommended by other tourists we had bumped into beforehand. We sit on the breezy roof of the boat looking out at the lake, big enough to seem an ocean from our viewpoint, follow the coastline to the Island, where we have decided to spend the night. This turns out to be an excellent choice. It is hard for me to describe how unbelievably beautiful it was. From the dock we climb upwards, passing llamas, agricultural terraces and Bolivians offering us their hostels, to finally look out upon the blue lake, the tanned coast and finally to the stunning snow capped mountain range in the distance, the Cordillera Real. Shelby and I negotiate a game of soccer with some children. The mountains still a part of the surreal background, we play an exhausting game on a school basketball court that we ultimately lose (it’s the altitude really) and thus earn the right to buy the kids a coke. After that we all climb up to the topmost part of the island for an even better view of the lake now that we can see both sides of the island. We spend the evening playing cards with people we meet at our hostel, and the next day we slowly make our way back to Puno, Matt and I head to Cuzco and on Sunday we fly out to respective residences. The journey is uneventful except for our bus breaking down on the way to Cuzco, something about a “broken electric circuit”, but we make it back with time to spare before our flight.

Cotopaxi

So Comparative Ecology and Conservation Spring 2006 ended on May 20th. I spent the so called ¨evaluation¨ week leading up to that date at a farm called La Hesperia and also in Quito. Our group filled out forms, listened to each other´s presentations of our Independent Study Projects and basically spent a lot of time together. I took our final spanish oral exam (I´m pleased to say my spanish improved) and also got my ¨salida¨, permission to leave the country. In many ways the week was stressing just knowing that study abroad was about to end and so many good friends were about to leave, but at the same time I also like to think that I would be able to see many of them again, and think on the many more adventures coming up for me still staying on in South America. It was especially hard to say goodbye to our wonderful academic directors, Xavier and Sylvia as well as Aldemar. On the Friday, we all went out for lunch at the same pizza place we went to our first night in Ecuador (it´s special like that) and afterwards the ADs headed out. But not before they were hugged thoroughly by all of us and I gave Xavier a piggy-back ride.
On Saturday the group flight left around 4 in the afternoon, and sad goodbyes were made all around. The crowning moment was when Pritha tried to enter the passenger
check-in by walking out the airport exit. Oh well, we were all a little spaced out. About half the group was left behind -- all of us deciding to stay for a week to 2 months longer in South America to travel, show parents/significant others around and/or volunteer for longer. I spent the rest of the evening with some of my friends, and we went to watch the Da Vinci Code at 9:40pm before returning to the hostel. It creeped me out but I liked it overall.
The next day a whole group of us went up the Teleferico gondala and made the hike up Pichincha (mountain overlooking Quito). I had done this already but I like the hike a lot. The real reason behind the hike though, was acclimatization for Phase 2: Cotopaxi.

Cotopaxi is a gorgeous snowy mountain located about 2 hours south of Quito. At 5897m (19,347 ft) tall (that´s 2m higher than Kilimanjaro), I and a couple of friends couldn´t resist the challenge. Together, Dylan, Zack, Susan, Sarah and I planned to take the 2 day trip to summit the volcano with Rainforest Tours, accompanied by Sarah´s mom, who would stay at the Refugio (refuge) about 100m above the parking lot. By parking lot I mean flat patch of rocks overlooking amazing view of plains, little lake and surrounding rising mountains Ruminahui and Ilinizas, among others. In short, totally sweet, though somewhat chilly. We arrived at the Refugio in time to eat late lunch and then scamper about on the lava rocks, entranced by the sunset. We sawa a lobo de paramo (kind of like a big fox) too which was fun. We struggled to sleep as much as possible before we all awakened at 11:30pm to don woolly pants, wind pants, various undershirts and overshirts, fleece, wind breaker, beanie, gloves, other gloves, big mittens and clunky hiking boots, all provided by the company (except the various shirts.) After some hot tea, we started the climb. Dylan, Zack and I were attached to one guide, Sarah and Susan to another. When I say "attached" I mean we were all connected by a rope as soon as we hit the icy snow... or was it snowy ice? Whatever it was, I found myself struggling to control my heavy, booted and now crampon-attached feet as we climbed steadily upwards. It was steep. I was in pain. That is generally all I remember, but for the rhythm of "ice pick, step 1, step 2" keeping me focused repetitively onwards. I was exhausted, and from Dylan pulling the rope behind me I could tell the guys werent doing much better, it was all I could do keep up with the guide, Fausto. We climbed and climbed but the breaks were getting longer and closer between. When we stopped I wanted to keep going because I got extremely cold, extremely fast, but when we kept moving I wanted to stop because I got extremely tired, extremely fast. At some point we paused and momentarily Dylan started vomiting. Things weren´t looking too good. Susan and Sarah caught up with us around then and after the intra-hiker-guide conversation, I found myself linked to the girls´rope stumbling forward yet again as Fausto tried to reach a decision about whether the boys can keep going or not.
As we leave them behind, the new slower pace helps me out along with the fact that my headlamp slips down over my eyes so I can barely see, meaning I don´t have to look at how ridiculously steep the mountainface actually is. "Cinco minutos, cinco minutos" our guide keeps saying. I concentrate on putting one foot in front of another guided by the rope I can barely see in front of me. It´s more like 30 minutes, not 5, before we make a break, but at that point we have broken clear to a slightly more flattened part - and is it not absolutely beautiful, nestled amongst ice boulders, the sun rising at our side, far above the plains, the lava rock, Quito in the distance. Zack appears after a few minutes, trailing an unfamiliar guide and we all cheer. Fausto had to take Dylan down, but luckily Zack was able to make it this far. Slowly we start again. Susan and Sarah are pretty tired, but we beast onwards. The going soon gets tougher again and Sarah occasionally makes comments about feeling lightheaded. I am feeling fine, but the combination of altitude and exhaustion is catching up to my companions. Whenever we stop Sarah falls asleep and Susan claims that she feels not only dizzy but as if the wind might blow her off the side of the iceface we are climbing. Then at some point she collapses as we are trekking along. We wait, she recuperates, we go on, we get tired, we recuperate, my crampons keep coming undone, the summit is in sight but still high above us. Around the time that our guide realises that we can´t make it all the way up, Zack returns from in front of us saying that he can´t keep going up the steep final ascent and still expect to have energy left for the return. I´m the only one who isn´t feeling thoroughly beaten (though kind of roughed up), but with only one guide the only thing we can do is give up. For safety´s sake, he argues to me, he can´t let me go the rest of the 300m up even though I can tell exactly where I would have to go. It´s getting late and we need to start heading back soon anyway. We are glad we made it this far for sure, and to me, the vistas make up for the disappointment. We stumble the whole way down, drifting into sleep the moment we stop and sit for a moment. I keep tripping over my boots and sliding partway down on my back. When we reach the refugio, everyone else joins Dylan on the beds and passes out. I pack my stuff since the exhaustion apparently hasn´t hit yet, then go in search of food.

Quotes from the ride down:
Susan: That was the most exhausting thing I have ever had to do, mentally, physically, emotionally; I have so much more respect for mountain climbers now. The whole time I was wishing I was on a kayak.
Zach: I hate that F-ing Mountain!
Dylan: Climbing Cotopaxi was like getting drunk - I spent a lot of money, I threw up, I don´t remember what happened, and now I feel hungover.
Elsita: ..... (passed out on Fausto´s shoulder)

But no worries, that night, Susan, Zack and I take an overnight bus to Guayaquil and from there to Montañita, a little tourist town on the coast. We meet up with Katie and Katie and spend the next day sleeping on the sandy beach, getting sunburnt, swimming in the ocean and burying a dog in the sand. Though the town is a blatant tourist trap and probably half of the people staying there do drugs, I enjoy the chance to relax in the sun and get free surf lessons from the owner of our hostel (read, we had to pay to rent the boards), as well as eat huge breakfasts. As Zack put it, "that´s really how amazing Ecuador is, one day your on top of Cotopaxi, 5000m up and barely breathing, and the next day you´re sunning at the beach".

Last 48 Hours at Rio Guajalito

Last 48 hours at La Reserva Rio “Guaja” Guajalito

Prefaced by Vlastimil deciding to leave for the Oriente earlier than previously planned so he wants a rough draft of our papers (10 days earlier than it is actually due) when he picks us up from the reserve on Friday morning. (Note that papers are to be written completely in Spanish so that they can be used by Vlasti and others in the future)

Wednesday:

12:00 Its raining a lot. Elsita finishes the last of the soup, Christa eats more oatmeal.
4:00 afternoon data collection, Christa’s last in anticipation of working all Thursday in the day to complete paper – Elsita plans all-nighter
6:15 dinner time, spaghetti!
6:45 inspired by Vlasti’s talent, Elsita and Christa make awesome warm fire, burning all accumulated toilet paper in the process
10:00 Elsita goes to bed
11:30 Christa goes to bed after dowsing fire

Thursday:

6:00 Elsita realizes that wristwatch is in the kitchen. Elsita enters to find smoke filled room and huge hole in floor. Cursing and laughing hysterically, Elsita attempts to put out fire with potfuls of water. When last of visible embers wetted, Elsita warns Christa (still in bed) and goes to collect data.
6:15 Christa starts fighting fire, douses entire room with water, removes remaints of two floorboards plus third for good measure, shovels ashes into bucket, ignores kitty begging for food, douses entire room with water again. Elsita finds 3 Phoebes, 2 Dippers, 2 Tyrannulets, and 1 Sandpiper (highest population totals ever). Christa finds missing ruler under floor, runs out excited to tell Elsita.
8:00 Breakfast of bread piece for Elsita, Christa eating more oatmeal, starts working on paper using laptop computer
9:30 Elsita leaves to run up the mountain to call Betty, to confirm place to stay
9:40 Power goes out while Christa on toilet.
9:50 Elsita blatantly breaks SIT rules and hitchhikes – nice truck driver gives her a lift
11:00 Elsita returns from mountain having run all the way down, finds Christa sitting in darkness. Still raining.
11:00:30 Elsita blames guardian angel for the whole thing, Christa blames peanut butter goddess
11:05 Elsita helps Christa put some new floorboards back in the floor, Christa found them in the shed behind the house.
11:10 Elsita takes first shower in a week
11:30 early huge lunch cause there’s nothing else to do. Christa and Elsita attempt to finish all remaining vegetables, beans, crackers and tuna
1:00 Elsita decides to take nap, Christa decides to start writing paper by hand
2:30 power back, Elsita still asleep
3:30 Elsita gets up, packs most of her things, heads out for more data collection, Christa attempts to focus
6:00 dinner time, spaghetti!!
7:00 veto making another fire. Christa tries to get back to work, Elsita mopes around and catnaps, then outlines her discussion and intro sections on paper
9:50 Christa takes break, Elsita begins Microsoft Excel data analysis of her results. Christa takes first shower in a week
11:30 Elsita playing with Excel graphs, Christa decides to sleep for “a couple hours”
11:50 Elsita has downed two glasses of coke, is extremely wired and has trance music blasting in earphones. Continues results section of paper

Friday:

2:00 Christa walks back into kitchen building, scares the crap out of already jittery Elsita. Elsita has completed half of discussion section, all results and stats, and another glass of coke
3:30 Christa takes a turn on laptop, Elsita drinks a cup of coffee and then sits and stares at a piece of paper for a while
4:30 Christa takes another break, having consumed roughly 5 cups of coffee and two glasses of coke, decides to wash dishes
6:30 Elsita finishes the paper including intro, abstract in english and spanish, figure insertion and other little touchups. Decides against editing bad spanish grammar. Christa sits back down.
6:38 Elsita decides to go for a run, hopes for spectacular sunrise, gets rain, chugs last cup of chocolate milk before heading out
7:30 Elsita returns, Christa still working
8:00 Elsita has left-over vegetables and coke for breakfast, Christa polishes off second bowl of oatmeal for the night, 7th cup of coffee. Elsita washes more dishes
9:10 Christa finishes her paper, including maps, figures and text
9:15 Christa pees for 53rd time in the past 24 hours, starts packing
10:00 Elsita plays on computer, Christa finishes “Cold Mountain”, quoted as saying “why would you write 400 awesome pages and then have such a shitty ending?” Discussion ensues as to whether Inman actually died, eventually reach consensus that he did (Elsita was wrong and she is sad, she thought he was cool, not to mention sexy)
11:00 neighbors’ dog knocks over bucket full of ashes, Elsita and Christa find it extremely hard to clean up in their tired and giggly state of mind. Both agree that they feel tipsy.
12:30 still no sign of Vlastimil
12:45 Vlasti shows up
12:50 Elsita explains the fire damage, Vlasti says “oh no”. Elsita shows Vlasti the fire damage, Vlasti says “ok, vamos a arreglarse” (we´ll fix it), then changes subject.
12:55 Settle up business, Vlasti signs some forms, Elsita and Christa save papers on his USB flash drive, goodbyes to Cesar and family, and Rigoberto
1:30 head back to Quito. Drive is long and extremely bumpy, punctuated by Vlastimil stopping to a) collect plant samples for his students´ upcoming biology exam and b) open the hood of the car, allow smoke to diffuse, pour water on engine, keep driving
1:48 Nevertheless, Elsita manages to fall asleep on Vlasti´s shoulder for the better part of two hours, doesn’t regain full consciousness until close to Quito. Christa still giggly.
4:00 10-minute stop at Vlasti´s “casa de soltero” (bachelor´s house), Vlasti smokes 20th cigarette since arrival at Guaja, second cup of instant coffee. Elsita and Christa gaze in awe at plant collection on table, pictures of his children (multiple ex-wives), girly ornaments in bathroom and table covered in booze (Vlasti on previous visit had made claim of quitting alcoholism)
4:35 arrival at Quito bus station, where Elsita and Christa make final goodbyes, remember to pay for accommodations (give Vlasti the cash), catch taxis to respective residences

Independent Study Project

My independent study project was undertaken at the request of eccentric botanist Vlastimil Zack, a professor at the Universidad San Francisco de Quito, who had given us a lecture or two earlier in the program and accompanied us all on a day tour through the paramo highlands. Vlastimil’s personal hacienda, his own little reserve really as far as I can tell, named La Reserva Rio Guajalito is the site of my project. Situated in the cloud forest southwest of Quito, in Pichincha, Rio Guajalito is out in the boonies, complete with mainly primary forest, fast flowing Andean streams and oilpipe, the reason for most of the little development in the area. Vlastimil’s concern was for the White Capped Dipper, a resident riverine bird that depends heavily on the well being of the river for survival, feeding on macroinvertebrates living in the water. My friend Christa and I, both interested in bird behavior projects, had visited Vlasti at his university office a few days before leaving for Galapagos. Between searching (unsuccessfully) for a map of the area, upturning papers and a bottle of wine in his desk drawers, and picking up both of his cellphones, Vlastimil outlined the situation. In 1999 there was an oil spill that caused the Dipper to disappear for a few years from the area. He wanted me to find out what it was doing now, how it spends its time, where it goes. Christa was asked to look into the populations of Toucan Barbet in the area with reference to the dwindling numbers of Cecropia trees, on whose fruits it feeds. Some weeks later I find myself arriving at a cluster of buildings after a bumpy two hour drive in a dodgy truck that broke down the moment we stopped. Vlasti scurried about trying to fix it (unable to find jumpstart cables, but managing to change the flat tire) as we got settled in to our new quarters, met the family staying in the house by us, dropped off our previously purchased 3-week supply of groceries in the farmhouse-style kitchen and put our things in a large room filled with bunkbeds and mattresses. Soon afterwards Vlastimil left, still not having fixed the car, taking the bus back to Quito. Before he leaves he introduces us to the place by vaguely gesturing at the the borders of the reserve, telling us to burn our garbage, showing us the refrigerator, freezer, multiple gas stoves and the knob for hot water in the showers and saying that we can ask the bus driver of the regular (some days not others) bus going back to Quito to get us anything if we need it. We seem to be in the middle of nowhere, overlooking a large stream, the road and a huge oilpipe, with forested mountains on all sides. The road winds off upwards. We are left alone and pretty overwhelmed. It seems from here on out we can do whatever we want to do within the stipulations of researching our birds.
I spend most of my research time roaming along the stream looking for Dippers and Black Phoebes, another bird I wish to study as a comparison to the Dipper. I mark down their behaviors every thirty seconds that I see them. I intend to compare not only their activity level but their ability to adapt to human influences, through looking at the proportion of time they spend moving around and also studying time spent perching on manmade structures as opposed to natural things. So far the Black Phoebe (another riverine dependent bird) seems to spend much more time not moving than the Dipper, and it also seems to be better adapted to making use of the manmade things – the warm oilpipe, powerlines, bridges etc. I get up before 6 to take data from that time until 8am, and repeat for 4-6 in the afternoon. Every day. Otherwise I read a lot and run and work on the written part of my project which includes a work journal and statistics as well as the paper itself. Christa and I are putting together a map of the area using GPS, a base map we find in the dining room and an Adobe Illustrator pirated version in Spanish that Christa’s host brother gave her. It’s a quiet life but I get along with the neighbors very well, and I manage to fill my time easily (well, I do take a lot of naps…) My body at least is quite active due to the amount of walking we have to do to get anywhere.

Highlights:
- no hot water for showers, frequent power outs, rain every afternoon, many mornings
-happily Christa and I have similar taste in food – we eat pasta 2 out of 3 nights, and we decide to start a new religion with Peanut Butter as our god.
- hour and thirty minute walk uphill (that is up to 3 hours total) to get cellphone service, we’re expected to call our academic directors twice a week
- 9 km to the nearest town, Chiriboga, where we buy some food every now and then, hope we don’t get struck by lightning on the walk back home, Christa almost loses her shoe in the mud while trying to pick a giant leaf to use as an umbrella
- power goes out for 2 days straight during the first week forcing Elsita to cook all of her meat in fear that it might go bad. She has eaten it all (mince, steaks, cold cuts) within the first 6 days
- little cat decides to take up residence in kitchen building – very cute, affectionate and parasitic, will not shut up at meal times to the point of extreme aggravation, nicknamed ‘Maggie’ for ‘maggot’ but also refered to as “Kitty! Futzek!!” (go away), and actually named ‘Conejo’ (rabbit) by neighbors’ three-year old daughter
- tons of downtime, not much going on, not much to do, so Elsita works out a lot and has some great runs in the pouring rain
- Elsita and Christa unable to tell why or when Vlastimil named himself, as everyone here refers to him as Patricio
- Rigoberto (the “guardabosque” or gamewarden basically) mentions that he was wondering whether the flagging tape Christa leaves along the road to mark where she has sighted birds for later GPSing, is so that we won’t get lost (the road leads directly back to the houses)
- Christa and Elsita attempt to make vegetable soup; later on it is undecided whose fault it was that way too much water was put on to boil, it is so bland that they add all the spices they can to it including salt, pepper, soy sauce, aji (Ecuadorian hot sauce), vinagrette and tomato paste (luckily Christa vetos the hot chocolate powder)
- starting a fire to burn the garbage requires much talent in the humidity, so the addition of gasoline provides a welcome source of ‘insta-fire’
- Christa and Elsita badly in need of coordination - Christa manages to drop two forks into the pot of boiling pasta water while stirring, Elsita sets dishrag on fire twice trying to get them out
- Elsita locks keys inside kitchen. Neighbors, Cesar and seven year old son, Paul lend a hand - lifting up corrugated tin roof segment so Paul can climb over door and open up.
- On the one day it doesn’t rain, Elsita does laundry. Unfortunately the lack of afternoon shower allows her to forget all her socks and some undergarments outside overnight, at which point they are soaked anew. Elsita later quoted as saying “I think I should remove my underwear and bra before Vlastimil gets here”.

Look out for a hilarious account of my last two days at the Reserva - coming soon

Galápagos

What can I say about Galápagos? Life was good, that´s for sure. From the moment the plane started to land I knew I was in a cool place – how? Because it was unlike anything I had ever seen before and at the same time it was oddly familiar. The Galápagos are Islands situated north west of Ecuador in the pacific ocean, imagine a kind of desert landscape, some islands covered in black lava rocks, others with red sand, and many with strange cacti and little shrubby things (I mean plants) all over the place.
We land in Baltra and immediately get outside into warm dry breezy air, the sun is strong and I´m ready to smell the sea. As soon as all of us (that is 12 students plus Xavier and his wife and mother) get our luggage, we hop into a bus that takes us to the dock. The first thing I see are sea lions. Huge, hairy and peaceful was my first impression, they lay all over the wooden benches in the only shade and under the dock as well. We boarded a small motor boat, red and rafty looking, it looked like a big blow up toy, and luckily could hold half of us, as its brother came and picked up the rest. Our Yate (yacht) was named San Jose and we eagerly climbed up onto it. We admired the length, its levels – kitchen, crew living quarters downstairs, the dining room and some cabins above, above that more cabins and open deck with bar for relaxation, and my personal favorite, the very top, basically an open area where you could look out and climb up a little platform where the GPS machine was located. Anyways, so we get settled in and immediately head off to a beach on nearby Santa Cruz. We meet our personal guide/naturalist to the Islands, Billy, who tells us all about the ecology and some natural history of the islands as we travel with him. He gives us a talk every evening about the next day’s plan and refers to cool stuff as “super chevere” the ecuadorian equivalent of “totally rad”.
We take a little “caminata” or walk, and one of the first things we almost walk into is a marine iguana. It is just lieing on the rocks in front of us, its black coloration allowing it to blend in with the black of lava basalt. At first I think it will run away as we approach, but it sits there completely spread out, unbothered by our prescence. If it hadnt been pointed out to me, I wouldn’t have noticed until I stepped on it. After everybody takes pictures of it, the other iguanas that we spot and all the sally-lightfoot crabs (huge, red with speckles, scary) we move on and come to a little inland lake. Standing in the middle is a flamingo – the Greater, the same as we have in Namibia. We all oggle some more. Galapagos seems to have a little something for everyone – strange vegetation, marine life and beaches, desert island kind of effect, it is stunning.
Happily we go back to the beach where we landed, pull on snorkel gear and jump right into the ocean. We see some very pretty fish, small ones big ones, colorful parrotfish, large schools of surgeonfish, concentric pufferfish. We only find out the names of many of them later, but I love the view and swimming feels great. We definitely ame in the right season – the water is warm and the current isn’t too strong so there isn’t a huge chance of seasickness. Similarly to Namibia, Ecuador’s coast is affected by an Antarctic-originating cold water current which causes dryness along the coast after which it turns and hits Galapagos with similar effects. The cold current is great for sealife because it causes upwelling of oxygen and nutrient rich water, but it causes the land to be very dry. However, Galapagos is also affected by the El Nino current which brings warmth and wet air around christmas time every 7 years or so (hence its name meaning “the child”). This causes great vegetational growth on the Islands and is good for the bird and animal populations on land – but not too great for the sealife. Can’t please everyone I guess. That night we are served coctails of welcome and introduced to the crew – captain, first and second mates, panga drivers, engineers, cooks. Then we are served the first of some very classy meals including meat, vegetables, noodles, fruit and desert. We get spoiled on board – it’s like a mini-luxurycruise, all meals served by Jefferson (basically our butler), snacks when we come back from the beach, nice two-person cabins with their own bathrooms.
That night we are standing on the deck with Xavier looking out to the dark sea when we notice some very large shapes moving around in the water, illuminated in the boat’s light. We make out a huge marble ray and some other big fish we think are tuna. My friend Cooper and I run down to the edge of the boat where we would normally board the pangas and try to see the fish up close. Everyone is already going to bed this time but we stay and watch the water. Suddenly a huge flipper pops out right underneath us. We jump back in surprise and it vanishes. Soon it returns attached to a sealion. We later find out that they often leave the shore at night to fish and can go for a few days without needing to return to land, the reason that they were able to survive years of overhunting in the past.
The next morning we get up to an amazing sunrise over Rabida – a small island of red pebbled beach and the clearest blue waters we have ever seen. We take another little walk spotting cactus finches and lava lizards in the process, and spectacular views of waves crashing into lava rocks, desert hills (er, I mean dormant volcanoes) rising up around us and the sea all around. We go snorkeling again and this time we see even more – the water is so clear that we easily see to the bottom and dive to investigate starfish, coral and little blennies resting in the sand. We see a huge spotted eagle ray and a green sea turtle. We see white-tipped reef sharks circling in the water below us and a myriad of other tropical fish, alone or in schools, colorful or silvery, in schools, solitary, eating algae off the rocks, synchronized swimming in their schools, diving away from us.
We come out to the shallow beach water, and watch dark green mexican hogfish with their strange head-bumps investigating the debris we kick up with our flippers. We are also fortunate to see a Galapagos penguin, close by and swimming around like a fat underwater bullet. We return to our towels in time for a huge male sealion to walk through our group, unaggressive and curious. He sniffs some of our bags (maybe he doesn’t like the reek of field notebook) before moving along to the ocean.
That afternoon we have an absolutely gorgeous walk on the Island of Santiago. We follow a trail between bushes a bit reminiscent of savannah but not really and it starts to rain – warm water falling all around, the sun doesn’t go away and a rainbow appears behind us curving in front of a mountain. We keep on and see tons more iguanas and sea lions hanging out on the strange black lava landscape that separates the completely dry land from the ocean. It goes on and on, with patterns etched into the rock like uneven ripples. We all just watch the sunset for a while, jotting down field notes and thoughts and probably some poetry too.
The next day we go to Bartolome island and take a walk over the rocky volcanoes. We climb up a mountain of leftover lava, listening in awe as Billy describes how built up gas causes tunnels to form with blow holes at the top. Some of the chutes have caved in and I climb into one for a funny picture, hoping that there arent any snakes farther inside. We next go to Sullivan’s Bay which turns out to be a snorkelling disappointment as most of us get stung by hordes of man-o-war jellyfish, tiny little guys that cause much irritation. Luckily we move along to the next site and hear we are greeted by more fantastic snorkeling – sting rays and more sharks, more fish in general and a clos up view of a penguin. It didn’t do much, just sort of pouted and looked upwards proudly as we swam near and then gathered around the rock it was standing on. Madrid, one of the panga drivers, came by to pick us up from the water and take us to land to get our things before returning to San Jose. I got on board with much difficulty and then begged Madrid to throw a rope in the water so that I could hold on to it as he drove to shore – it was great, effectively being towed along behind the boat, experiencing motor-caused bubbles, still able to see underwater and breathe through the snorkel at the same time.
The boat takes us to Santa Cruz, this time to the city of Porto Ayora – a tourist town mainly, we find out when we go out that night. Much of the income generated on galapagos comes from tourists and it has caused much migration of Ecuadorians to the islands in search of jobs. One of the problems is that most of the money generated goes to the rich owners of the cruise ships and other wealthy people at the top, whereas most of the people who live there or work on the boats don’t get payed as much. A friend tried to find out how much the crew gets paid but Billy wouldn’t tell her. We walk around at night talking to people selling things on the streets or sitting in front of shops, I hang out at a discotecca with some friends afterward.
The next day is spent at the Darwin Research Center, where we learn about giant tortoises and see a few in captivity. These massive reptiles are being bred back into existence at the station. They were hunted by pirates and sailors of the Pacific who saw them as an easy source of meat, and later when settlers introduced species such as pigs and goats, they faced great competition for food, while introduced rats ate their eggs. Billy told us about the Station’s breeding programs and about its hunting programs. Wild chivos, or goats, have been eliminated from many of the smaller islands but the hunting on the larger ones has not met with much success due to extreme weather conditions and sheer landmass in which to find them. We board a bus that takes us up in the mountains into more forested areas, where we encounter a combination of some farmland, some forest and many wild tortoises.
The next morning we snorkel more around two large rocks in the middle of the ocean named ‘El Leon Dormido’, the sleeping lion, where we see Galapagos sharks, far far below us in the deeps. The current is strong here. One of the threats facing Galapagos fish is international fishing corporations sending boats illegaly to fish in the area. Sharks for example, are the favorite of Asian corporations seeking the shark-fin soup industry. They catch sharks, cut their fins off and throw them back into the water.
Our afternoon is relaxed as I endure a long boat ride to San Cristobal island, where we dock at Baquerizo Moreno. Though I find I have a lot of tolerance for boat rocking motion, I do get a bad case of cabin fever and am pleased when we get out for another drive, this time to the only freshwater lake in the entire galapagos, Lago Elhunco, where we watch frigate birds swooping and look for insect for our field investigation projects. We don’t find too many.
The boat leaves port late that night for the island of Espanola. A few friends and I had decided to sleep outside so we could stargaze before sleep, but we were constantly awakened by the crazed rocking of the boat while in motion. It was very strong but luckily only 1 student actually felt sick enough to throw up. We head out early for more snorkeling and unfortunately I decide to chug some very gross juice we were served at breakfast and then proceed to have a handstand competition on the beach before our sea lion counting project. The earth feels like it should be moving, the swimming doesn’t help (though Madrid let out an extremely long rope behind the panga and pulled all 12 of us students around for a while) and later I find myself vomiting behind some thorn bushes lining the beach. Some Hood Mockingbirds, proving their reputation as opportunists followed me and cleaned up. A Galapagos “Drop-off”. And no worries, I instantly felt much better.
That afternoon was the best walk of the whole trip, where we went back to Espanola and trouped amongst the sand and rocks, watching sea lions and hoping they wouldn’t chase us. As a side note, a sea lion jumped into our boat for a nap earlier that day. I missed the whole episode, but it bit Madrid as it was trying to get out, so we were very wary of the territorial bulls barking at us angrily. Madrid was not badly hurt, luckily.
But, point being, Espanola was amazing regarding bird life. It was full of boobies (masked and blue footed, very strange birds I admit) all conducting mating dances all over the ground, some watching eggs lying on the ground (they don’t make nests), others regurgitating to feed young. Everywhere literally. And unafraid of humans, they barely acknowledged our presence. We trouped over iguanas and after skirting around the waves crashing into lava rocks we came upon an albatross – for its reputation as the largest Galapagos bird, it wasn’t that huge and it looked like a big gull really. But quite cute, Billy told us that usually they werent around at this time of the year as they migrate generally a bit later. From his description, it was a bit like seeing the first robin of spring. We saw a Galapagos hawk seated on a rock with its back facing us, looking into the distance as the sun set, a wonderfully pink moment. It was amazing – make sure you go there when you get to Galapagos. Mind the sea lions though, they got somewhat more aggressive as we made our way back, but luckily they were lazy and didn’t chase us hardcore. Their flippers just werent made for running. Overnight the boat took us onwards to Floreana Island – our last full day – and we took a little panga ride around and climbed up some more lava hills. Billy told us about some fairly recent settlers to the area – all crazy germans who had tried to make a life out on the island, generally didn’t succeed very well, and many of whom ended up missing. Nobody really knows the full story but there’s a book about it that I intend to read (Floreana - Lista de Correos for those interested). We also learned that Yate San Jose was haunted by a construction worker killed on some drunken night and that the original boat was burnt down to hide the evidence. Oh the scandal; before hearing the story, I had already coined a joke regarding a poltergeist on board that I liked to call the “Galapaghost”. Billy thought it was hilarious. We also got to climb down into a cave and swim in the dark and in freezing cold water which was a lot of fun. We snorkeled along the beach, swam back to Yate San Jose and then took turns jumping off the top level (10 m or so). Pretty spectacular, the fall was worth it.
Our last bit of snorkeling occurred at a very special location, imagine a crater sticking out of the ocean, named “Corona del Diablo” or Devil’s Crown, it was the sight of some strong cold currents that meant the snorkeling was super chevere. I swam with 5 sharks circling below me, tropical fish all over the place, the current so strong that when we were inside the crater it seemed that we werent even moving when we swam our hardest. I followed Billy through a tunnel under the rocks forming the crater, holding my breath and watching the blue sea changing hues as I rose. I swam with another penguin and later dove deep to investigate a turtle lieing on the sand at the bottom. It was with sadness that we all boarded the pangas again, but Madrid let me hang on to a rope and get pulled along at top speed so I couldn’t complain.
We walked along another Floreanan beach before the sun set that evening and saw a school of 30 or so stingrays swimming along. A huge Galapagos shark came right up to the shore where we were standing which also caused some excitement. On our last day we had the great fortune of fortunes to have been allowed (Xavier asked permission) to go to the island of Daphne Major – yes the legendary island where the Grant research team made some amazing discoveries about natural selection and indeed, evolution itself (read The Beak of the Finch, we all had to before the program’s start). It was awesome. We climbed up a steep rock face to get to a trail winding around a crater filled with boobies and frigate birds. The finches were there too, along with tropic birds and we passed a happy hour just looking down and watching. It was a great final stop before we had to head back to Baltra to catch our flight. What a paradise.

The Rainforest: Tiputini Biosphere Station

In short, our trip to the rainforest or Oriente as it is called, was awesome. We went to Tiputini Biosphere Station (TBS) situated on the banks of Rio Tiputini, close to the eastern border with Peru. I know exactly where it is on a map but getting there was a little more complicated than taking a taxi. On Monday morning we take a 7:30 am airplane flight to the city of Coca. Upon arrival we board a bus to the nearby Rio Napo. We are all shocked at the sight of endless pure green forest from the view of the airplane windows, and as we exit the airport a blast of warm humidity nearly knocks me down. It is pretty hot. We all get onto a long boat (all 20-some of us) and sit in plastic chairs looking out. The boat has a huge and loud motor at the back, and the river is very wide.I spend most of the ride staring in disbelief at the strange and wonderful vegetation lining the river banks – the trees are ridiculously tall. In fact, I sit with my mouth hanging open for most of the rest of the day. After an hour or two we arrive at "customs" aka petrol control station. The petrol companies all own this area – they are the biggest threat to the rainforest. They own the rights to use the land, they built and own all the roads in the area and they gave permission for the land to be used by TBS as an environmental research station. Nobody but student groups and researchers are allowed at TBS, and it definitely is quite a mission to get there. We finally make it through the petrol station, and board another bus, this time the ride takes an hour and a half or so. We pass thick dense forest and places where the land has obviously been cleared to make villages or farmland. The indigenous tribe of the area, the Huaorani, are the only other people allowed to go in and out as they please. The bus isn't really a bus, its more like a truck with a lot of seats and no side walls so we can see everything as we pass. We stop in front of a bridge, all scramble for backpacks and then board one of two more boats. Our boat is pretty tiny, with no roof and we worry that the lack of sunroof will cause a lot of future discomfort. Happily it also means that we can see above us, and we ride out into Rio Tiputini. This river is much smaller than the Napo, it meanders constantly and is completely lined by trees. Soon enough we see playful Squirrel Monkeys moving through the trees nearby. Scarlet Macaws fly overhead and the boat moves pretty fast. The wind picks up and suddenly it starts drizzeling.
"haha, now we know why it´s called a rainforest", I joke.
Finally we arrive at TBS. We climb up wooden steps and enter the comedor, kind of an open-air dining room, for orientation. TBS is a collection of scattered wooden buildings, cabins, comedor, library and basic research lab facility. We are shown to our mosquito netted cabins – bunk beds, bathroom facilities and little porches. We get an hour free to get settled in and we all pull on swimsuits and dive into the river. The current is pretty strong and the water is coffee with milk coloration. We learn later that this is due to accumulated Andean sediments as opposed to the darker plant-produced chemicals, tannins, that give Rio negro its name (River Black literally).
The night I join the three boys in our group for a little night hike – actually their field investigation project is Night Insects and I am happy to go along with them and look for tarantulas and other cool bugs. The jungle is wet and so strange. At first I don’t really know what to make of it. It´s late at night (haha 9pmish) and pitch dark but the forest is alive with strange new sounds. Apparently the cicadas never sleep, or at least they take turns so that the sound never ends. The next afternoon we all undergo the SIT traditional “drop-of”. This is after we get up at 5:30 in the morning for a long walk, and after botany and the soils interactive lecture where I find myself inside a hole that I helped dig, looking for the B layer of subsoil with a shovel in hand.
On our drop off, we all basically go off on our own into the jungle to learn completely through our own observations and experiences. Before leaving, many of us had agreed on one particular educational experience we planned to test out during this time. Ahem, this involved taking a dump in the woods (a literal drop off) and seeing what cool things would come to our very own supply of nutrients. Unfortunately, I failed. I admit it, I tried to drop a deuce but I just couldn’t relax enough. Basically this is the perfect analogy for how I feel about the rainforest – there is so much going on all the time, there is always another bug biting you or another cool plant to look at or a beautiful morpho butterfly (picture electric blue wings) flapping by or another bird that you cant see screeching from the depths of impenetrable leafy canopy above, so that you cant ever concentrate on one thing. Its like going to the city for the first time after living your whole life in the country. I was really overwhelmed and it put me on edge. It was really cool.
We had a lecture about courtship behavior in Manakins (frugivorous colorful bird inhabitants) by a resident researcher and another one about herpetology eg amphibious and reptilian predators of the leaf litter covering all rainforest ground. We learned about monkey social behaviour, comparing new and old world monkeys – African monkeys are different! We got to know all the little things too – spotting assassin bugs and catching geckos, one night we walked to the comedor and found a huge (and I mean bigger-than-a-grown-up´s-hands huge) toad sitting on the ground next to the path. Traci, who spotted it, picked it up carefully under the encouraging direction of our academic coordinator (Sylvia). She proudly brought it to the resident herpetologist, who promptly declared the species poisonous, at any minute ready to shoot forth yellow toxic liquid at would-be predators and could Traci please take it away from the dinner table.... That was pretty funny. Sylvia will never live it down!
The early mornings were spent in activity rotations – two long walks, and a trip to the tower and a boat float. The morning we went to the tower my group went with a local guide, walking along the lago or lake until a curious wooden structure rose up in front of us. The rickety steps took us upward until we finally could see over the forest canpopy for the first time, a misty sunrise greeting us and as the day began, the louds cleared. It was beautiful and our guide was extremely knowledgeable regarding birdwatching. I was glad also because I spotted King Vultures and a White-collared toucan in the distance, and we enjoyed a Plumbus Kite, Mealy Parrots, blue and gold macaws and others from the view. The foliage just wouldn’t end, stretching out below us a sea of leaves. This was also when, after being forewarned that due to structural weakness we shouldn’t have more than 4 people at the top level of the tower, our guide told all of us (uh 8 total) to come out on top. Luckily the tower didn’t collapse under our feet. On our flotar we drifted along river, looking for birds (hard) and caimans (very hard) though apparently our guide/boat driver Ramiro, saw one, pointed to it and we didn’t see anything. We could hear Howler monkeys in the distance, a haunting sound just like wind blowing. All in all we were pretty lucky, as another group saw a tapir on their boat trip, peccaries, their were two Harpy Eagle sightings, and also Giant River Otters were observed for quite a while. I was happy because I saw lots of monkeys – Squirrel, Wooly, Dusky titi, Spider and Tamarins (adorable) and also because I came across a huge rat snake when a friend and I were trying to conduct a monkey census (no primates, only Mr. Scaley.)
One of my biggest highlights was our night boat ride when we searched for caimans with a gigantic flashlight. Unfortunately, I was the last on the boat meaning I had to sit at the very back far from the light. We soon came upon a black caiman sitting quietly by the river, and of course all 23 of us crowded to the front of the boat for a view. Luckily we didn’t tip it over. Since I couldn’t see that well from the back and it took forever for me to get to the front for a better view, I started talking to Ramiro, who was once again driving the boat. After I started asking about the motor function, Ramiro offered to teach me to drive so I spent the rest of the trip happily learning how to steer, accelerate, reverse, develop a little sense for the current strength and so on. I ran the motor into a tree once when Ramiro was still directing me, but drove all on my own the whole way back to the station without incident. It made me really happy.
We had one more lecture that deserves special mention – it was mainly about the situation of the local Huaorani tribe. Originally hunter-gatherers, we learned that the first contact was made with the Huaorani by missionaries in the 1950s. Since then, their population has grown, they have begun to live much more stationary lifestyles and hunting of animals for foods and illegal trade has increased greatly. Unfortunately, the petrol companies, in order to gain the favor of the Huaorani to use their land, have bought them off in the form of fancy motors for their boats and equipment such as guns. The use of the blowgun has gotten more rare and the threat to local wildlife has really increased. The worry is that, when petrol companies leave the Huaorani will truly be left with nothing because they haven’t been given anything sustainable to work with. They are still largely uneducated and poor. Many don’t speak Spanish and the idea of a bilingual school is very foreign. The researcher giving the lecture has basically said that his research has revolved around investigating population densities of monkeys, who are one of the primary sources of meat for the Huaorani. It is very difficult though, he said, to change attitudes towards hunting and exploiting the wildlife for this purpose, especially when it such an important food source. Culturally, the concept of hunting for food is deeply engrained and indeed the Huaorani word for hunt and the word for jungle is one and the same.
On our last full day we had some free time to get our stuff together and take a little break from lectures, insect collection, monkey tracking etc. I decided to go for a walk and try to do the previously unachievable. I walked up a path for a while and then turned off of it and into a little thicket. After depositing a pile of dung beetle food I headed back to the path to walk a bit more while I waited for the insects to get to work. Soon up ahead I heard some crashing sounds in the distance. Whatever it was, was moving very quietly through the trees, only now and then did I hear noise. I was pretty sure it was monkeys of some kind but I couldn’t see through the foliage. After tracking for a while I was rewarded with a quick view of a Spider monkey, it looked at me, and then disappeared again in the trees. I backtracked listening and then one and then another crossed directly overhead, scampering along a thick branch and pausing to look down at me while pretending to groom itself. Their prehensile tails and efficient movements really separated them from the noisy little Squirrel monkeys and even the wooly´s. These guys hardly made noise and it saddened me to realize that the reason for their stealth was probably related to the fact that these primates were the most sought after as food by the Huaorani. I headed back to check on my insect attractor and realized that I had used a tree as my landmark. Five minutes later found me desperately still searching for a pile of excrement, as thunder rolled overhead and rain suddenly started coming down. Usually the foliage blocks light rain, but this was beginning to feel like quite a storm. I could only laugh at the situation, scrambling from thicket to thicket in the rain, looking for a pile of crap so I could observe the flies and hoping to get back in time for our last lecture. Finally I found it, observed for a moment, took a picture for future reference and raced back to the cabins. I must admit that running through the rainforest, during a rainstorm, in the mud, and with a path visibility factor of -2 (eg decreasing), was a wonderful sensation.
So no worries, I did not get eaten by a caiman, or even chased by a jaguar riding a manatee, and in all seriousness, I managed to avoid getting bitten by a venomous Conga Ant or “Bullet Ant” as it is also called, while trying to catch it in a glass jar so we could look at it better. The trip was amazing, I would love to go back some day. Future research? Who knows.

Homestay Family, Climbing Pichincha

So Intag was great. But there wasn’t much time to digest it all once we came back. The next morning, I found myself standing awkwardly with my fellow students in front of large group of happy looking Ecuadorians. Two guys were playing a guitar and singing, around 50 others were carrying flowers and other little gifts and generally looking quite well groomed. Yes it was that time of the semester – HOMESTAY!!! We all crowded around trying both to find our parents and not step on anybody else in the process. I was a little nervous and more than a little self-conscious though I figured my family probably wouldn’t have a hard time finding my family. I was finally greeted by a rather motherly-looking smiling Ecuadorian woman. My new mother´s name is Ingrid and she pulled me to a corner of the crowd and introduced me to my new father, Ruben. Hugs all around, I presented them with a small cake I had bought that morning, they gave me an Ecuadorian bracelet. We finally left the hotel, and we got into their car (medium-sized, can´t remember the model, well-kept) and drove off to the northern side of Quito. On the way started getting acquainted and talked about Namibia and Intag and then my parents started pointing out roads and landmarks and buses so that I could get easily oriented. I found out that my family was very helpful like that, they always explained where I could get stuff, which bus with which colored letters would get me where, how I could get pirated DVDs for a dollar etc. Basically Quito has a few long main roads and everything else leads from those, so its not difficult to find your way around. My new residency turned out to be right next to the airport in a little complex (complete with gate and guard) and the house itself is small but homey. Nicely decorated, dining room table for Sunday lunch and guests as far as I can tell, 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, kitchen, living room dining room, little garden in front, sweet view of car company office buildings from the roof – which is where they hang their laundry to dry. I have two brothers whom I met shortly before lunch – Sebastian and Ruben (17 and 19 respectively), who I have enjoyed hanging out with a lot so far. They´re very sporty and fun to spend time with in the house. As far as I can tell they are neither terribly studious nor wild party animals, and I´m currently developing a master plan to get them to take me along to the gym and also get a membership. On Sundays my family had a big lunch, and went shopping twice in the afternoon. I went with my parents to the nearby “supermaxi” grocery store and was shocked to find bottles of South African produced Amarula in the liquor section. I explained the origin to Ingrid who then explained to me which liquors she liked best to cook with. Ruben (papa) as we call him is a businessmen who sells seafood and Ingrid works in an office in town but I´m still confused as to what exactly she does. Ruben is currently on vacation from the Catholic University and Sebastian is at a private high school. Apparently in Quito many private schools are cheaper and better than public schools, and only some have basketball teams. At least, this is what Sebastian told me when we went outside and shot hoops for a while before dinner.
We (Ingrid, Sebastian and I) also went to church before dinner (which is usually around 8:00 at night (yay) and not the main meal of the day (aka soup)).
Church was interesting – catholic service, of which I understood was the sermon because the guy spoke pretty clearly, but this comprehension was wasted on my brain that decided to block it out after a while. I couldn’t tell whether we were supposed to stand when we were singing or when we were praying or both, when we were supposed to lift up our hands or not and opted against crossing myself three times in a row at some point. I also managed to accidentally use the kneeling bench (name?) as a foot rest but caught myself before anyone noticed.
Suddenly everyone started getting up and going to the front. I was confused so I asked Ingrid. My conversation with her went somewhat as follows (in spanish.)
Me: where are all the people going?
Ingrid: they´re going to go eat the body…
Me: uh… oh you mean the body of Christ, the blood, they eat those-
Ingrid: yes, they get a wafer
(Silence for a long moment)
Me: why are some of them gong and not others?
Ingrid: well they decided whether they are cleansed enough to do so, if they have gone to confession enough…
Me: how do they know if they have gone enough? How often do you have to go to confession?
Ingrid: well that depends on them, whether they feel they have sinned, if they haven’t then they don’t have to go, the church doesn’t force people to go to confession a certain number of times per month
(ok so I don’t really know anything about Catholicism. It took me ten minutes to figure out what the people in the line next to the little rooms with the priests inside were waiting for. I also haven’t figured out how religious my family really is. They were going to skip church when they found out I was Jewish until I said I wanted to see what it was like.)
So for the last two weeks I´ve gotten into a schedule – classes start at 8 in the morning, so I jump on a bus around 7:30, that goes to Estacion Norte, I grab a free newspaper and take the trolley into the central part of town (this costs me 25 cents total.) I then walk up Mariana de Jesus, after getting off at the stop and go to Spanish class in the Experimento. We usually have lectures from 10:30 onwards and we learned about petrol conflict in the amazon, economics of a waterbasin project in northern Ecuador and botany among others. Around one we are either done for the day or on lunch break, I usually go to an internet café every couple of days and check email. Work has mostly involved readings and one analysis paper as well as group discussions.

On that Friday, we had an excursion to nearby mountain Pasachoa. The drive in traffic took an hour and a half though it was a thirty minute climb. We found ourselves at a clump of buildings which were reception, bathrooms and accommodation, and from which we headed out for an educational walk in the woods complete with guides and our Spanish teachers as well. We learned a lot about the vegetation and medicinal use of some of the plants. The guide gave me a little yellow flower to chew on. It made my tongue go numb for a few seconds and tasted horrible. The woods were similar to those of Intag but dryer and higher up too. At a look out gap in the trees we could see across a valley and to the next row of mountains.
We ate lunch and everyone prepared to go home except for 3 friends and I who ambitiously had decided the day before to stay overnight at Pasachoa and hike the mountain the next day. Sarah, Zab, Christa and I were shown to a nice bare room with mattresses and also were allowed to use the kitchen to boil water. After the others left, we took a little walk of our own, hung out eating chocolate spread and stared at some llamas that passed by our room. The hike we planned to take was estimated at 4-5 hours (depending on sign) and was supposed to take us on a walk along the Pasachoa crater (remember Andes = volcanoes) and hopefully with a look out over the nest of Condors. These amazing birds are 1 m tall and are the national bird of Ecuador, so we really hoped to see one. The next morning we started hiking around 6:15, passing through the forest from before and onwards through bamboo thicket and then paramo. The paramo is a bit like an alpine savannah – take away the acacias, add a very steep slope and lots of pretty flowers and strange bushes. The path led us on and on, from one spectacular view to the next, we walked along the ridge of the mountain. The path was so steep that we were in pain and out of breath most of the time. Our climb was interrupted by gasps of surprise at the view or at a new exotic flower. A couple of great quotes were mentioned including:
Zab: “looking at this scenery I really feel like we should be sprinting after orcs with our longbows”
Sarah: “toilet paper? But we can wipe with melastomataceae”
We were exhausted as we finally started approaching the rock. The mist was thickening around us and soon we couldn’t see into the bowl of the crater. We continued through another forest to avoid rock climbing and found ourselves on something you could hardly call a path, we ducked under branches, used vines and leaves to pull ourselves ever upwards, grateful for a chance to use our arm muscle to help our aching legs out. Finally, we reached the first peak of rock and scrambled up a steep face aided by a tree. The drop was somewhat terrifying and as we looked upwards we saw the top of the peak but nothing else. Cloud had completely covered our view of the crater, so we couldn’t see any condors. It also prevented us from realising that we weren’t at the second peak yet so we never made it that far. However, as we climbed down to try to overlook the crater from the ridge of the mountain we could hear a sound similar to that of an eagle screeching. We listened to them as we snacked and Sarah climbed a tree. This was also after Zab and Christa had to beg me not to attempt to climb all the way to the top of the first peak, the rock so treacherous looking that they thought I wouldn’t be able to make it down. I sort of agreed with them but I wanted to climb it so badly that they had to threaten my physical restraint.
Much laughter accompanied our descent (slide) back through the forest. At some point we found ourselves using vines to rapel down a muddy face. Except for Zab, we all managed to fall in the mud, and since I was in front I got the worst of it. I avoided a rock face that we had climbed on the way up, but while leaning on a branch across the path, my legs slid out from underneath me and I found myself hanging from it by both arms, completely suspended. This was almost as funny as when Zab finally fell into a puddle at the very end of the hike for no apparent reason. The hike took us five hours to ascend and 2.5 to descend. That´s how steep it was. We made it back to Quito eventually, catching a green bus into the old city. We later found out that condors are quiet birds, so we probably hadn’t heard them after all.

Monday was carnaval and Ingrid took me to Mitad del Mundo – the ecuator. It was in a touristy area north of Quito, with some museums and restaurants and clowns whose jokes I didn’t get and tasty mora ice cream. The roads were packed with people trying to go to swiiming pools and spraying each other with water and foam, as is customary for carnival. In the afternoon, my family and I went to visit Ruben (papa)´s mother. I learned to play a card game and then over a very nice dinner, my abuela (grandmother) made me explain why the Jews killed Jesus. We didn’t really resolve the ensuing argument. Oh well.

The next day we had another excursion, this one to the paramo with a local botany expert who was very knowledgeable. Unfortunately the weather was miserable, and midmorning found us frozen to the bone by wind and rain, and me stomping around in wet muddy fields trying to look for insects for our field investigation project, and wondering why no one had told us to bring our botas de caucho (rubber boots.) We stopped to observe a pipeline and a lake that had been polluted by oil. Detergents had been put into it to break down the petroleum but these had other effects on the vegetation. Wasn’t very pretty, especially in the rain. The late afternoon was spent at las agues thermals – hot springs – of Papallacta, where we warmed up in swimming pools full of Ecuadorians.

Yesterday (Saturday) I took a ride on the “Teleferiqo” with 6 friends – basically a ski lift or cable car – up Pichincha, one of the mountains directly overlooking Quito. It was a beautiful view of the city and we soon embarked on another hike up to the top of the mountain. We were in paramo habitat again and we kept pausing to look at cool plants and make silly videos with my digital camera about the vegetation in which I referred to lichen as a plant on accident. I was the only one to actually make it all the way to the top of that mountain partly because the way was brutal near the top and partly because I´m dumb. I chose (badly) to ascend the sandy path instead of the trail. I figured it would be just like a nice shaley dune, and it was, except that I forgot how hard they were to climb. Three steps forward two steps back, I was at least 4000m high, and once I hit the ridge I refused to turn back after all the effort. The view was amazing. Two friends and I made it that far to look out over the other side of the mountain amongst boulders and cliff faces, and then I did some rock climbing. The top was awesome, full 360 view from the top of an Ande, Quito and sky included. Then I ran half way down the mountain to catch up with my friends and fell down a lot.

Quito the City, Intag the Cloud Forest

so that was the soccer game. I forgot to mention that we were on TV because the guy with the video camera decided that 22 gringos were too much of an opportunity to pass by. I also forgot to mention that I managed to coin the phrase “¿quieres un pedazo de mi?” –literally, you want a piece of me? – during the fight that almost broke out between 500 or so Ecuadorian supporters behind us and the three argentinian supporters in the stadium.

but back to more sobering thoughts – the next morning we had an excellent excellent lecture by a resident historian/writer about Ecuadorian current events. I will try to outline the important bits below. I realise that this posting is going to be full of lists of information but its organized at least, right?

one of the current major environmental threats is oil. It seems that there is a massive pipeline starting in Northern Ecuador that is in many ways unhealthy to people and environment alike. A big oil producer by the name of Occidental or Oxy for short, is apparently lieing about the number of barrels it produces so that it doesn’t have to pay Ecuador too much (not that it does anyway) and is otherwise not very nice.

the 2002 North American Free Trade Agreement or Tratido Libre Comercial is a win-win situation for transnational companies but not actually helping anyone else and resulting in numerous economic problems all over latin America. Basically local businesses have problems competing with cheaper multinational companies.

Recently there have been protests in Quito, led by an Archbishop to stop Occidental from continued pipelining and to ask Alfredo Palacios, president of Ecuador, not to sign the new Free Trade Agreement. A side note is that all over town there is gravity of “fuera Oxy” (out oxy) and acronyms like “Tengo La Camisa negra” in protest.

We also talked a lot about Colombia and the war on cocaine – major conclusion of the day: the war on drugs is a cover for US government to secure land and resources for American corporations.

And so forth. Ecuador has had a history of dysfunctional and/or corrupt governments. There have been 2 impeachments in recent times. Asi es la vida. We then had more orientation talks including the program rules. It will please all of you out there that worry about me to know that I am not allowed to drive, scuba dive, bungi jump, ski dive, climb any mountain that requires equipment, kayak, motorcycle and otherwise do anything adrenaline-rush-producing for the duration of the program.

Our second lecture of the day was also cool. It was about what to watch out for during our homestay. Basically it was a quick guide to what Ecuadorians really are thinking. At least the ones living in Quito that have at least one room to spare in their house and want foreign students to live with them.

- Ecuadorians value cleanliness and presentation. Decent clothing strongly recommended. Women do not wear shorts EVER. Except at the beach. I hate my grubby life.
- Gringo women in particular are thought to be very easy. Therefore it is crucial that they don’t show too much skin or even make too much eye-contact with an Ecuadorian man. (hah, nobody pays attention to me!)
- Gringo men are expected to drink like Ecuadorian men – until they are trashed out of their minds. Women who drink in public are looked down on.
- And for what I shall call the Theory of Responsibility: basically for Americans, responsibility for one´s actions comes from within, from yourself. For Ecuadorians, responsibility comes from the environment. Thus, if an Ecuadorian man gets extremely drunk and behaves what Westerners would call inappropriately, its ok here because he was under the influence. I feel that this theory has many applications but I have yet to discover them. Not sure I want to.
- Remnants of colonial life make Ecuadorians eager to avoid confrontation. (Happened in Namibia too.) This was proven one evening when one of our hotel owners came up to our rooms. At that time it was past 11 at night and a group of friends and I were having an extremely loud conversation. The hotel owner told other students sitting outside our room to tell us to be quiet. Then he went back to bed.
- Lastly, in terms of homestay – best to learn through observation and questions. Yay experiential learning.

Other random Quito/Ecuador observations: The sewers are really easily clogged so used toilet paper goes in the wastebasket. One Ecudaorian delicacy (that I do intend to try, don’t judge) is “cuy” aka guinea pig. Random plants and animals are related to those in Africa because they once evolved from the same ancestors millions of years ago in Gondwanaland when India, Africa and South America were joined. I´ve never been so happy to recognize an Acacia. I would have hugged it if I wasn’t in a bus. And if it didn´t have thorns.

Thursday we went to Spanish class for the first time. It wasn’t that hard, but I can´t decide whether to change classes or not cause he promised we would do subjunctive and condicional tomorrow. But I digress. Our teacher is named Luis and he is half Quichua and half mestizo and shorter than me. He laughs at his own corny jokes and my five-person class likes him a lot. We are happily learning a lot about indigenous culture as well as Quichua words. So far we learned that “Chuchakui” means ´hang-over´.
There are two other major things of interest that happened to me on Thursday. One was that we had a salsa class. I wasn’t very good at it. In fact one of the teachers kept pointing at me and laughing (not joking.)
The second and by far more awesome… was ULTIMATE!!!! Yay, can you believe it? There is a group of mostly Americans that gets together twice a week on a school field and plays ultimate Frisbee. One of my friends in the program found out about it during her stay here last semester (she did a different program then) so we went together. It was totally sweet. Except that I couldn’t run much because of the altitude.

Friday was more Spanish class and so forth.
Saturday we left Quito for the first time on our excursion to El Bosque Nublado – the Cloud Forest. In particular we went to Intag, to the north-west of Otavalo, a 5 hour or so ride by bus. From readings we learned that the cloud forest is a phenomenon that occurs at higher altitudes where precipitation can build up along the mountains and basically lots of greenery is therefore allowed. Think Namibia´s opposite. Or Swarthmore on steroids.
So Saturday morning we all pile into a bus. In otavalo we stop to ask whether we can take the short route because it is often blocked by frequent mudslides. The bus goes up and down in the mountains, curving like crazy and bumping most of the time on the dirt roads. I think the driver honks before we go around corners because the mist impedes our view forward. We stopped in the paramo area on the way – much more grassland vegetation basically and looked around for a bit. It was around this time also that I look out the window and see a few horses next to the road. I notice one lying down and stretching out its extremely long neck. Realization takes hold, I´m looking at a llama. Kind of furryish and not that big really, they come in a variety of colors.

Finally finally we arrive at a little townish area where we get out and walk another 45 minutes or so in the mud to La Florida Reserve. I decide unfortunately to follow my instincts and carry all my stuff the whole way )as opposed to piling it on the horse.) I made it but am fairly tired by that time. La Florida is a farm that specializes in sustainability. From shade-growing coffee to pineapples, lemons tree-tomatoes, white carrots etc our host Carlos, explains that he doesn’t use pesticides or any kind of chemicals and it seems that he let everything grow where it wanted to grow. In other words, there aren’t fields of crops that took over the forest or something. Deforestation is a huge problem here especially with local culture dictating that hunting and cutting down trees without any limitations is ok.
Us students get set up nicely in a few different cabin buildings and I immediately call a bed in the attic. Outdoor showers and drop-off toilets for use, we are served dinner under a roof but in the open air.
The next day is a big one. I get up at 6 am to peer upwards into the trees for an hour or so trying to see a cock-of-the-rock do a mating dance. These birds are thought to be one of the most beautiful in Ecuador and from what I can tell they are extremely red. Finally we get to a gap in the jungle and see out over a little valley. The forest is dense, muddy, wet and cloudy most of the time. Its warm and smells like earth. We can hear a waterfall in the distance and the mountains slope all around us.
More lectures, more hiking and finally homestay! Our large group is split in half so that some can go with our families today and others later. We are presented to members of a womens collective that make beautiful woven handicrafts or artesianas and sell them. They are made from leaves of the agave plant that can be stripped to make the thread. Fair-trade at its heart. The ladies presented their collective and then half of us went home to their families. I went home with Justina and her son Darwin on horseback. We rode for 40 minutes along treacherous paths until we finally reached their home at the heart of their farm. Justina and her family were really friendly and easy-going. I couldn’t understand her husband Venino that well because he mumbled a lot but all in all we got along very well. My Spanish wasn’t great but I still joked around. Besides for 11 year old Darwin, I had two other brothers living at home – 17 year old Alex and 19 year old Sylvio, whom I didn’t see as much of since he worked in the fields all day.

- The first night after much laughter about vegetarian student that they had had in the past, I struggled to finish two huge portions of potato-other-vegetable soup. Venino informed me proudly that Ecuadorians eat a lot and I was soon to find that out. They didn’t let me serve myself, they gave me juice, coffee and milk with every meal, and snacks in between. I ate just about everything because I didn’t want to offend anybody but I was pretty green by the end of a couple meals.
- It seemed that their farm had pretty much everything. We ate fried white carrots and plantains, rice with lentils, beans, juice from lemons, pineapples, mora (which I think is blackberries) and tree tomatoes, misperos (little yellow things that are apparently good for cholesterol), cheremoyas, tuna, beef and the last night chicken (full account below), sugar cane flavouring for juice, torillas, empanadas, rodillas and so forth. No guinea pig. I was almost disappointed.
- I eagerly offered to help with all farm chores: these included milking the cows, feeding los chanchos (the pigs), washing dishes, peeling numerous vegetables and so forth. I tried to learn to knit with the agave thread but I was horrible at it. Alex tried to show me but results were below satisfactory.
- After the first breakfast Sylvio and Alex took me to fetch a cow. This involved climbing a mountain and nearly falling on my face in the mud several times. Everyone wore their botas de gaucho – rubber boots – in the field and it sure helped. My feet reeked though. The view from above of the area was amazing. Nearby was a little town called Plaza Gutierrez and all around were numerous farmish-looking areas separated by forest. In the distance my new brothers pointed out a tiny whitish thing. That, they informed me, was our bus.
- I got along very well with my family. I taught Alex how to juggle, played chess with him and Darwin and also taught Darwin a few simple card games and performed silly magic tricks. I also tried to describe spitting cobras, landscapes of sand, the desert, dry riverbeds, and ostriches. Luckily I had pictures on my digital camera as proof.
- The house was pleasantly laid out, simple wood construction. The kitchen and dining room were combined, there was a TV room complete with DVD, TV and blaring sound system, as well as a few other sleeping rooms. They gave me one of the boys´rooms I think. It wasn’t that small with a large bed. It had lots of calendar pictures and others on the walls. For some reason it took me a moment to realize that I was looking at many scantly clad women. I noted that all of them were white and the completely naked ones happened to be blond. Experiential learning.
- My only homestay assignment was too interview, talk to and observe members of the family and find out about education, migration and roles of family member in the house and in the community. I found out that according to my family the youth are leaving the rural areas, the indians all live on the paramo (not in Intag), education is expensive and most people have primary school education only, there was practically no environmental education until Carlos and an NGO called DECOIN rallied the people against copper mining in the area (still a big issue), men work in the field and women work in the house but both do farm chores and everyone helped make handicrafts.

On our last day, we took a trip to Plaza Gutierrez to see Justina´s mother and daughter. Alex and Venino came along as well and we went to see the church at the top of the hill. It was pretty big and I had to explain why I didn’t believe in the Virgin. Happily a group of people all started a soccer game and one of the other students in my program who was homestaying nearby joined in as well, so we all got very very sweaty in the sun.

When we finally got home, Venino called for a chicken and then announced that he was going to slaughter it. Despite a misunderstanding involving me going to change my shoes in preparation for walking somewhere to slaughter it, I managed to convince my host family that I shouldn’t kill the chicken because I didn’t know how and might thus cause it unnecessary pain. Venino nodded and wrung its neck. I then got to watch Justina pluck feathers and clean it. It had an egg inside and we ate that too eventually. I took lots of pictures. I´ll post them if I get the chance. We then had the best chicken noodle soup for dinner that I have had in a very long time.

I might add two things. I was lucky that I managed to fall feet first when I slid in the mud off the side of a mountain path when Alex and I were bringing food to the men working in the fields. I fell six feet or so.
I was also lucky that I didn’t try to use the Spanish miscognate of to be embarrassed aka “estoy embarazada” like another student did during her homestay. She spent the next few minutes denying that she was pregnant.
Sadly it was time to leave my family. On Wednesday, we walked back to La Florida and there I enjoyed two days of botany. I learned to identify about 15 families of plants: including melastomataceae nicknamed (by me) “turtle-man” because of its turtley-patterned leaves, gesneraceae with plants that had beautiful red flowers, fabaceae eg legumes and others. We had another “drop-off” in the forest where we all went out on our own and drew pictures and wrote down questions about the forest for 3 hours. It was pretty cool. I was proud of spotting a strong billed woodcreeper and not getting lost. Actually, the paths made it easy to not get too disoriented.
At night we watched insects in our light trap and identified moths of all sizes and a scary bug with pinchers called megaloptera. Under Xavier´s instruction, I picked it up. We also set up a mistnet on Thursday morning to catch birds and measure their wings, tarsuses and weight them. We were truly lucky – we caught two hummingbirds (one a rare species) and also a cock-of-the-rock that Sylvia said she had never before caught with mistnet before. It was truly beautiful with a bulbous crested head that I got to touch and amazing eyes. Black with orange outlines. The bird was big though, and angry, and he managed to bite Sylvia several times during the taking-out-of-net-and-measuring process. She was too excited to care. I got to hold a bird myself – a slate-throated whitestart that wasn’t hazardous to my health and was fairly quiet. I could feel his heart beating at my fingers.

And our last day in Intag we did a “Minga” or collective farmwork. The whole group came back together from homestays and we finished our Field Investigation Projects. Mine involved identifying and counting all insects I could find within a square area called a quadrat.
Ok so the Minga was great. We ended up walking for a really long time to get to the site of a botanical garden. On the way we stopped to pick up tools and the door to the building was locked. Guess who got to squeeze in through the window? We finally arrive and get to help dig out big rocks and move logs to make moss beds for orchids and bromeliads. It was hard work but the guys who were showing us were very timid to make us do anything so I (and others) unfortunately felt that we didn’t achieve that much. In the process of the minga I also managed to cut my hand on that window, drop a rock on my foot and ram log into my crotch without being allowed to drop it at the time. This was all before lunch. The walk back took forever, but that was mostly because I brought my Frisbee along and we kept throwing it off the road and having to climb through barbed wire fence to get it. Luckily it wasn’t the coily irritating kind of wire that they have all over the walls in Windhoek.
Anyways, on Saturday we left for Quito and got back in time to check emails and eat before well deserved rest.