This is the Life!

It´s kind of surreal being here in this moment. I´m at home in my mind, but really so far away. As I start this blog (in a notebook) it´s 8:30 on Sunday morning. I´m sitting on the sand, surrounded by small fishing boats and listening to the waves crash in front of me. I love being at the beach again, and when the cloud cover melts away, it is more beautiful than Virginia Beach (where my parents reside). I´m soaking up my last few hours of weekend relaxation in Canoa, a toursity, but quite sleepy town 10 km outside of Rio Muchacho farm.

Rio Muchacho has proved to be an amazing experience so far. The owners, Dario and Nikola, are very dedicated and truly know about farming sustainably.

On Sunday night, I took an overnight bus ride from Quito to Bahia. I arrived in the wee hours of Monday morning and took a tricycle taxi to Guacamayo Tours. I basically camped out on the sidewalk for a few hours until the tour company opened. Throughout the morning, other volunteers filtered into Guacamayo as well. By 2 pm, when we left for Rio Muchacho, there were five of us in total. Our journey started with a boat taxi from Bahia to San Vicente. Once on the other side of the water, we found a Rio Muchacho truck and jumped on board in the back. Nikola had warned us that these trucks seem to be able to hold ridiculous amounts of people and stuff. She was right! There were 12 people (at least), water jugs, hiking backpacks, boots, and bags of fruits and veggies spilling out the sides. I never thought for a moment everything would make it to Rio Muchacho (the community). For the next hour, we revelled in the beauty of the ocean and surrounding vegetation. I wanted to pinch myself...this place is far removed from the Ecuador I´ve lived in for the past two months.

Andres and Me on our way to Rio Muchacho

Rio Muchacho (the farm) is located next to Rio Muchacho (the river). However, right now, the river looks more like a creek. The rainy season is supposed to last until the end of April, but in reality, there haven´t been strong storms since February. And yes, the crops are suffering. Just to give you a taste of what we have at the farm...the garden is filled with peanuts, turmeric, ginger, papaya, bananas, sesame seeds, pineapples, lettuce, sugar cane and peppers (the spicy kinds of course). I´m sure there are other crops, but my mind is in vacation mode right now. Not all are producing fruits right now. In fact, we just planted the lettuce this week.

The accomodations are basic but surely nice. It kind of looks like we are living in a tropical paradise...wooden houses with thatched roofs amidst palm trees and other flora. I live with three students, all of whom are studying some form of science for a semester in Ecuador. The entire farm uses composting toilettes. Kind of neat and they really don´t smell badly...at least so far. Kind of odd because on the farm the toilette paper goes in the toilette, whereas elsewhere the toilette paper has to be put in a trash can.

Compost Toilette

All the meals at Rio Muchacho are vegetarian except for eggs and the occasional tuna or sardines from a can. As much as I like vegetarian food, I haven´t had much of an appetite this week (to be explained later). As other blogs have disclosed, breakfast is the best meal. We always have fruit salad with granola and some sort of other carbohydrate...pan de yucca, polenta cakes, polenta with egg or (so I´ve heard) french toast. Lunch and dinner always consist of rice with salad and a protien (often in the form of nuts or nut paste). Soup and juice is served at lunch too. We eat out of bowls and drink from cups made from the Mate fruit. Our ¨spoons¨are made from the fruit as well.

My initial inclination is to say that Rio Muchacho will probably be my favorite volunteer experience in Ecuador (when talking about the work/education). I do, however, miss my friends from La Hesperia. I actually speak a decent amount of Spanish on the farm, which is a nice change. I´ve also started a part-time farming course, taught by Nikola. She is a wealth of information about all kinds of farming. The course runs 4 hours a day for 3 weeks.

Every week, the morning job rotates. We start the day at 6:15 am. This week I worked with 4 other volunteers to cut a high-growing form of grass (they call it pasto here), sugar cane and corn, which we then shredded for the hourses and cows. We also had to clean out the droppings and old food from the stalls. Oh, I think it should be mentioned...all the animals at Rio Muchacho are used for their excrement (in various compost systems). Baby pigs are sold in the community, but we don´t eat the animals. After breakfast, at 8:30, I take the farming course. Those not in the course, head to the garden to work in agriculture. Following lunch, the people taking the course head to agriculture jobs, while the other volunteers often work on special projects near the main house (painting, sanding, building, working at the local school).

Guinea Pig Compost System

Okay, I think that´s enough for the first week. However, there is one update from the last blog. After dealing with the ¨suicide plant¨rash for over a week, only to watch it expand to other areas of my body, I decided to see a doctor on Easter. The rash, as it turns out, was not caused by a plant but rather by some abnoxious bacteria. The doctor thinks it entered my system through a cut. I am currently on meds four times a day. The downside of the med is that it takes away my appetite. However, for the most part, the rash started to go away immediately. The only issue is that as the bacteria rash seems to be subsiding, another one (or two) are making their presence known. I´m guessing the one on my hand is some form of poison ivy, but I´m not sure about the one on my forearm and legs. I´m definitely frustrated with all this itching and much to my dismay, there really aren´t many doctor options around here.

Hasta Luego,

Becky

Randomness

Time to add a little randomness to this Blog´s life. Yesterday, I packed up again and headed to Quito. My second month in Ecuador has come to a close, which means a quick descanso (break) before heading to my last volunteer stint in Canoa. Now seems like a good time to follow up on other blog entries and post my extraneous thoughts about La Hesperia. So, here it goes...

Showers...
Last week Raul, an electrician from Spain, showed up at the steps of the volunteer house. Next thing I know, the showers switched from freezing to usually warm. My last shower was a joke...warm turned freezing, but I´d rather have that any day to the initial shock endured by jumping into what feels like a melting glacier.

Bug Bites...
I quickly realized that the bug bites were going to take over not only my waking hours but also my precious sleep. As much as I despise using Deet everyday (even after showers) and wearing long sleeves and pants (or occasionally, the all-too-stylish capris with long socks and flip flops) in warm weather, there was no choice. The bugs won this war. The weekend I went to Baños was a welcome break from itching, but the mother-load of the itching wars was still to come (see below).

The Suicide Tree...
No, that´s not the real name, but that is what many locals call the tree that silently attached my skin recently. Last Saturday while enjoying a nice meal in Santo Domingo, I noticed mini bumps forming on my arms. Over a few days, those bumps became red, and turned into what appeared to be mini water blisters. An oh my, the itching sensation that followed was intense. While the bug bites could be tamed by some Caladryl, the Caladryl only worsened this itch. Cold water, as suggested by the volunteer coordinator, did the trick for a little while, but I needed something more. Thankfully, a miracle was sent in the form of a college guy from Italy named Thomas. He happened to have a rash cream that saved my sanity the last few days. Some of the bumps are going away now, along with the itch. However, the allergic reaction continues to show up in random patches. Living life in short sleeves bearing slightly puffy, purplish-red, bumpy arms among other volunteers is one thing. Doing the same in Quito where the Suicide Tree isn´t prevalent just feels a bit odd---like I have leprosy or something.

The Initial Stage

Hike Numero Dos...
On April 3rd, we embarked on my second group hike around La Hesperia. This time, to a waterfall. The adventure began with the all too exciting trek down the main hill (hint of sarcasm there), which takes about 30 minutes. After walking along the main road for a few minutes, we ducked behind a restaurant and the next thing I knew, we were among a lush, almost jungle-like forest. Crazy how much the scenery changed in a few moments. Due to the heavy rains in March, the river was flowing rapidly and much of the path was muddy. In my opinion, that made the journey more fun. We zigzaged back and forth through the river, climbed over logs and rocks, and shimmied our way over narrow paths (grabbing onto anything sturdy to keep us from falling in the river). The waterfall pounded down, but a few brave souls decided to climb the bottom half for a quick swim. In my opinion, treking back is soaking clothes didn´t make the quick dip worth it. Returning to the volunteer house from the waterfall was a crazy experience. Two words to describe it...straight up. It was almost like rock scrambling but instead of rocks, we had mud, dirt and vines to grab onto. Exhilirating, if a bit nerve-wrecking too. All in all, three hours well spent.

Coffee...the Real Thing...
One day this week I took the mule down to deliver our milk to the milk man. On the way back up the hill, I had the chance to pick a bag of coffee beans. They are taken off the trees when the skin has turned red. The old-fashioned machine below sheds the skin for us, so the beans can be dried and then roasted.


Fenologia...
Ever heard of this word...I hadn´t. Basically what we did on Fenology days was trek to various parts of the forest to observe the growth and fruits of hardwood trees. It was fairly laid back work and interesting. Along the way, we picked up seeds and seedlings to plant in the viverio/ nursery.

Lorna, Kate and Me

Mushrooms Anyone?

El Dispensario...
Even though my first week at the clinic was a bit disappointing, something about being in the medical mindset kept drawing me back. The doctor never took me under his wing, so to speak, so Nurse Nelly was really my mentor. On any given day we only saw a handful of people at the clnic, so there is till heaps of information for me to learn. However, I took advantage of every task, even if it just meant filing papers.

I started out every day sweeping the floors and cleaning a little here and there. As patients arrived, I often took their weight, height, temperature and occasionally, blood pressure. Everything at the clinic is old-fashioned...bathroom scale, measuring tape on the wall, mercury thermometers and ancient blood pressure cuff with stethascope. Nelly would really like to get some digital thermometers and blood pressure machine, but the goverment doesn´t outfit these smaller clinics with new equipment often. I watched and assited with intermuscular injections on a regular basis. And, finally, on my last day, I observed an intraveneous injection. Other than those activities, I spent my time doing basic office work, speaking Spanish and studying from my Spanish for Medical Professionals book.

I never expected it would be hard to leave on the last day. After all, I was only at the clinic for a few weeks. However, I found myself dragging out the final morning-waiting to say goodbye at the last minute. Of course I would have learned more if I´d had the opportunity to observe a doctor at a larger clinic. But something about this basic, sterile, quiet clinic will stick with me for a long time.

Nurse Nelly and Me

Cheers to La Hesperia...
The photos I have don´t really do it justice. One thing I will truly miss about La Hesperia is the scenary. Imagine waking up every day to view miles of lushly covered mountains. Sometimes I´d sit at the bench outside my room, gazing at the clouds rolling over the landscape, thinking about how lucky I was to be in the moment surrounded by such magnificence.

I found myself comparing Santa Martha to La Hesperia quite frequently. That´s good and bad I suppose. At least it means that both places had some great qualities (and some not so perfect ones too). At La Hesperia, I felt at home instantly. The group was inclusive, fun and overall, a bit more mature. The volunteers at Santa Martha seemed more hard-core and dedicated, but I think that had a lot to do with the expectations of the volunteer coordinator. I really enjoyed the variety of activities La Hesperia had to offer. I preferred the jobs that were either relaxing throughout (like making food) or were easy-going for portions of the day with hard work mixed in. For example, when planting trees, it was hard bringing the trees into the forest. However, once the planting began, the work was a bit less toiling. Same with weeding around sapplings at higher altitudes. A hard climb at the beginning, but the actual weeding wasn´t so tough. Plus, being in the middle of the forest was great! The volunteer coordinator at Santa Martha provided us with more background information about how and why we were doing certain tasks. Plus, she gave us feedback each day about our work. That was always nice. However, the laid back attitude of the coordinator at La Hesperia meant that we didn´t have to backtrack and redo our work ever at La Hesperia. I loved the group meals at La Hesperia even though sometimes we were too tired to talk much. The meals weren´t always perfect, but overall the variety and flavors were satisfying. It was hard to keep to my ideal no-wheat diet, especially when homemade bread and pizza taunted me. However, I was good about limiting it.

Well, it´s time for me to run (or literally, take a taxi) to the bus station. I´m going to meet my friends from La Hesperia in Otavallo for an overnight trip. Saturdays in Otavallo are market days. Too bad I have no room for souveniers right now. I´ll have to return once I´ve dumped my work clothes for good in Canoa.

Hasta Luego Friends,

Becky

Highlights of the Week

This week was good. It´s easy to find simple joys out here where my life is pretty simple all around. This week I took a shower that could almost be called hot. Granted the rest of the week the showers were icy, but that one shower pleased me to pieces. Another highlight of the week was our lunch on Thursday. The past week the food was surely less than amazing. There were even two mornings were breakfast consisted of white rolls with pineapple jam (loaded with sugar of course) and oatmeal juice. Of course, I had a hidden stash of oatmeal and apples, so my hunger was covered. However, those who didn´t have extra staples were exhausted and ready for another meal by 10am. Anyway, back to lunch. The meal started off with cream of broccoli soup (tasted more like broccoli than cream)and popcorn. Then we were served corn fritters, radish and carrot salad, and a piece of meat (honestly since I don´t eat a lot of meat, I don´t know if it was beef or pork, but nonetheless, it tasted good).

The work this week was also satisfying. On Tuesday we spent the morning making food-lemongrass tea, pizza (dough and all) and chocolate.

Joe making pizza crust

Adam pressing our cocoa beans

Wednesday I walked down the hill to volunteer at the clinic for a few hours. It´s bigger and more advanced than I expected, but nothing compared to what one would expect to visit in the US. There´s a place to sign-in and wait for the doctor, a delivery room (in the off-chance that a birth should happen), a bedroom (mainly in case the staff need to stay overnight), a storage room and a patient room that doubles as the doctor´s office. The clinic has a decent number of medications, but not a wide variety. There is a sterilizer and proper disposal containers for sharps and contaminated products, which I was actually surprised to see.

Since very few patients came on Wednesday (only the nurse is there), my morning job was to clean the delivery room. I doubt it gets used often (or at least I hope not) because it was quite dusty, and there were bug remains in the windsills and in the corners. Thankfully, I was able to clean with disinfectant instead of just water (which belive it or not, is a frequent occurance in various places I´ve visited). Later in the day, I was tasked with wrapping hundreds of tongue depressors in paper (literally the intake forms for patients). Since I didn´t finish, that task became my homework as well. On Monday, the wrapped tongue depressors will be sterilized in the paper and then are ready for the doctor to use. I´m not 100% sure why we wrap them in paper, unless that just keeps them sterile when they are put in the ¨tongue depressor¨container.

The best part of the day was when a couple came in to get complete vitamin B injections. The nurse took me through the whole process-from filling the syringes to putting a band-aid on the injection site at the end. It feels great to learn about community health! The doctor is only on-site Monday and Tuesday, so I imagine the clinic will be much busier then. Can´t wait to see what next week brings.

Okay, now to the rest of the week. I helped weed the vegetable garden, planted red cabbage and beans and planted canelo trees in a really beautiful part of the forest.

The fun continued Thursday after lunch. My friend Vivian and I caught a bus to Quito. On the way, we got stopped for a while because workers were fixing a landslide. Three vehicles in front of us was a pineapple truck. A few people from the bus got out to purchase pineapples, so Vivian followed suit. The pineapple she got was one of the biggest I´ve ever seen and it only cost one dollar! Later in the bus ride, the pineapple, which Vivian had placed in the luggage area above our heads, fell out and wacked me in the arm before falling on the floor. It cracked open a little, but luckily we had a grocery bag to stop the juice from flowing everywhere. Friday morning, we had no choice but to cut open the pineapple using our Swiss army knive in the bathroom of the hostal. The bathroom was outfitted with a genuine tile flat surface near the shower (presumably for putting clothes), but we made it our cutting area (with a towel and plastic bag under the pineapple of course). It was kind of an adventure, but was worth every minute. We ate the entire pineapple that day.

Friday after breakfast and the pineapple fun, it was finally time to get my package. The package was a birthday gift from my mom, filled with goodies-two books, a flashlight (which will come in handy, actually), walnuts, fruit leather and lots of granola bars/cliff bars. Since it weighed over 5kg, I had to go to the post in Quito to get it. That was actually a strange experience too. Here´s a play by play. Went to front desk and paid $1.50 for processing/holding purposes, went down the street to make copy of passport for the post, went to the holding area of the post with a woman so she could open the box and see the contents, went to woman´s desk so she could type up what she saw for customs purposes, went to bank window in the post to pay a minimal customs fee, went back to store to make copy of receipt from bank for customs, went back to customs area, handed over copy of receipt, took a load of papers to another window in the post, signed form saying I received my package, went to back of post office again to finally receive my package. Yipee!

After that ordeal, Vivian and I caught a bus to Baños. Lots of relaxing, hiking, good food, and biking. Still haven´t gone to one of the famous mineral baths, but oh well. Vivian even bungy jumped from a bridge yesterday morning at a stop on our bike ride. It would have been a cool experience, but we didn´t bring enough money for the two of us to go, and she was itching for the chance. We have three other friends here from La Hesperia, so we meet up with them for dinner and drinks in the evenings. As much as I like working, playing is better. Makes me look forward to the month that I have to travel at the end of the trip.

Vivian and me on the bike adventure

A taste of the scenary in Baños

Don´t you wish you could wear one of these cool helmets?

Well, that´s more than enough for this week.

Cheers-
Becky

The Fun Continues

Okay, well I only have 15 minutes to write this update, and I´m using a keyboard that has no place to rest my hands...all kind of difficult.

My time at La Hesperia is going well. Work is not as challenging as at Santa Martha overall, but is rewarding nonetheless. Here are some of the activities I did this week: cleared a field covered in fallen trees to make an area for planting corn, pressed sugar cane to make cane juice, cleared weeds around sapplings in the forest, cleared weeds around the banana trees in the garden and made bread.



Every other friday we take a hike in La Hesperia reserve. Yesterday the hike was supposed to last five hours, but it actually took us about eight with a short lunch break. The first two hours we hiked up hill to the highest point in the reserve (2040 meters). Then we veered off to an area that looked and felt more like rainforest---lots of mud, decaying trees and vines. At one point, we stopped at a huge tree that has really strong vines hanging from it. I actually climbed the vines like a rope, but some people tied the vines in a knot and made a swing. Really fun. After lunch, we ¨hiked¨down for about two hours. When I say ¨hiked¨I really mean slid down most of the way. There were a lot of sound effects going on as people fell, nearly fell, quickly grabbed the nearest tree to find stability etc. Mud everywhere and the route down was quite steep. Finally, we turned to a drier forest with shorter trees and lots of grasses. This part was overgrown, so I imagine it doesn´t get used as often. We crossed a river and then (much to my dismay) we hiked back up for about 30 minutes just to go down all over again. I was exhausted and kind of bitter by the time we arrived back at the volunteer house. However, after showering and eating a huge dinner, I was very relaxed and calm. A good bout of exercise will do that to you, I guess.



Going back in time a bit, Thursday was my birthday. It´s so strange to have a birthday away from home because it kind of feels like any other day in life. However, my friend Vivian made it special. She gave me some earrings that were made a her former job (a glassblowing store) and wrote Happy Birthday on our big dry erase board. Everyone wished me a Happy Birthday too. The rain, which had been going on all night, stopped for our morning work (which seemed like a great gift). In the afternoon, when people normally make bread, they made me a citrus cake instead. And, possibly the best gift was that of warm water for my shower. Oh, I was actually able to connect to the Internet at La Hesperia too, which was a first. Thanks to everyone who wrote me birthday wishes. All in all, it was a great day!




Next weekend I hope to travel to a big town, which should mean more online time with a better connection.

Cheers!

Becky

Itching My Way Through the Day

I´ve arrived at La Hesperia! Just two days into my adventures here, and the bugs have already taken a liking to me. Aren´t I lucky. We not only have mosquitos to suck our blood, there are black flies too. Yesterday I weeded the peanut garden and came back with numerous bites. They didn´t itch at first, but towards the evening, everything fell apart. I woke up around midnight itchy so badly that I thought about taking an ice cold shower. Instead (too lazy to get up really), I wrapped my ankles tightly in a blanket to try to stop the itch. The pressure did help a bit, but I still woke about every hour itching like mad. Not even itch creme or lotion seems to curb the torture. Today I´m in Santo Domingo de los Colorados with another volunteer. I hope we can find a pharmacy that might offer some wonder creme to keep me sane. Oh yes, I should mention that I used bug spray with deet. The mosquitos seemed detered for the most part, but the black flies are fiesty little buggers, and could really care less if the ingest the poison.

Aside from the bugs, La Hesperia is proving to be a lovely location. The volunteer house is surrounded by cloud forest. One of the trees next to our balcony constantly has little green tucans in it. I´ve also heard that capuchin monkeys can often be seen. The reserve has lots of farm animals, vegetables and even raises tilapia (so I´m told). I´m having an orientation on Monday, but so far, no one can tell me about a clinic. Thus, that dream of getting experience before graduate school may be shot down. Despite that possible disappointment, I think the work will be diverse and fun...weeding, making chocolate, baking bread, working with the animals, and resforestation are just some of the tasks.

Volunteer house

Right now there are eight volunteers. We live in one large house that has numerous rooms. My room holds up to five people. I´m in the loft with another girl. We also have a resident bat, which I´ve only heard thus far. Not an ideal roommate, but it does keep the mosquitos down. We sleep under mosquito nets, so I´m not too concerned with the bat (at least for now). The biggest lifestyle change is the lack of hot water for showers. The best way to work up to a cold shower is take a walk in the hot sun or work for a while and then jump into the shower before cooling down. Otherwise, it´s pretty unbearable. We also have to wash our clothes by hand, but that hasn´t proven to be a pain yet.

Our version of a washing machine. Hard-working hands required!

The weather at La Hesperia is warmer than at Santa Martha, and we are over 1000 meters lower (so that makes sense). It still rains most afternoons or evenings, however.

If anyone has simple ideas for either detering bugs or stopping the itch, please comment. I´m going to try apple cider vinegar tonight (Earthclinic says it can help), though I certainly don´t have enough for the whole trip.

Becky

A Little Vacation from My Vacation

My trip to Mindo, part of Ecuador´s cloud forest region, lasted from Sunday to Tuesday. I expected Mindo to be a hot tourist spot, so imagine my surprise when my bus left the station with less than 10 people on board and only picked up a few more Ecuadorians on the way. The trip took roughly 2 hours 45 minutes and that was with a 30 minute stop for a road closure. Not too shabby.

Mindo is small. One main road and one main square with lots of mini roads trailing off the sides. Here´s what you´ll find in Mindo...convenience stores, travel adeventure agencies, restaurants, Internet cafes and hostals. The evidence shows that Mindo is obviously a tourist destination, so where was everyone? On my last night in Mindo, I finally found out. At some point in the not too distant past, part of the road to Mindo collapsed. I saw a photo-not a pretty sight, but thankfully no one was on the road when the accident occured. There is also a mountain near Mindo that recently threatened "landslide". The authorities decided to create a controlled landslide instead of risking future issues. Unfortunately, the authorities didn´t realize the destruction the landslide would cause. Basically huge boulders everywhere. If all that wasn´t enough to keep away tourists, Ecuadorian and international alike, there was more. At least one newspaper noted the road to Mindo would be closed on Carnival weekend (which it wasn´t). Then there was an accident with a school group. For a number of days, Mindo was under a state of emergency. Needless to say, people have recently been detered from visiting Mindo. Funny thing is that I had no clue. The economy is really hurting because Mindo relies on tourism. Hope the tide will change soon.

Okay, now for my adventures. Sunday, was a bit of social shock. After living and working with a large group of people for a month, sitting in a hostal alone was a bit depressing. As much as I wanted to relax, it was just too quiet. I took a nap, ate lunch, walked around town, did Soduko, read and just about pulled my hair out (no not really).

Monday I got up early for a long walk/hike. The national park is either a $10 cab ride or a 2 hour walk. Guess which I opted for? The walk up was actually nice. I saw a blue morpho butterfly, a few birds and catepillars. The mosquitos found me too, unfortunately. I´m still itching. To get into the park, I took a cable car across the cloud forest (see photo). There are numerous waterfalls to see, but I went for the gusto-1 hour hike to the tallest one through primary cloud forest (meaning the forest has never been cut down). The forest was so lush and beautiful, but I found myself feeling bitter because every few minutes I´d run into a spider web. Now, if I had been smart I would have waved a stick in front of me the whole way, but that´s above my instincts I suppose. About 20 minutes into the hike, I encountered a small waterfall that didn´t have an obvious dry way to go around or over it. So, I walked through it. Grrr...nothing better than wet sneakers (hint of sarcasm there). I trudged on. There were more creeks and waterfalls but the rest had easy access over or around.

The view of the waterfall was actually anticlimactic. Though the top is indeed high, the tress and other foliage make it impossible to see the top. I guess the beauty of primary forests is that they´ve never been cut, but then they also lack the views. There is a staircase leading part-way up the side of the waterfall, which provided some advantage for viewing. However, it was kind of nerve-wracking to climb because the water just pelted down next me. Did I mention that I never saw another person during my entire hike...guess the spiders were out to get me because they didn´t have anyone else to pick on that day. The walk back was much more enjoyable. I even saw a snake slither away from me.

Looking down from top of the stairs

Monday night, I returned to my new favorite restaurant for dinner. I say my favorite for three reasons: it serves soy milk (which you never see in Ecuador), has amazing sweet plantains and one of the owners was a Peace Corps volunteer in 1987. She helped me find the way to the national park and was just a great person to chat with too. The restaurant is called Caskaffesu (http://www.caskaffesu.com/). Supposedly serves amazing brownies, but trying not to eat wheat, I refrained. Anyway, that night a couple from Canada invited me to join them for dinner. We had wonderful conversations, most of which involved travelling. They were in Mindo to do some birding and are now on an 8-day trip around the Galapagos.

Tuesday morning I took another walk to the butterfly garden. The garden sits about 3 km from Mindo amidst a beautiful scene of banana trees, wooden cabins, flowers and water. It´s not huge, but has (if I venture to guess) about 20 varieties of butterflies. Following my morning adventure, I packed up, ate one last bowl of vegetarian chili at Caskaffesu and hit the road back to Quito.

My D.C. mentality hasn´t left just yet. I´m all about the walking. This morning, I walked 30 minutes to Parque Carolina to visit the botanical gardens. I imagined the gardens would be small and run-down, but I actually think it´s a place my mom would enjoy (being a gardener, that says a lot). It has orchids, cacti, herbs, traditional Ecuadorian crops and a variety of other flowers and trees. In the afternoon I continued my walk to Jatun Sacha´s office for a brief orientation. I planned to taxi back but when I handed over my volunteer fee to Jatun Sacha and realized I only had $5 left, I decided to walk back to my hostal instead. A brief stop to change into jeans and then more walking. This time to buy rubber boots and to find the bus station. I can´t tell you how nice it feels to sit. Oh by the way, I wore flip flops all day too. My shoes, which I asked the lavanaderia to dry for me (remember the waterfall encounter?), now feel very snug.


The air in Mindo was so fresh and clean, but by walking all over the city today, I surely inhaled enough pollution to make my lungs filthy again. I could smell the diesel exhaust just flowing through the air. Maybe I should blow my nose to see the evidence...or maybe you didn´t want to hear that.

Tomorrow morning I head off to La Hesperia reserve. I´ll be there for a month doing something productive. I actually don´t know the details because I supposedly get to decide when I arrive. Unfortunately, because the reserve is about an hour from the nearest town, I won´t have Internet or phone access except on the weekends. The blog updates will be less frequent for the time being, but know that I´m thinking of you all often.

Cheers!

Becky

A Month, Really?

Okay, in all honesty it took me about two weeks to feel at home at Santa Martha Animal Rescue Center. However, the last two weeks went by all too quickly. Yesterday morning I waved goodbye to Santa Martha and headed back to Quito with the rest of the volunteers. I don´t feel like there was much closure before my departure. I volunteered to clean the house in the morning, so I could finish packing as well. That meant no last minute animal encounters, which, thinking back, is kind of sad. The beauty of being in Ecuador for four months is that I can always return for a day-trip.

I´m going to dedicate this entry to my thoughts about and photos of Santa Martha. It will be sort of geared towards future volunteers. The hardest part about volunteering at Santa Martha was the fact that it took a while for me to fit-in with the group. Volunteers are always coming and going. Sometimes cliques form between people, especially when they are from the same country. Totally understandable-everyone wants to find a piece of home away from home. After two weeks, when some volunteers had gone and new volunteers had arrived, the dynamics changed a lot for the better. Don´t get me wrong, people were never intentionally mean. I had to carve out my niche, that´s all.

Baby Kestral

The work at Santa Martha is demanding, especially during the first week when you are inundated with numerous tasks and struggling with the lack of air due to a high altitude. If you go with the mindset that you want to get into shape, the transition from city life to Santa Martha will be easier. The hills are numerous, and you often carry water, chickens, food, or building materials when walking them. During the rainy season (now), the sky lets lose almost every afternoon. There are no raindates for cleaning and feeding because the animals must have their basic needs met. Rain gear is a necessity. The rain might wash away some of the animal poo (good thing), but it makes food soggy and pathways muddy (bad things).

Our ferocious Jaguar, Brenda (she´s actually yawning here, not showing her anger)

My favorite type of job was rehabing animal enclosures. It required creativity, machetes, heavy lifting, hammering and cutting grass. At first, I balked at cutting grass by hand. However, I came to find it quite relaxing. During my time at Santa Martha I was able to upgrade the rabbit, porcupine and bear enclosures. Due to a recent influx of animals from Guayabamba Zoo, I also helped build a new enclosure for our capuchin monkeys.

Just finished one side of the capuchin monkey enclosure!

One of our new capuchin monkeys (Bonnie or Clyde??)

My least favorite jobs included disinfecting the squirrel monkey enclosure to make room for squirrels (I know the fact that we received squirrels as exotic animals sounds weird, but they aren´t like US squirrels-much cuter!) and taking long-expired chickens to the chicken pit.

Squirrel monkeys searching my pockets.

The volunteer houses are basic, but they definitely fit everyone´s truest needs-bunkbeds, oven (two houses), stove, dishes, dvd-tv (two houses), table, chairs and shelving for clothes etc. The best ammenity is the hot water for showers. After a long, tiring and sometimes chilly day, a hot shower feels like a million bucks. There is also a shared filtered tap for water, which we all took for granted. Plans are in the works to extend the third house, which will be nice.

Leo, one of Santa Martha´s pumas

Dalma, the coordinator of the project in Tambillo, is surely passionate about the animals and dedicated to her job. She is a friend to the volunteers but has a level of superiority too. Dalma always has a long to-do list and is constantly balancing her time between tasks, but she is consistently available for the volunteers and works alongside them when time permits.

Meal time!

I guess I´ll close this entry with a few thoughts about what to bring, just in case a future volunteer reads this. Before arriving, go to a corner store or grocery and get some food. You may move in with other people who can spot you food for a day, or you may not. I moved into an empty house and had to eat plain lentils and rice the first night (thankfully left by previous volunteers). The houses have sheets, blankets and towels to some extent, but I was glad to have my own sleeping bag and travel towel. Working gloves are a must, and it´s also helpful to have a pair of rubber gloves when working with water (you can buy them in Tambillo). Santa Martha has plenty of rubber boots at the moment, so you can probably find a pair to suit you. That´s what I did; much easier than toting boots from oversees. If the sun is out and the wind is blowing, washed clothes can dry in a day. If the rains are bad, it may take three days for clothes to dry completely. Bring clothes that you don´t mind getting stained and sweaty. It´s helpful to have clothes that dry quickly as well-thin shirts and a pair of quick dry pants are perfect.

Well, that´s all for now. I´m taking a break in Mindo right now. It seems to be a very lazy town in the cloud forest region. Surprisingly enough, the Internet here is the fastest I´ve found for uploading photos.

Hasta Luego,

Becky