My last couple of nights in Quito, Ecuador, were eventful... getting back to what they call “civilisation” was borderline traumatic. Seeing everyone in make-up and normal clothes all but disturbed me; why do people suddenly have personality transplants just because we are away from the jungle? I’m the same there as I always am, but some people are obviously a bit more Jeckyl and Hyde than I am... there were people getting stupidly drunk (thus proving that the unnecessarily condescending rules on alcohol at Yachana were in fact justified, as some idiotic teenagers are incapable of knowing when to stop – twats), other people were busy snorting coke and nearly getting arrested (Central America is not a nice place to be imprisoned, I imagine). And we were sat there in a bar, with drunken men hollering a football song at a widescreen match, loud rap music blaring from the place next door, tourists shouting in English at bar staff, and I was looking at the menu over overpriced junk food, holding my head in my hands, wishing myself away from the place. If a black hole could have gulped me up and away from that place, that would have been wonderful. Thankfully, we exited left and went to a sushi restaurant, and the night got better (although (call me racist, why not) it was weird to see Japanese people speaking Spanish). Still, all the worst things about that night continue to be all the worst things about “civilisation”.
I have often said that going abroad is like going to Narnia: you feel you have spent a lifetime away, but when you return, it is as if no time has passed. And once you are back into the mundanity of everyday life, your time away seems to condense as though it didn’t really last that long after all; in fact, it was almost as if it never happened – like it was a dream or something you imagined. It seems a world away.
* * *
I have been back in England for 8 days now, and I am readjusting to life in the slow lane. You probably don’t care about the minutia of my life... I know I didn’t much care for the minutia of other people’s lives while I was away in the exciting world of the jungle. People’s status updates on Facebook were things like “... is feeling a bit rough” or “... is having a cappuccino with marshmallows” and I remember thinking who gives a shit? It’s pointless, it means nothing, it is of no consequence whatsoever, so don’t tell me about it; I don’t care. People’s lives are dreadfully boring if that is the most interesting thing that is happening to them.
And now I am in that very same situation myself, so I won’t bore you details of what i've done since i got back.
Things in England are WEIRD. Television is pointless: it’s just people pretending, for the most part. People saying things that aren’t true... what is the point of that? Why would anyone want to watch that? And the news – well, it’s just more of the same as always. Murders; cold weather; I don’t think anyone would notice if they just replayed last year’s news again this year. TV is something I did not miss one little bit while I was away, but in spite of that, and in spite of what I've just said about the shitty futility of it, I have watched it every day since my return. Why? Boredom. There is nothing to DO here. Seriously, what do people DO all day? I can’t understand it any more... what did I used to do? What do other people DO with their time? Life in England seems dull. But in my time away, I was with 25 people all the time, and had activities to do each day, and indeed most evenings. Given the choice, I’d far rather spend my evenings like I used to, playing cards with friends (Yanif is way better than Shithead ever was, even though I don’t get to say “skippy-skip!”), lying in a hammock and reading, or just sitting around and talking and having fun (designated or otherwise). But it seems that that is not happening here. I have friends, sure, but I don’t get to see them every day like I did in the jungle, and it consequently feels lonely here.
I find that I've forgotten a lot of what I used to do, and my life before my trip (I guess that's the Narnia Factor); so, I’m being really absent-minded. For example, I noticed a new Tesco Metro had opened up, and I thought how that would be convenient for me... then a minute or so later I realised it wasn’t that convenient, because I don’t live on the road I was thinking I lived on any more; I moved house 2 years ago! ... And things in my house aren’t where I’d expect to find them. I thought Rich might have taken my back door keys, till he reminded me that they are where I always kept them, next to the sugar – I’d forgotten where I kept them. I've done the same with several other things. And I was in Tesco (the one NEAR to where i live!), looking at the hotpots and shepherds pies, then I realised they had meat in them and I needed to go to the vegetarian section! Jesus, it’s like I've got special needs or something! I need a Care Worker to come and help me in every aspect of my life. I was only away for six months, but it’s like I've forgotten how to function in this world.
I feel like I just don’t understand UK life any more. I feel lost. Nothing makes sense. It’s like coming out of prison or something. When your life has been so controlled, and so different, and with a totally different group of people, where food was provided, and it was hard work, but rewarding, and now all of a sudden, I’m on my own, cooking for one, no work to do (yet), so no reward, and everything feels a bit pointless. And some things have changed that I didn’t want to change... I suppose you can’t walk out of your life, then walk back into it six months later and act as if everything’s the same, can you? I think I wanted to have my cake and eat it; to leave and have an adventure, and then come back to my life as if nothing has happened, but evidently that is not to be.
Need I point out that the weather here in England is very cold? It’s fucking freezing: the coldest I can ever remember being, and I don’t think it’s just because I've come back from the equator... it’s about -5’C during the day time here at the moment, and about -10’C at night. That’s not just cold, that’s painfully, unspeakably cold. I’m sleeping in fleecy pyjamas, body-warmer, dressing gown, in a sleeping bag, under a 15 tog duvet, in a room with heating on. Hell, I have even worn a woollen hat two nights! I just can’t seem to get warm. I much preferred sleeping in 25’C, without a shadow of a doubt.
Just to lower the tone, I thought I’d let you know that when I got back to England, putting toilet paper in the toilet seemed weird at first (it’s been anathema, taboo, and borderline criminal for six months, the sewage systems in Central America being unable to cope with it) but I am now used to putting toilet paper in the toilet again. Phew! Neighbours might have thought I was weird if I was in the garden burning shitty toilet paper in Nottingham, England.
However, in its defence, England is beautiful. The hills are sweeping, the trees barren, and the skies the palest of grey, but with everything dusted under frosty white, even the ugliest council estate can look like a Christmas card scene, and the countryside is incredibly beautiful. And while your eyes are watering from the cold, you can almost believe that you are crying at the beauty of it all! In that sense, England is like inside the wardrobe of Narnia, and I am Lucy amazed by the elegance of the snow on every little twig of every tree. You don't get that in the rainforest.
So...
My time away was amazing... I have had marine turtles laying eggs into my hand; I have seen monkeys swinging through the trees; I have seen deadly venomous snakes; I have seen (and heard) the most beautiful birds – parrots, toucans, and a whole host of others... and it was wonderful. The people I met and the things I did went together to make a more wonderful experience than most people can ever hope to experience, and it’s still going on out there, with other people, while I am here typing this in my living room, with the TV droning on in the background, advertising stuff I don’t need in between programmes I don’t care about. It’s good spending time with family and friends, but beyond that, I don’t know whether I really want to be here. We shall see. :-/
Tuesday, 21 December 2010
Thursday, 9 December 2010
Top Tens
TOP 10 FAVOURITE MOMENTS
1. The Fun Day at the school in Puerto Rico, where we threw wellies, had a tug of war, a multi legged race, water balloons, and a slip 'n' slide - Brilliant!
2. Seeing the parrots at the clay lick in Yasuni - it was incredible
3. Seeing the monkeys at Hector's island
4. Going to Baños and abseiling down the waterfalls with Cat, Kristen and Phil
5. The Superheroes night, and doing stupid challenges and forfeits!
6. Going to the waterhole with Max, Phil and Grant, and having running races and falling over in the sand
7. Seeing the rainbow boa under the staff cabin
8. The Cultural Exchange day, where Cristain's community came over and did a dance for us and i cooked up a banquest for 35 people
9. Going to the waterfall with Max, Bells and Jas and getting covered in clay
10. When Olly said there was a snake in the stream, and me and Max rfeaked out and ran out!
TOP 10 FAVOURITE ANIMALS I'VE SEEN
1. Orange-cheeked parrots
2. Other parrots
3. Rainbow boa
4. Toucans / araçaris
5. Other snakes, including the anaconda (even though it was dead)
6. Woolly monkeys
7. Saki monkeys
8. Agoutis
9. Blunt-headed treesnakes
10. Frogs (various)
TOP 10 FAVOURITE BIRD CALLS (yes I am that sad!)
1. Green oropendola (R2D2 on speed)
2. Russet-backed oropendola (trill-plop)
3. Great potoo (serial killer roar)
4. Bright-rumped attila (orgasm bird)
5. White-throated toucan (incessant yapping that reminded me of my dog barney)
6. Yellow-rumped cacique (R2D2 being conversational)
7. Southern nightingale-wren (mournful scales)
8. Plumbeous pigeon ("suck my balls")
9. Screaming piha (wolf whistler of the tropics)
10. Undulated tinamou (a bit boring but we heard it every day!)
TOP 10 THINGS I LOVED AND WILL MISS
1. Having good friends to hang out with all the time and never feeling lonely
2. Going on trips to places like Hector's and Yasuni
3. Seeing cool animals like parrots, monkeys and snakes
4. Designated Fun Time
5. Doing sound scientific research
6. Playing Yanif / Yaneesh / Ganeshe / Ganic / Garlic...
7. Spanglishing
8. Hammock time
9. Point counts
10. Mist netting - a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush
TOP 10 THINGS I HATED AND WON'T MISS
1. Getting bitten by sand flies, bullet ants, other ants, wasps, sweat bees, proboscis flies, ticks, and mosquitoes; feeling itchy from bites
2. Feeling patronised, e.g. being told every day to be careful on the road and watch out for cars!
3. Annoying people being annoying, e.g. singing Disney Songs
4. Walking really fast and feeling knackered
5. Freezing cold showers
6. Porridge being the only breakfast option
7. Eating beans twice a day, every day
8. Having rat(s) living in our room, and I saw it crawling along my bed while I was in it
9. Falling over on crazy terrain
10. Sweating madly on surveys so I had permanent drips from my eyelashes, nose and chin
TOP 10 THINGS I'M NOT LOOKING FORWARD TO ABOUT ENGLAND
1. Being alone - I haven`t been alone in 6 months
2. Cold weather - I hear it's below 25'C there - brrrrrrrr!!!
3. Christmas shopping in towns heaving with people
4. Being away from nature, animals, and beautiful jungle
5. Going back to work and having to do the things other than teaching like writing reports, parents evenings, admin, progress tutoring, marking... I better not give too much of a list because I'll be back there soon!
6. Forgetting all the stuff I've learnt, like Spanish, survey techniques, and being able to identify loads of species of animal
7. Annoying, ignorant people, like chavs
8. Traffic, rush hour, grim concrete cities where forest was hacked down and paved over a long, long time ago
9. People commenting that I don´t have a tan, as if that is the most important thing in the world, and the only reason to leave England
10. Boredom, and staring at crap TV programmes because there is nothing else to do
TOP 10 THINGS I'M LOOKING FORWARD TO ABOUT ENGLAND
1. Seeing family and friends, especially my nephews Lewis and Joseph, who are too young for me to have been able to keep in touch with
2. Seeing Barney - hope he remembers me and doesn´t bite me!
3. Re-telling everyone stories I´ve already emailed them about, and re-showing them photos they've already seen on Facebook!
4. Eating Cadbury's chocolate, veggie burgers, and junk food
5. Christmas with my family
6. Electricity, including lights!
7. Having warm showers
8. Not having rats living in my bedroom
9. The Great British countryside, with beautiful snowy hills
10. Being able to drink alcohol whenever I want, go out whenever I want, to wherever I want, with whoever I want, whyever I want. (Whyever whould be a word!)
So there you go!
1. The Fun Day at the school in Puerto Rico, where we threw wellies, had a tug of war, a multi legged race, water balloons, and a slip 'n' slide - Brilliant!
2. Seeing the parrots at the clay lick in Yasuni - it was incredible
3. Seeing the monkeys at Hector's island
4. Going to Baños and abseiling down the waterfalls with Cat, Kristen and Phil
5. The Superheroes night, and doing stupid challenges and forfeits!
6. Going to the waterhole with Max, Phil and Grant, and having running races and falling over in the sand
7. Seeing the rainbow boa under the staff cabin
8. The Cultural Exchange day, where Cristain's community came over and did a dance for us and i cooked up a banquest for 35 people
9. Going to the waterfall with Max, Bells and Jas and getting covered in clay
10. When Olly said there was a snake in the stream, and me and Max rfeaked out and ran out!
TOP 10 FAVOURITE ANIMALS I'VE SEEN
1. Orange-cheeked parrots
2. Other parrots
3. Rainbow boa
4. Toucans / araçaris
5. Other snakes, including the anaconda (even though it was dead)
6. Woolly monkeys
7. Saki monkeys
8. Agoutis
9. Blunt-headed treesnakes
10. Frogs (various)
TOP 10 FAVOURITE BIRD CALLS (yes I am that sad!)
1. Green oropendola (R2D2 on speed)
2. Russet-backed oropendola (trill-plop)
3. Great potoo (serial killer roar)
4. Bright-rumped attila (orgasm bird)
5. White-throated toucan (incessant yapping that reminded me of my dog barney)
6. Yellow-rumped cacique (R2D2 being conversational)
7. Southern nightingale-wren (mournful scales)
8. Plumbeous pigeon ("suck my balls")
9. Screaming piha (wolf whistler of the tropics)
10. Undulated tinamou (a bit boring but we heard it every day!)
TOP 10 THINGS I LOVED AND WILL MISS
1. Having good friends to hang out with all the time and never feeling lonely
2. Going on trips to places like Hector's and Yasuni
3. Seeing cool animals like parrots, monkeys and snakes
4. Designated Fun Time
5. Doing sound scientific research
6. Playing Yanif / Yaneesh / Ganeshe / Ganic / Garlic...
7. Spanglishing
8. Hammock time
9. Point counts
10. Mist netting - a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush
TOP 10 THINGS I HATED AND WON'T MISS
1. Getting bitten by sand flies, bullet ants, other ants, wasps, sweat bees, proboscis flies, ticks, and mosquitoes; feeling itchy from bites
2. Feeling patronised, e.g. being told every day to be careful on the road and watch out for cars!
3. Annoying people being annoying, e.g. singing Disney Songs
4. Walking really fast and feeling knackered
5. Freezing cold showers
6. Porridge being the only breakfast option
7. Eating beans twice a day, every day
8. Having rat(s) living in our room, and I saw it crawling along my bed while I was in it
9. Falling over on crazy terrain
10. Sweating madly on surveys so I had permanent drips from my eyelashes, nose and chin
TOP 10 THINGS I'M NOT LOOKING FORWARD TO ABOUT ENGLAND
1. Being alone - I haven`t been alone in 6 months
2. Cold weather - I hear it's below 25'C there - brrrrrrrr!!!
3. Christmas shopping in towns heaving with people
4. Being away from nature, animals, and beautiful jungle
5. Going back to work and having to do the things other than teaching like writing reports, parents evenings, admin, progress tutoring, marking... I better not give too much of a list because I'll be back there soon!
6. Forgetting all the stuff I've learnt, like Spanish, survey techniques, and being able to identify loads of species of animal
7. Annoying, ignorant people, like chavs
8. Traffic, rush hour, grim concrete cities where forest was hacked down and paved over a long, long time ago
9. People commenting that I don´t have a tan, as if that is the most important thing in the world, and the only reason to leave England
10. Boredom, and staring at crap TV programmes because there is nothing else to do
TOP 10 THINGS I'M LOOKING FORWARD TO ABOUT ENGLAND
1. Seeing family and friends, especially my nephews Lewis and Joseph, who are too young for me to have been able to keep in touch with
2. Seeing Barney - hope he remembers me and doesn´t bite me!
3. Re-telling everyone stories I´ve already emailed them about, and re-showing them photos they've already seen on Facebook!
4. Eating Cadbury's chocolate, veggie burgers, and junk food
5. Christmas with my family
6. Electricity, including lights!
7. Having warm showers
8. Not having rats living in my bedroom
9. The Great British countryside, with beautiful snowy hills
10. Being able to drink alcohol whenever I want, go out whenever I want, to wherever I want, with whoever I want, whyever I want. (Whyever whould be a word!)
So there you go!
Nearing the end
Well i am now in Tena, and have thus left the jungle for good, and I am feeling rather sad. I have had a brilliant time here and will really miss it, when I´m sat at home on my own in my house, or when I´m stuck in a traffic jam in a concrete city, or when I´m fretting about writing reports and meeting deadlines and whether people will pass their exams.... it seems a world away, but it will all be real soon enough.
In this last week, there haven´t been any surveys; we just went on walks and had fun, chilled out, and tidied up the camp.
One thing that was really good was the Fun Day (ok, a Fun 2 Hours) which me, Lucy, Tim and Steve (and Jas) organised for the kids at the school we teach at in Puerto Rico (no, not the country, it´s a nearby village!) We organised and planned the games, then nearly all of the volunteers (12 of us) and 3 staff went down to the school, and we had a couple of hours of brilliant fun. we divided into 4 teams, each team having different coloured headbands made of coloured plastic flagging tape, and each team had 3 volunteers and about 5 kids (aged 4 to 10 ish) in it ... then for the events. the first event was the tug of war, when the entire team took hold of the rope and tried to pull it past the welly marker. it was great fun, and all the teams played against each other; my team came third but we dished out high fives nonetheless :D. Then was the welly throwing; we threw a welly, then the next team member had to pick it up from where it lay, and throw it, till everyone had had a go. We had the mischieviously overzealous Sebastian on our team though, and he grabbed it and threw it about 3 times when he wasn´t supposed to, so the scoring was probably way off! never mind. Then we made a big circle and threw water balloons between ourselves at ever-increasing distances till they´d all popped - that was fun! The multi-legged race was next where the entire team tied their legs to one another in a line, and then attempted to race another team to the finish line... we were thwarted by mud and had people falling all over the place, which was really funny. The last thing was the most fun (but not a competition) where we got a load of plastic sheeting about 6 metres long, covered in in shampoo and water, and then took turns running up to it, throwing ourselves onto our fronts, and skidding the entire distance along it - the kids loved it (and so did we!) and only about 3 of them wanted to play football instead - you know you´re onto a winner when they choose it over football! it was really good, and finished up in a big pile-up of everyone - adults and kids - throwing ourselves down it and rolling around! it was great fun, and a brilliant way to finish our time here. Unfortunately for the kids (and the teachers!) they had to carry on with normal lessons in the afternoon, despite their school uniform being drenched and soapy, and them being hyper! So the kids loved Fun Day, but the teachers maybe did not!
Other fun stuff we did this week was to go on a stream walk, where we waded in up to our waists, and kiwi Lucy was on top form, spotting snake after snake, and frog after frog... cool! we saw one that was little but venomous, and two others that were non-venomous, and while Maxine and I were in the water up to our knee level, Olly went "Snake!" and we said where, and he pointed in the water at our wellies, and we saw it there and freaked out and ran for the land in a 3-second mad panic, which was really funny. Olly said it´s a bad idea to splash around like that as they are attracted to the splashing, but sod that, a snake in the same water that i´m in is the stuff of nightmares for me (and Max!) and we panicked and ran for it - ha ha!
I also went on a walk down to the Waterfall (cascada) with Jas, Bells and Max, and we covered ourselves in clay,and they pretended to be cave people. The following day, I went to the waterhole, with Max, Phil and Grant. The waterfall is small, with cool water that is crystal clear, and it´s really beautiful. The waterhole is much bigger (it flows into the Rio Napo itself) and the water is warmer, but filthy brown in colour (from silt), and you can feel all the gooey muddy sandy silt underfoot. The four of us had running races, running along in the shallows, where the ground is so uneven that you fall over all the time... we also floated / walked / swam over to where it flows into the Napo, and you could feel the water get colder and the current get stronger. It´s really beutiful there, with massive trees and forest vines hanging down into the water, and caciques and oropendolas making noises you didn´t think it was possible for birds to make, and a few parrots flying overhead maybe - not close enough so you can see what species, but their noisy squawking and inelegant flight gives them away. It was a really good time, and something I´ll remember about the beauty of the place.
What else? umm... we spent ages tidying up and cleaning the camp. That was not fun though. Nor was packing. I've ditched as much stuff as i can - crappy Primark Tshirts i bought for this purpose, disposable clothes that are battered from six months of wear, or things that are useful in the jungle but probabaly not elsewhere... but a few of the interns wanted more stuff, as they are staying on for anoher 3 months - Nicki took a Tshirt and some socks; Ella took some bug spray, the staff took some string, hand sanitiser gel, and plant ties, and Phil (yes, he is a guy!) took my luminous pink crocs... no wonder people think he's gay sometimes!
Well that's about it for now. I am in Tena at the moment, which is a city between Camp and Quito. Tomorrow morning we get the bus to Quito. The journey takes five hours, but would probably take over six if you could convince the bus drivers to drive safely along mountainous switchbacks and potholed roads, but no, that is not going to happen. If you are asleep you are not so scared, but you miss all the beautiful misty mountains and rainforest scenery, which is gorgeous, and will be a lasting memory of the beauty of the country. I then have a spare day, during which a few of us are going to Ottovalo to go shopping (it's nice, they say) and then the day after that, I fly back to England. It´s all over now, and i won´t be back in the jungle again for a long time, and I´ll miss it, as i miss Costa Rica.
But the Christmas beckons, and it´ll be good to see family and friends again. I haven´t missed England or work at all. And I haven´t missed family, friends or Barney nearly as much as I thought I would, probably beacuse I've always been with friends. Except in Mexico, when I did feel quite lonely at times, and I missed them more then. But it's been good to keep in touch as often as I've managed to, and so hopefully others haven´t missed me too much either. In some ways it seems a very long time ago since i was in England, yet I'm sure once I'm back it'll feel like I never left, and all this was a strange dream, or like it didn´t really happen, or like it went by in a flash.
Love to you all.... I may write again from Quito, but if not, I´ll write another entry when I get back to England!
In this last week, there haven´t been any surveys; we just went on walks and had fun, chilled out, and tidied up the camp.
One thing that was really good was the Fun Day (ok, a Fun 2 Hours) which me, Lucy, Tim and Steve (and Jas) organised for the kids at the school we teach at in Puerto Rico (no, not the country, it´s a nearby village!) We organised and planned the games, then nearly all of the volunteers (12 of us) and 3 staff went down to the school, and we had a couple of hours of brilliant fun. we divided into 4 teams, each team having different coloured headbands made of coloured plastic flagging tape, and each team had 3 volunteers and about 5 kids (aged 4 to 10 ish) in it ... then for the events. the first event was the tug of war, when the entire team took hold of the rope and tried to pull it past the welly marker. it was great fun, and all the teams played against each other; my team came third but we dished out high fives nonetheless :D. Then was the welly throwing; we threw a welly, then the next team member had to pick it up from where it lay, and throw it, till everyone had had a go. We had the mischieviously overzealous Sebastian on our team though, and he grabbed it and threw it about 3 times when he wasn´t supposed to, so the scoring was probably way off! never mind. Then we made a big circle and threw water balloons between ourselves at ever-increasing distances till they´d all popped - that was fun! The multi-legged race was next where the entire team tied their legs to one another in a line, and then attempted to race another team to the finish line... we were thwarted by mud and had people falling all over the place, which was really funny. The last thing was the most fun (but not a competition) where we got a load of plastic sheeting about 6 metres long, covered in in shampoo and water, and then took turns running up to it, throwing ourselves onto our fronts, and skidding the entire distance along it - the kids loved it (and so did we!) and only about 3 of them wanted to play football instead - you know you´re onto a winner when they choose it over football! it was really good, and finished up in a big pile-up of everyone - adults and kids - throwing ourselves down it and rolling around! it was great fun, and a brilliant way to finish our time here. Unfortunately for the kids (and the teachers!) they had to carry on with normal lessons in the afternoon, despite their school uniform being drenched and soapy, and them being hyper! So the kids loved Fun Day, but the teachers maybe did not!
Other fun stuff we did this week was to go on a stream walk, where we waded in up to our waists, and kiwi Lucy was on top form, spotting snake after snake, and frog after frog... cool! we saw one that was little but venomous, and two others that were non-venomous, and while Maxine and I were in the water up to our knee level, Olly went "Snake!" and we said where, and he pointed in the water at our wellies, and we saw it there and freaked out and ran for the land in a 3-second mad panic, which was really funny. Olly said it´s a bad idea to splash around like that as they are attracted to the splashing, but sod that, a snake in the same water that i´m in is the stuff of nightmares for me (and Max!) and we panicked and ran for it - ha ha!
I also went on a walk down to the Waterfall (cascada) with Jas, Bells and Max, and we covered ourselves in clay,and they pretended to be cave people. The following day, I went to the waterhole, with Max, Phil and Grant. The waterfall is small, with cool water that is crystal clear, and it´s really beautiful. The waterhole is much bigger (it flows into the Rio Napo itself) and the water is warmer, but filthy brown in colour (from silt), and you can feel all the gooey muddy sandy silt underfoot. The four of us had running races, running along in the shallows, where the ground is so uneven that you fall over all the time... we also floated / walked / swam over to where it flows into the Napo, and you could feel the water get colder and the current get stronger. It´s really beutiful there, with massive trees and forest vines hanging down into the water, and caciques and oropendolas making noises you didn´t think it was possible for birds to make, and a few parrots flying overhead maybe - not close enough so you can see what species, but their noisy squawking and inelegant flight gives them away. It was a really good time, and something I´ll remember about the beauty of the place.
What else? umm... we spent ages tidying up and cleaning the camp. That was not fun though. Nor was packing. I've ditched as much stuff as i can - crappy Primark Tshirts i bought for this purpose, disposable clothes that are battered from six months of wear, or things that are useful in the jungle but probabaly not elsewhere... but a few of the interns wanted more stuff, as they are staying on for anoher 3 months - Nicki took a Tshirt and some socks; Ella took some bug spray, the staff took some string, hand sanitiser gel, and plant ties, and Phil (yes, he is a guy!) took my luminous pink crocs... no wonder people think he's gay sometimes!
Well that's about it for now. I am in Tena at the moment, which is a city between Camp and Quito. Tomorrow morning we get the bus to Quito. The journey takes five hours, but would probably take over six if you could convince the bus drivers to drive safely along mountainous switchbacks and potholed roads, but no, that is not going to happen. If you are asleep you are not so scared, but you miss all the beautiful misty mountains and rainforest scenery, which is gorgeous, and will be a lasting memory of the beauty of the country. I then have a spare day, during which a few of us are going to Ottovalo to go shopping (it's nice, they say) and then the day after that, I fly back to England. It´s all over now, and i won´t be back in the jungle again for a long time, and I´ll miss it, as i miss Costa Rica.
But the Christmas beckons, and it´ll be good to see family and friends again. I haven´t missed England or work at all. And I haven´t missed family, friends or Barney nearly as much as I thought I would, probably beacuse I've always been with friends. Except in Mexico, when I did feel quite lonely at times, and I missed them more then. But it's been good to keep in touch as often as I've managed to, and so hopefully others haven´t missed me too much either. In some ways it seems a very long time ago since i was in England, yet I'm sure once I'm back it'll feel like I never left, and all this was a strange dream, or like it didn´t really happen, or like it went by in a flash.
Love to you all.... I may write again from Quito, but if not, I´ll write another entry when I get back to England!
Sunday, 5 December 2010
Yasuni
I{m in Coca again, back from Yasuni national park, which has been great. the highlight of the trip to yasuni is one of the main highlights of my trip to Ecuador. we went to some clay licks, and we sat and waited in a bird hide, and after half an hour of patience, and hearing parrots in the skies overhead, the parrots began to descend to the clay lick, in fluttering rainbows of red and blue and yellow and green, dozens of them swarming the clay, and drinking in the nutrients, noisily squawking to each other, just ten metres or so away from us. it was increadible. most of the parrots are predominantly green when not in flight, although they may have blue heads or orange cheeks, but when they fly, their underwings reveal a beautiful array of colours, and if you can catch a photo of them in flight, their wings blur up and down like curved symmetraical rainbows as tehy fly towards you. it was utterly stunning and we all stayed quiet and watched them in awe. it was something i´ll remember for the rest of my life as an amazing wildlife moment.
we also went on watlks throug hthe forest, and frequently heard parrots overhead. our guide - Hector, who owns the island we visited 5 weeks ago - would poipnt out the parrots as they flew overhead "dusky headed parrots!" "scarlet macaws!" "yellow-winged parakeets!" but many of them were just dark silhouettes against the bright sky, so cannot compare in beauty to when we saw them at the clay licks. they are noisy, squawky birds who announce their presence frequently, and there are dozens of species in the Park.
Hecots also took us on forest walks where he expaoined differnt uses for the trees, folk tales, and got us doing things like weaving baskets out of leaves, and climbing trees with a vine rope around your feet. we also tore through the forest as we saw saki monkeys and another type of monkey in the trees overhead. the weatehr was cool (25´C) and a bit drizzly, but that can be preferable to the scorching heat of the day. i´m going to be mightily cold upon my return to england - brrr!
also on the walk, hector found a tree which contained grubs resembling a shrivelled penis - 3 inches long and nearly an inch wide, skin coloured, with a little black head, and they wriggle about from side to side in the most disgusting way. it´s a common jungle food, and you can see them in markets , skewered and wriggling about on barbecues which is enough to turn your stomach. imagine eating them raw... we didn´t have to imagine though, as he offered them out and several people (not me - i´m veggie, remember!!) took up the challenge. they bite you, so you have to crush their head before shoving the whole thing into yout mouth. puke-inducing stuff!! it{s pretty gross and maybe cruel to eat them like this, but it´s proabbly not as cruel as grilling them alive, although i imagine they taste better cooked.
what else? we went on a wander through the swamps near our camp, and i got a few great photos of frogs, and a snake which was apparently venomous, plus there was another big black snake which went under Mark´s tent at about 10pm, and everyone had to poke about nearby, trying to get it to come out so that he could go to bed in safetey. it was over a metre long, but that one, apparently, was not venomous.
we were sleeping in jungle hammocks, which are like hammocks with mozzie neta attached, and as we were setting them up and tying them to trees, Hecotr said we could set them up in the comedor (thatched hut) if we wanted. i weighed up the prospects of being jungle woman, versus the certainty of being dry during the wet season, and plumped for the latter. i was glad of this, because it pissed it down with rain, nad a load of people´s hammocks filled with water, and they migrated to the comedor floor during the night, so that when i woke up in the morning, the comedor looked like a refugee camp, with bags and bodies all over the floor. i was pleasantly dry and had slept well. prudence triumphs over jungliness!
the next day, we went to an "jungle interpretation centre" though quite why it needs interpreting rather than just understanding and appreciating, i never did find out. we found out about Quechua everyday life, and about some of the threateneed species that live underwater. we are on hte banks for the Napo river, a massive tributary half a mile wide, which feeds into the Amazon, but it´s easy to forget about fish, mammals and reptiles in the water that are threatened, vulnerable and endangered.
we also found out about how the evil oil companies are moving ever more into the heart of the area, drilling for oil, and felling forests, building roads, and displacing local communities in the process. it seems so wrong. but i want to power my car, and buy petrol at a reasonable price, and i want to be able to fly around the world and see othroug countires, and we have discussed whether we would be willing to give up petrol and electricity if it meant saving the Amazon, or whether we´d sacrifice the Amazon if it meant beaing able to power the world, and it´s a very difficult questions (you thgink about it). at least we can recognise that we are slightly hypocritical, beause we want the best of both worlds. i don{t know what the solution is. no one wants the rainforest to be cut down, but to do without the power we´ve come to expect and rely on doesn{t seem a tenable option either. it´s a tricky one, and it´s not goint to go away any time soon - it seems easy enough to think that maybe the decision is in the hands of world leaders ,or oil companies, but we are the ones demanding the oil, so maybe it´s in our hands too... but i´m not willing to give up my car... ugh! it gives me (and now you) a great deal to think about.
We are heading back to our usual camp now, where we will clean everything up, g oon a few walks for fun, and then we are heading for Quito (via Tena), then England. eek! it seems like a very long time ago that i was in England, but it will, in mayn ways, be good to be home, although i will miss this place and this life loads.
we also went on watlks throug hthe forest, and frequently heard parrots overhead. our guide - Hector, who owns the island we visited 5 weeks ago - would poipnt out the parrots as they flew overhead "dusky headed parrots!" "scarlet macaws!" "yellow-winged parakeets!" but many of them were just dark silhouettes against the bright sky, so cannot compare in beauty to when we saw them at the clay licks. they are noisy, squawky birds who announce their presence frequently, and there are dozens of species in the Park.
Hecots also took us on forest walks where he expaoined differnt uses for the trees, folk tales, and got us doing things like weaving baskets out of leaves, and climbing trees with a vine rope around your feet. we also tore through the forest as we saw saki monkeys and another type of monkey in the trees overhead. the weatehr was cool (25´C) and a bit drizzly, but that can be preferable to the scorching heat of the day. i´m going to be mightily cold upon my return to england - brrr!
also on the walk, hector found a tree which contained grubs resembling a shrivelled penis - 3 inches long and nearly an inch wide, skin coloured, with a little black head, and they wriggle about from side to side in the most disgusting way. it´s a common jungle food, and you can see them in markets , skewered and wriggling about on barbecues which is enough to turn your stomach. imagine eating them raw... we didn´t have to imagine though, as he offered them out and several people (not me - i´m veggie, remember!!) took up the challenge. they bite you, so you have to crush their head before shoving the whole thing into yout mouth. puke-inducing stuff!! it{s pretty gross and maybe cruel to eat them like this, but it´s proabbly not as cruel as grilling them alive, although i imagine they taste better cooked.
what else? we went on a wander through the swamps near our camp, and i got a few great photos of frogs, and a snake which was apparently venomous, plus there was another big black snake which went under Mark´s tent at about 10pm, and everyone had to poke about nearby, trying to get it to come out so that he could go to bed in safetey. it was over a metre long, but that one, apparently, was not venomous.
we were sleeping in jungle hammocks, which are like hammocks with mozzie neta attached, and as we were setting them up and tying them to trees, Hecotr said we could set them up in the comedor (thatched hut) if we wanted. i weighed up the prospects of being jungle woman, versus the certainty of being dry during the wet season, and plumped for the latter. i was glad of this, because it pissed it down with rain, nad a load of people´s hammocks filled with water, and they migrated to the comedor floor during the night, so that when i woke up in the morning, the comedor looked like a refugee camp, with bags and bodies all over the floor. i was pleasantly dry and had slept well. prudence triumphs over jungliness!
the next day, we went to an "jungle interpretation centre" though quite why it needs interpreting rather than just understanding and appreciating, i never did find out. we found out about Quechua everyday life, and about some of the threateneed species that live underwater. we are on hte banks for the Napo river, a massive tributary half a mile wide, which feeds into the Amazon, but it´s easy to forget about fish, mammals and reptiles in the water that are threatened, vulnerable and endangered.
we also found out about how the evil oil companies are moving ever more into the heart of the area, drilling for oil, and felling forests, building roads, and displacing local communities in the process. it seems so wrong. but i want to power my car, and buy petrol at a reasonable price, and i want to be able to fly around the world and see othroug countires, and we have discussed whether we would be willing to give up petrol and electricity if it meant saving the Amazon, or whether we´d sacrifice the Amazon if it meant beaing able to power the world, and it´s a very difficult questions (you thgink about it). at least we can recognise that we are slightly hypocritical, beause we want the best of both worlds. i don{t know what the solution is. no one wants the rainforest to be cut down, but to do without the power we´ve come to expect and rely on doesn{t seem a tenable option either. it´s a tricky one, and it´s not goint to go away any time soon - it seems easy enough to think that maybe the decision is in the hands of world leaders ,or oil companies, but we are the ones demanding the oil, so maybe it´s in our hands too... but i´m not willing to give up my car... ugh! it gives me (and now you) a great deal to think about.
We are heading back to our usual camp now, where we will clean everything up, g oon a few walks for fun, and then we are heading for Quito (via Tena), then England. eek! it seems like a very long time ago that i was in England, but it will, in mayn ways, be good to be home, although i will miss this place and this life loads.
Thursday, 2 December 2010
Murders and injuries
it´s been a couple of weeks since i´ve been online, and everything here is still going great. it´s the rainy season now, and it rains nearly every day, but it´s still about 28•C so still a nice temperature. life on the reserve is continuing as normal: we go out on surveys to look at the effect of the road - doing point counts (listening to bird calls), mist netting (catching birds), pitfalls (catching amphibs and reptiles), butterflies, and mammals.... it´s all good, and i´ve explained what the surveys entail.
new people have arrived (well, they´re not new any more) and some of the previous people have left. i miss some of the people who have left, but i can´t do anything about that. travelling round and having great experiences is inevitably followed by sadness of being separated from people who, in all likelihoood, i will never see again. i my family and friends in england, of course, but it seems more poignant when you are in the place where the person used to be, but now without that person. i guess that´s how the people in England feel without me. but i know i will see all of them again so that´s good :D i am looking forward to seeing everyone again, to seeing how much my nephews have grown, and how much my sister has shrunk! and to eating fruit, cadburys, veggie burgers, and NOT BEANS!!!
this weekend we are off to Yasuni National Park, which is one pf the most bilogically diverse regions in the world. they say we should see parrots and all knids of exciting stuff there - cool. i think we´ll be stopping here (Coca) on the way home, so hopefully i´ll be in touch again then. then the next time after that i´ll be online will be when i´m in quito and en route home :S
my typing is a bit crap at the moment because i have injured one of my fingers - of all the crazy, dangerous things we do out here, from trekking over ridiculously muddy terrain, weidling machetes and chopping pathways, carrying heavy bags, being surrounded by dangerous animals, i went and cut a slice off my finger when chopping vegetables! ouch! i was also bitten on my hand by a bullet ant, which was really painful at the time, and even thoug h it is 5 days later now, i can still feel it. I also found my second tick of this trip, which hurts as well, but at least i didn´t have to extract it while in the departure lounge of an airport, like i did with th other one! we also continue to get mobbed by biting ants, mozzies (although not that much, maybe one a day?) and sweat bees. these - as the name suggests - are attracted to your swaet, and that is something which i have in abundance, so at times you spend your whole time waving your açrms around your head and spazzing out for lenthy periods to try and get rid of them. bug spray seems to attract more insects, although they don´t land on you, they just buzz round you ALL THE TIME. i definietly will not be sad to see the back of them.
exciting things that have ahappened in the past 3 weeks are that we saw a rainbow boa in camp - they are probably hte most beautiful snake i´ve ever seen, and are orangey purple, with big black circles, one of the girls saw it at about 9.30pm, when most of us are going to bed, and she yelled "SNAAAAAAAAAAKE!!!" (aas is the done thing) but a load of people thought she was trying to commit a murder (more on that in a minute) so didn´t go, but i went and took my camera and was the only one who managed to get a good photo of it before it went off into the undergrowth. so that was really cool.
so, murders... we have been playing a game of camp cluedo, where everyone fishes into a bag and pulls out a name, a place, and a weapon. they then have to ´kill´that person in the said way and place, and when you kill someone, then you take the person who they were going to kill, and it kweeps going till there´s only one person left. if you get yourself, you have to swap with someone else. mine was that i had to kill Ella in the library with a badminton racquet. lucky for me, ella is my best friend here, so when i suggested we go to look at some lizard photos in the library which we had to learn, it looked pretty innocent. then when çwe got there i said i´d forgotten my pen, so went out, cançme back with the badminton racquet, and said "Ella, i´m sorry - i do want to revise, but i also want to kill you!!" and then ´hit´her with the badminton racquet, and she was dead - ha ha ha!. i then had to take her missions which was to kill Jas at the smoking pit with a toilet roll. unfgortunately, Jas doesn´t smoke so it wouldn´t be easy to get her there. but alas, i was killed by steve on the bridge with the rubber rat before i´d had chance to kill jas. it´s a lo tof fun, and some people have used tactics such as shouting ´snake´to lure their intended victim into asn unlikely place!!
what else? we have organised ´´fun´on saturdqay nights, and we had one wherer we all dressed up as superheroes - a lot of underwear over trousers was worn. i wasn´t sure what to be, but i was making myself a mask out of duck tape, and thought i could put leters onto my tshirt in duck tape, and then other people wanted to use myduck tape, so i decided to be Duck Tape Girl - righting the world´s wrongs throug hthe clever use of duck tape! it was a fun night ,and we all had stupid challenges we had to do, like fising sweets out of a tub of flour using only yourm mouth, or standing on one foot for a long as possible, or eating a spoonful of butterfly bait (2 week old bananas!) i´m sure the pis will make it up onto facebook soon. i can´t rememebr what my challenge was, but we had more challenged the next week, wehn i had to puit a condom over my head and blow it up! i chose this instead of eating a tree tomato, which are truly disgusting vegetables. it´s all vey silly but grat fun. something i really haven´t missed about england is TV. i don´t miss it at all. in our frwee time, we read, write journals, play cards, and just hang out and chat, and i think i will miss that when i´m in enalgand on my own in my lounge in silence.
something else that was fun, was when one of the lads who was a student at our partner college (they go there to study ecotourism, and our money funds their education, and they stay with us to learn englinsh), one of the lads who´d stayed with us came back with a load of friends from his villege, and they came out on a walk, then in the evening we cooked up a mega feast - i was on camp duty that day, and with 5 peaople´s help, we cooked up a banquet of seven different dishes to feed 36 people. then they performed a tradiational shaman ritual, and a quechua dance, before we all went up to the camp fire, and they told us some traditional folk takes from the Quechua tradition. they then went out to sleep in jungle hammocks, and the following morning we all Spanglished - ie, we helped each other learn the language and culture of each other. i expliend to them about how in winter, we build snowmen and go sledging and have snowball fights ,as most of them have never seen snow. they thought it sounded like a lot of fun. and now i´ve been on facebook and seen some of your snow photos, i kind of miss it a bit... hopefully there´ll be some left when i get home. so that was a really good couple of days....
when i knew i was coming out on this trip, i really didn´t care about meeting the locals, not the chidlren, not the students at the college, and not the people living in the huts near to our reserve. but all of those things have been some of the major hirhglights of the trip, and i feel bad now that i had no interest in them before. it´s been great to have the ecuadorian students over, and they became some of my bestfriends. and the kids we teach, they are cheeky and playful, but it´s so reawarding to teach them and play with them, even though you make a total arse of yourself and act like a children´s TV presenter. i never thought i would stand at the front of a classroom wearing a coloured poncho and doing a dance, while singing "verde green, verde gree, azul blue, azul blue,..." with other volunteers doing the same thing. it was either a very low point in my life, or a high one.... at any rate it was memorable! and meeting the communites has pçbeen great. the people of ecuador are hospitable and freindly and they are the main reason i would woant to come back - and beaaxcuse the country is amazingly bearutiful. i need to try and find some things that are bad, so i want to leave...
ok, as we were on the way to the internet cafe, we saw a guy running down the street with a white dog under his arm, then we realised it had no head, and he ran into a butcher´s shop. upon reflection, and the piecuign togerther of information, we now believe that it was an agouti, not a dog, as it´s feet were longer and thinner than a dog. still, it was a horrible moment! and i saw fried guinea pigs in Baños, which was pretty gross. i have a photo. what else? umm... the streets are a bit dirty.
ok i´m running out of things to say now so i will sign off. hopefully i´ll be in touch again in 2-3 days, after Yasuni.
love yáll - happy christmas!
new people have arrived (well, they´re not new any more) and some of the previous people have left. i miss some of the people who have left, but i can´t do anything about that. travelling round and having great experiences is inevitably followed by sadness of being separated from people who, in all likelihoood, i will never see again. i my family and friends in england, of course, but it seems more poignant when you are in the place where the person used to be, but now without that person. i guess that´s how the people in England feel without me. but i know i will see all of them again so that´s good :D i am looking forward to seeing everyone again, to seeing how much my nephews have grown, and how much my sister has shrunk! and to eating fruit, cadburys, veggie burgers, and NOT BEANS!!!
this weekend we are off to Yasuni National Park, which is one pf the most bilogically diverse regions in the world. they say we should see parrots and all knids of exciting stuff there - cool. i think we´ll be stopping here (Coca) on the way home, so hopefully i´ll be in touch again then. then the next time after that i´ll be online will be when i´m in quito and en route home :S
my typing is a bit crap at the moment because i have injured one of my fingers - of all the crazy, dangerous things we do out here, from trekking over ridiculously muddy terrain, weidling machetes and chopping pathways, carrying heavy bags, being surrounded by dangerous animals, i went and cut a slice off my finger when chopping vegetables! ouch! i was also bitten on my hand by a bullet ant, which was really painful at the time, and even thoug h it is 5 days later now, i can still feel it. I also found my second tick of this trip, which hurts as well, but at least i didn´t have to extract it while in the departure lounge of an airport, like i did with th other one! we also continue to get mobbed by biting ants, mozzies (although not that much, maybe one a day?) and sweat bees. these - as the name suggests - are attracted to your swaet, and that is something which i have in abundance, so at times you spend your whole time waving your açrms around your head and spazzing out for lenthy periods to try and get rid of them. bug spray seems to attract more insects, although they don´t land on you, they just buzz round you ALL THE TIME. i definietly will not be sad to see the back of them.
exciting things that have ahappened in the past 3 weeks are that we saw a rainbow boa in camp - they are probably hte most beautiful snake i´ve ever seen, and are orangey purple, with big black circles, one of the girls saw it at about 9.30pm, when most of us are going to bed, and she yelled "SNAAAAAAAAAAKE!!!" (aas is the done thing) but a load of people thought she was trying to commit a murder (more on that in a minute) so didn´t go, but i went and took my camera and was the only one who managed to get a good photo of it before it went off into the undergrowth. so that was really cool.
so, murders... we have been playing a game of camp cluedo, where everyone fishes into a bag and pulls out a name, a place, and a weapon. they then have to ´kill´that person in the said way and place, and when you kill someone, then you take the person who they were going to kill, and it kweeps going till there´s only one person left. if you get yourself, you have to swap with someone else. mine was that i had to kill Ella in the library with a badminton racquet. lucky for me, ella is my best friend here, so when i suggested we go to look at some lizard photos in the library which we had to learn, it looked pretty innocent. then when çwe got there i said i´d forgotten my pen, so went out, cançme back with the badminton racquet, and said "Ella, i´m sorry - i do want to revise, but i also want to kill you!!" and then ´hit´her with the badminton racquet, and she was dead - ha ha ha!. i then had to take her missions which was to kill Jas at the smoking pit with a toilet roll. unfgortunately, Jas doesn´t smoke so it wouldn´t be easy to get her there. but alas, i was killed by steve on the bridge with the rubber rat before i´d had chance to kill jas. it´s a lo tof fun, and some people have used tactics such as shouting ´snake´to lure their intended victim into asn unlikely place!!
what else? we have organised ´´fun´on saturdqay nights, and we had one wherer we all dressed up as superheroes - a lot of underwear over trousers was worn. i wasn´t sure what to be, but i was making myself a mask out of duck tape, and thought i could put leters onto my tshirt in duck tape, and then other people wanted to use myduck tape, so i decided to be Duck Tape Girl - righting the world´s wrongs throug hthe clever use of duck tape! it was a fun night ,and we all had stupid challenges we had to do, like fising sweets out of a tub of flour using only yourm mouth, or standing on one foot for a long as possible, or eating a spoonful of butterfly bait (2 week old bananas!) i´m sure the pis will make it up onto facebook soon. i can´t rememebr what my challenge was, but we had more challenged the next week, wehn i had to puit a condom over my head and blow it up! i chose this instead of eating a tree tomato, which are truly disgusting vegetables. it´s all vey silly but grat fun. something i really haven´t missed about england is TV. i don´t miss it at all. in our frwee time, we read, write journals, play cards, and just hang out and chat, and i think i will miss that when i´m in enalgand on my own in my lounge in silence.
something else that was fun, was when one of the lads who was a student at our partner college (they go there to study ecotourism, and our money funds their education, and they stay with us to learn englinsh), one of the lads who´d stayed with us came back with a load of friends from his villege, and they came out on a walk, then in the evening we cooked up a mega feast - i was on camp duty that day, and with 5 peaople´s help, we cooked up a banquet of seven different dishes to feed 36 people. then they performed a tradiational shaman ritual, and a quechua dance, before we all went up to the camp fire, and they told us some traditional folk takes from the Quechua tradition. they then went out to sleep in jungle hammocks, and the following morning we all Spanglished - ie, we helped each other learn the language and culture of each other. i expliend to them about how in winter, we build snowmen and go sledging and have snowball fights ,as most of them have never seen snow. they thought it sounded like a lot of fun. and now i´ve been on facebook and seen some of your snow photos, i kind of miss it a bit... hopefully there´ll be some left when i get home. so that was a really good couple of days....
when i knew i was coming out on this trip, i really didn´t care about meeting the locals, not the chidlren, not the students at the college, and not the people living in the huts near to our reserve. but all of those things have been some of the major hirhglights of the trip, and i feel bad now that i had no interest in them before. it´s been great to have the ecuadorian students over, and they became some of my bestfriends. and the kids we teach, they are cheeky and playful, but it´s so reawarding to teach them and play with them, even though you make a total arse of yourself and act like a children´s TV presenter. i never thought i would stand at the front of a classroom wearing a coloured poncho and doing a dance, while singing "verde green, verde gree, azul blue, azul blue,..." with other volunteers doing the same thing. it was either a very low point in my life, or a high one.... at any rate it was memorable! and meeting the communites has pçbeen great. the people of ecuador are hospitable and freindly and they are the main reason i would woant to come back - and beaaxcuse the country is amazingly bearutiful. i need to try and find some things that are bad, so i want to leave...
ok, as we were on the way to the internet cafe, we saw a guy running down the street with a white dog under his arm, then we realised it had no head, and he ran into a butcher´s shop. upon reflection, and the piecuign togerther of information, we now believe that it was an agouti, not a dog, as it´s feet were longer and thinner than a dog. still, it was a horrible moment! and i saw fried guinea pigs in Baños, which was pretty gross. i have a photo. what else? umm... the streets are a bit dirty.
ok i´m running out of things to say now so i will sign off. hopefully i´ll be in touch again in 2-3 days, after Yasuni.
love yáll - happy christmas!
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