More on the jungle adventure

Ok I really need to finish up this story. It happened a long time ago. I'll just go with highlights and spare you all the details.

Seeing pink river dolphins or parts of them coming out of the black water

Hiking through one of the few parts of the jungle that wasn't flooded where our gide showed us very useful things like how to take the fiber out of certain kind of plant to make bracelets, how to climb a tree with a vine and which plant's leaves can be used as patches on clothing

Eating lemon ants! (Do I have ants stuck in my teeth?)

Watching the sunset... Jungle sunsets are a close rival to beach sunsets

Seeing a the glowing red eyes of a giant caiman in the river

Listening to all the sounds of the jungle at night

Watching and "helping" an indigenous woman make bread from yuca

Buying cool necklaces made out of jungle seeds

Watching the indigenous kids using a tree as a diving board into the river

Fishing for pirhanas - unsucessful but fun except the part about having to put raw meat on a hook, I used a leaf to protect myself

Celebrating my birthday in the jungle with my friends!!!

Bird watching early in the morning - Rooster crows Diego: Look! Macaws! Me: Diego,that was a rooster... Ooooh those red macaws flying over the trees

Getting super super super dirty on the bus ride back to Lago Agrio like white shirts turned brown and black hair turned whitish

Arriving back in Quito early enough to get almost a full nights sleep...

Before I forget and have to go to class, a HUGE thank you to everyone who sent me birthday cards. They all came the Thursday after my birthday. What load!!!

Finally...

Oops... Sorry, it's been awhile since I've written anything in here. It's been a busy last couple weeks especially with trying to figure out my classes for next semester so that I can graduate in August!!! Mark your calenders: Sunday May 14, 2006 2:00pm will be when I walk (and get a blank diploma but hey everyone gets that in the mail later, mine will just be a few months later).

Anyways.. Let's see, I have about 20 minutes before I want to start reviewing again for my phonetics exam.

The jungle was awesome. I'll just quick tell favorite/exciting stories in chronological order as much as possible.

I went with a group of 8 people: 7 girls, 1 boy and we met another girl along the way so our group was 9. We left at 10pm Wednesday night to go to Lago Agrio and arrive 5:30 am. The rest of the morning was spent eating breakfast slowly and wandering around the city. Around 11 we got on a bus that went to Cuyabeno, a wildlife reserve about 3 hours away. It was a long dusty ride. Then we got in a canoe and started off for the lodge. All was going well until the baby pink trantula was discovered walked along the side of the canoe. Unless it could swim, it is now dead. All was going well after that until we ran in the fallen tree. Literally ran into the tree. It wasn't submerged enough for us to float over it, so our driver back the canoe up, gunned the motor and we flew over it until we got stuck in the middle. So then everyone had to move to the front of the canoe, while the driver attempted to push us off the tree. Quite the introduction to the jungle. When we were finally free, we continued on to the lodge. We didn't get there until after dark. It was an awesome place. No electricity, so everything was lit by candles or flashlights. All the buildings were open except the bathroom. We slept in little mosquito net tents. It was so cool how we could hear all the night jungle noises as we were falling asleep. We ate supper and then were introduced to our guide. After that, some of us who were still awake enough, went on a night hike. We saw so many giant gross disgusting spiders... yuck! I won't go into detail about that.

The next morning, we were awaken bright and early by the noisy birds living in a nearby tree. They have a real name but I just call them the alarm clock birds. We ate a super yummy breakfast and then headed out for our day trip. Unfortunetly the one boy was sick so the guide had us 8 girls to himself. We headed out up the river and saw some big black money swing through trees along the way. Then we saw the sloth. Hahaha It became the joke the rest of the trip. So how to explain this... The sloth was spotted from a distance by the canoe driver. How, I don't know. It looked like a pile of brown fur in a tree. Diego, our guide, paddled the canoe into the low hanging branches of a tree so that we could get a better look. It was still a pile of brown fur in the tree. Then he asked if he could use my camera to take a picture of it. So he climbed up the tree with my camera and woke up the sloth in the process who started to crawl away. He came back down and made us all come up to the front of the canoe to see the sloth again. It was cool to see it but Diego was so over dramatic about it. The pictures didn't turn out in case you were wondering. Then we changed places in the tree so we could see it a little better but by that time it had escaped. Diego was mad that no one was watching the sloth as we moved but he didn't tell us to. Then he proceeded to tell us that seeing a sloth is a once in a life time opportunity.

Oops... I'm ten minutes over my time. Gotta go! More to come later!

Phone #

My cell phone number here is
593-9-824-0612

You might need to dial a 0 before that. I don't remember.

Dia de los Disfuntos

Tomorrow and Thursday are national holidays here in Ecuador for los dias de los disfuntos or the days of the dead. My university, having to be different, has Thursday and Friday off. For me, they´re days to go to the jungle, for the rest of the country, it's a bit different. The traditional custom is to go to the cemetary and eat the favorite food of your dead loved one who supposedly joins you. Now most people just go to the cemetary to decorate their loved ones graves. The flower vendors love it. And where there are people, there will be food venders. By the cemetary by my house, there are tents of food vendors set up for people to buy food just in case they get hungry during their visit. It was crazy busy on Sunday. Another tradition is the colada morado and gua-guas de pan (bread). (Gua-gua is pronounced wa-wa) We've had gua-guas for breakfast the last couple days. It's bread shaped like a baby, more or less. Elman brought some from Ambato (a city about 3 hours south of Quito). Supposedly, they´re better. They look prettier than the other ones I've seen here. Yesterday I had a gua-gua head for breakfast. Today I ate a torso and arms. Myriam and Gloria (our maid) have been making the colada morado the last two days. It's a hot beverage made with lots of fruits, herbs and spices. Moras (similar to blackberries) are one of the main ingredients. Other ones I've seen go in are cinnamon, cloves, lemon grass, blueberries, pineapple and narajilla. I'm sure there's more. I'll have to let you know how it tastes. We're going to have it tonight.

Market!

This Saturday I finally had a chance to go with Myriam to the fruit and veggie market. She goes every over Saturday but I was always gone on the Saturday she would go. It was really interesting. We left about 6am! It's in a part of Quito where I had never been. When we got there, she and Elman (my host dad) took the baskets out of the car and Myraim pretty much took off running to her favorite vender. She very much has a routine with what she buys there and who she buys it from. I wanted to buy a grapefruit but instead the vender just gave it to me. The people who you buy from frequently are called "caseros." The part that really grossed me out was the meat. All sorts of freshly dead, whole animals. Yuck! One place even had a pile of chicken heads... Of course there was always the option of buying your meat really fresh: still alive! I wanted to buy a rabbit but Myriam said no because it would eat her plants. I did buy some kiwi though. Yum! Myriam´s job was picking out and paying for everything, I helped carry baskets while Elman had the privelege of carrying everything back to the car when the baskets got too full. It was really interesting watching how Myriam bargained for the prices she wanted. After about an hour, we had everything we needed for the next two weeks (except the things Myriam forgot) and headed home.