In a country where everything is green except the lettuce

It´s hot, damn hot....well not so much today as yesterday, I guess. So here I am in the jungle! It has become clear that the computer that is here at the reserve is a pretty hot comidity and the chances of my actually getting on it are probably relatively slim, so here are my thoughts so far.

Ecuador is really a very lovely country. It is not quite as advanced as Argentina, so I am back to remembering not to flush the toilet paper and not to drink the water. The city of Quito looks amazing, although I haven´t had much time to check it out. There will be plently of time for that when Mary is here though and in between my variety of travels and volunteer works. The equator is really near Quito, so I am sure I will drag Mary up there to do the old balance the egg on the nail trick. Will make sure we get plenty of cheesy photos!

Took the bus yesterday to Tena and really had to remind myself to pick my jaw up off the floor once in a while. The scenery is absolutely amazing and the road is often closed due to mudslides. The road is a dirt road for about half the time and there was a spot where the driver was having to steer the bus around all these rocks and mud that are in the road from the most recent rain. That and slowing the bus down so a variety of people can hop on and off to sell you a fruit cup, potato chips, chickens, and white women. Whatever you want I am pretty sure they either have it or can get it.

Then there was the lady who got on the with the mystery animal. These busses run from Quito to Tena, and also at times act as the local bus. It is a bit like riding the M79 from Manhattan to Washington DC. She had a baby slung around her waist and some bag making a variety of chirping, beeping, and mewing sounds. The contents of her bag never having been revealed, I will get to spend the rest of my life wondering....

Anyway, got to Tena and had to hunt around to find the local bus to JS. A very lovely young guy helped me find it and placed my bag on it for me. Turns out he was the one who also hops on and off the bus as it is moving helping folks get on and off. As Shannon I am sure can testify, the idea of safety is a bit negated here. There were a number of children siting on the dashboard in the front window as the bus cruised around town, and everyone´s variety of shopping piled in wherever it can fit. I shared a seat with a couple of children (I know...) and they were pretty suspicious of me and my hair, I think, but very cute. The people have all been really friendly.

Anyway, here I am at the reserve at Jatun Sacha! Things I have learned so far...check the mosquito net before going to bed to make sure the huge evil ants that bite and sting for 4 hours are not in the net with you, Everything you own will be moldy within 2 weeks, no matter what, All the clothes I have are once again inappropriate, My flashlight is crap and hardly helped me find the bathroom last night, These rubber boots I bought in Quito for $5.75 will be the best thing I have probably ever purchased, as the mud I walked in today was halfway up my calves.

Speakiing of today, it is Saturday, so it is todo al bosque, which means everyone goes to the forest. The put us in two groups and the one I went with toured the secondary and primary rain forest, and learned about local trees, the variety of species they have here, etc. It was all in Spanish and I picked up about half of it. A girl in the group was able to traslate though, so that filled in the blanks.
It is raining now, what a shocker, huh? But it is a nice rain and cooling.

On our walk, we ran into a herd of cattle. It was very strange. We are in the middle of the forest, it is dark, and the guide stops us and says to listen. We do, but don´t hear anything, and then we look and a small herd about about 6-8 cattle are stolling up the muddy path from the other direction. They stop and look at us. We look at them. They look at us, trying to decide if we will retreat or they should. The finally decide they should and do so. We follow and I must say that for the next half our or so have to avoid all the cow shit mixed with the mud. A very unexpected experience! After a lunch stop we swam in a small lake in the middle of the forest. OUr guide was great and fed us ants that taste like lemon. Apparently the trick is to make sure you chew them before swallowing or they might crawl back out your nose!

I also just saw my first huge tarantula outside the computer room here. I have one roommate and she is cool girl from Colorado. I am the oldest person here by roughly 15 years, although my roomie is pretty old by standards too--she is 22!

Beter let some others have a turn at the computer, but will try to keep a written log of more things that occur to me and then at some point try to deciipher my handwriting and write it all here! By the way, in case I didn´t mention, it is beautiful here, although a bit more rustic that I thought, but it is all good......more later!