Que bonita esta la vida! And we are off to Colombia..

Hello again armchair travellers! Pretty sure this is going to be a two parter entry as I have been working for a few hours already this morning getting some pictures uploaded for you people and am not sure how long I can write today before I don´t know what the heck I am talking about anymore!

When we last left off, I think I just arrived in Colombia and spent US independance day in a Colombian museum, hehe. Slightly better than how I spent Colombian independence, which was July 20. In putting my pics up, I see that I have maybe one of me in Colomiba, so the pic you see here is of me and one of my fellow volunteers at Jatun Sacha, Grady, at Mitad del Mundo in Ecuador. It is a cute pic, and since cute pics of me are so rare...here it is!

OK, so back to the story at hand: Colombia is fantastic, and I am so glad I went. Apparently though, the week before I headed to Colombia, the FARC killed some 2 dozen hostages they had been holding for a number of years. I found out about it right before I went, but for obvious reasons (being that the folks read this) I didn´t mention it until my return, lest the parents freak out and be worried about me. On July 5, the nation of Colombia had massive demonstrations against kidnapping and as far as I know at this point, no one has been kidnapped in some time....so hopefully they are on a path of turning it all around.

Colombia is an interesting place to travel as a woman alone, and there is a slight chance that I am now married to a Colombian cab driver, due to my inability to master the language. I can confidently report that I am not carrying anyone´s baby though, so that is a good thing at least!

Due to my completely indecisive nature, I spent a week in Bogota, just figuring out where the heck to go, since there were so many choices! The pictures are of course going to be out of order as well, seeing as how my strong point is not computer literacy. Shannon will be very excited to see that for the first time in a long time, I managed to post the pics to the web all by myself! I did take some 6 hours, but that is another story that I am not going to cry myself to sleep with just yet.

So anyway, in Bogota I managed to visit the city´s tallest building, the Coltopatri, with great views of the city. No pics of course because it was my first day there and I was a little noid about taking such a long walk with my camera. I also went to a street market, where all manner of things were being sold: remote controls of unknown origin, albums of 1960´s salsa music, used batteries, and perhaps an unwanted child or two. In other worlds, just like your average flea market in New York.

Also in Bogota, I saw the house of Simon Bolivar, and you will get to see a lovely Colombian woman posing by the independence stuff in his garden. After that I rode up the teleiferico on a Sunday which was a piss poor decision, as it is half price and all the Colombians go to the church services up the hill in Monserrate, and it was damn hot waiting in line for an hour to go up and another hour to come back down! Up there is only the aforementioned church and some food stalls. All in all not a bad trip, but not worth the 2 hours of transport!

I also went to the Botero museum, the gold musuem (a waste as far as I am concerned unless you are REALLY into gold), and up to Zipiqueira and the salt cathederal. I went with a girl I met at the hostal, and it is a 2 hour trip up there and then you decend some 180 meters into the salt mines where they have carved out this huge cathederal, which they say holds 10,000 people! We did this in July 5, which turned out to be the day of the anti-kidnapping protest, and when we got out of the bus, there were tons of people running around with white flags and honking thier horns. Very interesting, especially since we didn´t know at that point what the heck was going on!

South America in general appears to have made a continental decision regarding the choice to not put signs about anything anywhere, so the bus driver´s directions of ¨just turn left and keep going all the way up the hill¨ were somewhat misleading. We hiked about halfway up the hill, noticed it was starting to look a little shady, and then finally asked a woman who directed us all the way back down the hill to take another left and go that way. We got a cab.

I had seen a street advertisement in Bogota about a Cuban salsa orchestra that was playing at one of the big theaters and that was an amazing show! We spent 40,000 pesos on it ($20) but it was totally worth it. It was filled with Colombians who loved the band and they had dancers on a bandstand behind the orchestra and everything and it was fantastic. After that we did the club crawl in the Zona Rosa, an upscale neighbordhood of Bogota-good night but exhuasting.

OK, better run for now as I am going to meet a friend for coffee. I´ll finish this up later or tomorrow before Mary arrives and put the pics on then!

Saludos!

Jatun Sacha, Quito, and life in the jungle

Buenos dias everyone!

Hope everyone had a great 4th of July! I spent it here in Colombia and visited the Colombian National museum. But more about the life and times of Colmbia later as this post is not about that, it is about the pictures and wrap up of my time at Jatun Sacha and Quito--that´s right, more pics are finally in the house!

As for the volunteer work, I am having a bit of mixed feelings about it at this point. While due to the large volume of people, the constant moldy clothes, and lack of actual good work to be done (because of the constant rain and mud) left me feeling a bit disappointed in the whole thing, I must say I really met some great people--both staff and other volunteers--and learned about that part of Ecuador and a way of life of the locals that we could never imagine, so that was good. I also learned about some medicinal plants and what many of the local issues are. So all in all I will call the experience a good one--it definately gave me a new appreciation for the hot shower!

Also of important note is the industiousness of the ants in this part of the world. You will see a couple of pictures regarding this, but these folks work sun up to sun down and never take a day off. Of course since it rains everyday and washes away whatever huge ant condo they are building, they have to work everyday since they must be constantly starting over.

I learned that in honor of our last night they decided to kill the last of the chickens. Unfortunatley they did it right in front of us, as we were working digging a huge whole for the pig shit, which was unexpected and unappreciated. Thankfully we didn´t have to see it, but sure had to hear it.....anyway, a few photos are of the replacement set of chickens. The chickens were originally donated by volunteers in order to have eggs, but apparently the staff dídn´t want to wait for them to start producing eggs, and so would just kill some everyone once in a while for food. Which was a shame and waste since as there were so many people, all you would get would be a wing. Why bother? I made the mistake of donating chicken feed which apparently meant that in their apppreciation I was due a special piece of chicken on my last night. Hard to expalin in my limited Spanish that I donated the feed to feed the chickens so they could start producing eggs, not so I could have a fat piece of chicken on my last night!

Oh well, such as life and communication. Let see...in the pictures, there are lots of photos of the staff and other volunteers. Some dirt here--Pedro is the volunteer coordinator and Rosa is one of the kitchen ladies. Pedro apparently has a wife and kids in Tena, Rosa is married to some guy that kills pigs, and Pedro and Rosa hook up regulary at his cabana, and everyone knows it. Latin American folks have very different ideas about monogomy and it is fun to chat with the volunteers about it, as people´s views about it tend to reflect thier age. Very interesting conversations were had.

Patricia is kind of the girl who does everything: All the cleaning of cabanas, bathrooms and laundry. She lives in the community about 40 minutes away, and so started sleeping in my cabana after my roomie Alison hooked up with Gato, one of the bosque guards. Alison started spending most nights at Gatos place (which has no bathroom) and so Patricia would stay in my room. It was fun and she is a great lady. I think she needs an American or foregin man to get her out of here and she is so wonderful (and had a crush on Steve who is a really shy brit), so if anyone of you know a suitable man, let me know and I will pass the info on!

Lots of pictures of volunteers, a few of Rob, the volunteer who never actually worked. His job seemed to be going to Tena everyday in search of real food. He did work this one time, so I was sure to get a photo of it.

There are also a few photos of our trip to Amazoonico, which is an animal rehabilitation center. Some of the animals roam free, others are in caged environments for either their own safety (they are ill and vulnerable to attack) or for the saftey of other animals. There was one monkey that I don´t have a picture of because he is in a double wired area. Apparently he got out one night and killed 20 other monkeys.

Photos of my time at Jatun Sacha are here:

http://s176.photobucket.com/albums/w190/sweidmann/Jatun%20Sacha%20y%20Tena/?start=all

and here are some pictures of Quito:

http://s176.photobucket.com/albums/w190/sweidmann/Quito/?start=all

South Amercian healthcare, part dos

When we last tuned into the trials and tribulations of those foolish, er rather, fortunate enough to test the South American healthcare system, we were able to witness the astonishing medical acumen of Uruguayan medical training.

Today we get to continue the chapter regarding adventures in healthcare. Today´s subject is Allison, a nice young lady from Boulder, Colorado, and also my roommate at Jatun Sacha.

Allison had the very poor idea of contracting some kind of intestinal infection, which I think is South American for "We don´t know what the hell it is, so let´s call it that". She began to get ill on Tuesday morning, mostly throwing up and exciting things like that. She has been dating (if that is what we want to call it) one of the guys who works at the reserve. His treatment involved some sort of medicinal plants in a pee tea. Which Allison drank. Others would not do so, but then, you don´t know Allison. But let´s get back to our story.

Fast forward a day later, she is still sick (imagine that) and the folks at the reserve seem really unconcerned by the fact that she can´t get out of bed, is sweating profusely, and throwing up every 20 minutes. So one needs to take matter into their own hands. I convinced the one person who works there and has a car that she needed to be taken to the hospital in Tena. We were able to accopmplish this given my poor Spanish, so I consider that a victory in itself.

She dropped us off there and we attempted to explain to the doctor what her symptons were and she gave a vomiting demonstration. Meanwhile, he is busy watching the Ecuadorian equivalent of America´s funniest home videos, and answering cell phone calls that last 20 minutes. But anyway, he decides she has this infection and must be admitted overnight for anitibotics and rehydration. The nurse and receptionist (not clear on the receptionist´s job as she oscillates between answeing the phone in her business suit and trying to jab needles in people´s arms) take us into a room where the nurse tries about 4 times to get her blood pressure and then hook her up to the IV. While she is vomiting and falling off the table.

She tries twice to get the needle into her hand for the IV, can´t do it, and so asks me to leave. Closing and looking the door behind her. I find this turn of events rather disconcerting as there is quite a bit of rust in the room, I am not sure where the needles came from, and no one seems concerned about washing their hands of wearing gloves. About a half hour later they all come out and take her upstairs to the room she is going to stay in and proceed to put at least 3 different colored medications in her IV. I am not sure what any of them are as no one speaks English and my Spanish lessons so far have not included things one might need to know in hospital speak.

She seemed to be doing better by the time I left yesterday, and now I am off to the hospital to make sure she lived though the night and try to help her figure out what they are going to charge and how all that fun stuff is going to play out.

Thanks for watching and tune in next time when we discuss strange rashes that come from wearing wet clothes all the time, how to get insect bites directly on top of one another, and the possible explinations for the gecko moving out of our room and the ramifications of his decision.

Volunteer in the rainforest!

Week 2: So here we are volunteering in the rainforest. In the past week we have learned the capacity for alcohol of college students (in case one has forgotten), How many ways one can serve rice (1), and how much mud it takes to pull your boot off when you are hiking in el bosque.

There is now a geicko living in our room. I hear this is a good thing as it eats all the spiders I am currently cohabitating with, but it also shits all over your bed if you don´t cover it with your mosquito net.

Some of the other folks had a tarantula living with them and they kept putting it out, but apparently when they find a place they like, they always come back. It would wait on the steps for them to return at the end of the day to let it in. The two in the room decided to put it on a leaf and send it down the river. When it returns, it is going to be pissed, but thankfully for those folks they have moved rooms and new people will get to deal with it´s wrath.

We have a group of 20 14-15 year olds checking in tonight, so I can regress past college and back to high school! Not sure when was the last time I had this much fun! On another note, one of the college kids (ISV) decided to play a joke on the snake people the other night. The snake people are a bunch from Arizona State U here to study the snakes. Apparently at the bar the other night, one of the ISV group went to them and did the old "I hear you are looking for the one-eyed snake" bit, and wipped his package out on the table. Snake people declined to find it funny, and now the poor boy has been sentanced to staying away at mealtimes and any other time the snake people are around. Ah, summer camp!

Yesterday we worked in the Amazon Plant Center. We cut down trees, which was not really my idea of reforestation, but what the hell. Hopefully it has something to do with bringing back more native species of trees, but didn´t really get the deets on that. I am getting quite handy cutting down trees and weeds with the machete though, so will have to practice this new skill when I return to visit mom.

In related wildlife news: Two of the three showers are inhabited by some wildlife. In one corner we have some very large black spiders, and in the other is one of our tarantulas. In the shower with no inhabitants, the bathroom geiko is a peeping tom. Guess the good news is that if he shits on you, at least you are in the shower and can wash it off right away. Unfortuantly, I have yet to see any other kinds of animals that I was hoping to see here. I hear there is a group of monkeys living down the street though that will take anything you own and barter it for food later.

I have eaten more starch in the week and a half that I have been here than probably in the whole last year combined. We did go into Tena last weekend for shrimp though, so that was fun.

All in all, I am not sure at this point what I am really accomplishing here, but will post it just as soon as it comes to me in a dream. Undoubtably, the most I will learn is how many ways you can fry bread, and how many other starches can be served with it at the same time. :)

Saludos!

All wet, all the time..

That tarantula is hanging out in the bathroom again. I have hung clothes to dry that are now more wet than they were when I put them up. It is possible there are roughly a hundred ways to fry dough and serve it for breakfast.

It is also possible that I have nevr smelled this bad in my life--and very hard to do anything about it when you have to put a wet bra back on after your cold shower because the clothes just won´t dry. It is raining again today, and I was scheduled to work in the organic garden today with the guys. Turns out they were going down to the beach to fill 150 pound bags with sand in order to turn it into cement at some point and there wasn´t enough room in the truck for me. Pedro (the volunteer coordinator) really thinks that I am not strong enough to carry it anyway (mas fuerte! mas fuerte!), so I find myself with a bit of free time and can use the computer!

Yesterday I was actually the Spanish translator for new people who came and were getting the tour of the botainical garden--how do you like them apples! Hard to belive my Spanish is better than most people here, as this is the second time I have acted as translator for a tour.

Some fun things I have seen so far this week: We had a boa constrictor lounging in one of the rain gutters the other night. He had his eye on this massive grasshopper that he was making a slow move for in order to have dinner. Apparently he moved too slow or changed his mind though, because in the morning the snake was gone and the grasshopper had moved to a differnt side.

One of the guys here that works out in the forest looking for people cutting down trees and stuff like that has this pretty amazing snake collection. He keeps them all in a jar of formaldahyde in his cabin. Disturbing to consider where the formaldahyde may have come from.....we will put off determining the origin of it for our next moment of reflection.

I like the preserve, but it does have a bit of a summer camp feel, at least right now. Because of the time of year, most people that are here are school groups and into doing things that 18-20 year olds do. Everyone seems more excited about the bar than anythting else, which I find amusing and slightly sad since I am really just past those days..ah well, such as life. Perhaps the other preserves will have differnt people to offer because I will be there during what is typically the school year.

OK, no wisdom to offer today since I am still sick with a jungle cold. Maybe next time, so stay tuned for what is hopefully a more interesting update in the next chapter of our story!

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!

You can´t have lunch without a drink!!!

Hello campers! In this installment of our story, we finish our time in Argentina (for now!) and head to the land of the short people with a fine appreciation for food that can be consumed sans ham. That´s right--we are now in a world where not everything is required to be topped by ham, cheese, hardboiled eggs, and olives, usually simultaneously. But let´s not get ahead of ourselves, since I have only been in Ecuador for 2 days and really am not in the know yet.

Last time on our show, we had just returned to Buenos Aires to spend a disappointing night in a hostal in Palermo where our room was right between the reception desk and garbage truck activity outside. Thankfully only one night was required to determine that it was time to move on, and we left the next day for Mendoza. 12 hours by bus will get you there, and suddenly you are in the Argentine wine capital! We stayed at a great little hotel in Mendoza for about a week called the Hotel Zamora, which came complete with a very non-threatening dog who was there to attempt to restore Shannon´s faith in the species. Think it worked, at least to a certain extent.

While in Mendoza we did such things as drink wine, eat something other than steak, drink wine, continue searching for a solution to the good-looking man conspiracy, and drink wine. Mendoza is a lovley little town right after my own heart: These people believe in the siesta, and it is no joke. The whole town shuts down from 1:30 to 4:30 including stores, internet cafes, banks, travel agencies and any other place you can think of to go during lunch hour. The only places open are of course the restaurants, where one waiter was so offended that we were not ordering wine that the now famous line had to become the title of this post. Not ones to offend cultural sensitivitiers, we of course consented and agreed only a full bottle would be most appropraite.

Other things we enjoyed: A tour of the wineries of course where we drank wine (imagine that) and also got a tour of an olive oil factory and a family operation who make their own chocolates and about 100 different kinds of liquor. We had to get the dulce de leche, because really, where else but in Argentina are you going to find such a liquor? We also went on a tour to the mountains that was entirely in Spanish and therefore probably more informative to Shannon than to yours truly. But the scenery was beautiful, and you can check it all out here:

http://s176.photobucket.com/albums/w190/sweidmann/Mendoza/?start=0

In the mountains we saw the highest peak in the Western Hemisphere, Aconcagua, which tops out at around 21,000 feet, and Punta Del Inca, which is some kind of natural bridge made by the sulfer in the water or something like that. Again, my limited Spanish didn´t really catch any of that story, but at least the pics are cool!

After our relazing week in Mendoza, we returned to Buenos Aires. Shannon returned home and to her real life-and apparently time in the Harlem ER to deal with the real or imagined threat of rabies. So the good news on that end for all concerned is that she is getting treatment for it, which I understand invloves numerous shots given over a period of time. More on that when I find out.

I stayed on in BA to attempt to put a bit more Spanish under my belt, although it is entirely possible all I really did was take money out of my pocket and put it into someone else´s. Ah well, I did get to enjoy BA and lived in another apartment in San Telmo with a fun couple from Virginia No photos of that for a while though because I really have no idea how long it will be before I can download any more photos. Some wrap up pics are here though:

http://s176.photobucket.com/albums/w190/sweidmann/Buenos%20Aires%20May%202007/

So my time in Buenos Aires has come to an end, and I am left to contemplate such things as:

The disturbing lack of vareity in the diet of such a cosmopolitan city; the thought process of a people who burned down the constitucion train station while we were in Mendoza to protest the fact that the trains never come (apparently not thinking about the fact that now, of course, they can´t come); dulce de leche and what this stuff is really made of; and the gene pool that makes all these people so damn good looking and how one can dip into said pool. Add to all this the puzzling lack of napkins in this country, and I venture to say I will need to spend more time in this country to figure out what it is all about.

Now I am in Quito, where I have spent about 4 hours on the internet and cropped up a bill of roughly 50 cents. Good thing it is so cheap as the days of cheap wine have clearly come to an end here! I am off to the jungle and the start of my volunteer work tomorrow, so will post more when I actually have something to say. :)

Be well my friends and live grandly!