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Tim, Alice, Richard and Antoine
The guys take a break from cycling to pose for a picture...Hi there!
I started to write this blog in Baños (a small holiday town in the south of the high Sierra) on Sunday, but events overtook me and now I am in Quito, waiting to go to the Galapagos islands very early tomorrow morning. It all seems a bit surreal, as I can´t let myself believe I am really going until I get there...
So, what have I been up to recently? As I mentioned above, I spent last weekend in Baños with six other volunteers from La Hesperia. We left on Friday evening and spent Saturday cycling towards Puyo, 60km away along a beautiful road that follows a river with lots of waterfalls. The views were amazing, and we had great fun, stopping to admire the waterfalls and eat our lunch. But most of us decided to turn back after 40km when the tropical rain fell from the heavens soaked us liberally for 10km. Only Tim and Richard continued to Puyo, while the rest of us waited by the road for a bus to take us back to Baños. After almost an hour of fruitless waiting (and more rain - hooray for the tropics!) a school bus picked us up
and agreed to take us back into town. The bus driver told us to sit up on the roof (there were seats up there), so we rode back along the road taking in all the things we couldn´t see on our bikes. The kids were singing along to the very loud music blasting out of the bus´stereo system. It was a real highlight of the day. When the bus went through several tunnels the kids whistled and cheered, we ducked upstairs! That evening, walking like John Wayne and feeling pleasantly tired we had dinner at Casa Hood, a restaurant run by a Canadian guy in Baños, and ate our food while watching a free film that they put on (Chocolat). It was the perfect end to the day, and we left after the film and went straight to bed for a well-earned rest. Sunday morning was spent relaxing, taking a look round the town of Baños, and getting some emailing doen before we headed back to the reserve.
The week before that was a very interesting and busy one for me. I began work on a guide to the medicinal garden, compiling information on the medicinal properties of the plants
there (translating from the spanish), and I took photos to help identify the plants for non-botanists. On Thursday, while we were working in the medicinal garden, Kate, a Canadian volunteer with the Jatun Sacha Foundation, came to the reserve to film interviews with the volunteers and staff as part of the promotional film she is making to encourage new volunteers to come to all the Jatun Satcha reserves in Ecuador. It was very interesting to talk to her, and she gave me some good ideas for fundraising for the community education project. I will definitely keep in touch with her!
Down on the farm, there is a single piglet living on his own after all his siblings were sold three weeks ago. He was initially scared of people who came to say hello, but has recently discovered the pleasures of getting his head and stomach stroked, and now climbs to the top of his pen to encourage visitors when he hears vounteers around. His hasn´t got a name as yet, but I think it is a matter of time! It is a very funny sight to see a pig roll over to get his tummy tickled when you scratch his
snout.... I will have to make a little film of it!
Other than that, the other notable thing that happened this week was that the skies cleared one night and we were able to take some spectacular pictures of the house and the stars. Antoine, a French volunteer, has a very good camera and took some beautiful pictures. If my CD works, you should be able to see a couple here... (unfortunately the rest of my pictures don´t seem to want to upload!)
Anyway, I have to go and get some dinner, but fear not, I will come and bore you with stories and pictures very soon... Love to all. xx
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Dorothy
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Hi Anna. WGBH (public television) is currently airing "Monty Python's Personal Best," and I saw the Dead Parrot sketch for the first time. It made me think of you guys. :) I hope you are doing well, and have a lovely time in the Galapagos.