Blogs from Puyo, Centre, Ecuador, South America - page 8

Today we signed up in Banos for an organised 1 day tour of the Amazonian jungle basin, as this was clearly the only practical way to effectively view this area. We were very much aware that we were only on the fringe of this enormous jungle area, and that unless we were prepared to take a minimum 8 hour local bus ride further inland (which we weren’t!), we were going to be limited on the wildlife we could expect to see. It was a long day (12 hours), but we were fortunate with the weather, given rain was really set in each of the day before and the day following our trip. We were accompanied for the day by Sixto, our English-speaking Ecuadorian guide, and Julie, a delightful lass from Dublin, who is clearly very ... read more

I arrived in Ecuador having just finished volunteering in the Dominican Republic working in the National Aquarium. It had been 3 years since I had last been in South America and there was a nice feeling of returning to something familiar. This was my first time in Ecuador but the similarities with other South American countries (especially Peru) were evident. After seeing the sites of Quito I made my way down the Andes to Puyo. I had booked a volunteer project with an animal rescue centre whilst I was in the Dominican and didn’t really know what to expect. I was met at the bus station by Gloudina and was taken to into the jungle (the bus broke down twice along the way and I thought to myself “I remember this!”) Walking up the path to ... read more

So Montezuma´s Revenge has hit me. I was sick the week of the kid´s camp then I got better. However, the last couple of days I have not felt that great. I am supposed to go to a peer support training session in Ibarra this weekend and I have yet to make the decision on whether to go or not. My gut feeling - pun intended - is to not go, however, the Peace Corps nurses will be there so I am assuming that they will take excellent care of me. So, this week has seen more of the same craziness. Matt and Heather came into town last Friday to spend a long weekend with Sue and I. Their trip to Puyo was slightly delayed due to a landslide near Baños. They had to get out ... read more

hello my dear friends, I'm giving you the last Ecuador update, since I'm back in Belgium. Since the last time we met I have been preparing the exposition on Kichwa women clothing "Warmikunapak Churana, Runa Awaykuna". It has been a really interesting experience and since my collegues always start things to late, quite stressful as well: making inventories, putting up the exposition, making tags on the clothes and displaying information on the different pieces. In the end we got things together. The exposicion opened on the 6th of August and is running until the 8th of September in de Museum de la Ciudad, Riobamba. I took some great pictures of an 125 old Kichwa women and had a full schedule of meeting up with my friend Winchy and giving tango classes. I roamed some of the ... read more

Well thank goodness that my blogs were saved. I was receiving calls and messages from the Smithsonian - they had been planning to archive my blog entries as an American Treasure, when the blogs were potentially lost, they put their web bloodhounds to work and helped me find each and every one. Usually they reserve Presidential Libraries for former President’s, however, there has been some talk in Congress about an appropriation’s bill for constructing the Jeremy King Library. I am a little humbled by this, but even more concerned. I don’t think I have enough material to fill the library. I have my Ecuador blogs, a travel journal from Australia, a box of love notes from my middle school days, most of my papers from Denison and Ohio State Universities, a few letters of correspondence between ... read more