Blogs from East, Ecuador, South America - page 9

Absolutely breathtaking! Words cannot describe the sheer scale and beauty of the Amazon rainforest and I was only scratching the surface! Friday: Arrival in the Amazon gateway town of Tena on Friday and spent the night sampling the local nightlife... bumped into a couple of Italian fellas and their Ecuadorian entourage and had a fantastic night with them. One of the Italians mentioned that he new a Scotsman who was married to a girl from his village outside Rome - it was only a mutual friend who Martin and I had met on our trip to Rome last year...small world case number 2! Saturday: Went on a jungle tour staying in a lovely lodge on a cliff face overlooking the splendour of the rainforest with the the mighty wall of the Andes towering in the background...as ... read more

Sunday 27 March 2011 At 8am we caught a local bus which we stopped along the road to our hotel. We drove 30 minutes to the Quito central bus station to travel 4.5 hours into the Upper Amazon basic to our next stop, the Cotococha Lodge, which is 200Kms East of Quito. We had seats booked for us by Diego. It was a great bus and we shared it with the locals. Every time we stopped the locals would get on the bus to sell their wares and would get off at the next town. Everywhere we travel is so picturesque with having the Andes as the back drop. We were reducing elevation as the village we were going to was at 500 metres a.s.l. We changed busses at Tena. On the way we stopped for ... read more

Hello to all! The five weeks in the Yachana Reserve rainforest was an amazing experience! We both learned a lot about the rainforest ecosystem and the many species that live there. We both have so many fond memories of all aspects of the expedition that there´s a bit to much to tell in a single blog. We both had challenges with the communal/group living but it was a great learning experience, as was the constant battle fighting the mould! The climate is always 30 Celcius and super humid, clothes take a long time to dry and mould grows very rapidly. HIGHLIGHTS. Dave: My personal favourite was learning about the amphibians and reptiles. I spent many hours surveying and many hours studying in the classroom and have really come to appreciate these creatures a lot more. I ... read more

so in the last couple of days Jana and I have really learned what hard work is! I'd say the nice days in school are over. The kids have an attention span of a fly and do not participate at all, leave the room, play ball, bash each others heads, it seems everything is more interesting than the lesson-i mean, ok I understand, but still, they only have 4 hours of school a day (if that), so I feel that we can expect someundivided attention here. ANyway, after 2 students completely ignoring the existence of Jana, who repetedly asked themsomething and they just did not react, I got up and told them in a harsh tone to either go home, if they dont want to be here, or else focus! That seemed to have worked wonders ... read more

A lot has happened since the last update. For example, just like in Rio, we too have had carnival. Suchipakari Lodge was booked out for the carnival weekend, and we had to help out lots. It was a lot of work, but we don’t mind, cause we met a lot of very nice people, and the Morales family was here again (the owners), who are all super friendly. Unfortunately, my beloved Pedro had to be put down (I was told). Apparently, because he could not fulfil his ‘dog duties’. He had a limp, something was a bit odd with his leg, and he only ate veggie food (had nothing to do with me!;-)) and was sick a lot. I think in a more developed country, you would have taken him to the vet and helped ... read more