A Solid Work Week

Ahoyhoy! This week has gone by quite quickly. We caught a bus at 6:00 on monday morning to take us back to Mindo and start our work for the week. We arrived right on time at 8:30 for breakfast, and started work very quickly. Our work this week has consisted mostly of planting more coffee trees. However, I made rather an unpleasant discovery in regards to the organization we are working for. The owners of the Mindo Cloudforest Foundation, who are Americans, have assigned us to the job of planting coffee with the intention to sell it and raise funds for the organization and to pay the full time workers. However, they also let on that they planned to keep any extra funds as a personal profit for the owners, whereas the sign with their mission statement says that they are a non-profit focused solely on preserving the habitat for the endemic species. And so the true workings of the world begin to make themselves known. This hasn't deterred me altogether from the cause though, as we are still working towards preservation and the maintenance of the wildlife reserve. We spent the majority of this week's work on planting and pruning the coffee trees, but today we ventured further into the actual reserve. It is really quite the interesting and beautiful place. This morning's work consisted mostly of simply clearing the trails and making sure they were in good condition for the tourists to walk through. We have been entertaining ourselves in the evening by playing cards, and occasionally venturing up the street to a neighboring lot where one of the locals on the outskirts of Mindo and Los Bancos has set up a couple of pool tables in his basement. We had a few good games of pool, although many of the balls were missing so we found it quite hard to compete, but just to shoot for fun. It is a good way to pass a night when the only company you have are the three people you spend every day with. It would definitely be nice to be closer to a town, but we are making do with what we have! Today we ended work around lunch time and caught a bus from the foundation back to Quito. We are catching an overnight bus to the city of Cuenca, where we will be able to find some old Inca ruins, and although my camera is still missing, I'm sure my friends will be happy to pass their pictures on to me!
That's all for now!
Peace and Love

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