http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/Centre/Puyo/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from South America , Ecuador , Centre , Puyo en-us Mon, 28 Dec 2009 05:43:50 +0000 Mon, 28 Dec 2009 05:43:50 +0000 Puyo. Hot humid and the one nice resturant.... closed as we arrived. Your mildewy hostel has only one thing of interest a 24 hour porn channel. What would our parents say We are leaving straight away in the morning. http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/Centre/Puyo/blog-456574.html Four weeks in Ecuador and I am one week away from home. I am writing this in my Hostel in Quito waiting to fly off to the Galapagos Islands tomorrow until I return to Quito on Saturday This has been an unsettling experience in some ways Ecuador ties with Mozambique as the poorest country that I have been to and the project I have been on is the only one where the conditions I have stayed in hav http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/Centre/Puyo/blog-444477.html Feeling slightly more human today after the drenching we got yesterday but its amazing what a hot bath and good nights sleep can do. Absolutely gorgeous sunny weather today which was just a slap in the face coming the day after our soaking jungle venture. Still better weather meant we could actually do something today instead of skulking in the hostel as we had planned so we decided on visiting http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/Centre/Puyo/blog-421835.html Arrived in Puyo expecting jungle. Was surprised to find out that the Lonely Planet description of a large town obsessed with the internet and American jeans was actually closer to the truth that monkeys and mosquitos. In fact miracle of miracles I managed to escape from the jungle without a single mosquito bite this truly is a miracle as Im normally the buffet for any kind of insect.Have an a http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/Centre/Puyo/blog-418628.html PHOTOS COMING Just didnt have time to download them today.So my service is winding down rapidly. Peace Corps just recently approved our March 20th Close of Service date which means that we will be leaving country soon after that. The last month or so has gone exceptionally well some of the best experiences of my Peace Corps service. To start a few weeks ago I was in the community of Sa http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/Centre/Puyo/blog-381108.html Greetings to all blog readers. As many of you know I have written about fellow Puyo Volunteer Matt in a few of my blogs. He is working on a project along the same lines as my Env. Education guide. My project was to train teachers his project is to provide workbooks to actual students who lack any real materials. It is a worthy project that was started by former Volunteer Katie Wallace an http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/Centre/Puyo/blog-372342.html Sorry no pictures this time this is a long blog I warn you but definitely worth the read.Our Close of Service Conference COS came and went in Quito this week. Each Omnibus has a COS conference to talk about the paperwork that needs to be filled out how to prepare resumes and describe your service and to provide feedback to Peace Corps. Normally the standard for this conference is 3 days http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/Centre/Puyo/blog-369063.html So Susan and I have celebrated another Christmas in Puyo as well as ushered in another New Year. Just like last year we invited friends down to Puyo to spend Christmas with us. Last year there were 8 of us this year we numbered 20. Somehow Susan and I have become social chairs of our Omnibus or so we have been told. People heard about the great Puyo Christmas of 2007 and thus more want http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/Centre/Puyo/blog-360442.html Sue and I are about to begin our travel adventure to Peru. We leave Puyo tonight Friday on an overnight bus to Guayaquil the largest city in Ecuador. From there we are going to attempt to find a place to watch the OSUMichigan game. Susans brother Tom and his wife Hannah fly in later that night. The next day we head to Lima Peru and from there to Cusco and the Inca Trail. We will spend http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/Centre/Puyo/blog-347211.html Well I am having one of those weeks. On Sunday I was shaving with new razor on my upperlip and managed to slice the hell out of my nose. It bled and bled I am still trying to figure out how I did that. On Tuesday I woke up with an incredible pain in my right eye as though I had a piece of glass in it. I must have scratched it with something and after multiple flushings and standing under http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/Centre/Puyo/blog-344396.html I had one of those moments where you realize that what you are saying or doing is absolutely absurd or incomprehensible to those around you. I was out in the community of Libertad to give a couple of presentations and then to take GPS data points for a project. As I wandered from house to house to take data points I had to introduce myself to those who did not know me and then ask if I could tak http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/Centre/Puyo/blog-342587.html Situated on the edge of the Amazon rainforest Flor de la Amazona Animal Rescue Centre is a volunteer based nonprofit organization striving to help the native animals of South America and the indigenous communities of Ecuador. The Flor de la Amazona Animal Rescue Centre locally known as Wayra Urku was created out of necessity for a rehabilitation centre for a wide diversity of Amazonian w http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/Centre/Puyo/blog-333692.html So this week in Ecualand not much exciting happened. I made a kids page for the local paper I only am going to do one more so that project is winding down I attending a planning meeting for the water fund and discovered that I have to give 50 some presentations for that project on top of the stuff I am doing in other projects not going to happen I got sick on Wednesday with some intestinal http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/Centre/Puyo/blog-323506.html well i cant say that i will be sorry to leave this place on wednesday hopefully. it has been an experience but not really the one i wanted. i have been subjected to malnutrition desperate boredom con men and cannibalismmalnutrition due to the poor diet that these indians live on at this time of year includes just plantain manioc and papachinas. all essentially taste like cardboard and have http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/Centre/Puyo/blog-323217.html well thats it i have finally gone native let me try and explain. got to the centro de semillas a hut about an hour and a half from puyo and up a vertical mud slope from the road. this was tricky with my full pack on but never mind. the first afternoon i was shown the propagating areas and some medicinal plants explained the importance of ayuhuasca and told that wajurat the man has many childre http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/Centre/Puyo/blog-318023.html Well this is not going to be the blog entry you were all waiting for but that is ok. A friend of mine Mary just tagged me. Now I know what you are thinking....what kind of kinky things is Jeremy getting into down there in Ecualand Rest assured this is just a game bloggers play why I dont have the foggiest idea but I am game to give it a whirl.So I have to link to the person http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/Centre/Puyo/blog-314392.html Holy cow I have been crazy busy but it has been a very good busy if such a thing exists. Three volunteers two from Spain and one from Bulgaria came to FRATES a couple of weeks ago to volunteer there and help out with the summer camps I am doing with the kids in the communities. Umberto is here as well. Ah yes the summer camp. The idea for the camp came to me as I was planning out the en http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/Centre/Puyo/blog-310144.html The weeks seem to be flying right now. I by the time I start one week and figure out what the heck I am doing that week is over and it is time to start the next. This never bodes well for those who have a lot to do. I am managing however to finally stay on top of everything I have to do. Perhaps that is because I am getting a better grasp of Spanish and thus I do things a little quicker http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/Centre/Puyo/blog-301859.html So after being bumped up to business class or should I say Clase Exectivo...which quite honestly sounds so much grander on the San Jose to Quito flight ha ha...just like in the movies Im sorry the flight is full so Im going to have to upgrade you...wahooooo spending some very busy days in the coolest capital in the world so far atleast and a very messy game of ring of fire Im sure http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/Centre/Puyo/blog-298872.html Dog Karma yes you read that right Dog Karma. I seem to have it right now in full force. A couple of weeks ago right after my blog about the neighborhood dog becoming my buddy I experienced yet another round of good dog vibes.I was out at the FRATES communities giving presentations at the local schools about the state of Ecuadorrsquos environment. It was an overcast slightly rainy day http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/Centre/Puyo/blog-287370.html