Santa Martha Flor de la Amazonia

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Hello everyone

I'm very sad to report that my time at Santa Martha Flor da la Amazonia has finished. I can´t believe four weeks has passed that quickly but I suppose that's what happens when you are having fun.
It´s so hard to put into words all the amazing things I have done over the past four weeks.
I forgot to mention in my last blog my Birthday celebrations. The good thing about being in the jungle is that there are so many amazing places to visit at the weekend only problem is everything is about a 6 hour bus journey away. However on my Birthday some friends and I decided to head to Banos (the local Party town and only 4 hours away) In true birthday style we decided to go canyoning. I didn't really know what this was either, until I found myself hanging over the top of a 50 meter high waterfall (in a very unflattering wetsuit I might add) expected to abseil down it on my own. It was a great day though, and I managed 5 waterfalls before hypothermia set in... what a way to turn 25 , with a near death, wet experience all whilst severely hung over .... joy joy joy!

Last weekend My Friend Lisa and myself headed to Riobamba to travel on the "Devils nose train journey" Very dramatic. We travelled for six hours on the bus to get to Riobamba only to find that all the tickets for the train ride were sold out and that there wasn't really much more to do there. Not the best weekend but I did get to watch "Lord of the Rings" in English. I have to take this opportunity to give a huge thumbs up to the bus service in Ecuador. It really is wonderful you simply turn up at the station and a million people shout the names of various destinations at you, you simply have to pick one and be shoved on the bus. The buses them selves are so comfortable and are serviced by a constant stream of food vendors during the journey so you can simply kick back and eat (my favourite activities). The buses themselves are so ornate a decorated with tassels and stickers and nearly all of them (for some reason) show the most blood thirsty films available to the public... there's a love to steven Segal and Jean Claude going on out here... I was please when our bus back from the disappointment that was Riobamba, was playing a DVD of the greatest 80s hits. I did get a few strange looks when I lost control to George Michaels' Careless Whisper, but I'm sure my singing was better for the kids than some kind of Genocide film!!!´

The week at Santa Martha Following this weekend provided a small change of routine as a few of us volunteered to teach for an hour a day at the local school. When I say "school" I mean two class rooms with some desks and a white board and a head teacher with a cock eye, bad breath and a tendency to drink at the kids parties! The children were so lovely although it was so hard to keep them motivated, we had to think of some fun games to brighten up the day. We managed to teach them Colours, numbers, animals and vegetables. Probably not the most important topics to see them through life but it enabled us to come up with some fun games for them.

Last weekend we headed to Tena for my friend Lisas birthday. We decided we needed some action and decided to book ourselves a day of rafting on the Rio Napa. We set out at 8am on Sunday morning to hit the river at 9am. We had two tour guides with the company Rio Ecuador, Jorje and Chino who made the day really brilliant. I wasn´t sure what to expect as the rivers are not very high at the moment and we only attempted a grade three rafting route, however it wasn´t long until I was upside down in the river and swallowing gallons of water. Our bout tipped up about three times and I have lost count of how many times I landed in the water as a result of either the rapids or the very funny and incredibly strong Jorje. It was basically a day of fun fun fun which all happened to take place in the most amazing scenery. Cliffs and Jungle and beaches and caves all around. It really was a brilliant but there was one down side....sun block or lack of it! The water washed all sunblock off and we spent the whole day in the blazing sun. This naturally lead to a week of me not being able to walk due to sunburn which, for some reason, turned my ankles and knees into ballons and my skin into really attractive blisters.

The final week at Santa Martha was more of the same really , cleaning the animal cages , teaching the children and of course digging the dreaded fish ponds all with the added spice of not being able to walk. I also managed to delete all the photos from the last 3 weeks from my camera (trying not to think about this to much!) My friend has given me a copy of hers so hopefully I can use some of those. I feel really sad to have left but I think its time to do something different and stay clean for more than 15 minutes after showering.

I am already back in Quito for the weekend before I fly out to the Galapagos tomorrow morning at 7:30am.
Cant wait.

Will be back in touch soon
Love Sinead

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Comments

[Coo - Coo]

Missing you.But were having fun???
Hello good evening and,thats enough of the David Frost.You won't believe whats going on back here in Blighty,the rasberrys are only down in price to 45p per punnet,oh joy.Summer you say? what bloody summer? it's still not happened! It's so hard to light the fire in the rain,still we can use the inside cooker,well we could, if we could afford the ever increasing cost of the gas,last bill was £347.Electric? don't get me started! As you can see we are having a great time here. "The Car". well I can't actually repeat the words that I said to the insurance people,but lets just say it had something to do with them extracting urine,£60 that was the offer,now concidering that the cost of an average bicyle is about £120,what is it they are trying to tell me that my car was only worth half a bike,stop titering it's not funny. Anyway must go got some cold chicken chowmein left from last night. So thats it from me,enjoy and savour every single minute your out there, Sinead,Love from Una & Coo.