Last entry in South America

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As you can guess from the title, I am nearly finished my time here in South America. Cant believe it. I´ve had such an amazingly fantastic time here, so in a way, im sad to leave, but im also grateful that its turned out so well.

So, these last two weeks have been very eventful. Right, so starting off with last last week. On wed, the whole lot of us were assigned to clear the channel trail. Anyways, my previous experience on that particular trail told me that it was not the safest (your walking on the side of a mountain, with both the stream and the mountain on the left, and a steep drop on the right. the path that your walking on is man made and is actually quite sketchy). Anyways, so when Ceri asked for two people to go up to the top to clear the overgrown, but existing end of the trail, I quickly took the opportunity. So Ceri took us up, where he then showed us where he thought the channel trail ended, told us good luck, and headed back down to make signs. 2 minutes into randomly macheting this so called trail, we realized that we had no idea as to which direction it was suppose to be going. After hitting about 3 dead ends and a cliff, we decided to head back down to the other end of the trail and work from there. This turned out to be relatively disasterous for us. Righto, so we headed back down to the other side of the channel trail and started to try to find our way back up. The path slowly dissolved into nothing, and soon john and i found ourselves completely lost in this dense Ecuadorian cloud forest. We saw two huge log type things headed strait up the mountain, looked at each other, and were like...hmm...this is definetely not the way...ya, it looks a but dodgy..., then both had a serious laspe in judgement, and said to each other, simultaneously: cool lets go up! sounds like a plan!. So off we went, (fools) climbing up this mountain, where the vegetation was so dense that we were on our hand and knees (still carrying our machetes) climbing under and over trees/branches, prickly bush shit, and it got so steep that we literally had to leap from muddy, unstable ground and grab onto branches (or anything, for that matter), hoping to god that they wouldnt break. After bout half an hour of climbing, we started to realize how rediculous it was and how lost we were, but, since neither of us had our sensiblility hats on (still) we decided to keep going. up. Half an hour after that, we realized that it was just too bloody dense and too steep to keep going, (and also that if one of us got hurt at that point, we´d be screwed cause no one would ever be able to find us). As soon as John mentioned the poisonous snakes in that area (which we would never have been able to get away from) I turned around and headed strait back down in a second. Panic mode set in for both of us, when we realized that we had been gone for 4 hours now, it was lunch time, and soon people would get worried and send out people to look for us. (which would be useless, btw) We scrambled back down. which turned out to be way more dangerous than climbing up, because in our haste and panic, we jumped down mini cliffs, bout 5 meters high, where the ground that we ´landed´ on was muddy and on a steep angle, and we´d go crashing into the bushes/trees (still holding our machetes, hahaha). It was one of those moments where you were like...shit, my mom would piss herself if she knew what was going on right now. Anyways, we eventually miraculously found the path again and managed to get the hay out of there. Walked out of their looking like absolute shit. Exploring is so overrated. Anyways, I just realized that I completely over described that. Sorry. lol.

Okay, so on thursday, we got the chance to go down to the bottom of the hill, where we had been asked to help do the cementing for the hostal that they were building down there. (the hostal was going to be used to give housing to the people working on the hydroelectric project). Was hard as hell but also a really interesting time, cause we were asked to carry 100 pound bags of cement around, and there was wet cement flying around everywhere. The safety standards were basically non existing. There were like buckets of cement being thrown around all over the place, mainly by the guys at the top of the house who threw them down, asking for more cement). Was actually quite frustrating, escpectially when a 50 pound bucket of cement comes crashing down near your head (or on it, if you werent quick enough to dodge it). Anyways, it was a good experience, despite the fact that I was sore as hell for a week after).

That night, right after work, a bunch of us headed out to Canoa, (a beach town). The entire Canoa trip can be summed up as one big shit show. So at about 4pm on thursday, we left the reserve and caught a bus to Santo Dominto. Got there at around 6, where we then had to take another bus to Pedernalis. Got there at bout 10. omg okay, so while we were on the bus, about to leave, this guy holding a live chicken comes up to us, sticks his face like 3 inches from ours, starts making chicken noises, and waving his arms around like a chicken, and then runs off the bus laughing. We sat there, dumbstruck, and were like..that was un.believable. Alrighty, on with the story. So when we got to Pedernalis, we found out that there were no buses going to Canoa. We somehow met this guy that offered us a ride in the back of his truck, who took us the rest of the way (bout 2.5 hours). This was rediculous, there was like 6 of us crammed into this crate type thing at the back of his truck, while the guy drove like a friggin maniac down this dodgy road. Tried to sleep, but couldnt, cause the wind was hitting us pretty hard, and i was slightly paranoid that the if i leaned too hard, the back of the crate thing would fall apart and that id fall out. Anyways, so it actually turned out to be not too bad. Got to Canoa a little past midnight, found our hotel, and went to bed.
Next day, we got breakfast and then headed off to the beach. Boogy boarded and suntanned pretty much all morning. The hotel we found that day was awesome, it was right on the beach. At about 5pm , we found our first happy hour. Had a few drinks and played pool with some of the locals, and then headed off to dinner. Luke, who we met again earlier that day, told us about a place that sold shit burgers. his words, not mine. After another laspe in judgement, we decided it be a good idea to eat these things for dinner. Filled us up for the moment. Then, we headed off to our second and third happy hours ( 7 to 8 and 9 to 10) Hung out at surf shack after that, and then headed off to bed at around 1.
The next morning, Shelley and Jessica woke up really sick. Jess was so bad that she couldnt even leave Canoa till the next day. Shelley decided to stick it out till we got home.
k so getting home was probably the most rediculous part. It should have been about a 8 hour bus ride back. So we left Canoa at about 10 am, and got onto a bus, where they told us that we´d be heading off to Pedernalis. Half an hour into it, I get woken up, shuffled off the bus, thrown a life jacket, and told to get on this dingy boat. We were sitting there like....how the hell did we end up on a boat??!!!! So there we were, on a boat, while this kid sang and played an instrument that he made out of a comb and a rock. (we were asked to give money later) We asked where we were going, and when the guy told us the name of the place we were going, we didnt even recognize it. We´re like, oh, lovely. This is just perfect. Shelley starts cracking jokes about taking a boat to Quito. (which in case some of you didnt get, is rediculous, cause we started off on the coast and Quito is inland). Anyways, we get dropped off at some unknown place, where the titanic theme song and Celine Dion is blasting out of the speakers, at the dock where we landed. Somehow, we ended up on a tuk tuk, (the three of us crammed in there, looked ( and felt) effing rediculous). Get taken to a bus station. Got told to go to a diffferent one, if we wanted to get back to Quito. Get on tuk tuk number two. Get to different bus station. Take bus number two. Another guy tells us that we can get to Quito by this other bus. While getting on the bus, I try to reaffirm with him..so this bus will take us to Quito? He says yes, laughs and then mutters the word caminar (which means to walk), under his breath. I get on cause im just too tired to care, and Shelley and I look at each other skeptically, like..shit...did he just laugh and tell us we could walk to Quito? Oh well. Bout 2 hours later, we get dropped off at some random shanty town. Time travelled: 4 hours. Distance travelled: unknown. Current location: only god knows.
That town was so run down, it was unreal. We confirmed that we were definetely no where near where we were suppose to be, seeing as how we were the only gringos in the entire town, and people were giving us looks, and these kids starting coming up to us and staring, like we were friggin aliens. We get told that we can catch another bus to Quito at 4. Wait at that town on a bench by the side of the road for 2 hours. Finally the bus came, and the trip to Quito took us till 1 am. Got to Quito, relieved (btw, Shelley was throwing up all over the place during the entire fiasco) headed strait to bed. During the night, after power puking for an hour, Shelley ends up in the hospital. The next day (sunday) , I went back to the reserve ( on my own, cause Em was suppose to be flying home that night . Jess makes it back on her own, from Canoa, but was still pretty sick. I then found out on Monday that Emily got sick like 2 hours before she was suppose to catch her flight, ended up at the hospital, but managed to get on her flight afterall.
Overall it was a pretty successful weekend. lol.

My last week of work at the reserve was pretty good. I think i might have to get a machete when I come back to Canada. I found out im quite good at using one. A bunch of new volunteers came to the reserve, which was good because most of us were leaving either that week or the next.
I spent my last weekend at the reserve. (if youve noticed, it was the first time i ever spent a weekend there). I thought it was about time. On saturday, Jess and I decided to go to St. Domingo to catch a movie and get all the things that we´d need for our upcoming party on sunday night. After waiting for a bus for 1.5 hours, we managed to jump on a milk truck instead. That was friggin dangerous. As soon as I had one foot and on hand on the back of the truck, they started driving. Almost shit myself. I was like hanging off the back of this truck for dear life (note, not in the truck) while this guy starts accelerating to like 100k. on a highway. Just when i think that im gonna fall off and die this guy pulls me in. thank god.
Anyways, so we get to St. Domingo, and decide to see the only movie thats running in English. What happens in Vegas or something like that. omg. It was so bad that a third into it, Jess goes off and gets us a bottle of wine. Drink most of it while in the theatre.
So after our little party on Sunday, I left the reserve after breakfast on monday morning. Its Tues night now. The last two days ive been hanging out with these two guys i met in dorm room i was staying in. I finally got to climb the Basilica. Took a gondola type thing to the top of the mountain next to the city. Quite high, but a very good view. Bout 4100 m.
My flight leaves at 6:30am tomorrow. Which means i gotta leave the hostal tonight at around 4 am.
Im gonna go now, and try to get everything organized before leaving. Cant wait to see all of you!
P.S. didnt have time to upload pictures, sorry, ill put them in my last entry

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