Advertisement
Published: January 21st 2009
It's been a little over a week since i flew back in from Ecuador on the 11th, back to Michigan to finish Uni for my final semester. This week has been a time of adjustment; getting used to little things, like being able to put toilet paper in the toilet and not in a nearby bin, having the 'right-of-way' as a pedestrian and not needing to scramble to cross the street to avoid being hit, not having to think ahead to what i am saying to strangers to translate it to Spanish and hope it makes sense; of course the most dramatic transition is going from warm, sunny, and down-pour raining to a few feet of snow, freezing cold and arctic gusts of winds. I really do miss Ecuador and do hope to go back some time. The scenery is unbelievable, the people are very friendly, the culture is beautiful, and the wildlife is beyond words!
The last week at the centre was great; we had got seven new volunteers, one of which was a return volunteer. Jude was a Brit from 'around the queen', somewhat posh, very nice and polite, she worked as a cop
The view of Amazon
This is what i got to see out our kitchen window everyday!which everyone gave her crap for, and she had gone through the travel organization, RealGap, which i had a bad experience with, but she did go through and paid them almost four times more money to do the same project as everyone else. There was a couple from Australia, James and Sarah, who were very nice, they were in the midst of traveling and doing two weeks at the centre, they were very friendly and always smiling and laughing, and did tend to say 'awesome' more than anyone i have ever met. Sarah had joined on my team since Ben left. Sean was the return volunteer from Birmingham who liked to joke about and always making us laugh, during the morning chores he would have his serious game face on though, but i think it may have been because he was working with Gary with the monkeys. Dominik was from Switzerland and was pretty handy to have around, somehow it got started that he worked on the Big Bang Theory and something about a weather changing device he used with NASA, since once they arrived it would not stop storming. A lot of things he said were much funnier since
Jungle Walk
Surrounded by tall rocks on either side, but with a beautiful Amazonian view! We waded through a rocky river bed that was flooded he said it in his accent and he brought delicious chocolates from Switzerland which he would offer to us at times . Then the Americans, Jewels and Megan, who were characters themselves, 19 and from Florida, they were very nice but were quite comical to observe on a daily basis, like when Megan was constantly chatting on the phone outside around all of us who were trying to observe the sounds of nature around the campfire, but just heard her telling her family about feeding the animals.... they gave us a laugh with their antics.
The last week we had more hauling of groceries, fruit, and heavy lumber, but with more people should have been easier. The stuff had to be carried from the bottom of the hill near the Family's house up these treacherous muddy, slippery log-stair/hill that seemed to go on for too long. And if you didn't have a good hold on whatever you were bringing up, it made the climb so much more painful and dreaded. Lots of lumber and fencing was bought to begin more work on new/improving animal enclosures and possibly even
for the clinic, which started to be built but has yet to be finished. One cage that needed major repairs/building is the aviary which had been long anticipated since the cage housing the blue headed parrots and pava was found that the fencing was not even attached to the ground anymore! Which isn't so much a concern of the birds getting out, since they never get to the ground, nor would they be able to work out how to escape, but more with predatory animals roaming the centre may be able to get in to the enclosure, which would be much worse. So we had to temporarily fix it by tying longer pieces of fencing to the existing mesh, then staking that in to the ground until a proper/more secure aviary could be built.
However, unfortunately, i recently received an email from Gloudina to all the volunteers saying the troubles/tensions with the Family had excelled and very much for the worst. As the workers at the centre are very dedicated and focused on the safety and well-being of the animals to live in as natural conditions as possible, with the absolute most desire to re-release them to the wild
Waterfall
We had to climb up and down this slippery, clay, watery hill as soon as possible. But many of the family members had different ideas, less passion to do whatever possible to help the centre, many wanted to turn the centre into more of a zoo-type operation and try to make money off the animal's conditions of being in captivity. But introducing the animals to that lifestyle is detrimental to them if they ever can be released. Not to mention Gloudina and the others strive to stop the exploitation of animals for human amusement , so some time after i left, the volunteers/workers at the centre decided that for the animal's best interest they be placed to other centres with similar goals, and try to get land, funding, and finances to start another centre off of the Family's land, but doing what they are doing now. This is a terrible set back for the wildlife and Amazonian critters, and it's a shame that despite being so close to the animals constantly, those particular family members would not want what is best for the individual animals. It is heartbreaking, but that is a common obstacle with wildlife
rehabilitation; you get those who just want money and use those animals as an ambassador for learning or entertainment to people, which can be good to get people involved and passionate about something they care about, but sometimes you have to let those animals get a second chance at being wild!
All those aggravations aside, leaving the centre was quite difficult, as i really enjoyed it there and would really liked to be a bigger part of the solution helping getting the centre on it's feet and taking care of the animals. And Ecuador was incredible, definitely a place worth visiting!
Driving to Baños on the bus the afternoon i left was kind of sad. I took in the hour and a half drive of luscious green palms, windy dirt roads, tall grasses, abundant vegetation, along the road there was a single power line running along side, many of the time was not on a power line at all but on a down tree randomly placed upright to hold the lines. In it's own way the houses were so incredible, they were all obviously home built and very innovative. Most of them were built from
various wood, tin sheets, cement blocks, iron rods, etc. and looked comparatively much like how we are used to seeing in the States in the large urban/inner-city/poor regions in cities, but it's so lovely because that is the normal residency there, it's how most everyone is living in the area. The women wash the clothes in nearby rivers or water bins and hang the clothes out to dry on the flat roof of their homes or around the porch. Around the yard area is garden areas with vegetables, free-ranging chickens or penned up pigs, cows tied on short ropes in fields to graze in isolated areas, and dogs running about. The dogs aren't usually seen so much as a pet or family member, but as an alarm system if any people or other animals come by.
The bus would stop at small wooden-building frames with tin or plastic sheets for the roof to pick up locals also traveling to Puyo. It was also really interesting to see in the jungle areas where they would advertise; billboards did exist but were rare. Many buildings who were advertising something, giving a number, or small shops trying to
Giant Toad
Found during our Jungle walk get noticed, would write in paint on the side of the building or on a wooden sign. It was really neat. Other 'oddities' of Ecuadorian culture included women breast-feeding in public, men urinating in the streets, spitting in public- including on the bus, crowded public transportation . Not to mention the constant horn honking you hear in the road, everyone honks quite often at all times of the day and night; there is no real order to allow traffic in, just who ever inches their way in first gets to go. The drivers honk if you walk in front of them or are walking along side the road , they honk if you pull out in front of them, stop in front of them, do anything while driving that takes from the flow of driving, like change lanes or if you are a taxi stopping to get a rider. The dogs running about know well enough to run out of the way of the cars moments before being hit because people generally will
not slow for them either. They have less of a regard for stop signs and will just come to a rolling drive by through the sign. It's amazing the differences you notice in that country.
One thing that was very upsetting was the amount of deforestation that was occurring nearby. There was a massive lookout area view off of the path on the way to the centre. You can walk to the edge where there was an incredibly steep slope, all forested, to a large valley overlooking miles and miles of lush Amazonian forest, surrounded by trees and vegetation. Many kilometers away, some companies were logging and clear cutting huge areas of forest to make room for a road to connect other roads for the local's convince. In a way, it could be nice for the locals because traveling between communities could be much easier/faster for them but at the cost of such wonderful, irreplaceable wildlife and jungle. It's quite sad that it's happening, but who are 'we' to tell 'them' they can't have the luxuries and technologies we have because we realized the importance of preserving the rainforest and now they should have to respect that... so we
had the disappointment of having to see and hear constant helicopters flying overhead surveying the areas and the machines in the distance cutting down trees in mass quantities...
If i have the chance, i would love to go back to Ecuador. I regret not having had the time and money to get to see the coast and Andes more properly, but El Oriente/Amazon region was so incredible and amazing and unforgettable; it was the experience of a lifetime and i really wish every one could enjoy the spectacular forest before it's all gone...
Anyways, that concludes my first traveling adventure. I have just recently gotten my tickets to my next trip, which is occurring in May-October. More on that later. Stay tuned, thanks to all who were reading and leaving me love and comments. I will keep you posted closer to May...
Brosandi, Út Í Óvissuna...
Advertisement
Tot: 0.129s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 10; qc: 25; dbt: 0.0724s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
