Photos! Bear Tracking...

Our last camping trip at the base of Volcan Cotacachi.

We don´t see the bears, but we see lots of evidence of them. This is Armando (biologist) and Alberto examining scractches on the tree.

An Andean Bear! (at the zoo). Few bears + a large area of wilderness + a fear of people + a keen sense of smell means you´re very unlikely to see a bear in the wild.



Hike to Piñan

Alberto (project staff) with the radio, listening for bears

The Bear House

Life is always better on the beach

In my first 7 days on the Galapagos, I will do exactly half a day of work - can´t complain about that.

Day 1 (Wednesday) was orientation. I arrived at the station with 4 other new volunteers. There are a total of 19 volunteers at the station right now, representing at least 8 different countries. Some have been here just a few days and some 4 or 5 weeks. It´s a much bigger group than at the Bear House, and people arrive and leave at various times so it has a very different feel. There are 2 volunteer houses and a separate kitchen. The facilities are rustic, made from a combination of bamboo and concrete. We have running water and electricity (usually), plenty of hammocks, and a good supply of bananas, papaya, pineapple, coffee, and a few other fruits and vegetables growing at the project site. The bugs are as bad as they said, at least in terms of numbers - there are thousands and they swarm. But for me the bites don´t itch like Manitoba mosquitoes or black flies.

Day 2 (Thursday) we worked in the morning.
The work includes:
- general station maintenance (there are plans to build a clay oven to bake things like bread and pizza)
- maintenance in the nursery (so far that means cleaning out overgrown plant beds)
- bird observation (to be able to record which birds are hanging around and whether they´re using native or introduced vegetation)
- cutting down and burning banana tree leaves that are infected with a fungus (Cesar, our station manager, estimates that if the problem isn´t controlled, in 10-15 years there won´t be any more banana trees here)
We did not work in the afternoon in honor of the beginning of Carnaval - a giant festival the week before Lent. In the spirit of Carnaval we had a giant water/flour/mud fight. I don´t know why, but people celebrate by throwing water at each other.

Every Friday, instead of working we do a hike to learn about the island. Today was not so much a hike, but got taxis into Port and went to the interpretation centre, followed by the beach. There are a lot of interesting things I should report from the interp. centre but not everyone seemed as interested as I was, so I rushed through it to not keep everyone waiting. I will go back sometime when I can take my time. The beaches are fantastic. Beaches (like mountains) have a way of making all worries and negative thoughts disappear (not that I had a lot of those to begin with). The sea lions are everywhere, and are very playful swimming around you in the water.

Saturday and Sunday we normally have off, and this week we will get Monday and Tuesday off as well to celebrate Carnaval. Most volunteers stay in Port for the weekend - there are no bugs, it´s usually sunny, and there are lots of beaches to enjoy. Me and a few other volunteers are taking advantage of the long weekend and taking a ferry to Santa Cruz (another island) tomorrow, coming back Tuesday.

I´m sure the following 3 weeks will involve a lot of hard work, but for now I´m enjoying the free time - there´s lots to explore!

To The Galapagos!

I´ve been in Quito on my own for 5 days, and while it´s been nice to have my own space and have time to myself, I have missed the company of my fellow volunteers. Yesterday I had a nice dinner and visit with some relatives that live here in Quito, and another couple visiting from home. It was great to connect with them. Quito is a fine city as far as cities go, but I´m not a big fan of cities. I´ve wandered around a lot, seen the cathedrals, the parks, the shops, etc. but I´m really looking forward to leaving the city and getting started on my next project.

Tomorrow morning I fly to San Cristobal, where I plan to stay for the next month. I am eagerly anticipating spending time on the beaches (on weekends, most likely after hard weeks of chopping down invasive blackberry bushes with a machete) and observing the wildlife that I´ve heard so much about. I am less excited about the heat and the mosquitos, but from what I hear, it will be worth it. (So far the bugs have been nothing compared to Manitoba mosquitos and NW Ontario black flies but I´ve been warned excessively about mosquitos on the Galapagos...so we´ll see). I´m not sure when I´ll next have internet access, but I will post when I can.

Jungle Tourism

I'm told I need to provide more news. So here is my attempt at a longer update:

After having successfully avoided most tourist traps [besides the Otavalo market] for a month, I have spent the last 3 days in Tena being a proper tourist. Tena is a small city in the northern Orient, 4 or 5 hours by bus from Quito.

Day 1: A self-guided walk through a little interprative park, showcasing lots of unique plants and animals from the Amazon Rainforest.

Day 2: A jungle tour, climbing waterfalls and swimming in a lagoon...really beautiful! There was a snake right beside the path, which we all managed to walk right by until the last guy noticed it. Our guide then told us it was venemous and very dangerous and quickly beat it over the head with a stick. I don't know what kind it was but apparently a lot of people have been killed by it.

Day 3: White water rafting. Yesterday we were told the rafting was a bit boring now because of a drought. Then it rained a lot overnight and today the river was really high...lots of water moving very fast! We travelled down river about 25 km which normally takes 2-3 hours, but today took us not more than 1 hour. After being told not to worry, that no one ever falls out...2 of the 3 rafts flipped! But everyone made it out unscathed.

Other highlights: Trips to the market to buy all the crazy kinds of fruit we don't recognize [and some we do] and making a giant fruit salad [anyone who knows how much I love fruit will understand why this is a highlight]; finding someone to repair my shoe for $1 [which ripped down both sides on the second day and I have been faithfully duct taping and re-duct taping; daily trips to the ice cream shop; and plenty of hammock + book time.

Tomorrow: We take a bus back to Quito and I have a few days of me-time before the Galapagos. The jungle is cool, but I think I prefer the slightly cooler weather in the mountains [up till now we've been craving hot showers, and now have an good supply of hot water but we're struggling to make the showers cold to escape the heat!] I also don't mind the absence of venemous snakes at higher altitude.

I hope you are all enjoying life in your part of the world!

Until next time,
S.

Wrapping up in Intag

The month has very quickly come to an end. Since I last wrote, we´ve done many more walks through the forest, spent hours playing Cuarenta (an Ecuadorian card game) and lying in the hammocks, and have enjoyed just going with the flow of Ecuadorian lifestyle. We spent our last night on the project camping in the Paramo at the base of Volcan Cotacachi. It was a gorgeous spot, with a full moon illuminating the volcano. I few llamas even came by to check out our camp.

We are in Quito tonight and heading to Baeza (2.5 hours east) tomorrow to take part in an event to promote the plight of the andean bear. A conservation group is organizing volunteers to construct a 2800m2 image of a bear using black and white stones. The idea is to use publicity to pressure politicians into protecting the bears. After that, we will all go our separate ways. I am going to Tena (a bit further east, into the Amazon) for a few days with another volunteer before coming back to Quito to prepare for my next volunteer stint on the Galapagos.

Sore Feet and Sunshine

THE PARAMO
I´ve spent the last few days camping in the Paramo (high altitude grassland) with another volunteer, and one of the project staff, Samuel, as our guide. On Sunday we took a ride in the milk truck up to Samuel´s house where we spent the night. Early the next morning, we loaded Samuel´s quad with the three of us, plus all of our gear for three days of camping, and then tied a horse to the back of it, and set out for the trail. We walked for 4 or 5 hours (with lots of steep ups and downs - we were very grateful that we had the horse to carry all our gear) before it started to rain. So, we camped at someone´s house, completely in the middle of nowhere (I think they were friends of Samuel). The next day it was just a short walk up to the lake, our destination. An absolutely gorgeous spot, I´m afraid my pictures won´t do it justice. We did some fishing and caught a good sized trout for supper. Seven hours of hiking the next day brought us back to Samuel´s, where I ate a ton of (organically grown) grenadillas from his field (these are my new favorite fruit!). My Spanish got a lot better, since Samuel speaks no english and the other volunteer I was with speaks no Spanish. We spent a lot of time playing Cuarenta, an Ecuadorian card game (which is a bit tricky to learn when you only understand every third word!). It was a really cool few days, made even better by knowing that the area I was visiting is not in my Lonely Planet guide book.

BEAR TRACKING
We haven´t heard any bears in the last few days. There are only two bears with working collars. The others are wearing new, expensive GPS collars that aren´t transmitting a signal properly. Our other task is to cut new trails (through really dense cloud forest). This is so that the bears will use the trails, rub up against a tree, and we can then collect hair samples from uncollared bears for DNA analysis. We need multiple trails because the bears won´t use them if they can tell that people have been walking there.

FIESTA
There were some American university students visiting Pucara on a sort of study tour so the village held a fiesta for them. Everyone came out for games, music, and dancing. It was a great way for us to meet more of the people in the village. The people are very friendly with a great sense of humour - a really cool atmosphere.

REST DAY
I am back in Otavalo for a couple days off, which I will spend shopping in the market and enjoying a comfortable bed, hot showers, pizza, and giant slices of pie at The Pie Shop.

Arrival

Last Saturday, after what I hoped was my last blast of cold air for the year, I boarded the plane. We got about as far as the perimeter before we turned back to the Wpg airport (apparently certain planes aren´t fit for Wpg winters). So I arrived in Quito one day late. My luggage, however, was not so lucky. I prepared for this by strategically packing my carry on, but thanks to heightened security, no carry ons were allowed. But, a passport and a toothbrush can take you a long way, and I am back in Otavalo today (a 2.5 hour bus ride from the project site) to be reunited with my things.

Our house is quite remote, near a very small village. There are six other volunteers (2 from Aus, 2 from England, 1 from Scotland, and 1 from California - a good mix). There is a volleyball court in the centre of a nearby town, where the seven of us played yesterday. I think the local people where quite entertained by seven gringos playing horrible volleyball - they had a good laugh. The countryside is georgeous...it´s nice to be around mountains again. It´s supposed to be the rainy season but climate change is messing things up and it hasn´t rained yet. This is bad news for the crops, but I am enyoying the sun. I´m loving learning about the research here and issues affecting the local ecosystem. Our house is at about 2000m; walking up hill is a bit more difficult, but other than that no altitude sickness. I learned a decent number of Spanish words before I came, but I´m not so good at formulating sentences yet. There´s a woman in the village that teaches Spanish so I´m sure I will be able to improve. So, other than wearing the same clothes for the last few days, everything is going very well.

Until next time,
S.