Picture Explanation

The first picture on yesterday´s post is of Cocoa. The base for chocolate. You can take the white slimy things and suck on them (I found them to be bland) but if you dry out the inside seed it is the cocoa. We did lots of cool stuff at the first camp like seeing a tree that bleeds when cut and is supposed to help with wounds and indigestion. We sucked on cocoa seeds and slept under mosquito nets. The camp was very rustic and did not have electricity, but we used flashlights and candles and stayed up late playing a new card game called Cuarenta (40).

The second, third and fifth pictures are from the second camp, which was a lot more modern with electricity, warm showers and even a small bar. It had an amazing view over looking the river Chico (in Spanish, different in Quechua) - pic 2. I went with Nikki, who is from Minnesota, and our teacher Silvana. We met lots of people from all over the world, some teaching English as a second language in Ecuador (there is a need, but I think it is more of a volunteer thing for the most part), another small group which are trying to help Ecuador community by community (www.mannaproject.org), others on vacation after college for a year from England and from Germany. These people started in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and followed the coast around to Chile and then north through Peru and Bolivia and now Ecuador. We also met other students from the US studying Spanish and even a lady on a medical mission to a city south of Quito. In the picture (#3) it is Nikki, my fellow student, myself, and then Jamela (medical mission) and her friend Justin, who is taking some time to travel and has quit his job in New York. These two were a lot of fun and interesting to talk with. We are tenatively planning to go out to eat tonight in Quito.

The other picture is with Silvana the teacher, me, a different student named Nikki and then my fellow student Nikki. We were at an indian villiage giving books and crayons and toothbrushes to them and then we had the opportunity to buy some hand-made necklaces. It was interesting, but the children were very shy and quickly ran back to the other side of the villiage.

I put a picture of the first Tarantula that I encountered while studying on day 2 at the second camp. While we saw only 3 the whole trip they made life interesting and a little scary for us as there was a gap at the bottom of our doors in which a tarantula could easily enter. Thank goodness for thick towels. :) We placed them under the doors the final night after spotting 2 above the outside of the doors to our rooms. Oh....and the last picture is as close as I got to wrestling an anaconda...the guides found a small boa in the jungle and brought it up to the lodge for show and tell....and to put around our necks. Don´t worry....they are not poisonous....simply want to squeeze. :)

I had an amazing time and climbed up a three level waterfall, swam in a laguna, went down an incredibly strong natural waterslide, ascended a canyon with my feet on one side and my back on the other and then I went STRAIGHT UP! I also walked through an old rainforest, a newer rainforest, and squeezed between some huge rocks that had been cut away by the water.

By the way...it rained at least three times a day and was constantly moist. Thankfully, since we were close to the mountains it was not super hot and stayed in the 70´s most of the time. My clothing took about 5 days to air dry and even then they were kinda damp from the humidity. I recommend simply bringing a mixture of old short and long sleeve t-shirts and then donating them to the garbage can. I had a shirt that was incredibly stinky after my swim in the river during a floating trip towards the Napo river...the Napo is the primary artery to the Amazon.

The wierd thing is that the rainforest is about 8000 feet lower than Quito and I think that yesterday I was struggling to adjust back to the altitude. I didn´t eat much and didn´t drink enough water, but today feel much better. Just need to keep adjusting. :) I will post more soon.