Huanchaco and Chan Chan

The drive to Huanchaco near Trujillo was a long 12 hours but blessed us with some amazing scenery. We got stopped several times by police on route, just carrying out routine checks on the Pan American Highway. To be honest I think half of the reason they stop people is to relieve their boredomn or top up on supplies of toilet paper. They sit on the edge of the highway in the middle of nowhere in the heat of the desert for hours on end with one colleague for company and some cheesy dance tunes playing on the radio. One pair boarded the truck, had a look around, had a chat with us then grabbed some loo roll on the way out! It really was quite entertaining.

For the most part we travelled through desert. We passed the odd house / wooden shack made of timber with maybe a horse / mule, chickens, and a few cattle in the backyard grazing on what little vegetation there was. It must be quite a hard life with very little / no fresh running water and so far to the nearest town to get supplies. I also couldnt help noticing the amount of litter in the desert. It looked like it had blown across the land until lodging itself in the odd shrub. Further into the drive I realised that it is common to see waste just dumped along the roadside in the desert and often loads of it! I dont know whether there are any official sites for waste diposal in the desert which admittedly is vast with very little in the way of habitation but I would assume not. This is not the case in the peruvian cities as there are facilities for recycling etc.

On the occasion we passed a fresh water source on route to the sea we saw a green oasis of very organised agricultural plots. Again the houses were basic and horses / mules were being used for farming and sheep, cattle and chickens were being farmed.

When we did drive through a town it was a strange cacophony of trucks, tuk tuks and mules or pedestrains pulling loaded carts all trying to manouvre around each other on a fairly narrow road.

On route we stopped for a welcome break from the drive and a short visit to Sipan Museum and our introduction to the interesting and fasinating cultural history of Peru and it`s inhabitabts. The Museum displays many artefacts found in the world famous burial chambers underneath adobe pyramids. The 13 skeletons found pre dating the inka's and were buried with ceramics, ellaborate metal work of gold and silver made into jewellery for the whole body. This was a good introduction to the Moche civilisation. Unfortunately no photography was allowed in the museum so I do not have pictures to share. For the final part of our long journey to our campsite in Huanchaco we watched a beautiful sunset across the desert.

The following day we visited Chan Chan, ruins in the Peruvian desert near Trujillo on the coast. Predating the inka's the ruins are were the capital of the kingdom of the Chimu Empire and the site probably used for rituals, fiestas and trading. It is a maze of large rooms and squares with the remanents of incredible artistry and decor on the thick walls which in their day must have been fantastic, of which the pictures have provided a lot of information about the lives of the people at the time. On the coast fish was a amin foodsource but they also were good agriculturists. Although they worshiped the sun and the moon as gods and made temples for each, the moon was their god (probably because it gave them relief from the hot and dry daytime) and we were able to visit the Huaca de Lunes, A huge ruined temple where sacrifices to the god would have been made. The most fascinating part is that it comprises of several overlapping temples as each time a king died the Chimu's would fill in that layer and rebuild the temple on top of the previous one with large colourful murals each time which the remains of can still be seen.

By the time the inka's conquered the Chimu's in 1470 AD the empire strectched 621 miles of the pacific coast.

Woop Woops on the Peruvian Coast

I spent the first full day in Peru on the beech relaxing and reading more of the 900 page book Shantaram which was given to me by one of the rainforest volunteers. Sasha if you get to read this, thankyou it is great and I recommend it to others. The sun was shining, the air was warm warm with a nice cool breeze and the sea warm. As spring turns to summer in a few months time the days will be much hotter but with heavy downpours in the afternoon but with the rains the surrounding sand dunes are bought to life with wild flowers. The couple, a Peruvian and a Columbian who own the campsite live on the beach all year round with their young daughter. Apparently the daughter attends a good school which has a good programme for English, environmental issues and land management. We ate at their adjacent restaraunt on the 2nd night which was absolutely fabulous. A traditional Peruvian barbeque meal with fresh fish, varying dishes of rice, potatoes, vegetables and the traditonal beverage pisco sour.

The following day we set off for our next beech destination in Mancora, a small hippy town with many tourists as it is an ideal spot for surfing, not that I tried it. The main dusty road through the town hosts lots of stalls selling touristy items and lots of restaraunts and bars. Tuk tuks, large coaches and the occasional old car bustle past at speed negotiating each other and tourists. The beach was really busy with both peruvians, tourists and surfing doods.

The hostel was not the sort of hostel I would have chosen, being a large white washed complex with a swimming pool owned by europeans to cater mainly for westerners on holiday for sun, surf and sssserious cocktails. From inside the complex you could have been anywhere in Europe but actually it turned out to be quite fun, well if you can`t beat them join them and all that.....

With cheesy tunes playing in the bar / pool until 2am and very tastey rum and fruit slushes one could not help but fall into line/ off it as the case may have been. After the first night of a little drinking and dancing I had warmed up and the 2nd night involved mobing on to a bar outside of the complex when the music after the music had finished. After 2 hours sleep I awoke for the 6am start on the truck again!

Across the Border and into Peru

The road from Cuenca took us high up into the Andes. We followed a diversion due to road improvements and for hours we drove down a bumpy dirt track which wound its way through numerous hair pin bends on steep sided mountains. There was barely any vegetation partly due to the altitude and partly due to the disturbance of the works, although surprisingly there were people attempting to farm some of the surrounding dusty land. All of a sudden like an oasis in a desert we would reach a rare valley with green crops amongst the mountains of surrounding dust.
We all cheered our driver Mike when we finally reached the end of the dirt track, turning left on to a tarmac road once again. Speeding along now we entered the lowlands where agriculture on a larger scale was evident.
As we neared the border it became noticeably hot and sunny and the land became much flatter with huge bannana plantations. Bannana's are currently one of Ecuadors main exports. Finally the land became barren and desolate with immigration buildings and armed guards only. At the first stop the crew had to deal with the paperwprk for the truck, we then drove on a little further to the deal with the human paperwork with a stamp out of Ecuador. A little further on still desolate and barren we crossed the border into Peru and a final stop to stamp our passports in our new country, Peru.
In Peru the landscape continued unchanging for a while before it became more fertile and green in places with large scale agriculture on the flat terrain, reminding me of Essex. Houses were simple, mainly very small shanty towns with an associated working horse and the resident dog hanging around outside.
In a relatively short distance from the border we entered the bustling chaotic city of Tumbes. We parked the truck to get some US Dollars changed to Peruvian Soles and beer as we were heading to the beach. Tumbes felt crazy. Tuk Tuks had replaced ecuadorian yellow taxis and road crossings even more confusing. Negotiating our way through the street vendors and crowded streets we happened upon a guy on the street offering a good rate for US dollars, obviously we were trying to be non conspicuous and careful both of which were quite difficult on the bustling street corner. With local currency and beer we set off for the beech in high spirits. We followed the coastline with the sea on our right and huge sand dunes on our left until after a total of 12 hours on the road we arrived at our beech resort where we pitched our tents on the sea front looking out to the sea. When camping we all get divided up into cook groups and it was my turn with two others to cook. Having been food shopping at a local market before we left Cuenca the three of us made a chorizo pasta by headtorch to the sound of the waves on the beech of white sand!

Baños and Rio Verde then on to Cuenca

Baños is a beautiful town situated in the central highlands of Ecuador at 1820m above sea level in a valley overlooked by steep hills and Volcan Tungurhuaa which has recently had some activity so evacuation procedures are in place. The town is bustling with tourists as this is a common spot for hiking, climbing, horse riding, white water rafting, canyoning and more.
We were camping in Rio Verde just outside of Baños. There are several tours similar to the Dragoman tour all touring at the same time at the moment as the full tours are planned to arrive in Rio (Brazil) for the Carnival. We are often a day behind or infront of the others but it is not unusual to be staying in the same places and at Rio Verde we found ourselves meeting up with lots of others who had been at shangrila.
I tried canyoning which involved getting extremely wet whilst abseiling down the face of a waterfall, atleat this time we were harnessed and roped! Here is where I realised water sports and contact lenses dont really mix. Nonetheless it was good fun and we got some interesting photos and video footage.
One thing I really enjoyed about Ecuador is the way you can just grab a lift in the back of a pick up truck. It feels like horse riding without a hat on, ok you are not so safe but you can feel the wind in your hair and it is only as risky as crossing the road. Actually crossing the road over here is probably more dangerous! So 4 of us girls had been offered a ride by a passer by heading in that direction so we hopped on the back of his truck for the speedy 20 minute ride down the windey roads and through the numerous leaky tunnels. The driver and his wife turned out to be tourists from the States. It was all quite random but they were nice people and we had a lovely afternoon in Baños.
That evening we jumped into the back of another truck, this one prebooked from our campsite. Posing as a taxi but really a vegetable truck by day and and a party truck by night. Yes the precariously mounted speakers in the back of the small pick up truck were booming out cheesy dance anthems all the way to the thermal baths. At the baths I was initially quite surprised at the amount of locals using the baths and most of us gringos suddenly became quite self conscious. We went straight for the really hot one and wow, it was great. Steaming natural hot spring on a cool night, under a clear sky and a full moon.....magical. I even enjoyed interchanging between the hot and the very cold baths and I hate cold water usually!
On leaving Rio Verde we stopped to take some photos of the volcano (which since then has had more activity and the town has been evacuated!). We travelled on in our truck over the Andes taking in the beautiful scenery and observing the Andean communities going about their daily lives. Many continue to wear traditional costume. The people are shorter than me, the ladies wear a skirt with a colourful poncho, a hat and wellies and can often be seen either carrying a baby or goods such as shopping or farming goods on their back in a satchel /sling made from plain material.
At higher altitude the vegetation is a little sparse and dull but it every now and then you will pass a fertile valley where there are agricultural fields neatly organised in patchwork design up the hillsides surrounded by houses. You catch a glimpse of a colourful poncho in the distance as a women works the land by hand with her satchel on her back. I watched a man in a large field continually throwing a fairly large boulder to the ground in his field to break up the largr clumps of earth and at one point I wathched a shepherd walk downhill out of thick cloud towards the small town leading 2 sheep with 2 lamb following closely by their sides. I also saw larger family groups farming together.
After 10 hours of driving we arrived at Cuenca, a beautiful colonial city which has a real cosmopolitan feel to it with great restaraunts. We ate well!
I took myself off to Museo del Banco Pumapungo and archeological site which I have to say was fantastic. The museum was the best I had visited so far with exhibits of colonial art, crafts, folk celebrations, and the way of life of the different groups of inhabitants in Ecuador through the various ages in their diverse zones of environment up to the present day and included displays of indigenous costumes and masks and a stunning display of shrunken heads from the Shuar culture. The crafts varied in materials including silver, material, wood, straw, leather and stone. Every corner I turned, there was more to see.
The archeological site comprised of the foundations of the most important inca city of Tomebamba which overlooks the city. Below the ruins there are modern gardens with interpretation and examples of how the inca people would have used the land and what they would have grown.
Next blog: The journey across the border and into Peru

Back to the Jungle

We left Otavalo just after 6am heading for Tena. The weather was cloudy and quite cold which continued over the Andes. We passed through cloud forest after our descent on the other side became noticeably sunnier, hot and humid as we entered the lowlands of the rainforest.

After 8 hours of driving we arrived at Shangrila in Tena a very comfortable jungle lodge accomodation with great food, great staff and fantastic views over the Rio Napo and surrounding rainforest. (Google Shangrila lodge, Tena to see the views).

After lunch 2 staff took us all out on a so called gentle walk which started with a meander through secondary forest but to our surprise was a little more like canyoning / caveing towards the end. To be honest I loved it and the humour of our guides, Jamie and Pedro made it all the more fun. As there were so many of us the walk took quite a while and we didn´t get back to the lodge until after dusk.

Next morning at 8.30am, accompanied by Jame and Pedro we set off again for a slightly more difficult walk up through the cascada. More gentle canyoning and although our guides were very conscientous about health and safety, there was no harness. Everyone loved the randomness of it all, the rock climbs, the rope climbs, the water, the dip in the waterfall and the rainforest. After the long descent back the through the rainforest we were rewarded with lunch at a different lodge before walking to a beautiful swim hole. We were driven back to Shangrila in the back of a truck. It was dusk, raining but mild and we could smell the wet tarmac interlaced with the sweet smell of wet forest vegetation, exhaust fumes from our truck and food as we passed through the villages at speed in true Ecuadorian style watching children playing along the roadside waving as we passed.

The following morning whilst others visited an animal sactuary I opted for the morning in the hammock soaking up the beautiful view from my room. After lunch we all set off along the river for a bit of tubing. With 5 inflattable tubes tied together and 7 people on board we drifted along quite nicely until we came to a rapid when poor Pedro at the front would be paddling frantically to steer us away from any rocks etc. About 45 minutes down river we stopped off to visit a local community who although dressed in modern clothes live a mostly traditional life. Pedro and Jamie explained some of their traditions, showed us some cooking tools and we sampled some traditionally made alcohol and food and the shaman demonstrated part of a cleansing ritual.

We left the community hastily as our guides realised that we again were rapidly loosing daylight. I tell you, these Ecuadorians really do know how to show a girl a good time......Tubing down the River Napo by moonlight listening to the sounds of the rainforest, navigating the rapids (badly at times now it had become dark), the light from Shangrila deceivingly far away! Oh but we did laugh, it felt so surreal and we all had a real laugh. More pina coladas at the bar that eveing whilst soaking up the views and sounds of the rainforest :-)

Moving on from Quito to Otavalo

Just before I left Quito I went up the mountain to the north of the city which is overlooked by the Pichincha Volcano. The Teleferiquo is a cable car which takes you up to to 4000m where on sunny days there are some amazing views of the volcano and city. Although cloudy at the time, I really enjoyed it. The air was cool and thin which impeded walking too far but there were so many artistic photographs to be had of various plants etc and I really did not need to go far atall. I sat up there for ages watching the clouds roll in over the mountain, humming birds feed on a nearby flowering shrub and just generally soaking up the peaceful atmoshphere. On ascent I shared the cable car with a local guy who was on his way up with his mountain bike for a last practice before a competition the next day. From above he showed me some of the thin bike trails down and I have to say that looked so cool...next time maybe?

The night before I left Quito I met up with the overlanding tour company named Dragoman. Funnily enough the main reason for booking myself on the tour (before I left England) was to provide immigration with proof of an onward journey within 90 days of entering Ecuador, of which was not requested at the time! Nonetheless it has turned out to be a great investment and really helped me to see alot of the continent in a small amount of time.

There are two overland trucks running side by side with about 7 clients on each truck but this number increases as they progress around South America. As w drove out of Quito we stopped off at Mitel De Mundo on the equator. This little tourist spot is one of two Middle of the World´s, although the one we visited corresponds with GPS. We had a guide who showed us around the various demonstration huts explaining the historic native culture and engaging us in activites such as walking on a straight line along the equator line, demonstrating how the water cycles down the plug hole in opposite directions either side of the equator line and goes straight down when situated on the line. After the tour we set off again, heading for Otavalo which is a largely indigenous town surrounded by the peaks of three volcanoes. Following a good nights sleep we were taken out on a tour by a local guide who showed us a nearby waterfall and drove us up the mountain into the local farming communities. The Otavaleños are famous for weaving textiles, in particular woolen textiles and we visited a beautiful shop where we met a weaving family busily weaving away at the time. They showed us how they weave and continue to use natural dyes by demonstarting how crushed beetles extracted from one of their garden plants produce a red dye when crushed. We also stopped off at a local music shop where the family gave us a musical demostration using traditional insturments. As we passed through the villages it was obvious that tourism had become significant to the local communities and had bought with it more wealth. A lot of the houses were significantly larger and made of better materials than those I had seen in the jungle. In addition to this, the agricultural plots were significantly larger, although I observed many groups of locals in traditional dress farming in their terraced fields with only hand tools to assist them. So when you move away from the shopping centre of Otavalo where the infamous market can be found selling all sorts of wonderfuly coloured weaved items, you find a traditional way of life continues to exist. Little knowledge nugget: the Otavaleños were used as slaves to make goods to build the empires during the spanish

inquisition.

The end of the volunteer project and Quito

After another long bumpy, bus ride accompanied by many other sweaty homo sapiens and a first aid box with a religious picture above it, we finally made it to Tena for a last night of celebrations and goodbyes to volunteers staying on the project. The following morning five of us continued with our journey to Quito. Another long bus ride on exceptionally winding roads through the Andes (not conducive with a hangover as one of the volunteers discovered) led back to Quito. One by one fellow volunteers left for flights home leaving me to explore the rest of Quito on my own.
Quito has an old town and a new town. I found a really nice hostel in the new town where there are lots of european style restaraunts and cafes and otherwise known as ¨Gringo Land¨, however there are lots of smart casualy dressed Ecuadorian´s who hang out there also so it maintains an authentic feel. Mostly I enjoyed being reunited with filter coffee, something I had missed greatly when in the jungle. The colourful market in the Mariscal area was lovely and had a Camden feal about it.
I also explored the old town, the colonial part of the city with narrow streets and bussling energetic feel with trams, cars and buses and traffic jams and people everywhere in a chaotic but beautiful fashion. I particularly wanted to visit La Basillica, a gothic style church adorned with iguana figurines externally and beautiful stained glass windows internally. I walked for many hours with so much to see and chatted to a few nice locals who spoke to me in what has become my usual half English half Spanish otherwise known as 'Spanglish'.
On another occasion I visited the botanical gardens which although worth a visit did not compare with many others in England. All interpretations were in Spanish so the gardens were designed less as a tourist attraction and more to educate locals I felt. Interestingly there was an area dedicated to traditional Ecuadorian life in the jungle. This jumped out at me as there are people who continue to live this way in Ecuador. In Europe the historical interpretations of this kind are displayed as they no longer exist, but here they still do but I guess even the most traditional tribes are now using more modern tools and clothing on a daily basis perhaps.
Whilst at the gardens I heard a gun shot which at the time although it sounded like a gas gun, had my full attention. After the coop on arrival into Quito I was taking no chances. It was hilarious in retrospect. From the inside of the gardens I peered through the high mesh fence and shrubbery into the surrounding park to see a man and child running as fast as my heratbeat. On further observation I realised it was only them running and with time my adrenanlin levels and heart beat returned to normal and I could laugh at myself, having momentarily thought I would have to hide out in one of the buildings within the gardens!
It seems that Ecuadorian children of all ages accompany their parents at work when not at school. Its nice to see, it is a whole family affair where everyone chips in with either the work or looking after the youngest of the children. It doesn´t matter where you are on the street, people will walk past carrying items for sale, ranging from sunglasses to pictures, sweets and household items. There are no puch chairs or prams, babies and toddlers are carried on womens backs with slings made from sheets.
Having sprained a foot during my long walk in sandals to the old town I was given directions by the lady at my hostel to get a metro bus into the old town for another excursion. Not knowing how the local bus system worked I tried to enter via the exit turnstyles. Not seeing another option I made my way into the bus lane and hurriedly jumped up on to the high platform. After a short wait I boarded the bus but was confused as to how I paid for the journey. I asked a local who spoke a little English but was none the wiser on his response. On exiting the bus, following all the others I realised that I was meant to pay on entry on the otherside of the platform where there would have been a person in a booth taking payment. I considered explaining that I had not paid but quickly realised that with my poor spanish I would probably land myself in more trouble then it was worth. I exited the platform through the turnstyle awaiting an official sounding shout! Luckily it never came and I hurried away mingling quickly into the crowds, feeling like a criminal in a strange place. I made sure I paid on the way back and I think the cost was 25cents, equivalent to about 15p. The trip to the old town proved very fruitful. I was desperate to have a two way conversation in English so I met an lovely unsuspecting canadian couple suffering with alltitude having just arrived in Quito the night before and taking the opportunity to sit and relax on a bench in Plaza Grande. With my uncharacteristic (ok I lie) verbal diorreah I talked to them for hours and felt honoured to have met such a lovely couple and hearing all their travel stories.
Whilst here in Ecuador I really wanted to visit Mindo, set in the cloud forest, described as a must see in the guide book and well known for it's birdlife. I only had a day to visit due to other commitments but it was a real adventure, a cacophony of highs and lows! Again the lady at my hostel had supplied me with the travel itenary. I left the hostel at 7am and flagged down one of the numerous yellow ecuadorian taxi's, showing the driver the name of the bus station I needed to get to. On arrival at the station I managed to coherse in spanish with a local to establish which bus platform was required and on the buses arrival load of people tried to cram on to an already full bus. My bag almost went on the journey without me but I just about managed to cram through the closing doors. It was a long journey out of Quito, standing all the time but quick as the metro buses have designated lanes for their use only. I arrived at an even bigger bus station which although at first was daunting was quite easy once I found the correct booth to purchase a ticket. During my hour wait, I studied my spanish phrase book and dictionary for questions I would require for the rest of my journey and to make sure I caught the bus back to Quito by the end of the day.
After a further 2 hours on the bus around the mountains and up into the cloud forest through windey roads and rain, we reached Mindo. As soon as I disembarked a local Ecuadorian with very good american english was there to assist me with advice on what to do and where to go.
On her recommendation I caught an unofficial taxi ride to the zip canopy wires. A chance to climb into a harness and zip wire through the tree canopy with two ecuadorian guides who were very young and thank god aknowledged my request 'no mas rapido' and then arraged another unnofficial taxi ride to the Cascadas and back for a good price.
I climbed into the cable car with a women, her child and their dog for a short 3 minute journey over the tree canopy once more to reach the other side of the mountain. I then started my peaceful walk through the cloud forest to see two of the five waterfalls. It was beautiful and the light rain reminded me of home. The trail was easy to follow, although all the time I was working out how long it took me to walk downward along the trail and doubling the estimated time back up to meet my taxi driver waiting for me back on the other side to take me into the town to catch the last bus back to Quito. I liked Mindo and wished I had more time to spend, the people were friendly as tourism was so important to them. I did not see so much of the birdlife as it was afternoon and raining but the scenery was breathtaking and the experience of the journey challenging but great fun! On the journey back through the cloud forest and over the mountains, I could't help but notice the shapes of the old trees adorned with weeping vines which reminded me of the Ents in Lord of the Rings.....magical and I could imagine them groaning as they wisely reflected on the changing world around them.

More to follow soon x

Hectors Island in brief

Ecuadorian buses are prone to turning up an hour either side of their scheduled time, particularly in the rainforest. Nevertheless, we sleepily boarded the bus with all our belongings and food for the weekend at 5am. The journey was initially a very bumpy ride through the rainforest on the road mentioned in the last blog. It was great to pass the many small villages, with latino music playing in the bus and the many hoots of the bus as entering the villages. The buses in and out of the rainforest areas are packed, even more so with 25 gringo´s and hot and sweaty! After 2 hours the road became tarmac more smooth as we passed larger towns between forested areas. If I remember rightly the journey to Coca took 4 hours in total. We had a few hours in Coca, a large oil industry town, needless to say the wealth of the oil does not appear to be entering the pockets of the locals.
We then met Hector, our host for the weekend. We all boarded a motorised canoe and which took us an hour along the Napo river to his island of 115 hectares. From the island´s main entrance steps you could see the flame of the nearby oil extraction burning off the gasses 24 hours a day which was really surreal whilst sitting watching a beautiful sunset over the Napo with a back drop of rainforest.
In his early years as an anthropologist he had made trouble for the emerging oil companies in his province. He had learnt the finer details of the legalities of the extraction and how the mitigations for the environment and the surrounding communities, both of which were not being carried out in full. He fought for the rights of local people as he could speak their native language and although he was influential the big oil companies eventually got the better of he and his coworkers and they were scentenced to 2 years imprisonmnent. From what I understood, he fled and lived with native tribes in the forest for those 2 years and on returning he decided to focus on his own life and eventually bought the island and set up a charity. The island has become a release site for 7 endangered species of monkey. He also has a school on the island for children who would otherwise not have an education. He also works towards protecting the 10 existing indigeonous groups in the ecuadorian forest. If you wish to know more about his work see; www.sumakallpa.org

Whilst on the island we helped Hector make some clearamces in the forest and planted some mahogony saplings. Now that is a species I have never planted before! In exchange Hector took us out for walks around the island, explaining the fruits which have been tradionally eaten in the rainforest, showing us the varied bird and monkeys and often rousing the latter by imitating the call of another male. He also showed us how to use a blowpipe and spear and we practised on a target - an orange on a post. Hilarious.

Island life was cool for the few days, although river washes do not really get you clean and my bikini has changed colour forever! I didnt sleep that well either as the second night in the jungle hammock (which I was now getting used to) there was a massive storm which went on for hours and Hector claimed had been the worst for 17 years. If you haven´t guess already....the hammock leeked and after one and a half hours of waiting for the storm to calm I abandoned ship, well hammock with an inch of water around my backside!
Mostly lit be lightening, I gathered my belongings and ran to the kitchen hut where I found another wet volunteer. I got into dry clothes and slept on the kitchen bench, wrapped up in a mostly dry sleeping bag as I hadnt needed it in the hammock. When I say wrapped up, I mean it literally. I did not want to let the mozzies dine out on me for the rest of the night! In the morning we realised there were loads of others who had jumped ship in the night who were scattered around the place. That following night, the Jungle Frog was bellowing out again which Hector claims is a sign of rain. Well the Jungle frog was right, there was more rain that night too but not as bad and I had chosen to sleep on the kitchen table anyway!
Anyhow this was meant to be brief, so for now goodbye and I will get back to you with the Quito adventures soon x

Volunteering and the GVI Expedition

I hope you are well. I am very well, infact I dont know how I have managed it but whilst some others have been poorly due to the heat / food / sanitation / bugs / bites, I have faired reasonably well, apart from the initial effects of altitude, that is until today.....today I have the usual travellers you know what! Cant believe it has happened in Quito as opposed to the jungle! Never mind that though, there is far more interesting things to tell you about.....

The volunteering with GVI and the rainforest
We were staying at the GVI camp on the Napo river which on the way there we accessed by canoe. It sits on the Yachana Reserve which was established by an american man who fell in love with Ecuador, moved here and worked for oil companies, became disillusioned and upset at the way the local farming communities were treated so left and set up the reserve so he could give something back to the poor communities. He set up a school on the reserve specifically for children from poor farming communities. The school teaches agriculture, sustainable land use agroscience / engineering and is based on permaculture principles. There are several social enterprises which generate some income including the lodge which is the ecotourism side of things. The local communities in the yachanna area have benefitted in many ways including the development of a clinic in the village where the school is. GVI rent the land from Yachanna to run the volunteer programme and research. The land and GVI camp is on the opposite side of the Napo River which is a tributary of the Amazon, wide and fast flowing with varying currents and depths.
The Camp was as advised, basic. Dormitary style accomodation with cold showers, which despite the heat and humidity I did not get used to. The water for all washing, toilets and drinking was pumped from the local stream. As long as water was filtered, boiled for 10 minutes or chlorinated for 6 hours, it was safe to drink. However after 5 weeks of washing clothes in cold river water, they stunk! All 25 people on camp smelt the same though so it didn´t seem quite as bad. We had to get used to cockroaches of various sizes which were everywhere as you can imagine. With no refrigeration, food storage was interesting. With the heat and humidity everything decomposes so quickly, including your clothes! We ate well al beit a combo of veg, beans, pasta and rice everyday. Ok we were sick of porridge made with water by the end of the 5 weeks and I did miss my daily quota of filter coffees, infact there is a gas shortage in ecuador at the moment so we were limited to 3 hot frinks a day. All of this was all part of the experience though and it is how all the local people live.

After a weeks training and tests we begun the survey work. The schedule was full with small groups going into the forest throughout the day and night every day to survey amphibeans, butterflies, birds and cut trails in preperation for the mammal suveying. The purpose of the ongoing study is to research the effects of a road about 2m wide which now cuts through the reserve. Part of the road cuts through secondary forest but it also cuts through primary forest and it is here where most differences are likely to be found. If the research is significant it will eventually be published and may help to influence future road developments and / their routes through what is mostly already fragmented primary rain forest.
The bird surveys began between 5am and 6am and would include either a fast trek to site for mist netting or a fast trek to several sights for bird counts. Mist netting aims to catch a sample of understorey birds in nets to be identified, weighed etc and tagged. Bird counts were just looking for and listening for birds / bird calls from strategic points in the forest at varying distances from the road.
Amphib surveys were carried out by setting up pitfall traps which had been strategically placed with regard to their distance from the road and were checked daily for any amphibs that had fallen in overnight.
Butterfly surveys consisted of traps strategically placed according to distance from the road and set at varying heights in trees with baite to lure the butterflies in. Any trapped were identified, measured, marked and released.
To prepare for future mammal surveys we had to cut new trails through the forest which again were placed at varying distances from the road. I particularly enjoyes this. A trail of 4 / 5 of us with machettes, scrambling up and down steep slopes cutting through the understorey and marking the new trails. It all sounds easy but the terrain was particularly difficult, steep, slippery, negotiating tree falls, rivers and that´s without noting the heat and humidity!
The future volunteers will be setting sand traps with baite and recording mammal footprints but for my term it was slowly walking the new trails by night and looking for eye shine of mammals, many of which are so secretive and well hidden they are just so hard to see.

Anyway that leads me on nicely to my favourite times in the forest, which as mentioned in my last blog were at night. It really is magical. It is always hot and humid as temperatures are consistant both night and day which is another contributing factor to the huge diversity. The sounds and smells are amazing and for some reason I felt more a part of it when creeping through listening and looking through the darkness by torchlight. Maybe part of the charm was due to my main sense being significantly limited and having to rely on the other senses.
It was the end of the dry season during my visit but when it did rain, it did it in style accompanied by a storm. The thunder booms and shakes the whole forest, the lightening is incredible and the sound of the rain on the tin roofs at camp was immense. If we were in the forest during heavy rain / storm we had to get out quickly and get to the road (which could be 30 - 40 minutes walk away if we were unlucky) to head back to camp as tree falls are common. The soil is so thin, therefore the tree roots are shallow and the canopies are ladened with vines and epiphytes so when the wind is blowing and the rain is falling it is not uncommon atall to hear the snapping sound of timber. Just another moment where one realises how vulnerable the environment makes you. It really is quite an amazing feeling. One night we camped out and slept in Jungle hammocks deep in the primary rainforest. The hammocks take some getting used to as you are completely sealed in to stop the mozzies from feasting on you during the night. I didn´t sleep much! Oh and the hammock did fall down 10 minutes after I had got in it! In fact 3 out of 6 of us fell to the floor that night. Our rucksacks were stored under the hammocks and one of us awoke to a bag full of termites. Lovely!

Another part of the programme took us into the nearby villages to teach English to local children. We had to walk there of course which meant a long trek down the very hot and dusty road to sometimes find that school had been cancelled because there were no teachers! The village schools are very small and may only have one teacher between the 2 classes (infants and primary age roughly). When the children were there it was fun and they seemed to enjoy it. Probably because it was delivered by funny pastey looking gringo´s who seem to come and play games with them. There is a more serious side to it though, with planning and feedback and the hope that it will help the children in their adult lives.

The villages in the rain forest are very poor, the houses no more than wooden huts on stilts and in some cases more than one family lives in one hut. Families can be large and teenage pregnacy is high in the villages. The dogs can look shabby and thin. I did see one small horse/mule being loaded with grain bags to carry back to the farm. The road has probably made the lives of the people so much easier as it links them with main towns via the daily buses. Each family is given a narrow but long strip of land to farm. The lucky ones get a plot near a river / stream, the main source of water. Cocao, Plantain, Yuca, fruit trees and grains seem to be the most common crops grown and a few graze cattle. Harvests can be unpredictable as with any farming but where monocultures exist, the farmer is even more vulnerable. There is some european funding available at the moment which pays the farmers not to farm smaller parts of their land where primary forest remains. I wasn´t sure how I felt about this but in further discussion with GVI staff I was advised that it pays the farmer almoast as much as he would get per year if the land was farmed and doesnot have the associated risks. I am not sure how long the scheme will continue.

The Saturday market which is 15 minutes away by canoe was great fun. Completely different to anything I have seen before. A few huts / stalls mostly selling the same things, for example, chocolate, coffee, milk powder, beans, rice, batteries, writing pads, pens, small bottles of toiletries, some cheap cosmetic and jewellery, beer and terrible wine. A make shift pub and bar and a place where you can buy chicken and rice. The chicken was lean but it all tasted wonderful after beans for so long! The locals use the market as a social event and have a drink, or two, or three! A really nice experience though and GVI staff quite rightly asked us to not all go to one stall but distribute the purchaces so as not to upset anyone. The locals must love the gringo´s, especially when they have been deprived of shops for a week or two!

I will tell you about a short trip to hectors island in the next blog but as you can hopefully see from the above, the last 5 weeks have been busy. The schedule for survey work was packed full and the walking around the forest for houeçrs on end hard but rewarding. It was fantastic to see the lives of the local people and to interact with them. Life on camp was tough at times for many reasons including sharing a small space with 25 people of varting personalities. It was all worth it though x

'Nights Out In Club Amazonia'

Dear All, I dont have time to write too much today as I am still with GVI and travelling back to their camp but I will update the blog in more detail later. For the meantime here is a blog I wrote for the GVI website last week:

'Nights Out In Club Amazonia'

During the week most of us are in bed by 9pm to rise early for survey work in the morning. However my favourite times are when a few of us get to go 'off camp' and into the forest for 'nights out'.

Frog asnd insect DJ's spin their tunes whilst DJ Thunder controls the beats and the duo 'Moon' and 'Lightening' take care of the lighting and strobes illuminating the otherwise dark and damp understorey / basement of the jungle. We catch the occasional eye shine of the shy, secretive mammals watching from the sidelines and a glimpse of a bird perched on it's podium as we stroll across the dancefloor. As we clumsily happen upon a group of bamboo rats dancing around the DJ booth, they scatter in all directions sqauwking and squeeling their abuse at us.
Occasionally we stop our own dance to take a look around, wipe the sweat from our brow and take a sip of our beverage 'agua cloro'. We observe the clubbers in bright flourescent attire whilst keeping an eye out for the occasional slippery snake character giving us the eye.
The terrain is misleading at times, extremely undulating and slippery, dependant on the influence of Mr Vegatation, the lighting duo and how many drinks have been shed from their vessels. It can be particularly bad in the Primary Forest where few have been before, although we favor these spots as they are less chavvy and we get to roll with the specialists, the old time clubbers who really know how to rock. We still have to dodge the mirriad of moth charcaters flying towards the light of our third eyes though.
As we party the ants of course are busily working the doors and the bar, keeping things in order with the occasional 'telling off' should you be in a restricted area / doing something you shouldn't be doing........only their rules apply!!!!
So as you can see, 'Club Amazonia' has a lot of things to offer even the urbanites amongst us in this dance of life x x

Arrival into Quito

The Flight to Quito was short and I slept deeply.
Waiting in the queue at immigration we watched the clock flip to Sat 2nd October...... Security were thorough but annoyingly they did not ask me for an onward ticket to proove I was leaving Ecuador within the allowed 90 days! Some of you know how I aggonised over this whe preparing for this trip! Actually I aggonised over many things and was quite fearful but even despite all the changes to the plan so far and confusions, it´s not nearly as stressful!
GVI staff met us at the airport and as we entered the Taxi we were advised on the poor road and driving etiquette in Ecuador. It wasn´t that bad though.
At breakfast today we met the rest of the GVI volunteers and staff, did official stuff and were given a health and safety rundown.
All is ok in Quito at the moment as all the fuss has calmed down and life has gone back to normal, although we have been advised to be especially vigalent. Quito is a long thin city surrounded by Mountains. It is very big, taking 2.5 hours to drive it´s length. The weather is sunny with some occassional cloud cover. Its sunny and hot in the sun as we are so near to the ecuator. I do have a mild alltitude sickness, mainly a headache and dehydration. I am drinking loads.
Tomorrow (Sunday) lunchtime we start our journey to the rainforest starting with a 5 hour bus ride which takes us up to 4000m before a descent to Tena where we will spend the night and stock up on wellies and snacks for the 5 weeks. On Monday we will be taking a less comfortable local bus over bumpy roads, then a canoe to the GVI base camp. On arrival we have 267 steps to climb. With my rucsack weighing almost 20 kilos I am not looking forward to this! Once in the rainforest I will not be able to update the blog. When I come out in November I shall give you all the news and hopefully some wicked pictures!
Very excited now:-) x

Not gone quite to plan!

Hola familia y amigos,

ok so it hasn´t gone quite to plan........The flight to Quito was diverted to Columbia due to the political unrest in Quito and all the airways in Ecuador being closed! Yes I was dropped off in the only South American country I wanted to avoid, ironic I know.
There was lots of confusion at baggage collection due to all baggage from all diverted flights being unloaded onto one baggage belt! Luckily I had met some lovely english people who were supposed to be flying into Quito on an an Amazon cruise holiday who took me under their wing. I liked their positivity and sense of humour which helped whilst they attempted to help me to casually find other 2 girls who were on the flight and booked on the same GVI programme as myself. Eventually all 250 of us on my Quito flight had collected our baggage and were bussed to a really nice hotel in Bagota, compliments of Iberia airlines which is just aswell as it an expensive hotel! Although the armed guards surrounding the hotel were slightly disconcerting, the hotel staff were extremely helpful.
The good thing was that on boarding one of the many busses I happened upon the two other GVI members Laura and Hayley. After a very long day travelling we finally went to bed but was woken up at 4.45am by an early morning wake up call by the hotel which I did not order.
Little did I know that whilst reading and dozeing all other passengers (accept us 3) had been informed of another flight to Quito and were on their way to the airport!
After leisurely eating breakfast we suddenñy became aware that we hadn´t seen anyone else from our flight. On asking at reception we were made aware of the situation and infomed we had to get to the airport in 20 minurçtes as they were waiting for us. I rushed to pack my bag (which took an hour and a half to pack in the UK) and were were driven at speed to the airport (40 minutes drive away)! Needless to say we didn´t make it in time.
Luckily the airline arranged for us to get on another flight, unluckily it wasnt for another 11 hours! We resigned ourselves to a day in the airport where we knew it was safe!
We had no Columbian Peso´s but we managed to change up some dollars and we whittled away the hours with laughable irony moments, eating, playing cards, reading, failed attempts to phone the UK, emailing home and generally getting to know each other. I haveto say though, we improved on our Castellano, use of the South American keyboard and discussed the cause of yellow urine!
We eventually decided to move to the deparure lounge, having a few laughs in the security queue about pistachios and despachio. When handing over our documents to officials Laura and I were asked ´´Quito?¨in a way that suggested ¨ Do you really want to go to Quito?¨ Fealing reassured (ha) we smiled naively replying ¨Si¨!

Last Minute.Com

In true Sherry stylie everything seems to be a bit last minute even though I have been preparing for this for months, although big achievements have been made and mountains have moved! Well the mountain of stuff I seem to own is now in boxes and in various lofts, sheds and gardens scattered around South East England.

I have now moved out of my house on the hill.....no more hibernating ladybirds, swarms of hornets, mouldy showers and skating down the hill on ice in a tin box on wheels! I will however miss the place for all it's other charms and quirkiness. Even the car severed its ties from me when the cam belt broke a few weeks ago. Mr scrappy has her now.....I think she was hoping to be transformed into one of those hybrid car / robot types like on the adverts! Well they do say the possibilities are endless with recycling....they need to be:-) I miss her already :-/

Anyhow with no fixed abode and no wheels, one must take to the air......and I do.... in 7 hours time! Sleep...mmmm, that I hope will come when I fly!

My flight arrives in Quito, Ecuador Thursday afternoon. I start on an amazon expedition with GVI (Global Vision International) the following day. I will be unable to blog personally as any electricity is used for GVI equipment. You can keep up with the project and what we are doing at www.gvi.amazon.blogspot.com

Having dreamt about carrying out research in a rainforest for 11 years, it seems a bit weird that it is finally going to happen. I dont know how I will fair but it will be fun finding out!

I come out of the rainforest early October so I will blog here then.

Much Love to all and thanks to those who have helped to make it happen x