Week 9 - 24 October

First of all, as I didn't have a photo of the second set of steps we made, this is what they look like. I don't have a 'before' shot but they were not in a good state.

We had another relatively relaxed week this week. We started Monday with clearing some recently planted trees to make sure they have enough space from weeds to grow and that was about the most hard work we did. It wasn't any more demanding than any of that kind of work that we have done before.
We did some similar work in another area on Tuesday morning. It was quite reptitive and not very interesting but we did have a nice surprise towards the end of it. Ususally, when I know what job I will be doing, I think about whether it is worth taking my camera. For this, I didn't expect there would be anything special to see so I left it in my room. Then our leader called us over to see the monkeys. Finally, after 8 weeks, they made an appearance. They were small ones called Capuchins and I got a brief look at one or two, although we could see more movement in the trees. Here's a photo of one from the internet.

We had another volunteer arrive the day before so it only took 1 day for her to see monkeys. Not fair!
On Tuesday afternoon, Gaz and I were asked, as we had now got a reputation for being expert builders (maybe...), to rebuild a bench and its cover at a viewpoint a bit further along the trail where we had been that morning. We were told that one of the cover's posts had fallen so it wasn't much to do but when we got there, we found that practically all of it needed replacing as the wood was old and weak. It was raining, too, so we didn't had a very enjoyable time. After discovering the bad state it was in, we had to walk back to tell W that we needed new wood and then walk back again to get rid of the old stuff and wait for the wood to be cut. We left there having completed very little.
The part of the week that was the least physically demanding was when I was asked to help translate a document from Spanish to English. I had done part of it on Monday afternoon, which wasn't too much but there was a bigger one that needed doing, too. This was because the reserve was applying for an international grant and needed a big legal document in English. It wasn't so much that I was helping, but just doing the whole thing as Alex, being German, couldn't do it well enough into another language.
It was quite a dull process and very repetitive to start with but, even though I needed to use the dictionary from time to time, it was quite fulfilling to know that I could do it.
Wednesday morning was used to do more than half of this document and I finished it the following morning, finishing up as 6 pages in a Word document.
Gaz had contracted a cold this week and couldn't work that day so Neil came with me to try to do more work on the cover. Again, we couldn't do a great deal as two of the posts were too high for us to nail on the cross beam. We didn't bother going back to get a ladder as we didn't have time (a 2 hour session before football) so we put the cross beam on the two lower poles and I cut out pieces from the beams so the nails would pass through them when we went back tomorrow.

Gaz was better the next day so he came with me again and we found out, when he stood on the bench to lift the plastic cover up, that the end of it broke off. This was after discovering an ants' next the first time under the bamboo layer of the seat... So, not only did we need to do the cover, but the whole thing!
Anyway, we eventually got the plastic up and the cover finished but will probably come back to it next week, which I am quite looking forward to.

The Friday of this week was the hike but I had already decided not to do it as I wanted to do some more work! As you might have worked out by now, I have become quite passionate (obsessed? :-p) with making things so I asked the other volunteers if they wanted anything made for the bedrooms. I had a request to make a table for using a laptop on and so I got to work with the saw (the chainsaw had no oil :-(   ). I had also secretly made a boot-scraper-wooden-mat so we could clean our shoes and boots better instead of walking the dirt all over the house and put it in place while the others were on their hike. Once I get started on things and have enough material to use, there's pretty much no stopping me so I made three tables, one of which I kept for myself and one was to use in the common room. This is the one that I later put in my room.

That day, we also found some baby bats that had dropped out of their nest in our house walls. I found a new-born one that I tried to put back where its mother would find it but one that was flying around in Gaz's room didn't seem to see it so I don't think it would have much hope of surviving. It was about 3cm long and trying to crawl on the floor. I saw this bat on the wall above another doorway.

We just relaxed in the evening and played some Pictionary but I was tired after making the tables so went to bed at 10pm.

Just a few words about illnesses over here. I still haven't had anything in these first 9 weeks but people have had things like swelling from insect bites and parasites around the waist area. This happens from being in the forest and not having your shirt tucked in so flies can get in, go to this warm area and lay their eggs in your skin. They get quite itchy but can easily be killed off with warm, salty water and pulled out with tweezers.  They are tiny little things and don't cause any infections but obviously are not the kind of thing you want living inside you!
There are so many insects around here that you get used to them quickly. We must have seen many hundreds of types of moths, for example, and it seems to be rarer to see the same kind of moth twice! I definitely have a routine of putting my insect lotion on after washing, no matter how many times a day it is.

Next week is due to be a short week as Wednesday and Thursday are national holidays but we are waiting to hear what that will mean for us as the kitchen staff are due to be away. We have heard that we might only work until Wed but we'll have to see on Monday.

Week 8 - 17 October

I hadn't mentioned that since a lot of the volunteers left, there was more room in the house so I decided to change rooms. I took one that was at the back and it turned out to be nicer as it didn't get so much sunlight in the mornings but I needed to set my alarm as I slept through till breakfast time the first morning I was there.

We had a much quieter week this week and one that I felt to be the most satisfying so far. On Monday, we started by clearing the weeds in the nursery near our house and laid down banana leaves on the paths to help prevent new weeds from growing. We got it all finished in the morning and were pleased with the result.

We had had our own meeting to discuss the problems we had with the place: things like communication and organisation and met the director on Monday afternoon. We aimed to be as constructive as possible and although the discussions went on for 2 hours, we felt we handled it well and gave as many suggestions as we could. We saw that some of them were taken up during the week so hopefully, the overall atmosphere will be more relaxed.
On Tuesday, I asked if I could repair the steps that lead up to the volunteer house. It was accepted and I worked with Gaz to do it. This is how it looked before we started.

As well as being overgrown with weeds, the steps were not level and two of them were missing which made it an uncomfortable walk up and down. We put four new ones in and managed to complete it in 3 hours. We were very pleased with the result and the other volunteers, as well as the staff, showed their appreciation at our work, which as you know means the most to me. This is how they turned out.

The next afternoon, Walter asked us if we could repair the steps that lead down to the garden. This was very nice to hear and we were glad to accept the task. The director had seen our work and was impressed with it but we needed more time as all 13 steps needed replacing and they needed to be reset to better heights as these were even more tricky to navigate. As we had football at four o'clock, we only had 2 hours to make a start and we had to use all of Thursday to complete the job. Unfortunately, I forgot to take my camera with me to record the progress so I'll have to put a photo of them on next time but again, we were happy with our work. Lola, a volunteer who had been here before and came back for this week before she left to go back to Australia helped us to use some old tiles to make a mosaic along the sides of part of it. She had shown us her designs for her tattoos and other pictures so I could see she might like to be involved.
Alex, the assistant to the director celebrated her 21st birthday that day so we had a bit of a party at the house in the evening. It was the long weekend so we didn't have to worry about going to bed early.
After breakfast on Friday, we set off for Quito again as Alex wanted to celebrate properly there. We arrived in time for lunch, which we had for $1.50, including cheese soup and a drink, which was surprisingly cheap for the capital. We went out to a bar after dinner and met the guy who was in charge of the biodigestor which I previously mentioned. He invited us to his flat for a party and six of us went. We had also met up with Nils and Charlotte who had finished their time as volunteers a few weeks ago but had continued travelling. It was good to see them both again and Charlotte came with us. His flat was huge and looked almost like a palace. He taught some us how to dance salsa (although I declined as I didn't feel like it) and we played with his little dog, ate lots of snacks that his mother provided when she came back, drank quite a bit and stayed there till 3.30am.
We woke up at 8 and got some breakfast. As I hadn't been drunk, I felt fine and after drinking two cups of coffee, went to phone my dad as it was his 60th birthday. This was my only phone call since arriving in Ecuador and it was very nice to speak to my parents :)
After that, we went to watch the Liverpool match, as Gaz is a fan, in the Irish bar - Finn McCool's, and played some pool. After only sleeping for four hours, I went back to the hostel to try to sleep some more but I'd drunk 2 more coffees in the bar and felt awake again as soon as I got into bed. So after giving up trying, I came out and wrote this entry to my blog.
I expect to feel pretty tired again tonight...
EDIT: I actually managed to last the rest of the evening quite well. We ate in a vegetarian restaurant which was a nice change from rice and beans and went back to the Irish bar, chatted to some friends of friends and left at 11.
I forgot to add some news about my next trip to India. I have received an email to tell me that the Dalai Lama will be teaching the students at the start of the year so I won't be starting teaching until 16th January. This means that I will have more or less 2 weeks to see India, which is good as I expect to be too busy and isolated to travel while I am up in the north.

Week 7 - 10 October

I usually write these offline but as we're not going away for the weekend, I can write a part of this week's online. It's been another week of hard work! A lot of it has been digging which is helping me to gain the biggest muscles I've ever had! I won't take a photo of them because that would be a bit vain! :) But they look strange to me even, as I've always been slim. Anyway, the digging has been to prepare a big trench for a biodigestor. This is something that converts animal waste into biogas through fermentation. We dug one that is 10 metres long, 1m wide and 1m deep. It took us 2 days to do this and I was one who did most of the work. I didn't really mind as it's for a very good reason but it has left me with a bit of back ache but nothing serious. The other big project we worked one was one that wasn't anywhere near as big as it was seen to be.
We went back up to the second campsite to build a compost toilet. Again, this was done with no real plan but it is a triangular pyramid-shape, made from logs of wood and with palm leaves used to cover the sides.

We started work on it before lunch on Thursday and finished it by 3.30.

There was nothing else to do but all 7 volunteers went up and we stayed overnight, when we could have easily walked back before sunset.
However, we started a camp fire to make some tea and while that was going, I decided to make some benches from spare logs that were around. Otherwise, the bits of wood we used to sit on the last time were not comfortable enough or too low down. We managed to quickly make 2 long benches and I put a table together using an old plank of wood. It turned out to make the whole area nicer to be at and we stayed round for the rest of the evening.

We had kebabs for dinner (veggie ones for me) and I gave the others lots of lateral thinkers to solve. For those of you who don't know what they are, they are puzzles where you explain a situation and the others have to ask questions to work out what caused it. It kept people entertained for some time so I've had a look for some more online to take back with me.
For sleeping at the campsite, I had no sleeping bag this time - this was after I'd prepared myself better than the first time and remembered my jacket and took a towel to use as a pillow. Why wasn't there a sleeping bag? Because I hadn't asked for one, apparently. Not because the people organising it hadn't asked me. Luckily, Neil lent me his blanket and I slept in my clothes. It wasn't as bad as the last time and I got more sleep.
Oh yes, one interesting story that happened while we were round the campfire in the dark. We heard a noise behind us which was unquestionably an animal. Some of the others immediately turned round with their torches on and located it. All I saw was a white face low to the ground. And it was still coming towards us. It didn't take more than 5 seconds to work out it was actually a cow that had escaped from its field and come all the way up there. Well, that was a relief as we know there is a puma or pumas that live in the reserve. It makes me a bit nervous when, for example, walking to the toilet in the dark because every noise you hear makes you think it could be an animal.
I didn't want to go to bed until as late as possible because of the thought of not getting any sleep but after all the others had gone away, I didn't feel comfortable being outside on my own so only lasted another 5 minutes! :) But, you never know what could be out there...
The next morning, we had our hike which didn't go down well. We were tired, Gaz was injured again with a hurt coccyx and a possible broken toe but we did the hard descent that I did on the first one. With Neil and Rosie being in their 60s, they found it difficult too. The main complaint we had was that we hadn't been told it would be hard and long and we hadn't been asked if we wanted to do it. I didn't anyway after a tiring week but we stuck with it and the whole hike took 5 and a half hours. We were very glad to finally get back but all of us were exhausted and we've decided to raise a few questions about how things happen here as we're not too happy at the moment. We're going to be constructive and suggest how things could be organised better but there is a general feeling of discontent right now.
Anyway, today (Saturday) is Rosie's birthday and we're going to prepare another meal and just take it easy this weekend. Y, who has been here for just 2 weeks is leaving us tomorrow, meaning we'll be down to 5 volunteers and Alex, who is an assistant coordinator but sometimes works with us. With no-one else due to come till November, things are going to be pretty quiet round here for a while.

 (We saw this little fellow on the way down! Apparently, it is a poisonous one but he stayed there watching us without moving.)

Week 6 – 3 October

I should just mention the lack of mobile phone situation again in case I didn't mention it before. I would need to get an Ecuadorian to be with me to buy a phone and a sim card as foreigners are not allowed to buy the latter so this is not something I can really do.

During this week, I had some more hard work involving the machete, which tends to be the standard tool to do everything. The hoe is another that I used and it hurts your back from all the bending needed. G and I went to dig some water channels on a path going up a hill. It wasn't too bad though and we dug about 5. When we finished, I went to level out the path between the house and the kitchen area so we wouldn't be falling into holes when we walked on it in the dark.

On Tuesday, in the afternoon, four of us went down the road to harvest some coffee beans. In theory, this should have been nice easy work but heavy rain had started falling before we started and we got completely soaked as we pulled the trees over to get the beans. We got a good amount though (you need to pick them when they are red) but the best part was getting back and drying off.

The next day, some of us went back up the hill to a coffee tree field. We needed to clear the weeds from around the newly growing trees, which were still very small. They were in lines and we had to find the stick which showed where they were then clear around them to a radius of 50cm. This meant being there for 3 hours with the machete and as usual, it was tiring on the arms but we finished it just in time.

In the afternoon, we needed to change the area where we plant seeds as the structure which was intended to have a cover on it had trees growing through the middle so no roof could be put on. Us three guys had to collect new soil for the planting by hoeing and shovelling the nearby ground. After this, I was too tired to play football so just went for a lie down instead.

(These are the chairs I made the week before with the chainsaw)

On Thursday, we went tree planting and it was surprisingly quick and easy to do. I did the clearing with the machete and Ch and I were the second pair to finish, with our allocation of 15 tangaré trees done with plenty of time to spare. That afternoon, G and I chose to grind the coffee beans we'd picked. This is the first step in a long process. You need to get the skins off them which was easy enough with the big grinder then wash the beans to get any other bits off. It actually took us more than two hours just because it's a very laborious process washing them. They are then left out to dry for two weeks before the inside skins are put through another grinder so you get the actual brown seed left. These then need to be roasted for 3 hours, where the person has to constantly stir them in a pan. Then they are ground into coffee powder to give the final product. It's a lot of time and work just so we can drink coffee.

This week was also the week where 5 volunteers would be leaving; most of whom were good people to be here with. We went into Quito that evening as it was P's birthday as well. We stayed in a hostel in the Mariscal area which is where I stayed when I first arrived. We found a Thai restaurant and the food was excellent if not more expensive than we would normally want to pay. Some of us stayed out after that to go to some bars and we went to a club called 'No' which which a few doors away from the club called 'Yes'... We were given a free drink then went somewhere else which wasn't much good, so we went back to No, where we stayed for the rest of the evening. It was fun just dancing but I had to stay there till late to protect L and A from the lecherous men who would have accosted them, which they still tried to do anyway when I made it clear that they were with me.

I slept less than 5 hours that night as L got up early to go climbing and the other person who was in our room got up early, after which I couldn't sleep any more. We had breakfast in the hostel, which was a nice building with lots of rooms to get lost in as you walked through them. Some of us went to find the handcrafts market but, to be honest, it was the same as every market I've seen here: lots of touristy things that you get everywhere. We went to the Magic Bean café for lunch and I needed a double espresso to keep me awake. Normally, caffeine doesn't do anything for me but this did the trick as it was very strong. After lunch we said goodbye to four volunteers who were going off to travel more around South America. It was a shame to see them all go but it is expected of the group as people can choose when they want to come and go.

I went with 5 others to Otavalo in the afternoon. This is a reasonable sized town to the north of Quito where there is a large indigenous culture and it is strongly based on textiles.

When we got there, we didn't see a lot as we wanted to eat and then sleep. We tried to find a place we'd heard about but even the locals didn't seem to know of it so we went to the Green House, an organic restaurant. Not recommended. The food was actually good but we waited for well over an hour and when they brought everyone else's plates out, the waitress asked me what I'd ordered. I had to stay patient and I finally got my meal but by now, I was so hungry that I couldn't finish it.

On the Saturday, three of our group went to walk around the volcanic crater which they said was amazing. I wanted to have a more relaxing day so I saw the big market in the morning, and it certainly was big. Again, the usual kinds of things but more of a variety and it was nice enough just to see all the colours and shapes together.

In the afternoon, I had a walk out to the edge of town, hoping to see the mountains and lakes but I couldn't find a good place to see them so took some photos of the area and went back. I'd already booked a restaurant for dinner as I'd had a nice sandwich in a Mexican deli for lunch. The food was amazingly good.

Everyone loved it and we ate a huge amount with G and I both finishing with a mocachino ice-cream which, for me, was just a step too far but we went back to the hostel to relax and play some songs with the guitar there.

On Sunday, we had breakfast, G and I played some more pool and we went to a pie shop which sold lovely fruit pies. I had a strawberry one. We needed to get back to the reserve so we said goodbye to P and just about got back before it was dark. Even though I had been tired, it was a good weekend and nice to see a couple of places.

Week 5 – 26 September

Just a note about the weather here to start with: It's always warm here, sometimes hot in the mornings but recently, we have been getting rain in the afternoons and in the night. The rainy season isn't due to start till November but we have certainly had a good amount of rain. It's also interesting to see how quickly it gets dark. The sun sets at 6pm every day of the year and by 6.30 it is completely dark. This makes it feel like it's really late by 8 o'clock, although we tend to go to sleep earlyish anyway (about 9 or 10pm).

In terms of the work this week, it was a lot more relaxed. We repaired the kitchen roof which wasn't easy but we lifted those logs we'd carried back two weeks ago mainly by using ropes to lever them over the posts they were going to rest on. It wasn't as hard as it might sound but when we were carrying one, G slipped on the step and fell down with the heavy end of the log landing on him. It looked bad but he got a knock on his knee and a big bruise on his other leg. He recovered after a few days, fortunately.

I managed to get some time to use the chainsaw this week, too. I wanted to carve some logs to make seats for the common room and cut one into a Z-shape to make it lighter and in a taller one I cut out a section to give it a seat and a back-rest. It was hard work and took 45 minutes to do them both and my hands were tingling for about an hour afterwards due to the vibration of the chainsaw. We played football after that, which was a good fun game.

We did some other clearing of paths and weeding but the week went by quickly as we were not stressed out by hard work. There weren't many people going away for the weekend so I decided to stay at the reserve, too.

We had our hike on Friday and did one that I suggested as I had been along a path to collect natural paint which was almost terracotta coloured clay-like material. It was in a beautiful area with a river flowing through and lots of overhanging plants like in a cave. 

There was lots of lovely scenery to see and although there was a lot of uneven ground and climbing, we went in two waterfalls to bathe (even though it was freezing!). 

On the return stretch we had to scale a long path up a very steep hill. Most people found it hard work but I loved scrambling up it as fast as I could and I didn't lose my footing once. It was the hike that I have liked the most here.

I didn't go away for the weekend as most people were staying here. On Friday night, we played Pictionary that someone had left behind. It was a very good night and lots of fun, most of it based around our team winning easily. On Saturday, some of us went into Santo Domingo, the nearest big town to buy some things and use the internet. G bought a huge amount of food and rinks as he wanted to say thank you to all of us who looked after us when he was ill. He's a good cook and I helped him make the various things. I'd made omelettes for breakfast and he made dinner. It was thoroughly enjoyed by everyone and it turned out to be a very good weekend. We enjoyed each other's company and had a nice relaxing time. 

When the others had come back we played the second match of Pictionary. Our team won again, although we gave the others a five point advantage and finished when they had one point over us. :)

Week 4 - 19 Sept

Here in Ecuador everyone knows me as Elliot. I wanted to use this name (now my middle name if you didn't know) to try to get used to it. At first, it felt quite strange when people called me that but I am getting used to it now and it feels quite normal.

The group of volunteers has been more stable recently and we haven't had anyone new for over a week. We're not due to have any more new people arrive until November but a few will be leaving after next week so the numbers will go down from 11 as we are now to maybe 6 for a month or so. J and M from Australia left last week as they wanted to travel around the country more before they go onto Mexico. It was sad to see them go but we had a goodbye party for them at the house with a camp fire and lots of drinks. N gave J a joke present of one of the big wooden posts that we carried the week before but unfortunately he didn't take it with him. :)

On Wednesday, we all went up to the 2^nd campsite which is a 2 and a half hour walk away to start building there. We got an amazing amount done in the first day, which you can see from the photo. I helped levelled some of the ground and we all peeled the bark of the logs and put them in. A few of us stayed overnight and we sat under a plastic roof with our camp fire inside and heavy rain outside. N pitched our tent on a slope and it was very uncomfortable to sleep in. I had no mat and no pillow and if I tried to sleep on my side, I slid down the tent! I got very little sleep as my arm or leg went numb after about half an hour and I woke up and had to try to sleep in another position.

Three of us did some more work in the morning with the three workers and we got part of the roof on.

I left at 10 as some of us were going to the beach for the first time. I walked back on my own and encountered a big black snake on the way. It was about 2 metres long but as I tried to get a photo of it, it quickly went away. We have learned that there's only one type of snake here that it poisonous. Most of them get scared and disappear when they see a person.

I got back safely and we went to the beach in the afternoon. It took about 5 hours to get to the coast, which wasn't our destination. We checked into the first hotel we found, called Yam Yam, which to people from Wolverhampton will be quite amusing.

We went down to the beach to eat and have a drink. It was not a bad place (Pedernales) but we left after breakfast the next morning, via Chamanga to get to Mompiche.

This was a very small place but with some nice buildings made from bamboo. It had one main street and a few little ones going off it. Our hostel was right on the coast and only cost $5 a night.

We all wanted to go into the sea. I hadn't been in the Pacific Ocean before and it was nice and warm. We all started swimming but after about three minutes I said “I've just been stung on my ankle” and promptly marched back out. I had been stung by a jellyfish which got me all around my left ankle. I didn't know if it was dangerous so went to ask some locals. They said it was all right but it felt like needles were sticking into me. It only lasted about half an hour but the marks showed up more the next day.

I found the place boring as there was nothing else to do during the day. I sat drinking a milkshake for over an hour and met up with the others later. Luckily for us, their town fiesta was happening this weekend so we went to see it that evening but it wasn't very good. They had a beauty contest on and an old man singing old songs. We went down to a bar and drank a cocktail and sat on the swings.

On Saturday, we went on a boat ride to see some islands and mangroves. We got a cut price deal for $5 and it was really nice. It lasted about an hour and was worth the money.

In the evening, three of us went to eat at a nearby café. It had been hard to find anything vegetarian for the four veggies in our group but we got some spaghetti (or sapaguetty as it said on the menu) with tomato sauce and cheese. When we went back to meet the others and see the fiesta, they called us over. The barman from last night had threatened two of the women with a knife, saying he wanted to kill white people. He had seemed totally safe before this but he must have been drunk and frustrated. We went to tell the police but they really weren't interested in the story. We saw him again when we were with the main crowd and told the policeman again. He went to speak to him and we went back to our rooms. Fortunately, nothing else happened but we knew we wanted to leave after breakfast the next morning. We got back, after having dinner in the Chinese restaurant in Santo Domingo, at about 8.