Delinquent!

First and foremost I must apologize for the delay- I was not accosted by a band of colombian drug lords, nor fallen down some mountainside (though it was close!)... just haven´t been on the internet much and when I have been I actually forgot to update and lost my computer to another user. SO... where were we?

I will give a brief account of the last two weeks to get everyone up to date:

Last week we started with a new schedule of 530am wake up to start milking the cows at 6am. Let me tell you, it is not as easy as it looks and although Shane and I have improved greatly- to the point of being able to do 1+ cow(s) myself and Shane typically does 2-3 cows! And I often wander off and feed the baby cows while he continues. Now I must say, the key to successful milking for a newbie is to get a cow with big enough teats that you can really grab onto, however, I have had the unfortunate opportunity to get a cow with teats that were so big that my arms ached, my hands cramped, and that productive little lady took me forever because she has over a litre of milk in there! Shane didn´t believe my complaints til I made him milk her and then he couldn´t do another afterwards lol... but it´s still a blast and I do love having the interaction with the farmhands and the animals. Sadly, we haven´t had the chance to get the chicken eggs though and we only feed the pigs every few days- usually just table scraps!

After breakfast we tend to do other backbreaking work such as moving roof tiles, clearing areas by machete, digging giant pits for a chicken composter that we´re building or digging post holes (me) and getting the posts, i.e. trees from the jungle, (Shane) for fencing in the composting area. We also harvest mandarines, oranges, guava, guayaba, peanuts, coffee, bananas,plantains, and tree tomatoes as they ripen. Several more volunteers have arrived over the last two weeks which makes us pros of some sort since we´ve become quite comfortable here but they are all in the conservation program and don´t tend to do the same things as we do- including getting up at some ungodly hour, but they´re all pretty good people and we have lots of fun nights sitting in the common room (outdoor room) or around the fire drinking beer and playing cards.

Last weekend Shane and I headed into Quito so that he could go on a date with our volunteer co-ordinator before we headed to Mindo- a little jungle town with wicked rafting and a butterfly conservatory, and apparently the best coffee in Ecuador. The reality was, the chick kept putting things off until it was too late to head to Mindo Friday and then we missed the Saturday am bus because the station moved from where our map said it was SO that required a little retooling of our plans. What to do? We decided to do all of the touristy things around Quito that we were leaving for our next chunk of free time... what does that mean? It means that from the bus station we caught another bus for $0.40 that headed to Mitad del Mundo (MIddle Earth!) where we went to the "park" so to speak, built around the ecuatorial monument (Latitude 0´0´0´)... we had a lovely lunch followed by a trip to a gallery, the insectarium, and the planetarium, with a little sangria mixed in there because they sell booze pretty much everywhere (I love this place). Then we went down the road to a little native museum that is apparently the REAL ecuatorial line as per GPS (but Sascha- our fellow volunteer said that it´s even the wrong one!). At this museum we got to learn about some indigenous cultures, the ecuator, and do the little tricks like balancing an egg on the head of a nail (yes friends, I am officially an Egg Master). It was very informative and quite fun!

After these little treks I just wanted to see the Volcanic Crater that was nearby. SO we hailed a cab and off we went. Well the problem was that at that late time of day all of the clouds had settled in the crater already so you stood at the lip and listened to roosters crowing, cows mooing, dogs barking, etc... all rather disembodied... and so we walked... and walked... and walked... and an hour later, still walked... trying not to fall because it was very slippery! But the nuns passed us quite quickly which is an interesting little aside :)
When we got to the bottom of the crater it was really a sweet little community of farmers that lived there and quite thankfully, a hostel! (and a beautiful one at that!) So we went to the hostel, got a room that was quite nice, had warm showers, firm beds, and a beautiful hummingbird garden with a hottub (!) and a lovely restaurant where we had a wicked 4 course dinner ($7!) and then went for an early bedtime since it really was a rather full day. The next day we headed BACK UP the crater (dear god... sorry nuns... my ass hurt) and walked down to where we could catch the bus back to Quito. The bus ended up taking us to El Panecillo which is a monument of the Virgin of the Apocolypse on top of a hill in Quito that we had previously decided to skip because it´s apparently quite dangerous to go up the hill (on foot). It was quite stunning though and a great view for pictures and we were fortunately able to catch a bus back down as well, even though SHane first wanted to walk down (he tries "invincible" shit like this all the time). Once back into the city proper we headed toward the Basilica which was our next item on the list. After a wonderful lunch we managed to get there and climbed the (many) stairs and ladders that took us to the two peaks from where we could overlook a large part of Quito´s 80km expanse.

By this time we agreed that we´d likely be late back to the reserve and miss dinner but we ventured onward, stopping at the hostel to pick up Shanes forgotten shampoo, and walking through one of the many parks where local artists were displaying their works... it was quite delightful!

We got to the bus station, got on the bus and managed to get back to the reserve in two(whole, individual) pieces... AND we thought that the bus driver had confiscated the beer we were bringing back but he only stowed it under so we even got that!... which was good because we still had a 45min walk up the 1.5 km hill to the reserve, in the dark and rain... which we survived :) We agreed that the weekend, despite it´s odd turn of events, was a success, AND Shane is going to Quito this weekend (alone) to go on his date with Geovanna... while I relax and do some hiking and horseback riding at the reserve.

This week has also been pretty busy, full of very hard physical labour and early mornings and nights. I think my parents can vouche for the fact that I am not an early to bed person but 830-9pm ish is really the extent of my late nights these days. That said, I´m looking forward to finishing the chicken composter and building a gazebo around the sugar cane crusher next week and playing with the animals some more. There´s even a baby horse here who is quite shy but SO cute.

I think that is all I can say. I will try to upload some pictures very soon but until then I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend and coming week!

oxo