Ecuador Volunteer Journals

Saa fik jeg besoeg af en masse danskere! AP, min faetter kom til Quito i mandags og vi var ude i tirsdags sammen med min ven Alex som rejste hjem naeste morgen. Det var godt nok dejligt at se ham igen efter godt et halvt aar, og hoere alt om hans vilde eventyr. Han saa rigtig godt ud, havde ikke klippet sit haar siden vi tog afsted, saa lignede ogsaa lidt en vildmand hehe!
Og saa kom dagen endelig! Maria og Jakob ankom endelig til Quito lufthavn, efter foruligende lang ventetid! Tror jeg ventede sammen med manden der [...]

Hola amigos y sus familias!
(I really don´t know if that´s the right way to say that..haha)
Anyways…sad day today! Ian and I had to say goodbye to the best of our friends from all provinces of Canada and Switzerland. We watched them drive off, back to Jatun Sacha in the jungle, while we are staying here at the beach until our flight out on Wednesday. We can´t believe that 5 weeks has gone by so fast! For all of you, if you didn´t know already, Ian and I will be flying from San Cristobal to Quito, Ecuador on Wednesday the 8th, [...]

We´ve enjoyed another fantastic week and now feel fully adapted to life on the road. Following a truly relaxing few days in Mancora we travelled the long and slow journey across the border int Ecuador and on to Cuenca, a beautiful town nestled in the hills. Unfortunately Jae ate something dodgy at the border and I was feeling a little under the weather with a cold so we didn´t explore much on our first evening. However we did catch a glimpse of the bustling street markets, sunning architecture and beautiful plazas.
Jae experienced a restless night of sickness and spent the morning [...]

HI family and friends! It has been another wonderful week here on San Cristobal.
The weather at the station was unfortunately terrible this week. It rained and rained some more. It cut down on the bugs and uped the amount of sloppy mud we had to trek through. Work this week was slow because of that. We would work for a few hours and then would be called to stop because it´s a little dangerous working on a steep hill in the rain with a machete in hand. We did get to experience new work this week though. We traveled to [...]

So we´re been on the road for over a week now and what a week it´s been. Our trip began when we left Pocklington and made our way to London for the first stage of our journey. Things got off to a rocky start when Jae couldn´t find his yellow fever certificate and I booked the bus for the previous week, but we overcame our troubles and spent an enjoyable couple of days exploring the sites of London.
We enjoyed a few celebratory drinks with Ishy and Shelly and following their excellent advice took a boat down the Thames, soaking up London´s landmarks along [...]

I onsdags snakkede jeg med min amerikanske ven Dustin om alle de historier man hoerer om folk der bliver overfaldet i quito, det er mange.. men indtil da havde jeg faktisk kun moedt én med foerstehaandserfaring. Dustin havde moedt langt flere.. han har dog ogsaa boet i quito i fem uger!
I gaar var vi ude i quito sammen med en masse tyskere, ja, man kommer sgu ikke uden om dem.. efter tyskerne var gaaet hjem, tog dustin og jeg ogsaa hjem (vi bor lige overfor hinanden) Men da vi var kommet hjem, besluttede vi os hurtigt for at tage tilbage for at finde noget mad (daarlig idé) klokken [...]

Nu er jeg tilbage i Quito, efter tre uger i regnskoven! Den sidste uge var egentlig ikke saerlig begivenhedsrig, vi havde en masse planer, men vejret i regnskoven er utrolig uforudsigeligt, saa planerne endte for det meste i haengekoejerne med en bog.. Oev! Sidste dag havde eçjeg lokket en (faktisk to, men den ene sprang fra) af de andre frivilige til at staa op kl 5 for at se solopgangen fra et utrolig hoejt taarn (the birdwatching tower), som egentlig bare var en 30 meter hoej stige man klatrede op ad! lidt nervepirrende.. Naa men vi fór selvfoelgelig vild, og [...]

Hola chicos y chicas!
It´s wonderful being here again in port after a long, hard week up at the reserve.
This week was quite eventful. It started out Monday morning. We were ready and awake at 8 am with our machetes to take down some mora. We rode to a neighboring farm, took a hike, and the mora cutting began. Everything was going great. We had music playing and our spirits were up after a wonderful weekend on the tour. The day started taking a turn quickly. First, Erin had a terrible expereience with fire ants and a spider. A small spider [...]

Hello all! I know it´s been a while since our last post, but since we are currently living in the jungle with outdoor cold showers, spiders, and mosquito nets around our beds..you can count on in that we don´t have internet.
Currently, we are sitting here down at port because we just returned from a 4 day tour of the islands! It was the best 4 days of my life. We are started our adventure on a bot towards Floreana, a small island of only 100 people! The boat shook Ian quite up..if you know what I mean. Katy, you´ll be [...]

Jesus Christus, jeg har proevet at skrive dette indlaeg omkring fem gange, sidste gang broed elektriciteten ned da jeg faktisk var faerdig, jeg manglede kun at trykke paa save.. Der er sket saa meget de sidste par uger, og jeg ved ikke helt hvor jeg skal begynde!
Jeg ankom til Jatun Sacha i forrige mandag i fuld solskin paa laddet af en pickup-truck! de koerer jo alt for staerkt herovre, det er virkelig skraemmende.. Der er omkring 15 vulontoere i lejren for tiden, vi bor i smaa to-mands hytter (indtil videre har jeg min for mig selv), og arbejder i de [...]

Hola amigos!
It’s our last full day in Quito. We leave tomorrow at 9 am for San Cristobal for 5 weeks. We are so anxious. We have been just relaxing the last 2 day. We finished a little shopping in the open air markets for presents for our families. Sent out the rest of our postcards! Everything has been great. The weather has been fantastic and the last two nights, we got a little brave and explored a coupe blocks of Quito at night. We figure Friday and Saturday were good nights because the whole town was out going to discotechs [...]

Today was incredible. What an adventure. We sure are exhausted though. We must have walked at least 8 or 9 miles today up to the statue and capital buildings of Quito.
We started the morning wtih some pasteries from across the street from our hostal. We sleppt in until 9 this morning and missed breakfast at the hostal. And then off we went..for miles and miles. Up hills and rough, busy streets. We had a great time, took wonderful pictures. When we got back in the area of Mariscal, where our hostal is, we had lunch and then came back to [...]

Hello friends and family! Yes, we made it here safely!
Qutio has been a beautiful city so far. We have done much exploring and plan on taking off in the next few minutes to the Old City to see lots of catherdrals and the Statue of El Panecillo. Surprisingly, the little bit of spanish that we know is getting us around fine, but almost everyone here has no lick of English. But we carry a dictionary with us at all times haha
The weather is astounding. Just perfect. The people are friendly and the food is great. The hostal is wonderful with [...]

We are flying out of Tennessee tomorrow morning for Ecuador and we are extremely anxious and excited. We are traveling as a couple to Ecuador and then to San Cristobal Island in the Galapagos, we are so ready.
We are slightly nervous for Quito, Ecuador’s elevation at around 9,300 ft, and we are trying our best to stay as hydrated as we can.
More posts to come
Cheers
Ian Ware and Erin Anzalone

Pyha, har haft nogle hektiske dage! (skal proeve at goere det kort, skal hjem og pakke alle mine tasker om og naa at tage det sidste varme bad i mindst to uger!). Saa jeg endte med at blive ret fuld i onsdags.. naeste dag havde jeg toemmermaend fra morgenstunden af, som langsomt udviklede sig til hoste, som fredag viste sig at vaere “bronkitis”. Fedest, men jeg fik nogle ordentlig staerke antibiotika af gringo-laegen, som nok skal faa rettet det ud! 
Jeg besluttede mig i onsdags for at tage senere afsted til regnskoven (saa jeg kunne foelges med amerikaneren med bongotrommerne fra min skole). Paa denne maade kunne [...]

Igaar (soendag) besteg jeg den hoejste aktive vulkan! (saadan naesten da..) i foelge wikipedia passer det ikke at det er den hoejeste vulkan, og jeg kom egentlig ikke helt op til toppen, dertil skulle man bruge hakke og maerkelige sko og guide.. men jeg kom op til gletsjeren, som startede ved 5000m hoejde! Og dette gjorde jeg i hagl og frost! Shit, en af fyrene paa mit nye hostel havde sagt at jeg kun behoevede en t-shirt… det var loegn! heldigvis tog jeg mine forholdsregler med tre lag og regnjakke! det satte jeg pris paa!
Vi begyndte vores tur den dag kl 7.30 ved skolen.. denne gang fyldte tyskerne [...]

Jeg sidder pt paa papaya.net, en net-café med saa ufattelig hoej musik at jeg faktisk ikke rigtig kan koncentrere mig.. Pyha, jeg har flyttet hostels, men laenges nu tilbage til mit gamle orange vaerelse med eget badevaerelse, morgenmad og den sure sure gamle “visevaert”.. som snoed sig selv for 26$.. fint! han blev saa ufattelig indebraendt, da jeg i forgaars brugte vaskemaskinerne til mit eget toej, uden at spoerge om lov, de stod saa utrolig aabenlyst! men fuck it, jeg har rent toej, og det har ikke kostet mig boenne!
Nu bor jeg saa i et dorm med to nordmaend og en australier. Det fungerer [...]

Jeg startede min tur rigtig godt ud med et gedigent hosteanfald (et af dem hvor man er utrolig taet paa at kaste op..) det oejeblik jeg gik ombord paa flyet til london. Jeg havde naturligvis intet vand, saa jeg maatte loebe ned til stewardesserne og hakke mig frem til - water.. med taarer i oejnene.. hvorefter manden i saedet foran mig vender sig om og spoerger meget bekymret om jeg har svineinfluenza.. Nej, det er en lille lungebetaendelse jeg har reddet mig lige inden den store tur!
Da jeg kom til Miami (hvor jeg skulle opholde mig i 24 timer) konstaterede jeg at der ikke var [...]

Hey to all from Ecuador … it’s been an eventful two weeks since I wrote here last. I’ve been granted a fair bit of autonomy in recreating the vision that is the reforestation area at La Hesperia, and Í’m making the most of it. We’ve made so much progress organizing, clearing, marking, planting, planning, constructing, and I now believe that the area is well on it’s way to becoming (once again, after a period of relative neglect due to a lack of volunteers) a model of reforestation. Another Canadian volunteer and I have just finished building a bench and a [...]

So it turns out I can write after all, since I´m here in Santo Domingo (for my faithful readers with maps, about 100km west of Quito) in search of some supplies. Not much time though, so I´ll try and sum up:
I had a great week of work, made a lot of progress planting areas vulnerable to landslides and organizing/mapping/caring for the reforestation area, which I´ve taken on as a personal project. It needs a lot of work, but we´re slowly making it into the place it was envisioned to be. Working with the earth is extremely rewarding. I´ve also taken [...]

¡Hola mis amigos!
It´s hard to believe I´ve only barely been here one week. La Hesperia is very, very beautiful, nestled in the cloud forest … very green, lush, deep, airy. I´ve quickly become accustomed to moving with the rhythm of the sun; early to bed, early to rise – and usually in time to catch the sun peaking shyly over the mountains, lighting the wooden porch outside our little room. There seems to be a fixed schedule for the weather here (an odd concept to me): 6am-12pm = Sun; 12pm-3pm = overcast (and the clouds start to mingle with the [...]

So much to say about the past three days … I’ll start at the beginning. Arrived Thursday night in Quito after a long day of travelling – or, I should say, after a long day of waiting and being transported around. I did very little travelling myself. But whoosh, 20 hours later, and I found myself in Ecuador. Had a lesson in Norwegian from a girl on the plane … also, talking about how many flights we’d had, we both predicted that our luggage would be lost somewhere along the way. And we were both right. So I spent the [...]

Well, here I am sitting in my cozy box of a house in Edmonton, and there’s nothing left to prepare. In three days I’ll be in Ecuador, dancing in the streets of Quito because I know that for the next 10 weeks, I’ll be as free as I’ve ever been in my life. No phone, no possessions, no military – just me, my pack, and a collection of people from all over the world come together to work towards a common goal of helping to conserve one of the most threatened bioregions in the world. Pretty, too. What a prospect!
I’ve [...]

After a very lame night at a shitty hotel in Miami (thanks American Airlines!), Doe and I finally landed in Calgary at around 2:00pm Sunday afternoon. We were greeted by hugs from Mom, Dad and Martine, and the COLD Canadian winter.
**********************************************************
So I have been back in Canada for nearly a week now. It is strange to think that exactly 8 days ago I stood on the equator.
Coming home was both good and difficult.
Seeing my family and friends was wonderful. Many happy hugs and feelings of closeness. But the adjustment back to this North-American way of life was…bizarre.
Things like hot showers, [...]

Well, guess I won`t be sleeping my my own bed tonight.
At around 5:30 this morning, Carlos (our taxi driver friend) dropped Doe and I off at the Quito airport. After an hour of waiting in line (and talking to the tallest archeologist I have ever seen), we found out that our flight had been delayed by 5 hours. I speculated that perhaps the plane had gone missing or the pilot was dead (come on…5 hours? That´s not a delay, that`s completely missing the boat!!)
Turns out there are no more connecting flights to Calgary so Doe and I will be spending [...]

How fitting that today, my final day in Ecuador, all of my experiences culminate in an incredible celebration of symmetry and synchronicity. I have come full circle…the beginning has become the end, which is to become another beginning.
********************************************************
Last night, we went for dinner with Carlos and Roddy (from the Galapagos gang) at a lovely authentic cuban restaurant. The grafitti in the bathroom said ¨La comida de esta lugar es muy rico¨ and the author definitely knew what he was talking about! After that, we moved over the Irish pub (where we got a little silly a few nights ago) and [...]

Today is our last day in Ecuador.
I can´t believe how fast two months can go by. At the same time, it was so full and rich with experiences that it feels like I´ve been here much longer.
Enough about that…I want to go back to writing about my adventures at the Congal station.
*********** Friday, Nov. 23, 2007 *************************
Unfortunately, it rained like mad all morning during the ¨Dia de la no-violencia¨. But that didn´t stop us and many of the local people from marching down the main streets of Muisne, shouting ¨No a la violencia!¨ and waving palm leaves in the air [...]

Ok, here goes yet another attempt to blog!
I have exactly 45 minutes before I have to meet Doe and Nico at the tattoo shop across the street, but I plan to continue blogging after that.
hahaha, my plans to blog never work out so why do I even bother?? meh, here I go anyway:
******** Going back to December 5th, 2007 ************
The Congal crew decided to take the night bus to Quito, which seemed like a good idea at the time but turned out to suck royally for me because I couldn´t seem to fall asleep for the life of [...]

Ok, so I have over 20 days of adventures, experiences and insights to share. I intend to sit here until I’ve purged my memory of everything worth remembering. I think they need to create a word for the unpleasant tingly/numb feeling that travelers get on their ass when they spend too much time sitting in internet cafe! I see it everywhere I go. Someone goes to stand up after internet-ing for god knows how long (perhaps they got stuck in the Facebook black hole?) and suddenly they are desperately trying to rub life back into their butt while attempting to [...]

Wow, feels like I haven´t been on the internet (or been remotely close to a computer) in ages…luckily I still remember my GVN password. Maybe it´s just my imagination, but I also feel like my typing is slower…
Well, this is going to be the shortest blog entry yet. Just wanted to say that the past week (or two?) have been fantastic, and I have SOOOOO much to write. But unfortunately I have neither the time, the patience or the desire to write it all now.
The whole Congal crew (8 of us) are heading to Quito for the festival from the [...]