another report from me to let everyone know what i have been up to. dont think i have forgotten about you. i am now exactly at the half way point of my semester and have finished my work in the cloud forest. i cant believe that a whole month passed when i was there. the past 2 weeks i just spent working on the self guided trail project for the children. we made a card game, tiki post with numbers and the puzzle. we had some kids from canada test it out and they really liked it some hopefully other kids will as well.
i left the forest at a good time because it had been raining really hard the last week that i was there. i never went out and came back dry. i am really getting sick of rain and my clothes were starting to grow mold because they were never dry. the worst day was when we went to finish the trail that i worked on the first week. we had to build a ladder to go down the last waterfall. so all of us (includying mari the ecuadorian lady who took care of the station and her 2 year old daughter marielena)headed out in the morning in sunlight with picnic lunches in our packs. it was hard because marielena couldnt walk so we had to pass her on and off by carrying her on our shoulders. and we also had to carry to bamboo poles that were 3.5 meters long. it was really interesting trying to climb down mud slides and water falls with all of that. but it got worse when it started to rain and then rain harder. it was that type of rain where you cant see very far ahead because its like someone turned the faucet on. the whole journey took about 5 hours. so in the middle we decided to have lunch or we knew we couldnt make it back up the hill. we ended up building a "casa" out of huge 1 meter long leaves. then we ate our rice and bananas soaking wet. it was really good to almost get out of the rain. but it was even more adventourous to try and return because the river that we walked through had raised about a foot due to all the rain and the rapids were harder. needless to say we all returned to the station tired, soaked to the bone, shivering but with smiles on our faces because it was so much fun.
on my last night there it some how managed to be clear and there was a full moon. so we went out for a walk to find frogs and lizards. we only were following the road because we didnt want to get lost. it was beautiful because we could see so many stars, hear the water dripping on the leaves, stream water rushing over rocks and hear so many different bird and animal calls. (it sounded like one of those recorded rainforest cds that help you sleep) we really felt like we were in the middle of no where and were completly at peace. then all of the sudden we heard an animal call that wasnt quite right. it was this low growling noise. and it was being responded by another growling noise. after standing still and listening for a few minutes we realized they were getting closer and we were with out our machetes! then all of the sudden we hear running behind us and everyone jumped when it ran past us. it turned out just to be bella the playful puppy (who ate my shoes early in the month). but it was perfect timing because at that moment we were all scared out of our minds as it was.
the next morning we told the story to some of the locals and they told us it could have been 2 things a puma or a ghost. i dont know what i would rather have it be and i still dont know what it was. but it was definatly something large that scared us like none other.
right now i am in quito and have a week break before i have to start working again. i will be able to communicate better with everyone now because i should be in the city every couple of days. hope everyone is doing well. chau for now.
