Earth 2 Karen

(Inspired by Valerie’s bulletin)

My new and fancy job has not taken me all over the world (yet), but where it has taken me is to the Gulf Coast - specifically Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas.  In late October, we did our first round of field visits to sites proposed by the US Dept of Energy for oil storage development.  For many reasons, DOE prefers sites around the Gulf Coast.  The oil is stored in underground salt domes, which limits where these sites can be placed.  It is actually quite interesting… you can read more about it here.

The point is, through my job I have driven over 1000 miles through Mississippi following pipelines and recording the ecological landscape.  During our first trip, we also visited sites in Louisiana.  The Red Cross, Fema, and Katrina victims had hotel rooms booked clear to Texas.  In Louisiana, the only place to stay was the Intercontinental in New Orleans which had just opened the week we arrived. 

I was nervous about the trip in general, especially about staying in New Orleans.  The news media made New Orleans sound like an undesirable and unsafe place to be.  Of course, I was also curious to witness the damage of Katrina first hand.

Our trip began in Jackson, Mississippi from where we drove to Hattiesburg, MS to check out a nearby proposed site on one day, and the next day follow a pipeline south to Pascagoula.  Hattiesburg is quite a distance inland from the coast, yet the impacts of Katrina were clear.  Just about every home had a blue tarp roof, hand painted signs on the road pointed to make shift FEMA and Red Cross centers.  As visitors, it was difficult to find a restaurant or store because nearly every store sign had been blown out.  Local residents told us Katrina was still a hurricane when it plowed through this part of Mississippi.  You didn’t need to ask though.  Whole forests leaned to one side.  At one of our field sites, a mature forest stand had been reduced to about 20% canopy coverage.  As we drove south towards Pascagoula, the wind damage was even more present.  Once in Pascagoula, the wind damage was coupled with storm surge.  To orient yourself, Pascagoula is a eastern coastal town practically on the border with Alabama - far from New Orleans.

As my co-worker and I finished up our surveying work we decided to head west before heading north back to Jackson.  We drove through Biloxi and Gulfport.  Here the damage was unimaginable.  City blocks facing the coast are gone. GONE.  Seemingly large houses completely reduced to rubble.  Houses not on the coast, were not spared as the wind damage was intense as well.  Large parking lots were aid distribution centers.  Every plot of grass was full tents.  It was more difficult than I thought it would  be to see the damage first hand.  It felt wrong to be driving through the area, like we were driving through a war zone.

The last part of our trip was spent in New Orleans.  Here large parts of the city were still closed to residents.  We arrived late one evening and from the highway we saw buildings standing empty, dark and silent while traffic moved steadily and heavily away from New Orleans after a days work of clean-up.  In the day time, the damage was not overtly evident.  Throughout the city there is a simple grey line across many buildings a foot to many feet above the ground marking where the water stood.   Street corners were littered with contractor signs offering debris removal, house gutting, and mold clean-up… and the contractors were everywhere already in the process of rebuilding.  Business were reopening, each one with a sign that read "Yes!  We are opening" next to "We are hiring."  In general, the mood here seemed hopeful.  On our last night in New Orleans, we visited the famed Bourbon Street where we drank "Category 4 Hurricanes", danced to live music, and chatted with Anderson Cooper of CNN.  (Meeting Anderson Cooper isn’t a part of this story, but it was a highlight of the trip for me.  That’s him reporting live from a balcony in the French Quarter.  We met him later at a bar.)

The flooding in New Orleans made it inhabitable so that everyone had to
leave.  They went to shelters, then to hotels, some to mobile homes or
apartments across the country.  Many have made this relocation permanent and will not
return to New Orleans.   Many are still in limbo, hoping the government continues to pay for hotel costs, etc while they figure out how to put the pieces back together. 

I don’t mean to belittle the situation in New Orleans, but like Valerie, I want to point out the desperation in Mississippi that has not received the attention it deserves.  The big difference between the situation in New Orleans and that of Mississippi is the fundamental difference between New Orleans and Mississippi.  New Orleans will be back.  It has a strong tourism pull, companies have promised not to leave, and Universities are re-opening as soon as this spring semester.  It has the economic basis on  which to rebuild.

Mississippi is another story.  How many people do you know have been to New Orleans?  How many people have been to Mississippi?  Before Katrina, how many town names were you familiar with in Mississippi?  Mississippi isn’t drawing in the crowds.  It has beautiful beaches, old plantations, and civil war sites, but the vast majority of Mississippi is rural and poor.  Katrina completely wiped out the coast and significantly damaged homes hundreds of miles inland.  While businesses in New Orleans were re-opening or making plans to do so, the coastal towns of Mississippi were still shut off from anyone who didn’t have a good reason to be there.  Unlike New Orleans, the people could stay and did regardless of not having a home.  They are still there.  Some are lucky to have recieved a home from FEMA, but the majority are still living in tent cities on church grounds depending on the relief efforts for survival.

Outside of Katrina, Mississippi is worthy of our donations.  In the driving I have done for work, I have witnessed people living in the sort of poverty I had only seen in the poorest countries.  Trailor homes are literally duct-taped together and are without indoor plumbing.  The landscape is cotton fields, pine plantations and hunting grounds… not exactly a place booming with jobs and opportunity.  Out of town landowners have a hard time keeping locals from poaching on their property.  My guess is the poaching is for subsistence and not for sport. 

Mississippi is the poorest State in the US and Katrina took out many of the profitable parts that existed in the state.  In our project at work, Mississippi is begging for DOE to choose a site in Mississippi for oil storage.   The economic benefits are not great, but are significantly better than nothing.  Development of a site would require years of construction and hundreds of short term jobs.  Mississippi needs more than that.  It needs a true development plan, and it needs to rebuild Biloxi, Gulfport, and the other Gulf-side towns better than they were before.

It’s Christmas, donate and donate generously.  Donate directly to Mississippi.

A cypress swamp near the Mississippi river.

Me, pondering the wetlands of small creek that runs through a cotton field

Sunday, October 2 at Fenway Park.  What a perfect day!  Wonderful people and an amazing game.  It is always pleasing for me to see the Yankees loose and a bigger bonus when the Red Sox or the Orioles are the ones to hand it to them. 

Yes, I am disappointed that my beloved Red Sox did not make it very far, but I must admit that I didn’t really think they would.  It was their year.  Their wasn’t that buzz.  They played well most of the year, but you could tell by looking at them that they weren’t in it to win this year.  Oh well… only respectable thing left to do is root against the Yankees.  I hate the Yankees, which brings me to the subject to this blog.  Have they given Mariano Rivera a steriod test?  or more appropriately a genetic test to prove he is human?  The man is scary.  He physically pitches and acts like some sort of android.  I’m convinced he’s an alien.  Convinced!!

Anyhow, I’m looking forward to watching the Yankees blow it again this year.  Who do I want to see in the World Series - White Sox and Astros (Sox win).  If the Yankees slither their way in, then I want to see the Astros with Petite and Clemens really take the Yankees down!  That would be fun.

It’ll be a fun October regardless.

And… Thank you Red Sox for another great season! 

I deeply apologize for those of you have looked with great interest to read up on the rest of my Ecuadorian adventures.  There is still so much to tell, and I do hope to finish my stories at some point.  By now, many of you have heard them in person.  I’m going to put all the Ecuador blogs into its own category, so they can be accessed easily and hopefully (one day) completed.

It has been almost exactly 2 months since I’ve been back.  Ecuador feels like a very distant memory and school is even more distant.  I’m back in the working world and part of me feels like I never left. 

I’m working for ICF Consulting… yes, consulting.  I was lured to the dark side by promises of fantastic international work, travel, and enough money to make my monthly student loan payments.  I’m getting some of that.  Right now, there does not seem to be any international environmental work.  I keep asking, though. 

I’m working mostly on NEPA (National Environmental Protection Act) projects.  Federal agencies need to file an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for any major project in order to comply with NEPA.  I get to work on the EIS.  The fun part is I get to do lots of different types of work - biology, public outreach, and GIS (geeky mapping computer stuff).  That is really fun!  I even get to do some traveling.  I’m not sure when yet… but I’ll probably end up in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas soon.  I’m sure I’ll have more to post after these trips.  Some of our sites are in or very close to areas affected by the Hurricanes.  I’m sure I’ll have plenty of stories and photos to share then.

Thought I’d give you an update.  I’m not sure what this space will turn into now that I’m not traveling.  I’ll try not to bore you.

(PS - I’m now back in the good ol’ USA)

Ok… we check into La Mision and spend the rest of the afternoon playing cards and eating great food.  Judy and Pereira go back out to follow Judy’s hunch to talk directly with the boat owners.  Judy finds Gonzalo who is strapped for cash because his paycheck is late from the oil company he sometimes works for.  Gonzalo owns a small speed boat and agrees to take us to Peru in just 3 days!  So much for observing wildlife while we float down river. On Sat morning, Judy hammers out the details for Gonzalo to pick us up a bit downriver from Coca at 9am on Sunday morning.  We’ve got a plan!!

Saturday, July 9th:  We spend the morning swimming at the hotel pool with a great water slide.  After lunch, we hire a taxi to take us to the nearest oil drilling site.  It is only 15 minutes from town and doesn’t look too dangerous.  There is a constant humming from machinery and a flame 4 feet into the air burning natural gas.  The guard tells us we have 5 minutes until his boss comes to throw us out.  We tell him we just came for a quick look.  We asked him a few questions, but he said he didn’t know anything about how the equipment worked.  When we asked about the waste pools, he said this site did not have one because there wasn’t any waste in this well.  We didn’t see one around either.  In other areas of Ecuador, waste materials with toxic levels of heavy metals are stored in waste pools.  These waste pools are lined but not covered.  Now, as you might imagine a rainforest gets lots of rain.  The result… toxic sludge pours freely into the forest and rivers.  According to the book Savages, more has been dumped into the Amazon than what was in the Exxon Valdez spill.  The foreign oil companies refuse to accept responsibility or offer any assistance in clean up.  Later in my trip, I met back up with a volunteer at Jatun Sacha who is now volunteering for Kallari.  He had taken a 2 hours trip around the oil producing region and said he could not believe the amount of contamination he saw in just that short time period.   Most of the Ecuadorian Amazonian has been blocked off into oil concessions.  The government continues to sell  oil drilling rights to foreign companies on indigenous lands and even national parks.  Most of these sites have waste pools that overflow and permanently contaminate the land around them.  The Kichwa and Huarani people (the largest native groups in the area) are strongly opposed to the oil production due to the inevitable impacts it has on their lives and the land.  I encourage you all to read "Savages" by Joe Kane for an intro to this issue.  The book is a first-hand account of a journalist who spends time with the Huarani as they try to oppose drilling on their lands.  It is a great book and easy read.

Anyhow, we spend our 5 minutes taking pictures and head back to the hotel to pack our things and get out of town.  We are heading to Limon Cocha - an oxbow lake and reserve.  We arrive at night and after some confusion get to a dock.  Here a we load into a small canoe.  Let me describe this better.  It is a long(ish) skinny canoe carved from one tree.  We have LOADS of luggage and gear and their are 9 of us.  There are also 2 boat men.  We are 9 people, lots of gear, in a small tippy canoe boating at night in a lake swarming with caiman.  You are probably thinking "so what, Caiman are pretty small."  well, pygmy caiman are small, but the black caiman can be more than 4 meters long.  The boat driver of our tippy tippy canoe decides to give us the full tour.  We scanned the top of the water with our flashlights looking for the glow of eyes.  Then we steer the boat right up to it.  The smaller caiman would duck under the water as we got closer, but the big ones just stared us down.  In all we saw about 20.  It was really cool and I really liked seeing them, but I was also really scared.  Something about a small TIPPY canoe loaded down with people at night surrounded by hunting caimans made me REALLY nervous.  I was so happy to get back on land.  Afterwards, I was talking to Gato (the Ecuadorian who came with us) who admitted that even he was nervous on the canoe.  He thought it had too much weight and told me that he thought we should have taken two. 

What was even more interesting than the caiman, were little incandescent insects gathered along the shores of the lake.  It was absolutely beautiful and reminded you of peering out of an airplane window at night to see the lights of small villages glowing below you.  It was a spectacular clear evening, too, showing all the millions of stars that we never see at home.  On one horizon there was a bright orange glow, and their was a faint buzzing sound as well.  We were told the glow and noise was from a big drilling site with lots of flames burning off natural gas.  Even when you think you are heading towards the middle of nowhere, the oil companies are there.

We stayed in a cabin/shelter that night.  There were mattresses available to use on the floor.  We strung up mosquito nets and went to sleep immediately after a modest meal of peanut butter and honey on tortillas.  In the morning, we took 2 canoes (to my great relief) back to the dock.  In the day light, the lake was even more beautiful.  Dark and full of bright green algae but barely moving so that the water perfectly reflected the sky above us.  In the trees along the shore we saw the peculiar Hoatzin bird.  We counted about 60 of them.  They are really strange looking birds, and some scientist think they have alot in common with Archaeopteryx, the flying dinosaur, due to a claw on their wing!  Once on shore we took a taxi out to the main dock on the Napo River.  At 10:30 (rather than 9am), Gonzalo picked us up and we sped off towards the Peruvian border.

to be continued.

Hey all, Sorry to have left you for so long without entertaining stories of my adventures.  I’ve received many requests to write about the Napo trip and I definately don’t want to disappoint.  I’m going to write a day by day log of the most exciting moments.  I may not finish right now, but I’ll keep at it… if not for your enjoyment then to write out my own memories.

Friday, July 8th - we left by 8am to get to Coca.  We decided the easiest, most direct way was to take a bus to where the road ends at the Napo River and then hire a boat to take us down river to Coca.  The locals must have thought we were crazy.  Nine of us set out - Pereira, Judy, Gato (a parkguard at Jatun Sacha who will be helping Pereira set up his reserve), the 5 students, and myself.  We carried all of our luggage and loads of gear/food because we planned to camp along the river banks for 5 days of traveling.  We looked pretty ridiculous!

We get to San Pedro, the town at the end of the road, and Gato sets off to get us a good price for the boat.  We settle on something and all load into a large, canopy covered, motor-powered canoe.  Our luggage was piled in the front somewhat covered by a black tarp to protect it from the water, and we sat towards the back, two by two on little wooden benches.  I found the trip a little unnerving.  The canoe tipped side to side with each turn.  The thought of "what if it tipped" crossed my mind way too many times.  Pereira said that we would be hiring a bigger canoe to head for Iquitos.  This idea sounded promising.  Stretching out legs, maybe hanging some hammocks all on a wider boat that doesn’t tip so much… yay! 

It was cloudy and cool that day.  Pereira and I sat closest to the front and we were definately in the splash zone.  The trip took about 2 hours which we spent chatting, dozing, and staring off at the shore.  Watching the shoreline go by it hit me… how in the world are we going to camp on the banks?  One side of the river is usually cutting into the forest.  The bank is just a steep cliff 5 or more feet above the water level and then immediately is dense forest, or the dense agroforests of someones property.  On the opposite side of the river, new sediment deposits have been quickly colonized by thick tall grasses and palms.  We didn’t have a machete.  I pointed this out, but got shrugs in response.  Lucky for us, the trip didn’t go as planned.

We arrived in Coca around lunch time.  We dragged our luggage on tour and got a taxi to cart us and all our stuff to restuarant for lunch.  The taxis in Coca (like in Tena) are all 4 door pickup trucks.  We could fit all of our luggage and then climb on top of the bags to ride to places.  The place we ate for lunch was running out of "almuerzo," the lunch of the day, and didn’t have any other food.  Typically almuerzo includes soup and a main course plate.  We shared the soups and plates among all nine of us. 

We stayed at the restuarant while Judy and Pereira went off to get cash and find out about a boat.  They found out that 1. banks in Coca won’t make a cash advance on a credit card; and 2. the big canoes we imagined floating down the river take close to 2 weeks to make the trip and charge thousands of dollars due to the cost of gasoline to bring the boat back up river where it is difficult to find passengers.  We decided to stay a night at a hotel in Coca - La Misionm, the only one that accepted credit cards - while we regrouped and rethought our plan.  At this point, traveling by river didn’t seem possible.  The group needed to get to Iquitos in Peru as we already had reservations at a lodge down river, and plane reservations from Iquitos back to the states for the students.

to be continued….

Sorry it has been so long without a post.  This one will be short because I don’t have near enough time write now to even sum up the river trip.  The basic highlights… we went to Coca then to Limon Cocha, a lake reserve where we saw Caiman.  Only transport we could hire was a small speed boat that went up to 70km per hour down the Napo to deliver us near Iquitos in 2 1/2 days; sleeping at family houses along the way.  Then we went to Tohauyo Lodge - a fancy place near a communal reserve that Pereira has been to with other groups many times before.  No roads, only river.  I spent a few hours on the mighty Amazon.  It is HUGE, I can’t even imagine how big it must be in Brazil!!!  We saw lots of birds, tried to go fishing (no luck!), and I briefly saw a river dolphin - they are indeed real!

Now, reality is quickly approaching.  I’ve actually decided to check with American Airlines to see if I can come home this Thursday or Friday rather than next Tuesday. I probably won’t go see the Pacific Ocean, but after all the wonderful things I’ve experienced so far… I’m not concerned.

more later… Last call for postcards (send your address, please!)

The last few days have been really exciting.  Definately the most "adventure" I’ve had on this trip.

I got back safely with Wiles (the student I picked up in Quito) on Saturday evening.  Sunday morning we went rafting.  There were 16 of us - a bunch of Jatun Sacha volunteers, the Latin School group (w/o Pereira) and Alexus (a Kallari volunteer).  On the way we stopped at petroglyphs (rock carvings) that are pre-Inca.  That was pretty cool - a bunch of frog stick figures carved into a big rock where incidentally (or not) there were a bunch of frog eggs, too (the rock was in a small stream).  Then we took a rough crazy hike up to a water fall.  We didn’t get into the water until noon-ish. 

Now, the rafting trip is the same one I took some weeks back, but it was totally different!  It has been raining alot including the entire night before the trip.  The river was full and raging.  There were two boats, the Latin School group in one and the volunteers in the other.  We made it out to be a competition in skill and spirit.  The volunteers flipped their raft on the first rapid!  This scared most of them, and made them very cautious.  Our group did the opposite.  With every success we got more confident.  During the smooth parts we tossed each other out, and even attacked the other boat to toss them out too.  Somehow, I fell out at one part and when I went to come up the boat was on top of me.  I thought everyone had fallen out so I tried to push the boat up a bit, but that didn’t work.  I had a moment of panic as I ran out of breath, while desperately trying to find the edge.  I thought that was scary… that was NOTHING compared to what happened to Judy, and 2 of the kids. 

After lunch, out spirits were really high and we were having a great time.  We told our guide that we wanted to hit ALL the big waves.  Now the last time I went rafting, I think we just skimmed by the sides of the deep holes.  If you are familiar with rafting or kayaking hopefully you know what I mean when I say hole.  It is when the water goes over a big rock, and down the opposite side, curving up and back onto itself.  Kayakers can get into these and essentially surf the wave.  Rafts hope to get the rush of going down and popping over the wave without loosing any passangers.  For people, these things can kill you.  You get stuck in them as the water swirls over you keeping you at the bottom.  The best chance to pop out of it is to roll into a ball.  Unfortunately, our guides forgot that safety tip. 

I was sitting in the back, watching as the front of the raft went down, and the back popped up… suddenly it felt like we just slammed into the wall of water in front of us rather than popping over it.  I flew through the air and lucky for me landed inside the front of the raft.  The people on the other side of me were not so lucky. They also flew forward and to the right, landing in the water… IN the hole!  The second raft with the volunteers went over next.  According to Judy, just as she thought she might surface the next boat pushed her further in.  Eventually, LUCKILY, the river finally popped them out of the hole and Judy and 1 student was rescued by the raft of volunteers.  When Judy got on the boat, she noticed her fingernail had ripped clear across the center.  One guide tried to rip the nail off, but it was attached to the nail bed and he just ripper her finger.  They packed it with iodine and other stuff, and wrapped it with duct tape - no gauze or anything.  Everyone was amazing, despite fearing -literally- for their lives, they got back on the raft and we finished the trip and all the rest of the crazy rapids (although not as crazily).  Despite that one bit, it was a really fun  day.  The river was incredible.  I feel so lucky I got to ride it twice!!!  Plus, it was a great bonding experience for our group.

The next day (Monday) we went to visit Rumi Yacu, a poor Kichwa community of 10 families that is part of Kallari Association.  It took us 2 hours of crazy up and down hiking in the mud to get from the road to the village.  Once we got there, we swam in the river, ate lunch, played soccer, learned how they make artesania, and had just a wonderful afternoon.  Around 5pm, we split into twos to stay with families.  Judy and I split the kids so that everyone had a decent spanish speaker with them.  I ended up with Micah.  We stayed at the house of Ignacio and Soyla.  They are 51 and 46 yrs respectively with 11 kids from ages 26 to just over 2!!  Can you even imagine?!  Ignacio is the President of the community but they are still really poor.  The youngest kids had extended bellies from protein deficiency.  They have eggs, occassionally chicken, and then whatever they can catch from the river and forests.  They grow plantains, yuca, maiz, and lots of fruit.  They also grow cafe and cacao for sale, plus artesania to sell to Kallari.  Ignacio told me how before Judy came, the people their often went starving and didn’t have money to cloth their children.  The Kallari Association has made a big impact on their community.  They get a better price by selling to the Association.  Soyla sold me a few of her artesania (3 bracelets).  She said that they were difficult to learn how to make and that most of them didn’t want to do it.  But, Kallari buys them for a good price and they get all of the materials from the forest.  She charged me only $1 per bracelet.  I told her that was way to cheap and gave her $5 for 2 bracelets.  Then she gave me another as a gift.  Not counting the time it takes to make the string from the fibers of leaves or to die the string, it takes half a day for her to make a bracelet.  And these really are a great quality and look nicer than hemp jewelry.

So, the time in Rumi Yacu was really wonderful.  Today we are resting and buying supplies for our boat trip in Tena.  We leave on Friday to go to Coca to hire a boat.  It should take us 5 days to get to Iquitos, Peru.  We are roughing it the whole way, sleeping on tarps, cooking our own food (Pereira brought a camp stove).  I’m sure we’ll survive the journey but I hope we don’t kill each other.  Rumi Yacu taught me that I really REALLY need to wear bug spray day and night by a river.  My ankles have so many bites on them my whole foot is SUPER swollen.  I’m gonna buy some benedryl.

OK… I’ll try to download a few more pics that I have from Rumi Yacu.  Most of which the kids took.  They love digital camaras.  I’ll have to print copies and send to Judy to give to them.

I’ll be back on internet sometime between 14th and 17th of July.

Send an email, ok!  It makes my day

Jatun means big in Kichwa, Sacha is forest.  That is the name of this privately owned reserve that I have been calling home for more than a week now.  Things have really started to settle into a routine.  We haven’t done too much since I last posted.  The kids have been working on their projects in between bursts of rain.  We are at the end of the rainier season, the other half being the rainy season.  We went about a week or more without much rain, then during a bonfire party on the beach of the river, it started to rain.  Of course!  It has been raining almost all night, and one good down pour each day.  Kinda annoying, although I do love sitting in the hammock reading while listening to the rain pound the tin roof, only to stop and be met by a loud chorus of birds and insects.  The forest is musical!

Luckily, I’m getting a break from the rain, heat, and bugs.  I’m in Quito at the moment.  I’m here to pic up another student who is joining us for the rest of the trip.  Lucky for him, he is just getting in when things are getting interesting.  We’ll go directly back to Jatun Sacha Saturday morning.  Sunday we are going rafting - I believe this will be the same rafting trip I already did, except for free this time!  Monday and Tuesday we are visiting a Kichwa community called Rami Yacu.  Rami Yacu is a member of Kallari.  We will stay one night in pairs at different family houses.  I’m excited to use the few Kichwa phrases I have learned and to learn more.  Then, the students have a few more days to finish their projects. 

On July 8th we leave Jatun Sacha to go to Coca where we will hire a boat and set off for Iquitos, Peru.  This is a LONG journey… check it out on a South American Map (sorry, I don’t have time to find one for you).  This should be an adventure!  Judy, Pereira, nor Gato (an ecuadorian and Jatun Sacha park guide joining us) has ever been.  The plan seems to be, hire a big boat, go 6 hours or so a day, sleep any old place on a tarp and under a tarp.  Hmm… there are tour operators who arrange this trip.  Why aren’t we going with someone who knows what they are doing and might have platforms for us to sleep on??  I might lobby this idea in the next few days.  Either way, 5 teenagers, 1 grumpy professor, Judy, me and Gato… we might just kill each other!

Uh, so Andrew Taylor is supposedly in Quito right now.  Damn, I wish I had checked my email sooner.  I was hoping to just "bump" into him, but there are SO many more gringos here than there were in June.  It is crazy! 

uh… I’ve lost my thought.  Life is good!  Wish you were here!!!!  Check out the webshots page, I added more photos!

much love

ps - Nancy, your profile doesn’t allow me to send you a message.  Maybe click my "email me" link!  I’d be happy to tell folk that you say hello

You are gonna KILL me, but I forgot to bring my camara with me to town so I could add photos.  But… TARANTULAS… there are LOTS of them in Jatun Sacha.  In the first couple of hours I saw 3 of them, one of them in my room, next to my bed!  I, naturally, freaked out a bit at first, but then you get used to them.  You mostly only see them at night when they are hunting.  Personally, I’d rather see geckos on the walls at night, but that’s just me. 

So, Jatun Sacha is great.  The reserve is almost 2,000 hectares.  We are staying down the road a bit in cabins built by some American academic type who keeps the place just for schools to use.  I have my own room with electricity (the kids are in cabins without lights).  Other than the at least 4 tarantulas that share my cabin with me, it is quite nice.  So, the week has really flown by.  It has been so much fun to reconnect with Pereira.  He’s just as grumpy and arrogant as ever, but now I’m in the comforatable position of being able to laugh at him a bit!  I love listening to him teach.  Between him and Judy I’m learning more about the rainforest creatures and plants than I ever have.  Judy seems to know the traditional uses of everything in the forest.  In fact, she’s got me on "antibiotics" for a little infected cut on my foot.  I drink tea made from 5 leaves and some limes each day.  Well, I’m supposed to drink it everyday, but I haven’t.  I have to say that while I’m not convinced it works, my foot hasn’t gotten any worse.

So, we’ve done all sorts of things.  Day hikes, night hikes (best for finding frogs), a trip to Amazoonica (which I mentioned below as a place I might go), and time for reading, writing, and observing.  All of the students must complete a short research project.  Pereira’s got them all focused on animals (he’s a primatologist/animal behavior guy) which has made me realized that I’ve focused the last two years on ecology and forests.  In the afternoons, Pereira or Judy might teach and the kids have tons to read.  I’m doing just about all the work too for fun and information.  I hoping to get Pereira to let me teach one day.  I’d like to do a lesson on maintenance of diversity in tropical forests.  I’m sure he’ll let me.  He keeps harrassing me on how he’d like to see me get my PhD and teach one day.  Everything about this course is reminding me that that is what I wanted to do back when I was at Bucknell…. we’ll see.

The kids are 14-18yrs.  3 boys and 1 girl.  A small group of really well behaved kids who are, for the most part, really interested in learning.  It is a nice size group to work with.  So far, I feel like I’m the camp counselor.  That’s really a good description of my work so far.   There are also about 10 volunteers at Jatun Sacha from all over the world although mostly American.  In the evenings, it is fun to spend time with them and chat with people "my own age".  The only problem is that I’m not getting much practice with my spanish.

So, technically I have access to the internet at Jatun Sacha but it is expensive to check and the kids aren’t allowed to use it.  Maybe I’ll briefly get on so I can show you all some photos, especially of the tarantulas. 

Other odds and ends things:  sudden knee-deep soft mud in the forest which REQUIRE rubber boots (I’m borrowing a pair); jumping off rock ledges into the river; cold showers; bland meatless food; 100 ft observation tower (I’ll climb up this week); hammocks in the tree house overlooking the river and forest; another rafting trip this week; a baby spider monkey climbed onto me at Amazoonica; meals served promptly at 6:30am, 12noon, and 6pm; weekends at the "el labortorio bar" dancing salsa, merengue, cumbia.

MISS YOU ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

Hello all!  I already wrote this once, but the stupid explorer had an error and closed.  grrrr!

Anyhow, canyoning was AMAZING!!  I wish I could have zapped you all there with me.  I was a bit concerned it was just going to be me and Fausto on the trip since Roberto and Jen (the couple I went rafting with) decided to go leave early for Riobamba.  Luckily, I met two Americans - Brad and Brian - Saturday night and asked them to go.  They originally told me they were talking a bus to Coca and couldn’t, but I must have convinced them it would be great because they found Fausto’s office and signed up for the trip early Sunday morning. 

I’m not really sure if what we actually did counts for canyoning or not.  We hiked quite a long time through the slippery muddy hills to a stream in a canyon.  For fun we swam upstream where the water flows into the canyon from a high water fall.  The current was really strong so I had to pull myself upstream with by the rock wall on the side.  Then we floated down stream to a spot where the water fell in a bunch of small waterfalls (see pic).  Here we used a rope to climb down through it.  Then we scaled across the wall to a natural rock landbridge.  Here the water dove into a cave.  We climbed down a ladder that was placed in the hole with the water.  That was a scary because the ladder was really slippery.  From the cave, the water flowed out into a beautiful, deep pool complete with waterfalls.  It was amazing.  We spent about an hour or so there swimming, exploring, playing.  I felt like I was in some brochure or picture in a magazine.  I really wish you could have been there.  Unfortunately, I don’t have many more pictures as my camara battery died :(  I’m hoping Brian or Brad will send me some of theirs.

Well, it is my last day in Tena.  This afternoon I leave for Tena to meet the group from Latin School of Chicago at Jatun Sacha Ecological Reserve.  For you Bucknell folk, this trip is led by Michael Pereira, my old professor/advisor.  I haven’t seen him since graduation (6 years!!).  He invited me earlier this year when I had emailed with him regarding job recommendations.  He’s the only prof I’ve stayed in touch with over the years.  It’ll be really strange to see him!!  The program is 3 weeks (?) in at the reserve, and end with a trip down the Napo River in a boat from Coca, Ecuador to Iquitos, Peru.  That should be amazing!! 

Unfortunately, I’ll only have email access on the weekends if I travel by bus back to Tena.  I’m sure I will so please send an email to make the 4 hour bus ride (in total) well worth it.

It is a good time to leave Tena.  All of the people at my Hostal who have kept me entertained these last few days or so are also leaving.  It was really great to meet all of them.  I love meeting people from all over the world.  My time in Tena was definately challenging - what with being bored and working on that stupid translation! - but it was also rewarding.  I really think my spanish has improved a great deal!!  Here’s some pics of Hostal Welcome Break.  I love those hammocks and will miss those turtles.