Hello again! We´ve been having such a great time at the places we´ve stayed that we have usually extended the time there and shortened our stopovers at our ¨base camp¨, Quito. So not much time for posting, but wanted you to know we are doing great.
I, of course, have been taking photos, but it takes a bit of time to get them up here, so maybe when we get back from the Amazon - we hope to have more time then based out of Quito, with short trips to the highlands. When I return to Nevada I´ll visit the caterpillar researchers at UNR - pretty amazing stuff (Warren´s ¨500¨comment below is a bit exagerated....more like 300....lol). Anita
Here´s a quick note from Warren, below. We are catching a taxi to the airport in a few minutes to flew to Lago Agrio (Bitter Lake) to begin our trip into the Amazon:
We had a wonderful stay at a place called Yanayacu - lots of interesting research going on by different groups from various U.S. universities, including a group from UNR! We hiked, saw lots of very cool birds, and Anita took about 500 caterpillar pictures (so it goes without saying that the caterpillers were pretty spectacular).
So far, the weather has been cool everywhere we have stayed - mostly due to elevations above 6,000 feet and a stay on the coast. But, I think we are now in for some very warm weather. We are heading to the Amazon rainforest tomorrow and will stay for 10 days. I am really looking forward to the experience.
Ecuador is truely amazing. The diversity of people, environments, and wildlife is overwhelming.
I think we will be out of communication over the next couple of weeks, but who knows, we are constantly surprised. Warren
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Monday, July 23, 2012
Saturday, July 14, 2012
Happy Bastille Day from Ecuador!
Sorry about the lack of photos ......I will make up for it once we are back in Quito July 16 or 17.
We are doing fine - healthy and happy.
Plans changed, which is normal for traveling....originally only Marisa was doing this phase of the PEEK camera program, and then we joined her. Since we made our plans someone was hired by The Biodiversity Goup to coordinate PEEK here in Ecuador. He and his wife Pamela (who is Ecuadorian) are GREAT for the program and will be visiting the Tabuga and Camarones sites every 2 weeks. Warren and I thought about it and talked to the others about the fact that 5 gringos for the small town of Tabuga and the PEEK project might be a bit much, so we decided to let the core group continue on to Tabuga and we would stay at the Lalo Loor reserve.
It has worked out fine and we ran into them today and all is going well. We will keep in contact about the project when we can through internet. I spent time at the Lalo Loor reserve last year and it feels like home - I know I will miss the howler monkeys calls and following them around the forest. Our cook, Bigote (means mustache) from last year is there and we eat well. Maximo, another guy who works there, knew me from last year and now I am his unofficial mother, along with being unofficial mother to Angel Paz in the Mindo cloudforest, and mamacita to a sloth from last year (who is now part of the wild at Lalo Loor). I am beginning to accept my role as elder..... ;-)
We are going to a wedding in Camarones tonight - between an American, Amy, and Javier, from Camarones. They met last year when she was an intern there. The wedding STARTS at 9 pm and I predict an all-night party, which is the usual for parties around here.
Anyway, not much time here in Pedernales - ate a nice fish and calamari lunch and will go look for a wedding gift. I{ll do posting when we get to Quito.
From Quito we{re going to a place called Yanayacu - see yanayacu.org for more. There is even a guy from the U. of Nevada Reno who has been doing research on caterpillars there......probably just {til Saturday, then back to Quito to fly out to the Amazon on the 23rd.....
Thinking of y{all. Anita
We are doing fine - healthy and happy.
Plans changed, which is normal for traveling....originally only Marisa was doing this phase of the PEEK camera program, and then we joined her. Since we made our plans someone was hired by The Biodiversity Goup to coordinate PEEK here in Ecuador. He and his wife Pamela (who is Ecuadorian) are GREAT for the program and will be visiting the Tabuga and Camarones sites every 2 weeks. Warren and I thought about it and talked to the others about the fact that 5 gringos for the small town of Tabuga and the PEEK project might be a bit much, so we decided to let the core group continue on to Tabuga and we would stay at the Lalo Loor reserve.
It has worked out fine and we ran into them today and all is going well. We will keep in contact about the project when we can through internet. I spent time at the Lalo Loor reserve last year and it feels like home - I know I will miss the howler monkeys calls and following them around the forest. Our cook, Bigote (means mustache) from last year is there and we eat well. Maximo, another guy who works there, knew me from last year and now I am his unofficial mother, along with being unofficial mother to Angel Paz in the Mindo cloudforest, and mamacita to a sloth from last year (who is now part of the wild at Lalo Loor). I am beginning to accept my role as elder..... ;-)
We are going to a wedding in Camarones tonight - between an American, Amy, and Javier, from Camarones. They met last year when she was an intern there. The wedding STARTS at 9 pm and I predict an all-night party, which is the usual for parties around here.
Anyway, not much time here in Pedernales - ate a nice fish and calamari lunch and will go look for a wedding gift. I{ll do posting when we get to Quito.
From Quito we{re going to a place called Yanayacu - see yanayacu.org for more. There is even a guy from the U. of Nevada Reno who has been doing research on caterpillars there......probably just {til Saturday, then back to Quito to fly out to the Amazon on the 23rd.....
Thinking of y{all. Anita
Wednesday, July 4, 2012
Week 3 in Ecuador!
This one is from Warren:
The camera project for kids is going well. We had a public meeting and 22 kids came to use the 6 cameras that we are leaving with the community. Uver lives in the community and he will be working with the kids twice each week to have them use the cameras and document their environment. He is really good with the kids and has a great attitude. They are looking forward to having the resource in their village. All of the kids really enjoyed it and they take great photos, even the 4 year old. It seems like the project could help increase awareness of our connection to our environment and the benefits of the nature reserve to their lives (especially the benefits to the river that flows through the community. We move to the next location this week and spend another 2 weeks setting up the program there.
The camera project for kids is going well. We had a public meeting and 22 kids came to use the 6 cameras that we are leaving with the community. Uver lives in the community and he will be working with the kids twice each week to have them use the cameras and document their environment. He is really good with the kids and has a great attitude. They are looking forward to having the resource in their village. All of the kids really enjoyed it and they take great photos, even the 4 year old. It seems like the project could help increase awareness of our connection to our environment and the benefits of the nature reserve to their lives (especially the benefits to the river that flows through the community. We move to the next location this week and spend another 2 weeks setting up the program there.
We've been living in a communal household where we all share duties from cooking, cleaning, and turning the poop in the composting toilet. It works pretty well, but cooking seems to be a competition and there always seems to be too much food prepared. Consequently, I try to skip one meal a day. We have had time to interact with folks in the community and have enjoyed learning about their livelihood and helping out a little bit. We met a woman from the states that has moved into the village and is helping to set up some industries to employ women and currently unemployed folks, all the while trying to maintain a sustainable and amicable environment. She seems to really embody the Christian ideal of loving others through real actions. It makes you ask "How can I do more?".
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