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