Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Ecuador is a real country
Life in the middle of nowhere (phase 1)
We spent 3 weeks at a biological reserve in the middle of nowhere, Ecuador doing "conservation" and " reforestation" when in fact we think we destroyed more then we built, including a power line. We learned the art of the Machetes and cut down swaths of forest and spent the nights poking tarantulas with sticks while a friend filmed thier attacks and went on searches for the crazyest bugs we have ever seen, including a chrome beattle. On weekends we would either travel to the neighboring villages or go on hikes around the reserve. These hikes were no ordinary hikes. Half the time we spent remaking the trails with our newly aquired machete skills to make them passable and the other half we forged our way up rivers and small waterfalls. we would find vines to swing from tree to tree and would swim under large waterfals. We would then return to our house and play the waiting game when we tried to get our soaking clothes to dry in the cloud forest that was pretty much 97% humid all day every day.
Volcano Adventure (phase two)
Cotopaxi-
Along our way, we encountered a canadian girl named, Danica and the three of us decided to try and climb Cotopaxi volcano, 5800 meters tall, which happens to be the closest point on earth to the sun. We grabbed our gear not really knowing what we were getting outselves into and headed off. After catching a bus in Quito, we were droed off on the highway some 35km from the refuge on the volcano. We were offered a $25 truck ride to the refuge, but being frugal and stubborn travellers we declined and set out to walk the 35km with 6hrs of sunlight, no tent and very limited food. Along the path which turned out to be a 2 way dirt road, we ran into some park officials who told us about a free cabin we could stay in for the night. With the best news we had heard all day, we huffed it 20 plus milometers to the cabin and set up our sleeing stuff. The canadian girl was an unusually cold person, shich was odd because she was from Canada- a cold place. She insisted that we start a fire with wet wood and a make shift fireplace. So we made a fire and soon found ourselves shrouded in smoke with our eyes watering, because we had overlooked the importance of proer air ventalation in the cabin. We decided to give up the fire idea and all had a pretty cold night. Once morning arrived, we decided to walk the remaining 15km to the refuge. Apparently, everyone just drives up. Nobody told us that. So there we were us dumb gringos walking up the road in our board shorts and t-shirts with an unusually tan Canadian girl, while cars raced past us. After a couple of hours, it started snowing and we quickly became tourist attractions as locals driving down from the rerfuge took pictures of us walking up in our shorts. Danica was quickly becoming a victim of altitude sickness and was stumbling back and forth across the road. We reached 4500m and quickly relized that her mental state and our warmth were going down. we ran into this crazy dutchman and his significant other and hitched a ride down.
We spent 3 weeks at a biological reserve in the middle of nowhere, Ecuador doing "conservation" and " reforestation" when in fact we think we destroyed more then we built, including a power line. We learned the art of the Machetes and cut down swaths of forest and spent the nights poking tarantulas with sticks while a friend filmed thier attacks and went on searches for the crazyest bugs we have ever seen, including a chrome beattle. On weekends we would either travel to the neighboring villages or go on hikes around the reserve. These hikes were no ordinary hikes. Half the time we spent remaking the trails with our newly aquired machete skills to make them passable and the other half we forged our way up rivers and small waterfalls. we would find vines to swing from tree to tree and would swim under large waterfals. We would then return to our house and play the waiting game when we tried to get our soaking clothes to dry in the cloud forest that was pretty much 97% humid all day every day.
Volcano Adventure (phase two)
Cotopaxi-
Along our way, we encountered a canadian girl named, Danica and the three of us decided to try and climb Cotopaxi volcano, 5800 meters tall, which happens to be the closest point on earth to the sun. We grabbed our gear not really knowing what we were getting outselves into and headed off. After catching a bus in Quito, we were droed off on the highway some 35km from the refuge on the volcano. We were offered a $25 truck ride to the refuge, but being frugal and stubborn travellers we declined and set out to walk the 35km with 6hrs of sunlight, no tent and very limited food. Along the path which turned out to be a 2 way dirt road, we ran into some park officials who told us about a free cabin we could stay in for the night. With the best news we had heard all day, we huffed it 20 plus milometers to the cabin and set up our sleeing stuff. The canadian girl was an unusually cold person, shich was odd because she was from Canada- a cold place. She insisted that we start a fire with wet wood and a make shift fireplace. So we made a fire and soon found ourselves shrouded in smoke with our eyes watering, because we had overlooked the importance of proer air ventalation in the cabin. We decided to give up the fire idea and all had a pretty cold night. Once morning arrived, we decided to walk the remaining 15km to the refuge. Apparently, everyone just drives up. Nobody told us that. So there we were us dumb gringos walking up the road in our board shorts and t-shirts with an unusually tan Canadian girl, while cars raced past us. After a couple of hours, it started snowing and we quickly became tourist attractions as locals driving down from the rerfuge took pictures of us walking up in our shorts. Danica was quickly becoming a victim of altitude sickness and was stumbling back and forth across the road. We reached 4500m and quickly relized that her mental state and our warmth were going down. we ran into this crazy dutchman and his significant other and hitched a ride down.
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