Lalo and the coast

2-8-09
February 4th and 5th we had the routine of: breakfast, collecting data, lunch, lecture, dinner, and relax. The first day we took data about tree and vine density in near the river bed verse the hilltop and compared data. The second day we collected insects from the primary forest, secondary forest, and pasture and compared the abundance each order of insect. Along with this routine, every morning and night cicadas started to rub their legs together and make an almost defining sound. Also, during the insect collection we came to find that they were also very stupid. They seem to fly around completely aimlessly until running into something they could sit on, sitting for a short time then starting to fly aimlessly again, very odd. Another sound that we were always awaken to was howler monkeys, these are much cuter than cicadas and definitely more coordinated, mainly since they have thumbs and awesome tails that act like a fifth hand most of the time. During one lecture we were startled by the loudest howler we had heard yet, soon we were able to see it out of the window of our house, at which time lecture was forced to take a break while we went to go watch the monkeys. Another run in with monkeys happened when Dave and John went to stay in a recently built tree house for the night. When they arrived they were greeted by a capuchin monkey. These monkeys are much more rare to see because they are heavily hunted for the pet trade and therefore very afraid of humans. Along with lots of monkey and cicadas, we were also bombarded with bananas. I never realized how many ways you can eat a banana and that is it appropriate to eat at every meal. Granted they have a much larger variety of bananas in Ecuador than Wisconsin, but still after this trip I with I will be set on potassium for a very long time. Another thing we ate a lot of was yogurt, but not just any yogurt, Yogur Don Lalo. Lalo Loor is the owner of the reserve and makes most of his money from dairy farming and making dairy related products, and let me tell you this is seriously the best yogurt I have ever had. Between the animals and the food my stay at Lalo Loor was definitely interesting and exciting.
On Friday the 6th, our last day at Lalo Loor, we switched it up did volunteer work around the reserve. This consisted of everything from gardening to trail maintenance to cleaning to house. Finally after working hard all morning we headed off to the beach for our free weekend. The beach was about a 30 minute bus ride away and was called Punta Pierta, or black point. We got there set up or tents and went for a swim. We were told the riptide would go south so most of us entered in the northern side of the beach expected to get pushed southward. Unfortunately the riptide was going north and there was a large cliff with jagged rocks underneath it to the north. I was trying to catch some waves and body surf but found myself spending all my energy trying to swim away from the rock. At one point I was stuck in same spot for quite awhile because I wold swim away from the rocks then a wave would come and push me toward them then I would swim away and another wave would come, etc. Finally I got back to shore; not very satisfied with my first swim since it was mainly spent trying to avoid rocks. soon about 5 students came onto the beach all scratched up, I soon found out that they had gotten stuck on the rocks and had no choice but to go around the point and walked back on the street to our side of the beach. Jane and Nicole, who I have become closest with on the trip so far, were 2 of the students that got stuck on the rocks. Upon there return they were kind of shaken up and we went p to the restraint to have a beer and decompress. After dinner out professors, Joe and Cath, invited some of their friends to a party on the beach. The party consisted of a camp fire some volunteers from neighboring towns and some local boys. There was meringue music but no dancing and I was brought back to middle school when the girls and the boys were separated at dances. However, this time is was the boys who wanted to dance and the girls who were too shy. Eventually we started to mingle and it ended up being a pretty fun night.
The next day we had off to do anything we wanted. A couple people went off on a horse ride while most of us stayed at the beach to relax. My day consisted of swimming and playing testy ball on the beach. Testy ball is a very hard game to explain, but it involves throwing a string with a ball attached to each side into a ladder like structure to gain points. Nicole and I won, obviously. After a lazy day on the beach we all slowly started to realize that despite reapplying sunscreen throughout the day, most of us were very badly burnt, myself included. At dinner we passed around a aloe plant and tried not to think about the horrible pain we were in. After dinner we gathered on the beach where those with musical talent entertained the rest of us until we all scattered off to our respected tents.
The next morning at about 5am it started pouring rain, the last thing you want went you have to pack up your tent in less than 3 hours. A half hour before we had to be all packed up the rain stopped and we folded up our soaked tents went to breakfast. After eating we got into the bus and started to drive up the hill to the main road. Soon we realized this was not going to be as easy as it sounded. The rain had made the dirt road to muddy to drive up without getting stuck. So, we all got out and started to rebuild the road with gravel and dead palm leaves. Then about 5 people pushed the back off the bus and eventually we got up the driveway. We got back on the bus and realized on of the students, Carl, was “asleep” on the bus the whole time and avoided all the hard labor. On the ride back I looked at the date on my watch and realized it was February 8th, and that the 1 month count down to my 21st birthday was well underway. In the states I am sure that February 6th, the one month mark to me being able to legally drink, would have been a pretty important day but here I didn’t even realize. Finally, after 7 uncomfortable hours on the bus we back in cold Quito.
We have the next 2 days off then we go to school at USFQ for 2 days before heading to Tiputini in the Amazon. We will be in the Amazon from February 13 to March 1, and internet will not be available, so please don’t worry that there are no blog posts for the next couple weeks. If anything horrible happens to me I am sure my parents will be notified ASAP, so if you do here any news before I get back it is probably not a good sign. Also, new pictures have been added to http://brittinecuador.shutterfly.com/