Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Climbing Rocks

Hello all,

About to finish the fourth week of this cycle (the half-way point...jeez, things move quickly sometimes). The latest news is that our lease is up in mid-March. Roommates Will and Elsa are leaving--Will back to the states and Elsa back to Guayaquil. I will miss them terribly.

Sara and I would like to stay in this apartment because we love it. I don't love my room, but I might upgrade to one of the other rooms if we can find someone to take this one. If Sara and I can't find two people to move in, it's goodbye awesome apartment complete with washer, dryer and terrace. I saw a nice little place inhabited by two other CEC teachers the other day and they were interested in having me move in. And there are almost always people looking for roommates so I'm not worried about finding a place if it comes down to that. But nothing I've seen so far is quite as cozy as the place we have now...we'll see.

Carnaval is happening Feb. 15 & 16, so we're talking about going to the beach. I haven't been to the coast in a while so I'm definitely itching to go. I started a rumor that we're going camping on the beach and I'm hoping it catches on.

Below are some pictures from a little rock-climbing trip last weekend. In case you were wondering, no--I didn't make it to the top.

love, M

I got up to that arrow above my head...nice, but I didn't exactly conquer the beast.



Santiago, who owns the equipment and knew what he was doing, gracias a dios.

Monday, January 4, 2010

Cuyabeno Reserve...aka the jungle

I finally went to the Amazon, specifically the Cuyabeno Reserve, located near the border of Colombia. It was incredible--I can't really describe what it was like to be in the jungle, even if it was for only a few days. The Cuyabeno River is gorgeous and we spent most of our time rowing around looking for wildlife. We briefly saw a pink river dolphin and along with tons of other birds and animals, but just being there was the best part. Here are a few photos to give you an idea...the rest of which can be found here.


See her?

On our first day we came across this sleeping anaconda.



Early morning on the Cuyabeno River

See the macaw?

The base of the big tree

The big tree


Audrey and I

The moon, the moon, in the afternoon.



The Great Egret

Squirrel Monkey who got soooo close to us. Below you can see a little more monkey business.



Giant cricket

Yikes. Truth be told, I didn't take this picture but gave my camera to the guide. Ha, you thought I got that close?


Now leaving Cuyabeno.


In Lago Agrio, the last sizeable town before Cuyabeno, they sell milk shelks.

Sorry this took so long to get online, but our power goes out unpredictably...alright, no excuses. Here it is, and happy new year!!!