catch-up from Las Tolas...one week behind!

As i promised, I’m back to tell a few more tales from the road…

Last week Candice, Chris and I went to the cloud forest for a few days and took part in building the eco lodge…it was ssooo different having the two of them there – it was perfect the way everything worked out.

There are lots of silly little stories that I can tell from the trip there, so I will try to condense everything so that it’s not crazy long! So we worked in the morning building the eco lodge. It’s nuts how they use so few tools there but the results are soo great! All Fransisco (the man we worked with) had was a machete, a hammer, and a hand saw. We got to work with bamboo which was really great. I must admit though that I was a bit nervous using the machete…not completely unwarranted considering that a volunteer the week before cut his hand open with one!

Later that afternoon we went to the family farm of this lady we met the night before on a bus. Rosa was awesome and her kids were ssooo cute! I don’t even know really where to begin with it, but basically, we walked an hour into town with the eco lodge’s dog named Pinky (yes, it was a little dog…and he was totally crazy…constantly running ahead and barking at everything!!). Pinky proved to be great entertainment as he picked fights with a HUGE boxer, all the cows and horses and the llamas too!! Actually, seeing pinky and the llamas was hilarious! I guess he was feeling like the big dog on the farm and when he saw the group of llamas coming into a pasture near us he went nuts barking. But the best part was the reaction of the llamas! Think back to the Borg from Star Trek…remember how they acted as one and were very mechanical? Yeah…that’s the llamas! When they heard pinky bark, they immediately all turned all at once with these freaky angry/robotic faces and started slowly lunging for him. But like I said, Pinky doesn’t scare off and just kinda stepped back a bit, but kept it up.

Shoot, it’s almost dinner…so I’m running out of time to write! But while there we also rode a horse and went to this river where Chris and Candice swung off the vines…I was chicken!

The next day we worked in the morning again then did a few hour hike through the mountains to this GORGEOUS waterfall. The water was freezing, but well worth it! On the way, Fransisco showed us a million cool things about the forest there, one of which was this insane tree that has blood red sap and when you rub it in your hand it turns white and heals any cuts super fast! The machete volunteer definitely vouched for it!

The next morning we woke up early and went into town to make jewelry…it was ssooo much fun to see how the artisans work and to be able to work with nuts & other stuff from the forest. Then we headed into another town to catch the bus to La Mitad del Mundo (Middle of the Earth, point 0,0,0)…there we had the worst burger of our lives (I actually ate half of Candice’s cuz I was so desperate for food…trust me, if you tried it, you would know that it was true desperation!) and took a million and one pics over the Ecuador line. Too bad that I no longer have my digital, but maybe when Candice gets hers up online, I can post a few on here! I’m not sure which is my favorite, Candice lying dead on the line, or of her on one side and her shadow on the other.

Then we trekked it back to Quito…we thought it would be a simple bus ride, but of course there is always more to it. The bus was cramped as anything and then a police officer gave the driver trouble about our bags…or at least that’s what we gathered was happening before the bus just sped off anyways. Shoot – I REALLY have to go! There are about 40 people eating tonight, and I’ve been warned that my saved seat is going to get taken if I don’t run!!

I am joining this group tomorrow and so hopfully I can make another post in the morning before I go!!

Love you all!!