First day; Getting comfy with my peeps:BUGS.

Before I went to sleep last night I was asked how I felt about bugs. My reply was “Not a fan but that is why I picked this, to put myself out of my comfort zone.” Well today was certainly an adventure!
Went to bed last night by 9 pm, awoke by 6 to the symphony of birds and insects in the forest. It was quite lovely. I was thinking about one night I spent in Austria and the birds there awoke me at 5 a.m. sounding like they were screaming. I was cursing those birds. Whereas here I think it is just beautiful.
Breakfast consisted of granola with a fruit salad and pancakes. The pancakes were muy rico. There are two women who work in the kitchen that I introduced myself to right away and informed them of my dietary needs… all in Spanish! During breakfast hummingbirds were abound. After breakfast the co-managers allowed myself and the young chap who is also a new volunteer to go on a hike. I told them I could get to work if they needed me but they felt that we both should be able to take in a bit of the area before going straight to work.
The hike was approximately 5 kilometers, and it was just beautiful. We saw beautiful birds, soaring vistas, mountains full of green trees with clouds perched atop them. The hike met up with the river, which I will be swimming in soon! Not to worry, I already inquired if there are water snakes or leeches.. no. (:
Part of the hike consisted of a Culunco- pre-incan trail. For me this part consisted of severe claustrophobia as it has very narrow walls. We saw small brown frogs and tons of knats and flying type bugs. It is extremely warm and humid here and I was downing water like it was going out of style. After the hike I rushed right to the shower as yesterday I was informed about chiggers. Creepy! Apparently chiggers are a type of mite that burrow on your skin and leave mosquito type bites that don’t show up for a day or so. So during the hike I could have been bitten and wouldn’t know until tomorrow. Preventative measures are showering and using lots of bug spray.
Lunch consisted of quinoa soup, rice with lentils, and a cabbage type salad. The soup was by far my favorite. During lunch I asked a bit of questions to the co-managers, why they came, what they did before, etc. It was very interesting to hear a story of a couple that are near my age that just up and quit their jobs to spend one year volunteering at a place they had never been. Very inspiring. They are leaving in 45 days and are looking for people to replace them, so if you know of anyone who would be up for it, email me.
After lunch it was coffee picking time. I have now picked coffee in the Andes! Pretty cool. En route to the picking we came across some cows in the road. Just hanging out, not sure who they belong to but it gave me a flash back to Ireland. Ahh Ireland.
Coffee picking=bush whacking. The coffee beans are covered in ants, like swarms of them that crawl all over your fingers and arms,head, etc. You have to pick the rotten ones as well as those may have worms in them which could cause the tree to rot. I was pouring sweat in my long sleeves but didn’t want to roll them up for fear of the chiggers! The coffee that we picked is shade grown and is sold to benefit this ecological reserve.
Post coffee adventure it was time for another shower and in front of the volunteer cabin there seemed to be a bit of a butterfly convention. There are HUGE butterflies here and they are in a full range of colors. If they would only stay still so I could photograph them!
There are banana plants all around the reserve, today I picked a banana and ate it, it was pretty cool. There is also a garden , tomorrow morning I will be going down there with a female volunteer who has been here two months and is leaving in a week. She is going to tell me all of the things they have been doing to improve it as the reserve has a goal of being self sustaining and I will write them up in a manual. The things I will be responsible for here are creating the gardening manual, cleaning up the orchid garden, and assisting with trail maintenance and building projects. It is very interesting here that because of the humidity nothing seems to last. Moisture and plants grow on everything so things constantly need to be repaired. We have to keep our electronics in “dry boxes” which are essentially boxes with a lightbulb on the dry them out. I was a bit disappointed to hear that they are connected to the grid, as the river runs right through the property and would be a great source of hydro-electric power. Alas it comes down to money and there is no money. They have barely received hardly any volunteers in the year that they have been here as well. I think it is due to the increase of places to volunteer in South America as there are so many options. Not many people want to pay either, but it is so nominal for an organization that is doing so much. They are employing local workers and teaching sustainable livelihoods to the women in the surrounding towns.
There is one computer with the internet here so my communication will be few and far between but I will be typing it out on my netbook and uploading it when I can.
Thanks for reading this novel, I appreciate all who come on this journey with me.
PS Yes Dad the toilets do flow counter clockwise. (: