Began with a very bumpy ride in the back of a pickup truck to the nearest town. Note: everyone here hops into the back of pickups, from adults & children to livestock. Was able to get to know a few of the other volunteers during that pickup ride and found out that they will be here for 2 weeks! Hooray for more company! They are a group of young adults from the San Francisco Bay Area. We had some Bay Area chat, in fact one of their brothers went to my high school.
We arrived in town and met up with Blanca a local woman approx. 28-ish who owns a tilapia farm and is helping to restart the orchid lab for the foundation. This lab was originally started to help decrease illegal trafficking of orchids from the forest but was closed 2 years ago due to a lack of funds and has just been recently re-opened. She and other women in the town are going to obtain a wide sample of orchids from the forest, propagate the seeds , replant them in the forest, and sell as a source of income.
First we fed the tilapia. A couple of local dogs joined us for this and I was enjoying petting one until I noticed the small flea colony residing on it. At Blanca's tialpia farm she has 4 large cement pools with the fish in them and she has to feed them twice per day. Also there has to be barbed wire around the property as she has caught people stealing her fish. I inquired about whether she has to give the fish medication (which then goes right into the river) and unfortunately found out the they have to be given penicillin prophylactic in addition to various other supplements to keep them from getting ill. During this discussion she was cleaning out the filters (there is a constant stream of water that goes into all of the pools from a local stream nearby) and she found a dead fish. Blanca promptly tossed it to the dogs and I felt like I was watching National Geographic.
Post tilapia feeding we headed into town with her son Luis (approximately 12 years old), sister Anita and three month old baby. We met up with her friend Esmerelda in town & her son who was 10 years old. To begin the hike we start heading up this creek that was quite beautiful. We all had rubber boots on, mine were provided by the lodge, thank goodness as last year I schlepped some to Ireland, man they were heavy! We were climbing over rocks and Esmerelda pointed out wild boar tracks! I asked if they were nice, apparently they are. I also inquired as to whether people eat them here and how they hunt them (bow & arrow? gun?). They are part of the cuisine here and apparently they are so agreeable that one just goes up to them and slits their throat. Really? I can hardly believe that the wild boar will let you just approach it, but okay....
I also was the lucky recipient of bird poop soon into the hike, that is a sign of good luck right?
Picture this group of 6 volunteers and 5 locals traipsing up this creek, water is rushing by us, birds are chirping and the sun was blazing. The trees were at lease 50 feet tall but the sun was shining right through them. The phrase of the moment was "Hace calor." We came to a huge rock boulder that the men quickly scrambled up and the women , i.e. me were scared to their wits end to scramble up. Climb up I did, it was straight up and 7 feet tall. Up came Anita with baby too!
Prior to beginning this hike I had not idea what our goal was. As we got to the top of the creek where it poured out of a waterfall I thought for sure it was time to turn around. HAH! Blanca just starts hacking at the trees to clear a path with her machete. Luis grabs a piece of wood and starts using it as a machete too! Up, up, up we went up the side of this mountain. Scrambling over fallen trees, ducking under shrubs, spiders and bugs everywhere. It was extremely steep and the dirt was a soft clay that I repeatedly slipped on.
Interesting side note: the clay that is found there is used to make pottery that is sold in Otavalo!
The orchid collection would occur when one of the women or kids would spot one in a tree and Esmerelda's son who is nicknamed "El mono- The monkey" would shimmy up the tree to procure it. The orchids were all sizes, even I spotted one! Some had flowers and some didn't. Blanca can really wield a machete, thus we went straight up for 3 hours. All of the volunteers were starving at this point but no one wanted to speak up and acknowledge it until Luis asked when we could eat, his mother replied "Much farther." It felt endless, crossing ravines balancing on logs, sheer drops on one side and huge spiders on another. I kept looking for a sloth but none were to be found. Also by our side was Blanca's dog, Coronel, man this dog was a trooper! Over and under the brush he went, taking little breaks whenever we were waiting for an orchid to be obtained.
At one point we were all looking a bit peaked; thus Blanca took out her cell phone and took a picture of us all heavily sweating climbing up the mountain. Maybe it was a facebook instant upload?
The name of the mountain is Campana which is bell in Spanish . The local manager at the reserve told us the story this morning. Apparently his grandparents & other people in the town used to hear bells on the mountain at 2:00 in the morning. They suspect that possibly there could have been an Incan church on this mountain and it was haunted. Apparently the bells have stopped now.
As we were hiking I asked Luis if snakes were to be found up in the area. His reply? "Si, anaconda." Okay yeah right!
The entire way up I was stressing about the way down. I was worried about how we were going to get myself and that baby back down that large rock face. During the hike if the baby started fussing Anita would just start nursing as she was hiking! Scrambling over and under while holding onto this baby that was a large 3 months.
Finally we broke through the brush to find a trail. I had never been so happy to say "Sendero!" in my life. We all had lunch (pb& j!) there and then took the trail down. En route down I brought up the rear with Anita & Blanca who asked all about my life, if I had kids, novio, etc. THey also asked if I could take a plant home. I explained in broken Spanish that is is not allowed. They were amazed, I kept trying to figure out how to convey the concept of invasive species and thus why one cannot bring plants from another country. Talk about lost in translation!
That evening I had a happy hour with a couple of volunteers followed by spaghetti with vegetables. The pasta was so good that I had a second bowl with just butter. It was heaven and I was starving!
We had a Dutch tour group visiting and the tour guide offered to lead a salsa & merengue class, it was a ton of fun! Savannah and I were partners though neither one of us is meant for a career in latin dance.
The next morning was spent with Savannah at the garden. She is leaving on Friday, thus we discussed what was the best plan for it & what I should work on for the rest of my time here. really looking forward to getting in a lot of planting.
Post garden we went on a little hike on the reserve, and I saw my first REAL wildlife, an agouti- a huge rat/guinea pig creature. It moved really quickly so couldn't capture it on film. This afternoon began with work on the garden manual followed by helping 11 teenagers from the UK make empanadas. During the empanada making we discussed which were "the best" American & British television shows.
After empanadas Savannah wanted to make donuts as a thank you for the kitchen staff, so it was back to the kitchen. We used empanada dough, rolled it out & fried it. It was quite good, but whoa could only eat a couple.
Dinner tonight was beets (from the garden!) and a vegetable casserole with mashed potatoes on top. It was really good but I ruined my appetite with the donuts. (:
Change of subject- am moving up my ticket to come home by a week. I do not feel extremely comfortable traveling alone here and would have no idea what to do by myself for two weeks. Thus after I volunteer with the monkeys I will have one week of traveling (going to a UNESCO world heritage city) and then onto return to home. Feel like this is a good decision, I guess I was just being hopeful when I booked my ticket that I would love it as much as Ireland and wish I had more time.
Off to bed now, early morning tomorrow, watching the sunrise at 5:30 with Savannah from one of the bird watching points.
No comments:
Post a Comment