The animals

Cheeky squirrel monkey stealing from the fruit shed
Whose a pretty boy then.
Most of the animals have been rescued, either from people or places that have been keeping them as pets, or from a circus or from people just coming across an animal and bringing it to the centre. As most of the animals have been at the centre for quite a while they are all now in pretty good health, though that wasn´t always the case and some of the animals had been very badly mistreated. Some of the parrots cannot fly so they are left out of cages and keep practicing their flying skills - not yet very successfully as they keep crashing to the floor and we have to go and assist them back to their tree with stick. The woolly monkey cannot be released as he would normally live with other monkeys so he is currenlty very lonely. You can go down to his cage and he will stick out his arms to be tickled/groomed and then a leg and then both and then lick your fingers. He is very cute but it is sad to see him alone. Some of the other monkeys are too aggresive to go into their cage but others will either leave you alone entirely or will jump on your back and try grooming your hair. Quite a shock when it first happens but rather funny, though we are not supposed to allow them to do it as they should not get used to humans. The centre is supported by the local family that owns the land and they are very spportive of the work that the centre is doing and hopefully, over time, people will start to understand that the animals should remain in the wild.

Flor de la Amazonias

What a view
A rainy break time
Hola! Where to start? I have just spent the muddiest, most physically tiring week of my life :-) I left Puyo on Monday morning and headed into the jungle. It is a little weird driving into the jungle on a tarmaced road but the tarmac soon gives way to pot holed dirt tracks which seemed a little more fitting, and the buildings and population soon disappears and the scenery turns to mile upon mile of dense jungle, with mist and clouds just sitting in pockets between the hills, occasionally the clouds hang over the road and the air temperature drops quite suddenly and quite dramatically. An hour later and I am dropped off at my home for the next two weeks. The centre is placed at the top of a hill, all wooden buildings and enclosed by trees and shrubbery, however there are a few look out points were you can just stand and see for miles, rolls and rolls of mountains of jungle and in the very far distance a volcano. Almost as mezmerising as looking out to sea. At night you can pick out the odd light were small communities live but they are few and far between. The rescue centre currently does not have anywhere suitable to release it´s animals so the current residents have been at the centre for a little while but the intention is still to release them all back to the wild. The release is a problem as a license is required when dealing with wild animals and the local communities are allowed to protest on having animals released and locally that is what is happening. Luckily a new centre is just being set up deep in the Amazon where animals are more likely to be able to be released without fuss. The current animals include - monkeys (songo songo, woolly, squirrel and capichans), macaws, parrots, parrakeets, ocelot, kinkachoo, cotimundi and peccaries. The daily routine is to clean the animals cages and feed and water them. This is done in teams and some animals you enter their cage and others require coaxing into a holding cage as it is not suitable to enter the cage with them. After the feeding and cleaning it is time for jobs around the centre, this can be anything from mending cages, to building steps, to making monkey toys. Most require some kind of physical activity. I have made a mouse cage, made and poured concrete, done some brick laying, mended paths, sifted sand and carried lots of items from the road to the centre. All pretty darn exhausting. Breakfast and lunch are a free for all and dinner is prepared and cooked by two volunteers. There are 18 of us all together, so we only really need to cook once - which is quite good as it is very difficult to cook for 18 people (especially when all the decent ingredients run out!). The house rule is everything is vegetarian unless you buy your own meat, so my contribution was a spaghetti, come, lasagna, come pasta bake type affair. Not the best meal in the world but very edible, and after a hard days work as long as it is food then people are happy.

Puyo

Puyo
Puyo Market
A Sunday in Puyo today! My fears of it being very quiet in Puyo on a Sunday with everyone going to Church were soon quashed when Keith, the hostal owner, informed me that it was market day. I love markets. Puyo´s market is one for the locals, not a tourist stall in sight, and very few tourists for that matter. It was all hustle and bustle with sales of clothes, fruit and veg, fish, meat, chicken, dead and alive, spices, grains and loads of other stuff, not to mention the odd guinea pig cooking on a spit - a regualr dish here still, and not just a delicacy for the tourists. With phrase book in hand I managed to purchase a very fetching, pair of wellies - this wasn´t just a whimsical purchase, I shall need them for my Amazon adventure over the next two weeks. From the market I took a stroll along the river Puyo, where lots of others were out for a Sunday stroll, even though it kept spitting with rain and the going was rather treacherous as the path was cobbled, with very uneven and wet cobbles. There was also a medicinal botanical garden, owned by the Shuar people, where I was taken for a guided walk around the jungle and shown all the plants that are used for medicine as well as tool making, cooking, housing, jewellery and burning. I ate leaves from the cinnamon tree, smelt the leaves used to flavour things lemon and had my ankle painted with the sap of a tree - it is usually used for face paint but as the colour matched my shoes it was more fitting to have my ankle done (I was wearing orange shoes!). I am off to the Amazon tomorrow for my first bout of volunteer work so I will not be posting for a while. xx

Quito to Puyo continued...

Not sure what happened to my last post but I couldn´t go back and edit it and add the rest. Anyway, the bus is a good way to see the countryside, though it is a little frustrating to see things that you would stop for had you been in a car, most notably to stop and take photos. I have tried a few through the bus window but I can not downlood them at this moment so I have no idea how they will turn out. The countryside is pretty much mountainous all the way south from Quito with agricultural towns dotted about the place and big greenhouses scatterred around - apparently housing the best roses in the world, they are covered as the rain creates desease. Once past Banos the road follows the Rio Verde and the scenary is quite spectacular - high cliffs, roaring river, waterfalls and more mountains. Five hours is a long time to spend on a bus and I was pleased for some fresh air, a stretch of the legs and a welcoming hammock at my hostel once I had got off.

Quito to Puyo

Quito
I will be heading back to Quito at a later date so for now I will just mention that I had a stroll around the city and had thoroughly exhausted myself by 3pm and retired early. Saturday was another early start with me still being on UK time and it was the day of my first bus journey, how I wished I spoke a little more Spanish. I´ve done okay so far - bought a local SIM card for my phone, understand the cost of my water, sin gas, when asked and knew to order chicken for my dinner, though I didn´t know what the chicken came with. The bus station was a different matter and with no timetables to be seen and lots of people shouting for their particular bus tickets for sale and destinations it was all a bit of a minefield. But I knew where I was going so that´s all I had to say really - you´d think! I was sold a 9am bus ticket to Puyo at 9am, by the time I had got to bus stands and figured out which was my bus, it had gone. Someone from the bus company saw me and then had me running through the station, fully rucksacked, to try and catch the bus before it actually left the compound. Hot and sweaty later the bus had well and truly gone. With out any Spanish there was no way I was going to get my money back and that company had no more buses to Puyo that day - doh! Another $5 spent and I was sat quite happily on another bus going to Puyo at 9;30 (even $10 is not bad for a 5 hour journey). The bus was more like a coach with comfy seats and no chickens, though it did continue to take on more people, in the end some having to stand, and it was rather a warm ride. A good way to see the countryside.

Ecuador

I have arrived safely in Ecuador. A very problem free 9 hour flight to Miami and 4 hour flight down to Quito. Miami airport is still a nightmare re herding you around and queues and time for baggage to arrive, but Quito airport was no better and you don´t even get preferential treatment if you are an Ecuadorian, which seems a little harsh. It was strange being in Miami and not flying on to Cayman - I did wave at everyone that is in Cayman - a big hello! I think I am going to be okay at finding people to speak to - I sat next to an Aussie on my flight to Miami who was 2 months into his travels and we swapped books, and I also was given the telephone number of an Ecuadorian business man who I spoke to in the long queue at Quito immigration - I didn´t however let him know where I was staying :-) I have a lazy day planned today and I am off to stroll around quito. Later!

....and she is off...

Thursday 17th July, all checked in and ready to go.
Flight: 1 of many; bags: 2, heavy; nerves: moderate; hair: short; weight: none of your business; cigarettes; not on your nelly

Packing

What a lot of stuff!

And I'm going to have to carry it all!

Oh blimey!  It's my last weekend in the UK and I'm starting to get rather nervous about my travels, what if I miss a flight or a bus, what if there is nowhere for me to sleep, what if I don't like it, what if, what if, what if!  I have everything ready that I want to take and it all fits into my rucksack, I just hope that I don't have to walk too too far with it on.  A big big thank you for board and lodgings from my mum and dad whilst doing my final preparations and enjoying the English summer - hum!  Next stop Ecuador, via Luton.    

Picture upload testing

Burford Gardens

Geranium

Ludlow Castle

Time to test some of this blogging lark without the benefit of my lovely, sleek macbook, along with all the software and gadgets that I am use to.  I am not yet sitting in an internet cafe, with life milling about my ears, which will be the true test, but maybe I can try and have a go at that before I leave - not in this village though.  With only two dry sunny days forecast for July it was rather fortuitous that I should get to spend them in Ludlow and the surrounding area, making visits to Bridgenorth, Ludlow, Burford Gardens, Tenbury Wells and Croft Castle.  I have uploaded these photos direct from my camera and some additional photos onto my flickr account - easy!  I feel that I may be spending a fair few hours over the next year sitting in internet cafes if I wish to keep up to date with blogging and loading photos. But hey, it's better than spending five and a half days a week behind a desk :-)