The Good, the bad and the Ugly!

I have finished my 4 weeks of volunteering, 2 weeks in the Amazon and 2 weeks in the Andes, and it has been a great way to start my travels. Here is a run down of the good points, the points that you get used to and the down right nasty things that I could just as well do with out. THE GOOD: the animals; the variety of animals, the closeness to them, the personalities of them, and the interactions with them, from tickling a woolly monkey because it is lonely to having a coati and a kinkachoo running all over you and routing out things that you never knew you had in your pockets. The rescuing of animals is commendable but my heart lay with the rehabilitation of them and the chance that they would be released back to their natural habitats. The locations; the mile upon mile of jungle canopy and the vast views of mountians and volcanoes, spectacular. The people; it has been a good mix of ages and nationalities of people who volunteered with numerous travel stories and adventures to discuss. Machetes and power tools; they are just great. Weekends away; the simple luxury and joy of hot showers and cheap yet decent food. Travelling on local buses; despite people trying to swindle the tourists (usually only by a 50 cents or a dollar) the buses are great places, filled with locals and at every stop, or even a semi stop, people jumping on the bus trying to sell their wears, from home cooked buns to ice cream and newspapers to special healing formulas (or at leat I think that is what it was??!!). No TV; the art of conversation is not dead. Book exchange; the opportunity to read authors you wouldn´t normally read. BAD, but in the end you get used to: being constantly dirty; the dirt just becomes ingrained in your hands and your finger nails. Wearing the sames clothes for a week; you just kind of accept it, better than ruining everything you own. Birds shitting in your hair; really, I promise, you just accept it as part of your daily routine :-) Sharing a room, and getting stuck inside your sleeping bag; I have no idea where the zip goes during the night. Physical labour, working in the rain, bruises, blisters and working at altitude; so it´s only for a short time, don´t think I will be becoming a farm hand or a zoo keeper any time soon. THE UGLY: 18 year olds getting drunk on rum and vomiting in the middle of the night; oh I am so happy not to be 18. Working Saturday morings; who in their right mind would do such a thing?????? And there is always that one volunteer, the one that doesn´t want to do anything, doesn´t want to muck in, just isn´t up to the task - no it wasn´t me ;-) Oh and I´d also have to add on here Volunteer Agencies. I didn´t go through one but as I gather they charge an absolute fortune, do not offer anything in addition to going direct with the volunteer organisation and do not pass on any extra funds - forwarned is forearmed.

A great first month of travel and a great month in Ecuador, roll on the whale sharks and hammerheads, next stop Galapagos.