January 29--Postscript

January 29 – January 30, 2006
Guayaquil, Ecuador

I eat breakfast with and say good-bye to Susan and Cathy as planned and then spend the next two days organizing my things, doing laundry, sorting out what I will take on the Galapagos tour and what I will send to Quito, exploring Guayaquil, its river walkway and Iguana Park etc., walking the short Cerro Blanco trail open to those who do not hire naturalists, and reading and relaxing.

Photos of Guayaquil

It is during these days that I also take my photo cards to a photo shop for downloading onto a disc. I erase the pix from the largest card from my camera when I get back to the room. It is not until I get home that I find that the photo shop downloaded only the smaller card, so I have erased all my photos. An e-mail to the Team brings promises of photo sharing, so I hope to retrieve some of my memories. In the meantime, I have cobbled this report together with generic photos from the web and about 60 or so of my own.

I also shoot off the following two e-mails to those at home:

Susan Walker <bzzyb03@yahoo.com> wrote:

Date: Sun, 29 Jan 2006 06:14:34 -0800 (PST)
From: Susan Walker <bzzyb03@yahoo.com>

WOW! Where to begin. Will try to keep this short as I have only 30 minutes a day on the hotel computer. 
 

WILD, very very strenuous, total jungle experience!  For those of you cyclists on my mail list, I would compare the daily climbs and work to a century ride in 100% heat and humidity. We ate both breakfast and dinner in the pitch dark, damp, buggy jungle under the cabin (casita) on stilts, eating by candlelight. Then had to be at the mist nets that were a 45 minute climb through calf deep mud straight up the dripping vine covered mountainside, by 6 am so needed flashlights. Opened the mist nets and usually caught several bats before first light, which required delicate handling to release without getting bitten and without tearing the net, also caught cicadas and giant beetles which did chew the nets. Then we'd go back to the banding table and wait twenty minutes before checking the mist nets again.

We set up 20 mist nets, a feat in itself. At noon we'd climb down to the casita for lunch, usually a bowl of hot brothy soup and rice and something else, and then climb back up again for an afternoon of mist netting or hummingbird trapping or vegetation surveys . . .   Capuchin monkeys throwing sticks down on us, howler monkeys howling in the trees (never did see them) and all sorts of bright and interesting birds in the nets. We took all sorts of measurements and data, banded the birds (the naturalists did all the banding) and then released them. Toucans, motmots, wonderful hummingbirds, warblers, tanagers, antpittas, antwrens, scythebills, doves, parrotlets, etc. and hummingbirds,which we trapped at the mountain top another hour’s hike up.

The PI and one of the cooks came down with a version of malaria our last day up the mountain, running high fevers and just plain miserable. One volunteer was severely bitten by some insect and her legs looked like she had a very bad case of chickenpox. They swelled up and she could barely walk by the time we came down so she had three hours of downhill misery getting to the river and then she rode a mule the final five hours to the village. The two with fevers also rode out, but the rest of us walked out. My feet were swollen stumps for the entire time but I managed. Will lose another three nails I think. All the downhill trekking in the mud is hell on the feet.

We had a herpetologist on the team with us and so saw lots of snakes, and Carlos warned us about several (4 fer de lances, one eyelash pit viper (the most poisonous in the jungle) which was green like everything else and a mere foot from the trail curled atop a stem, parrot snakes, etc, and Carlos also knew his insects so we had the joy of knowing what the huge spiders were in the toilet area (a something whip scorpion (an arachnid) with 10 inch long front legs for capturing prey and a big weird shaped body; lots of big furry tarantulas, one with a red belly, scorpions etc.) Donna, an English girl (23) on the team was always crying SPI DAH!! and we d all rush to see what she had found in her tent or in the toilet area or wherever. When people would shout SNAKE! all of us ran towards it. On our first and last day at camp we suffered termite hatches after heavy rain. The air was filled with flying termites who got into everything. We had to postpone dinner until well after dark when most had lost their wings and could no longer fly into our food and into us. Very very annoying and hard to take.

Well my half hour is almost up so shall close and perhaps continue tomorrow. Today I am going to the iguana garden and for a walk along the river. Must download the pix off my camera at a cyber cafe also so I have a clean card for the Galapagos.   Jeff, good thing you have two vigilant felines to bring you interesting game, hon. Love to you and the boys, and you, too Lucy. Will write you two separately tomorrow morning.  

Ciao (yes they use that as goodbye here) for now, Susan

Susan Walker <bzzyb03@yahoo.com> wrote:

Date: Sun, 29 Jan 2006 13:25:14 -0800 (PST)
From: Susan Walker <bzzyb03@yahoo.com>
Subject: Ecuador #2

Hi All,   

Sneaked back on the Internet for another half hour. Just got back from Iguana Park. Absolutely amazing. People everywhere but also iguanas, some as long as 4 feet...basking on the walkways, on the grass, on the backs of benches, in the trees, etc. I took a scad of pix.  

I am also presently in meltdown! The hotel is modern and air conditioned . . . but six steps after leaving the front door one is soaked with sweat. Have to wash everything I have on once a day . . . now that we are in civilization and water is available.

I did not get sick, except one day from my malaria pill I think . . . nauseous, bit of diarrhea but I took a couple of anti-diarrhea pills and that seemed to work. Basically we were sweat soaked, exhausted, and plagued by insects the whole time we were camped in the jungle, but somehow it was fun and also very very interesting. 

(Post-post script: On the flight to the Galapagos, I came down with the same thing that Susan and Isadora had (Chikungunya?)--headache, aching joints, fever, malaise--but soldiered on. The bug lasted three days but our naturalist was thoughtful and put me in the first cabin--farthest from the boat's engine fumes. Everything was so interesting that I fought my way through it. I was even able to snorkel on the third day. Go here to see pix of the Galapagos experience: https://galapagos2006.blogspot.com )

We pitched our tents upstairs in a rickety bamboo structure and had to climb down steep stairs and then navigate a narrow path through the jungle to get to horrible pit toilets at our second camp. This is where we saw the most snakes, spiders, scorpions, and other scary things. I had to get up at least once a night so it was an adventure in panic as well as bladder control!  

We asked for hot water from a tea kettle heated on the propane cook stove in the evening and took turns taking bucket showers behind black plastic nailed to three trees and with planks laid down to stand on. There was a big barrel of cold river water to mix with the hot in the bucket. Often however we would not get back from mist netting and trapping until dark and then had to take our showers in the dark with the insects biting. My back is covered with bites but my legs did not suffer too horribly (thank you Buzz OFF pants) except for my blasted feet which are still puffy.

The poverty and lifestyle in the small villages is appalling to those of us used to creature comforts. People live in dirt floored thatch-roofed houses with (sometimes) one bedroom and a plastic table and chairs for meals, hammocks to sit/lie in, and the back yard serves for a toilet, animal area (lots of pigs, chickens, mangy (literally) dogs everywhere), children running around naked or half so, but these friendly people are all smiley and happy and know nothing else. Mud and dust everywhere right up to the front doors of the shacks.  

Oddly some of these houses that took us in for lunch at $2 apiece on our way in and out, had a stereo and CDs, or a refrigerator, or a TV in them juxtaposed between the pictures of Christ and Tweety cartoons etc.. In one place I looked behind a curtain and counted about 20 kids watching TV. The kids wander the village and enter anyone’s house at any time.  

El Suspiro, where we started our mule trek, was founded by five families and now contains about 50 people, many inbred. There is a midget gene associated with the inbreeding so many of them are midgets. One of our guides, Mauricio, is married to the village baker and one of his 10 children (a midget named Andreas) and Andreas wife (also a midget) work in the bakery. They would send rolls up to the camp when water was coming up on the mules or horses . . . their pay, $5 for what amounted for the locals to about a 5-hour climb, and another 5-hour return. Frequently they would sleep overnight and start out the next day. Another of Mauricio s sons (Jose) often brought up the water on his horse, and her darling little foal trudged behind the entire way up and back. It knew where the food source was!  

Well, I’m running on again and nearly out of time. This next adventure [a 10-day tour of the Galapagos] will be soooooo cushy compared to the hardships of jungle camp. I am prepared to luxuriate in it!   Will write again when I get a chance,  

Ciao amigos, Susan