6/8/2011
Well we made it safely to Tutupali after passing one of the many bright orange dump trucks that run this road (either for road construction or mining, haven't quite been able to figure it out) and it was in the uhh "ditch." It was quite the sight as we came whipping around one of the corners there's this massive machine sitting just off the road in the jungle. We picked up the passenger in the vehicle who was drunk and I had actually seen earlier when we were waiting in town for our ride driving by drinking a Club Cerveza. So when we picked him up it wasn't surprising he was drunk and very upset. I don't think the driver had been drinking because they have very strict DUI laws here but just not open container laws, or so I am told. It was quite the scene and we continued on our way to Tutupali to conduct our surveys the whole rest of the ride out I was nervous holding onto the truck frame extra tight half expecting to see another orange dump truck come hauling around one of the corners and smashing into us or sending us off the side of the road. But it never came, we made it safely. The drunk man continued on with the driver just up the road to the next little village where I'm assuming his boss was. Anyways we had dinner there of Yuca, Queso, and rice with some strange yellow tea. It was actually pretty okay, afterwards we went out into the plaza and watched the soccer games that had started on the little basketball court. We started approaching people around watching the games who were chatting amongst each other and got 9 surveys tonight! Off to bed at about 2330 (1130) the plaza still had lots of activity but we were tired.
6/9/2011
This morning we woke up at about 8 had breakfast and I packed my backpack to head into a couple of the neighborhoods to conduct surveys. So their definition of a "neighborhood" are like these little villages that are only accessible by walking these rudiculous mountain trails with the exception of a few that are along the road. Our destinations though are an alleged 2 hour hike to the first place another 2 hour hike to the second and an hour hike after that we should be out of the jungle and our ride picking us up. We started hiking at 9:30 and reached the first location at 12:00 where we had lunch and got 15 surveys and man it was gruesome the straight-uped-ness of the trail was amazing. It beat the crap out of us and not to mention it was raining, it was quite invigorating and got to see some Toucans!! We were back on the road by 1400 (2:00pm) walking to the next place. We enjoyed the semi-easy trail we had dropped to this small valley floor crossed a river and hiked up the other mountain side, contouring across going fairly easy. (1500) Then we came across some people on the trail and they told us we needed to drop back down and get to the other side of the valley on the other mountain side and pointed to a faint white square that was the school where we had more people waiting for us to survey them. Well we hiked back down, crossed the river again on another bridge and started back up the other side, man are these mountains steep, the humidity, and the altitude. It was all a lot! After many breaks, running out of clean water, and drinking "pure" spring water we kept hiking to our destinate and made it around 1730(5:30pm)! We were met with open arms and some stern talking-to's. Apparently everyone had been waiting at the school house for us at 1100 that morning ready to feed us lunch and do the surveys, we showed up a few hours late and with hungry stomachs but the food had already been eaten. There weren't many people left many had gone home thinking we weren't coming so we got 8 surveys out of the village and began our voyage to where our ride was waiting an alleged hour walk away. We set off with less than an hour left of light my headlamp securely locked behind my door back in Loja. Energy was wearing thin and no amount of sugar cane was going to help us now, we had to hike back down the mountain side and back across the river to the other side and about 3 miles out after that! One Moment. While that may not sound too bad, remember you've been hiking through the Andes, up-down-up-down-up-down, back and forth across a river twice already and been through a pass. We didn't have much water and we hadn't had a proper meal except for beans and peanuts that was our lunch. We made it down to the bridge and were making our way up the other side of the mountain when darkness set in. And man was it dark! All we could see was the occassional light of a house on various locations across the valley from us where there were small homes with lights. Then flash.....what was that....flash.....am I seeing things?....flash....flash...just keep walking ignore it your dehydrated focus on walking....flash. Finally I stop and turn to Veronica the UTPL professor that is there and ask her what the lights are and if they're real or just my mind playing tricks on me. Nope those little green flashes were some kind of Ecuadorian firefly except a lot bigger haha. I'm not crazy, but probably dehydrated haha! So we keep walking more and more green flashed appearing randomly some flying nearby others in the jungle off in the distance a little but still visible. So knowing I wasn't crazy we finally came onto the main trail/road it was wet and slippery, so we pushed on. Trying to pass the time I worked on my spanish with our guide, the other student, and Veronica. Learning new words and teaching them such words as "slippery" it made the time go by a little easier. We later found out that sometime while me trying to learn more spanish we were hiking on a cliff and that many animals had fallen off of and a couple people. Anyways it was a great experience and am quite sore from it! I hope that this doesn't happen and will hopefully remember to pack the headlight I got from my parents! Missing my friends, family, and girlfriend and can't wait to see you all when I get back!
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