7/11/2011
Well just re-doing a bunch of my surveys and putting the "Animal" data into excel for analysis. It's been pretty exciting we've been able to do some preliminary analysis of demographic data and the first few questions! I'm excited to be back in less than 13 days!! There were a 101 different plant species named by people in my surveys ranging for uses from food and drink to religious and medicinal purposes! As well there were 65 animal species named by people that had the same range of uses!
Not a whole lot of new happenings we went back to Vilcabamba this last weekend for a birthday party and played volleyball and had a BBQ. It was really good food. But I can't wait to have the wide variety of food available again in the good ol U.S. We also met a guy from New Jersey this past week that runs a 'Street food' restaurant he's got like steak sandwiches and what not with fries. It's really good he made us feel pretty at home except that we're not from New Jersey haha.
Some little things I haven't really mentioned before (i don't think) is that they use the Sacajawea Dollar here instead of dollar bills. Their money is all from the U.S. with the exception that they have printed some of their own .05, .10, .25, and .50 cent pieces! It's pretty cool a couple of the places we go they constantly ask us if we have American .50 pieces to trade for but those are pretty rare to come by even in the states (unless your in Vegas Thanks again for that Dad that was a blast!). I'm looking forward to my pack schedule once I get back into the U.S. all the way up until school starts I've got just about every day planned out!
We leave this friday night to take the midnight bus for 12 hours to the beach so we'll get there saturday morning just in time to hang out and sleep on the beach! Then we're touring poor man Galapagos' and Tuesday night catching the midnight train back to Guayaquil. Spend our last day in Loja wednesday saying goodbyes and finishing up packing then Thursday it's back to Quito where we will climb the towers in one of the churches and then Friday tour the city and Saturday pack up and get ready to head back home!
It has been an awesome trip there's not a thing different I would do...okay that's a lie. I wouldn't have drank the stream water!!! I've lost like 5lbs this last week and am down to my last notch on my belt and about ready to cut another notch. I can now understand why back in the old days doctors would sell parasites for weight loss, it's worked pretty good for me. haha Just kidding. I've got a couple "home remedy" ideas given to me and will be trying those to see if I can kick this. And for all of you who were hoping to see me come back with a Bot fly, I haven't been so lucky sorry to disappoint you!
Hope all is well with everyone I have added more pictures to my photobucket of the zoo and what not! Also there's a construction picture in there I would like to dedicate to my Dad. I'd imagine it was the same kind of work he was doing back when he first started construction using sticks for framing! Haha hope you enjoy it here's the link http://s1085.photobucket.com/albums/j422/raus2120/More%20Ecuador/?action=view¤t=DSCN0731.jpg#!oZZ11QQcurrentZZhttp%3A%2F%2Fs1085.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fj422%2Fraus2120%2FMore%2520Ecuador%2F%3Faction%3Dview%26current%3DDSCN0731.jpg > Be sure to click "Next" to see the second picture.
Showing posts with label Zoo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Zoo. Show all posts
Monday, July 11, 2011
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
4th of July Weekend
Hello everyone! So I'm posting this after my day of recovery from the 4th of July! It was a great one, we had a party on the rooftop of Eric & I's apartment building. I made some potato salad from scratch and we had hot dogs, hamburgers, chips, pineapple salsa, baked beans, and some fruit. It was quite fun it started off kind of slow with just 3 of us but quickly after 830 more people started showing up and the fun began! The food was a hit and the pineapple salsa was a hit. I was able to find some Budweiser (the only american drink that I could afford because a bottle of Jack D. was $53.00!!!) and the only thing we were missing last night was fireworks! I might just have to go up to the reservation when I get back to school and buy some fireworks to light off! haha I hope everyone elses 4th of July was great! I was pretty "chuchaki" the next day, but it was a pretty good fourth. Also my land lady who I invited to join the party (actually invited everyone in the building) never came up and actually turned off power to my part of the building and I was escorted to bed after trying to get some water out of her apartment (because I'm supposed to have full 24/7 access to her kitchen which she locks it on weekends and after 10pm usually). I'm quite disturbed by her recent change in attitude she seems to be annoyed, and I even make her a pancake every morning I go in there to use her kitchen. It just seems like she has been slacking on her duties as a landlord in our agreement and its kind of frustrating. Well I got a week and a half left her in Loja then we're headed to the coast to enjoy the beach!
On a side note I figured out what I had last weekend (not this past weekend but the one before). Remember the story about hiking through the jungle and how we ran out of water when I was doing my surveying. We ended up not getting out until 2.5 hours after dark. Well I must've picked up a little parasite called Giardia. Atleast thats what the group consensus seems to be, and I've definitely had some of the symptoms. I guess I'll have to go see a doctor when I get back into the U.S. but until then I will keep drinking lots of water to hydrate and a little bit of beer to try and kill the parasite!! It's nothing to serious but sometimes the body can't kill it and you can get stuck with it for the rest of your life in your lower intestine and you can show the symptoms.
Oh and how could I forget on Saturday we went to the Zoo here and were able to see a lot of the animals that get mentioned in my survey! We saw monos (monkeys), tapirs, oso de anteojos (Spectacled/Andean Bear), Guatusa (most mentioned animal in my surveys and is despised by locals because it eats maiz and yuca), tucans, pava de monte (its kind of like a south american turkey), tigrillo (Ocelote aka tiny little kitty), puma (aka big kitty! haha), and a few birds and snakes. It was fun to go to the zoo it took us like an hour to walk through it and that was with watching the monkeys swing around for a good chunk of time. My camera died halfway through it but I will post the pictures soon! Probably tonight actually! www.photobucket.com/lostintheparamo
Sunday we went to a waterpark that is a 45 minute bus ride and 15 minute taxi ride away from Loja. It's in a neighboring valley over a mountain and the climate there is completely different! There was sun (for a little bit) but it was kind of overcast and windy. I do think that I got a little bit of color and definitely acquired more bug bites! There are a lot more bugs in this valley because of the warmer climate than Loja. Anyways the waterpark was really fun they had this slide there that was awesome! I will post the video of myself going down it....spoiler I kind of get a little bit of air! Anyways I'm looking forward to the beach and coming back to the states I've got 18 more days!
Chau!
Jeremy
On a side note I figured out what I had last weekend (not this past weekend but the one before). Remember the story about hiking through the jungle and how we ran out of water when I was doing my surveying. We ended up not getting out until 2.5 hours after dark. Well I must've picked up a little parasite called Giardia. Atleast thats what the group consensus seems to be, and I've definitely had some of the symptoms. I guess I'll have to go see a doctor when I get back into the U.S. but until then I will keep drinking lots of water to hydrate and a little bit of beer to try and kill the parasite!! It's nothing to serious but sometimes the body can't kill it and you can get stuck with it for the rest of your life in your lower intestine and you can show the symptoms.
Oh and how could I forget on Saturday we went to the Zoo here and were able to see a lot of the animals that get mentioned in my survey! We saw monos (monkeys), tapirs, oso de anteojos (Spectacled/Andean Bear), Guatusa (most mentioned animal in my surveys and is despised by locals because it eats maiz and yuca), tucans, pava de monte (its kind of like a south american turkey), tigrillo (Ocelote aka tiny little kitty), puma (aka big kitty! haha), and a few birds and snakes. It was fun to go to the zoo it took us like an hour to walk through it and that was with watching the monkeys swing around for a good chunk of time. My camera died halfway through it but I will post the pictures soon! Probably tonight actually! www.photobucket.com/lostintheparamo
Sunday we went to a waterpark that is a 45 minute bus ride and 15 minute taxi ride away from Loja. It's in a neighboring valley over a mountain and the climate there is completely different! There was sun (for a little bit) but it was kind of overcast and windy. I do think that I got a little bit of color and definitely acquired more bug bites! There are a lot more bugs in this valley because of the warmer climate than Loja. Anyways the waterpark was really fun they had this slide there that was awesome! I will post the video of myself going down it....spoiler I kind of get a little bit of air! Anyways I'm looking forward to the beach and coming back to the states I've got 18 more days!
Chau!
Jeremy
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)