Work Experience 2 - 1st week

Before we left Quito we made a further trip to a museum and stumbled across the "Interact with Dinosaurs" show. In we went to discover the average age was 4 years, but hey! This is the worst event we have ever attended, so much so that we laughed our socks off and had to leave before we were thrown out. The foam rubber dinosaurs were animated which meant they twitched as the presenter ran from post to post to activate them.  One had a wagging tail making its head shake in a "Parkinson's" type movement, no wonder they are extinct.

Anyway at 9am on Sunday 3rd July we set off north from Quito in a 4 x 4 and four hours later arrived at Alto Choco, the reserve we are working at, which is close to a small community called Santa Rosa, in the cloud forest. For anyone who's interested, see www.zoobreviven.org/altochoco.htm

First impressions very positive, great wooden built bedrooms and a separate kitchen, so rats should leave us alone at night. The views are glorious, especially when you take a cold shower and watch the cloud descend the mountains through the bamboo screen.  No electricity means we go to bed early, after sitting by a roaring log fire.

The first morning we saw a cock of the rock, a red and black beauty, rarely seen these days in Ecuador, this made Yvonne's day. We also have a resident black inca hummingbird who visits the tree by our breakfast table for a drink each morning.

The work has been varied. In addition to propagating saplings of native origin, and composting/watering the vegetable garden, we have spent three mornings making paper from bamboo. The latter process starts by chopping the bamboo with machetes. It is then fed into a rotating blade to shred it, and then boiled for about 12 hours. After soaking and rinsing several times it is mixed with PVA in a bath, ready for the paper making. Our main task has been the filtering of bamboo from the bath into an A5 sized frame (only 1 of those) and placing the wet mess onto felt sheets ready for the press. A labour intensive task dependent on the mix, the weather and the operators! Talking of the weather we had spectacular thunder and lighting on two consecutive afternoons, which meant we had to stop working in the forest - not all bad news eh!

Meals are a moveable feast, breakfast and dinner being served on site while lunch is a 25 minute walk down the mountain to Milton, the rangers house. It is a 40 minute struggle back up especially as we are then full of carbs. Atkin's diet has not reached these parts and if it did would mean virtual starvation to most of the locals as protein is in short supply.  Friday morning we did not get fresh milk as Milton could not find the cow!

There are very few mosquitoes to worry us, instead we have some vicious little buggers called moscos.  Small and black they draw blood on landing and itch like hell. We are yet to source a decent insect repellent, 100% deet has failed along with all other brands. Rob had some blisters from using the machete and agreed to a local cure of "dragon's blood" which is the sap from an indigenous tree and is ruby red. It stung, judging by the screams.

We have been on two treks so far, both to waterfalls and through some lush green scenery, always uphill of course. On the way to one there is a rope swing on a liana, which Rob tried, Tarzan like and great fun too. Yvonne declined - wimp.

We have ventured to Otavalo for the weekend although Yvonne had sworn the next time she did the road trip would be the last. We caught a bone shaker of a bus to wind up, down and around the mountain. Yvonne was fortunate enough (!) to sit next to an Ecuadorian lady with her bustle skirt and can confirm that they do smell badly of pee. The skirts are designed to allow ladies to squat and pee anywhere - and they do. The final indignity occurred when, shortly before arriving at the bus terminal this same lady decided to evacuate the entire contents of her nose. How's that for local colour?

Our latest photo card sent 6th June has not arrived in the UK for uploading and has made us wonder whether you are getting our postcards: we have sent at least 3 to everyone! Yvonne awaits lessons from Mark in the technical wizardry of loading them direct.