Our leader Frankie gave us a quick intro on life in Quito, mostly the dos and don’ts, but he saved most of it Monday, before our city tour.The Inca capital offered a mix of traditional and colonial architecture in the old town, whereas La Mariscal (in the new town) offered a cosmopolitan mix of new and old. The heights of the basilica made us all gasp with its view and sky scraping walk up its many spires; not to mention seeing the president in the main square. We were pretty sure he saw us and waved. We did all of this in just one morning. We came back to our hostel for a quick bite to eat and start our Spanish lessons. Ananya did Spanish at School so she had a head start. However poor Joe didn’t have such a feel for the language and had to dance salsa because he couldn’t remember Simon says...embarrassing for him... funny for us.
After four hours of Spanish we thought the Inca market was due a visit. After walking around bargaining for local handy crafts we all decided to just go next door and buy DVDs instead. Jo got more dancing practice courtesy of a salsa lesson we all had. Hannah loves to salsa. But to her disappoint, Jo was her partner to which all she could say was Noooooo!. We had dinner and then argued about people’s film choices for the evening the inevitable row over action movie verses chick flick. Chick flick won that time. Four girls to two guys. Girl Power !!!
We got our first experience of the equator when we went to the Mitad del Mundo. We got to try out various experiments such as balancing an egg on a nail and watching water spin in the other direction...mind blowing! When we got to the official equator line, the northerner vs. southerner jokes started coming out....according to Naomi, everyone north of London was classed as a northerner. The tour moved to a guinea pig pen where we got to pet them. Unfortunately Joe and Ananya spent a good 5 minutes concentrating on catching one so much that they were oblivious to Hannah’s antics.
Our first week of Spanish lesion held us in good stead for things to come especially for the otavalo Inca market on Saturday. This time we all perched our Inca goods such as jumpers all with lama print, our granddads would have been proud, also Inca bracelets and necklaces and last but no means least happy pants. These need to be seen to be believed bright stripy trousers that make the 80s look dull. Some of us wore our new purchases out to an Irish bar in La Mariscal called Finn McCools. Being at an altitude, most of us didn’t quite realise that altitude may have affected our alcohol tolerance level a fair amount. The bar was such a hit, we returned there a total of 4 times during our time in Quito.
All with a Chuchake everybody apart from the leader Frankie stayed in for a Sunday morning lie-in. We decided that the Teleferico was a good idea. This cable car takes you up to 3500 from 2800 in a matter of minutes. And all suffering from the after affects of Finn mc cools this was maybe not the best idea. The ride up made Jo a little queasy, luckily he just made it. Once at the top it was well worth it. A clear day on top of this mountain really makes all the difference a stunning view of Quito well worth getting over a chuchake with .
Welles, batteries, chocolate and sudo cream. Monday was our shopping for the jungle essentials. Jennie decided that chocolate was high on the list of priorities. We all followed suit. After all it just makes sense. Another night out to remember at Finn Mc Cools once again. This time for an hour and the pub quiz . We started well but kinda lost it towards the end. This was also the last night of Finn’s in its old location. Probably one of the best nights at this bar ever seen. This was definitely reflected in everybody’s Spanish the next day.
Spanish, supermarket, really good Mexican food and then a girls night out at bungalow. The resident 2 4 1 bar for gringos. Frank and Jo decided to give the hair drying, nail painting make up fest a miss ......this time . We all salsa danced for the evening. Until the point where Naomi decided to go freestyle . To which a circle formed around her for a least a few songs.
Last Spanish lessons followed by a local cooking lesson for ceviche ( a prawn soup). After lunch we got the bus to Mindo . Mindo is only a few hours away, just a stunning but in a more scenic way. Lots of birds, butterfly’s combined with zip lining , cannoning, and swimming in a massive pool, fresh Ecuadorian coffee and tubeing along the river. The only problem was that that we only got the weekend to stay here . A few days more would have given it justice
Sunday morning was the bus journey from hell where 3 children decided to empty the contents of their breakfast onto the floor of the bus, while the next bus broke down half way to the coast, which meant we had to get on a new one that was full of chickens. 8 hours later, we arrived at Lalo Loor, an a-seasonal deciduous tropical dry forest. Greeted by our hunky coordinator Jason, we had a quick tour of our jungle lodge with the dos and don’ts and later settled down to a candlelit dinner while being serenaded by howler monkeys.
Monday morning we were woken up at 5am by howler monkeys which was not the best start as we had a 3 hour hike around the reserve to look forward to. On our morning walk, we saw toucans, a vine snake, more howler monkeys, huge conga ants, and about a million spiders. In the afternoon, we spoke about our projects which we would be working on, such as trail making/building and reforesting.
Our first week, consisted of using jungle materials to carve out and build steps into the forest floor to encourage tourism to the area. For most of us this was the first time we got to use machetes. The initial excitement wore off after about 20 minutes when everyone started developing blisters through cutting stakes. Our other volunteer coordinator and resident compulsive liar/comedian Maximo entertained us in our time off with stories of how he dated Shakira (which he hadn’t), how he worked as a bodyguard for George Bush and his Thai heritage, which he nearly had us convinced about before we realised nothing that came out of his mouth was true.
On our first weekend off at the coast we headed to the laid back beach town of Canoa with our new American friends from Lalo Loor. After arriving on that Friday evening, we got a taste of Canoan nightlife, which we realised was not the most fun on Fridays. However that was soon corrected by a few drinks at the Surf Shack, a local gringo hotspot, with typical American meals. With a bit of dutch courage from several banana coladas, we managed to dance the night away to salsa on the beach, although Frankie decided to ditch his party animal reputation by going to bed BEFORE 12 o clock...twice! The next day consisted of a full day or body boarding the waves, burning on the sand for some of us, and eating gigantic pancakes at the Surf Shack, which offered its own hike called ‘We saw a tarantula eat a frog’. We returned to reality on Sunday night when we got splattered with mud in the torrential rain during a 15minute walk back to the lodge in complete darkness.
Monday of our second week at Lalo Loor, we learnt new techniques for path building, with our new ‘friend’ Paul, the Peace Corps plonker. We turned a slippy earth mound into a decent set of stairs, made all from renewable jungle material and even managed a simple yet effective drainage system. The following morning, we woke up to Bigote ‘moustache’ enough said. The girls all went out at sunrise to catch wild birds for the reserve’s survey. It proved unsuccessful, with a grand total of zero birds being caught. Hannah soldiered on after her early start and did reforestation with Naomi and Joe, whilst the others enjoyed a relaxed morning at the lodge. Our day got a little bit hairy, with our American friends discovering a Ferderlance (One of the most poisonous snakes in the world) in the stream bed about five minutes away from our lodge.
Wednesday was a complete washout, meaning we spent the whole day indoors, cabin fever started to set in until we heard some trees falling in the evening. Frankie gave us a safety talk, in between running in and out of the house every time we heard a tree crack, about what we should do if the lodge did get struck by a tree.
The next day, Joe, head of the Sabre foundation, discovered a new bird for the reserve. After an early morning, Jason arrived with the materials to complete our steps from Monday. Everyone got to use their lumber jacking skills, sawing up wood and hacking pieces of wood into stakes. During this time we all got given our jungle names, Naomi the foghorn of the group got appropriately named after the foghorn of the jungle, the Chatcha Laka. Maximo had a soft spot for Ananya, naming her after one of the prettiest birds in the jungle, the Mot Mot. Jenny, Jennifer Lopez according to the compulsive liar, was named Armadilla, Joe was given the name Tarantula and Hannah with her piercing look was named Eciz, Federlance in English. Finally Frankie our leader was called the most manly of things Mariposa ‘Butterfly’.
Friday morning started with more wood preparation for Monday, sawing planks and cutting stakes. The afternoon was free with everyone taking a trip to Pedernales for supplies for the weekend. The weekend we spent sunning ourselves on the beaches of the local area, where the sand was too hot to walk on, making trips to the ocean interesting. Even after lathering on factor 50 we still ended up like lobsters. The evenings were spent toasting marshmellows and learning how to make smores from our American amigos..
The last week off the Lalo Loor was a busy affair. We immersed ourselves in the community for a few days preparing the new liberty for the kids of Tabuga. A lot of sanding and painting but well worth the dust. Wednesday we finished up our steps on all the trails. On Thursday we visited a local organic farm ran by the Lalo Loor Coordinator Jason. Here we spent a relaxed day learning about organic farming and picking fresh fruit to make smoothes in the afternoon. Thursday night we went for a little stroll around the jungle and we saw a fer de lance snake , a silly amount of frogs, and spiders galore oh and a tarantula the size of a dinner plate Friday we cleared a trail that lead around the reserve and after a quick spot of lunch we got ourselves into Pedernales for much needed internet time and food. 
We arrived in Huasquila Sunday afternoon to fresh Pina coladas and comfy seats which actually had backs to them. Walking up to our rooms, we stumbled across a pool and we realised Frankie hadn’t given too much away about this tourist resort. Our first working day started off with weeding in the garden, followed by hosing the earth for the greenhouse. Once we finished work, there was no debate about what we’d spend the rest of the day doing...pool time. Our first Wednesday afternoon off was spent discovering a waterfall in the primary Amazonian jungle with a local guide, while others headed off to the local town of Tena where the supermarket actually stocked jars of Nutella, to Jenny’s delight. The only problem was that the following day, Hannah somehow managed to smash a full jar of Nutella goodness on the path.
After a hard week’s work, chopping Bamboo and bagging soil, we decided to let off some steam by going rafting after a hearty breakfast of delicious porridge, eggs and bread. Our journey down the River Yatunyaku involved a lot of falling into the water (or in Ananya’s case, being pushed into the water) and swimming the rapids. After a lunch consisting of chocolate cake and burritos, which Frankie helped himself to 4 times, our Irish guide became adamant on getting Jenny in the water but of course was unsuccessful. The following morning was spent working on our tan by the pool and obtaining more jars of Nutella for our pancakes at breakfast.
ting cocoa trees. A lot of the seeds which were given to the two Hannah’s however went mysteriously missing... the rest of the week passed uneventfully apart from Ananya somehow literally getting ants in her pants, when a whole colony of red ants decided to nest in her shorts on the clothes line.
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